I am the girl who'll save One Piece

[Seph]

And don't get me started on nearly everything post-Freeza. I'm sure many share my view that the entire comic should have finished after Goku escapes from Namek after leaving Freeza to his terrible fate, with a patient Gohan waiting for his father to return, or what have you.

I'll assume the show followed the same skeleton as the comic, and I'd have to say I agree with this heavily. Whenever me and my dad talk about DBZ, we both agree that after Freeza the entire thing went downhill. The greatest threat in the universe has been destroyed-- why take it any further?

[BlazeHedgehod]

have a guess that it's merely a text book translation of the comic into moving pictures with music etc, and that the two are comparable.

Well... it mixes stuff up. Arranges them in different orders, and adds/removes a few small things. It begins, for instance, with Luffy busting out of the barrel on Alvida's ship - we don't learn his backstory until well after he's met Zoro, during a flashback sequence.

It's not that I dislike Dragonball, but lots of it are completely unneccessary. The fight sequences in the comics are far too long, and yawn-worthy, even in the compressed graphic format that Toriyama presents to me in nicely printed black and white pages.

I don't mind the fight sequences at all. I mean, at least in One Piece, they don't just loop the same three frames of "Punching really really fast!" over a scrolling backdrop for two minutes straight and call that a "fight". Neither does One Piece really seem to fall into the "YOU'RE REALLY REALLY STRONG! I'M GOING TO FIGHT YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE STRONG!" cliche that fighting anime tends to fit into. Generally, most fights happen because there is a reason in the plot saying they have to happen.

And don't get me started on nearly everything post-Freeza. I'm sure many share my view that the entire comic should have finished after Goku escapes from Namek after leaving Freeza to his terrible fate, with a patient Gohan waiting for his father to return, or what have you.

As I'm sure you're no doubt aware, that's how it was going to end. But Toei and Shonen Jump were like, "WTF, this is making us tons of money. You can't quit now!"

The Freeza Saga just represents the climax of everything in Dragonball. It was Goku's reason for existance. Freeza destroyed his planet, enslaved his people, and now, Goku was going to get revenge for what Frieza did to his entire species.

I did, however, enjoy the Buu Saga.

[dead]

neillafrenais said:

I HAVEN'T EVER SEEN THIS SHOW AND I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT, BUT I'M NOT ABOVE COMPLETELY THRASHING IT AS MUCH AS I FUCKING CAN!!

Anyways, from what I've heard, DBZ was suppossed to end with Goku's Spirit Bomb on freeza, but the company wanted Akira Toriyama to keep going.

One Piece, however, is not being dragged on. Eiichiro Oda (One Piece's creator) hasn't stopped caring like Akira Toriyama has. He's still having fun with the story, and has declared that the series is over half over, indicating that he does have a clear end in sight. He's also stated that, when he finishes one piece, he plans to move on to other stories.

[BlazeHedgehod]

Jackel. You realize Neil did say he reads the Manga, right? Therefore, while he might not have seen it in animated format, he is very aware of One Piece and what it's about.

[dead]

The only sagas, as far as jaya, that are like that though, are Buggy and Krieg. Every other saga's fighting is done for other, more personal reasons.

[Koosh Koosh!]

Jackel: You should really read my post before you criticise me.

But yeah... my point still stands. Does the pattern of "LITTLE GUY MAKES BIG AND STOMPS THE BAD GUY IN HUGE FIGHTS" ever stop? Or does it go on? And on and on and on?

[Ice Dragon]

Well...dude. That's story telling 101. Good always wins over evil in these stories. It might take a while, and there might be a lot of collateral damage, but good is going to win eventually.

If the badguy is weaker than the good guy, there's no drama there.

Having said that, there are quite a few times in One Piece where the good guys get their asses kicked, like in say, the Little Garden, Alabasta, and Water Seven sagas.

[Koosh Koosh!]

I never said that "good triumphing over evil" was the convention that I wanted rid of... It's just these long drawn out battles to show that Luffy and co, despite being small and insignificant, will win through being repeated time and again that bugs me. It's been done already. It doesn't need to be done again and again, and tends to feel very much like filler.

But like I say, it's more of a personal preference, as long drawn out stories without much variation tend to rile me after a while. But I am curious as to whether it changes at all down the line, and whether I can skip anything to get to these better bits.

[dead]

Luffy is hardly insignificant. By the time he gets to the grand line he's an infamous pirate with a bounty of 30,000,000. You start finding more and more people who recognize luffy as a strong pirate before he even shows off his skills. After the Arabasta Saga his bounty increases by 70,000,000. (Although he loses a few fights during that saga)

[Koosh Koosh!]

Please remember that I'm only 6 volumes in (Don Kreig and Luffy are about to fight). So, from where I am in the storyline, he is very insignificant.

[Sabator]

seph said:

Whenever me and my dad talk about DBZ,

I envy any man who can hold an intelligent anime conversation with his parent.

[Sz]

Neil: OP cures that sort of repetative nature, however, it does eventually suffer from Zoro being the only really likable character in spurts. It's like the most annoying personality traits are always pushed to the front, so characters that would normally be really cool... are slightly annoying. And Usopp really needs to die. ;>

[sonique]

Nah I like Usopp ^_^

aqd thanks a lot, Blaze, PC0. I just don't like the, "Well let's sit back and let 4kids rape OP up the ass so we can get uncut DVDs!" That doesn't fly with me and it never will, but now you've given me an idea.

and that's all Im going to say for right now, Im not responding to anyone else anymore. I've made my decision and that's all there is to it.

[Sofox]

Well good luck with it Sonique, hope it works out the best for everyone.

And I think this demonstrates how good ideas can come when you become more objective of the ideas you already have. Sometimes it's better to just reconsider things from a fresh perspective to get a better understanding of the topic and hence a better idea of what is needed before your goals are complete.

[dead]

I disagree Sz. All the characters are likeable in thier own ways. And Usopp is one of my favorites. *Usopp HAMMER's Sz to death*

[Sz]

All the characters are dumbasses in their own ways too, which is the problem. Usopp is just the most notable offender.

[Seph]

I've not seen it personally, but that shouldn't matter much unless their flaws are accentuated over their strengths.

[Ice Dragon]

Yeah, Usopp is weak. He's kind of annoying. He's the biggest coward since that hypochondriac duck Wade from Garfield and Friends (how's that for retro?).

But I personally think that, like most of the cast, all his flaws are more than compensated for when he steps up to a challenge.

I must admit though, that's one of my bigger sore spots when it comes to the dub. At some point they must have decided to make Usopp a character thats solely there for comic relief, and removed all his big "moments", which, in retrospect, really are few and far between.

Actually, how far are you in the series, Sz? Usopp really doesn't do his best "brave man of the sea" things until relatively late in the story.