Analysis – Dust Speck in the Universe

The Four Most Interesting Things About The Thriller Bark Arc

For the video version, click here. Best read after chapter 953 or episode 954.

Hot take time, Thriller Bark is better than Marineford. Most arcs are better than Marineford, Marineford’s just okay. Hear me out, Luffy pushes a zombie back into the ground in Thriller Bark, best One Piece arc ever. Seriously though, I legitimately think Thriller Bark is one of the best arcs of One Piece, and I don’t think it gets the love it deserves. Obviously everyone’s allowed to have their own opinions, and if you don’t like Thriller Bark that’s totally acceptable. I can’t judge harshly, I think Marineford’s just okay, I’m the king of bad One Piece opinions. Here’s another, Buggy’s more annoying than funny, I will burn for these sins. But still, I’m hopeful that people can at least walk away from this essay with a higher appreciation of Thriller Bark. Let’s like about the four most interesting things about the Thriller Bark arc.

Why Zoro is One Piece’s Best Character

For the video version, please click here. Best read after chapter/episode 966.

There are so many components that make up a story but the most important element, to me, will always be character. You could have the most expertly crafted plot of all-time, if I don’t care about the characters, I won’t care about the work. Whereas if I care about the characters, the plot could literally be a trip to the DMV and I’d love it. That’s why I love character-driven series so much and I bet you’re wondering why I’m bringing this up while talking about One Piece. One Piece isn’t character-driven, there’s some Water 7 styled exceptions in there but for the vast majority, One Piece is a plot-driven series. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but plot-driven series can still have great characters. It’s not mutually exclusive, Hunter x Hunter is a character-driven series and has some great plot, it works both ways. So who is the best character in One Piece? Well, I was going to say that stupid cook but I still have working brain cells so instead I’ll give the actual answer, Roronoa Zoro.

How Oda Writes Characters: More Than Gags

For the video version, click here. Best read after chapter 775/episode 716.

So you want to write a story and decide there needs to be at least 1,000 characters in it or else you’re a failure. If you’re not willing to lower your standards, you’re left with an incredible challenge, how do you make all these characters distinct from one another? This is a task that One Piece’s Eiichiro Oda finds himself faced with, and one he miraculous handles really well. One Piece is filled to the brim with memorable characters thanks to several different techniques Oda employs. As a visual medium, the most readily apparent method is through character design. Oda nails this out of the park. Yeah, occasionally some of the woman will have too much Nami on their face, but that’s the only failing he has when it comes to distinguishing designs. And it’s not like all women came down with a case of the Nami’s either. It is disappointing but One Piece has so many countless creative and awesome designs that overall Oda definitely gets two thumbs up here. Another tactic is giving several characters there own unique laughs. I mean it’s a nice touch and I certainly associate some of those characters with their laugh like Luffy’s Shishishi but in a police lineup I’d never be able to match up most characters with their laugh. That’s not what I want to talk about though, rather I’m here to explain just how well Oda utilizes gags to make characters work.

Why Sanji Is One Piece’s Best Character

For the video version, click here. Best read after Chapter 988.

One Piece has been around longer than most people have been alive, and because of that there’s more characters in One Piece than people I’ve met in my life. Thankfully, the characters in One Piece are much better than people in real life, so then the question becomes, who’s my favourite character in One Piece? There’s a lot of great candidates throughout the years. Mosshead’s certainly an option, you know, if I was complete idiot. Instead when it comes to my favourite One Piece character that answer has always been Sanji.

You Should Read One Piece Because It’s Long

You wouldn’t know it from my video game posts but I actually love One Piece. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve spent more time on One Piece, than any other franchise in my life. I’ve seen 541 episodes of the anime, the first 384 of those I’ve seen twice. I’ve watched all 14 movies, several but all of the various specials whether they basically be full length features like Episode of Nami or random shorts like Jango’s Dance Carnival. Speaking of those video game posts, I’ve spent a good amount of time playing the series too. Not even counting crossover fighters like Battle Stadium D.O.N., Jump Ultimate Stars, J-Stars Victory Vs. Plus, or Jump Force, I’ve spent countless hours on One Piece games, mainly through the Pirate Warriors franchise. I’ve managed to platinum both Pirates Warriors 2 & 4, I would’ve platinum’d the first if RNG wasn’t funky bull shrimp, and I’m still working on platinuming Pirate Warriors 3 every now and again. Beyond those, I’ve also platinum’d Burning Blood maining the one true One Piece Waifu Koala. One of the Grand Battles, I don’t remember which one I think 2, Romance Dawn for the 3DS, Unlimited World Red, all games I’ve also put time into. I’ve even bought the VR game, though I’m petrified of all things reality so I’m not sure why I bothered. And of course, I’ve read every single chapter of One Piece, all 1,000 plus.

The Sakuga of Naruto’s Manga

Naruto is one of the most successful and popular anime of all-time. Just look at the amount of fan-fiction written about it, it dwarfs any other anime series in comparison. There’s over 700 episodes and eleven films to consume, and throughout all those hours of content the anime has produce a plethora of sakuga moments for animation fans to devour. However the original manga is no slouch in this department either. Manga can’t actually produce sakuga since that term is exclusively used in relation to quality spikes in animation, clickbaited y’all, but Masahi Kishimoto is an expert in the language of layouts. And I think it’s worth discussing how much proper panel construction can really elevate the material.

Golden Wind is a Better Stardust Crusaders

One of the many reasons why JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure remains one of the most beloved franchises in the anime community is its ability to constantly re-invent itself. While the series essentially follows the same template of Stand Battle of the week in each part, every part features a different cast of characters, narrative goals, locations, and settings allowing the series to perfectly tow the line of providing the familiar content we come to it for while remaining consistently fresh. Each Part has it’s own distinct identity within the JoJo mythos however with eight parts it’s unavoidable that certain parts would overlap with more similarities. This is most apparent when looking at the most iconic part of the series, Stardust Crusaders, and the most recently adapted part, Golden Wind. You’ve all read the title, today we’re going to analyze all the elements shared between the two parts, and explain exactly what it is that Golden Wind does differently, to make it almost always the superior version. There will of course be massive spoilers upcoming, so if you haven’t finished Golden Wind, I’d advise you to skip this post until you do.

The Four Most Interesting Things About Enter The Florpus

Invader Zim is back, baby! After Avatar: The Last Airbender, Invader Zim is my favorite series that Nickelodeon’s ever done, and after Enter The Florpus, Invader Zim might just have reclaimed the top spot. I mean, that’s probably just recency bias talking Avatar: The Last Airbender is freaking great but Enter the Florpus is absolutely fantastic as well. It not only perfectly encapsulates everything that made the original series so great, except for Ms. Bitters and yes I’m Mr. Bitters about that, but it takes everything that made it so beloved in the past and cranks it up to the most absurdist extreme. Enter the Florpus reaches heights of unbridled lunacy that the original run never comes close to, and if you’re a fan of Invader Zim and haven’t watched Enter the Florpus, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. If you never even seen Zim and for some reason decided to read this blog, Enter the Florpus doesn’t exactly require prior knowledge to work so you should also give it a watch to see why this franchise was popular enough to get this revival movie in the first place. Regardless of your circumstances, if you haven’t seen Enter the Florpus yet, I am going to spoiler very important bits from it so I highly advise you to return to this blog after watching it because today, I want to discuss four elements from Enter the Florpus that I absolutely adored, the four most interesting parts of Enter The Florpus. That was your spoiler warning, for everyone else, let’s begin discussing the Four Plus’ of the Florpus.

The Appeal of Asuka

The Women’s Evolution. Women finally being treated like legitimate competitors and receiving similar treatment to the men has become a normalized part of the WWE product for a while now. They’re still hitting new milestones sure, like the re-introduction of the Women’s Tag Team Championships or giving them their own solo PPV broadcast but with the constant historical first-ever’s it can be easy to lose sight at how monumental some of these instances really are. This upcoming WrestleMania is guaranteed to close for the first time ever with the Women’s match, a triple threat between reigning champion Ronda Rousey, and challengers Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair. Six years ago WrestleMania 29 didn’t even feature women’s wrestling period in any capacity, and it wasn’t really until 32 that they were given proper time and investment. This is a big deal, yet that progress up the card doesn’t seem too crazy, it seems like it’s about time. Because for years, the women have been providing some of the best content the WWE churns out, and of all the wonderful talent they possess, none of them have impressed me as much or as consistently as Asuka.

Season Four Analysis: The Dichotomy of Steven Universe, Character and Show

Season four of Steven Universe was not welcomed with universal acclaim during its initial run. While both the Bombs and select episodes like “Mindful Education” were lauded right out of the gate, anyone who peruses the show’s subreddit would’ve seen criticism lobbed against the season for the abundance of Beach City residents episodes and the lack of any Homeworld threat to propel the narrative arc forward for longer than a five episode stretch. And while I do agree that the disparity in quality between the human and gem episodes was an issue, in hindsight the brilliance of that structure has shown itself.