HATE FUN? One Piece. One Piece? Yes, really.
I think if you've read this livejournal for a while you will be aware that I loves me some One Piece. It may not be the best manga or anime, but it's probably my favourite overall, and the one thing I can get fannish over.
But a lot of people don't like it. In the Anglophone world it's a distant third behind Naruto and Bleach. Likewise in this online poll from TV Asahi I'm kinda using for Hate Fun topics.
And the hate tends to come down to 2 main reasons.
1) The 4kids US "versioning" of it. That's kind of self explanatory. It was an all around terrible job.
2) Oda's art. Oda's art doesn't look like the art you find in "HOW TO DRAW MANGA" books. It doesn't look like the art you find the "OEL" "manga" that Tokyopop put out. It does look like late eighties/early nineties Shonen Jump art though, and probably marks the end of that look for action strips. It does look like various well researched architecture from around the world. It does occasionally look like a Gilliam or Burton film.
There's a tendancy for people to dismiss the art as ugly or childish. As if that's a bad thing. One Piece has a sense of the quaint and the whimiscal to its design.
There is stuff you can criticise it for art-wise, but it's never done by the naysayers. Oda struggles to find different female faces, Nami and Vivi's were pretty much interchangable, and since Robin was introduced female characters meant to be attractive have been given usual facial traits to distinguish them. I think it works as a clever way to get around this weakness.
The figures of his female leads occasionally get out of control, as has Chopper's form. The reindeer man's half human, half reindeer form has got more and more toddler like it his proportions over time.
The male leads have undergone similar changes, but they are not as obvious. As I mentioned before, they have edged towards the now standard Shonen Jump attractive male figure, though Oda has fun with this fact when a character from the first volume mades an appearance recently, looking totally different.
I find it sad, but not unbelievable that people get a set idea of what they want Japanese animation and comics to look like. Unfortunately for many decades people have had a set idea of what they want US feature animation to look like, so it's not unique to anime/manga fandom. But having such blinkers on, makes you miss out on a lot of fun stuff.
OK, that's why OTHER people hate on One Piece, what criticism can I pour on it that actually comes from me?
Well, there's one obvious one that long term readers/viewers of One Piece will understand.
In an early interview, Oda stated he wanted to create emotion without killing characters off in the main series. And for the start of the series he achieves this, characters are only shown to die in flashbacks. The Arlong Park arc is still probably the best example of this approach.
But then we reach the Grand Line and the Baroque Works mega-arc, and people start to die. And they are killed to create an emotional impact. Which is fair enough, a fair amount of time has passed to think Oda may have rethought his approach.
BUT NO, near the end of the Arabasta arc, in quick succession the three emotional deaths are undone, and the supposedly dead characters return. It feels like a big cheat.
And he does it again to less effect in the Skypiea arc. I'm not sure if it's because the "deaths" aren't as meaningful, or because we've disillusioned by the Arabasta resurrections.
To his credit, we've only one had one "death" since then and that's not been undone as yet. And it probably wouldn't matter if it was. We have had some flashback deaths of course (lots!), but that's expected and accepted as a One Piece storytelling device. And it's one that works.
And that's about it for grievances. Sure it has filler, but it's no Naruto. And the animation got a bit ropey during Skypiea. And it's never had truly gobsmacking animation as Naruto occasionally gets (except in a couple of the movies). But overall it's a good show and an outstanding manga.
But a lot of people don't like it. In the Anglophone world it's a distant third behind Naruto and Bleach. Likewise in this online poll from TV Asahi I'm kinda using for Hate Fun topics.
And the hate tends to come down to 2 main reasons.
1) The 4kids US "versioning" of it. That's kind of self explanatory. It was an all around terrible job.
2) Oda's art. Oda's art doesn't look like the art you find in "HOW TO DRAW MANGA" books. It doesn't look like the art you find the "OEL" "manga" that Tokyopop put out. It does look like late eighties/early nineties Shonen Jump art though, and probably marks the end of that look for action strips. It does look like various well researched architecture from around the world. It does occasionally look like a Gilliam or Burton film.
There's a tendancy for people to dismiss the art as ugly or childish. As if that's a bad thing. One Piece has a sense of the quaint and the whimiscal to its design.
There is stuff you can criticise it for art-wise, but it's never done by the naysayers. Oda struggles to find different female faces, Nami and Vivi's were pretty much interchangable, and since Robin was introduced female characters meant to be attractive have been given usual facial traits to distinguish them. I think it works as a clever way to get around this weakness.
The figures of his female leads occasionally get out of control, as has Chopper's form. The reindeer man's half human, half reindeer form has got more and more toddler like it his proportions over time.
The male leads have undergone similar changes, but they are not as obvious. As I mentioned before, they have edged towards the now standard Shonen Jump attractive male figure, though Oda has fun with this fact when a character from the first volume mades an appearance recently, looking totally different.
I find it sad, but not unbelievable that people get a set idea of what they want Japanese animation and comics to look like. Unfortunately for many decades people have had a set idea of what they want US feature animation to look like, so it's not unique to anime/manga fandom. But having such blinkers on, makes you miss out on a lot of fun stuff.
OK, that's why OTHER people hate on One Piece, what criticism can I pour on it that actually comes from me?
Well, there's one obvious one that long term readers/viewers of One Piece will understand.
In an early interview, Oda stated he wanted to create emotion without killing characters off in the main series. And for the start of the series he achieves this, characters are only shown to die in flashbacks. The Arlong Park arc is still probably the best example of this approach.
But then we reach the Grand Line and the Baroque Works mega-arc, and people start to die. And they are killed to create an emotional impact. Which is fair enough, a fair amount of time has passed to think Oda may have rethought his approach.
BUT NO, near the end of the Arabasta arc, in quick succession the three emotional deaths are undone, and the supposedly dead characters return. It feels like a big cheat.
And he does it again to less effect in the Skypiea arc. I'm not sure if it's because the "deaths" aren't as meaningful, or because we've disillusioned by the Arabasta resurrections.
To his credit, we've only one had one "death" since then and that's not been undone as yet. And it probably wouldn't matter if it was. We have had some flashback deaths of course (lots!), but that's expected and accepted as a One Piece storytelling device. And it's one that works.
And that's about it for grievances. Sure it has filler, but it's no Naruto. And the animation got a bit ropey during Skypiea. And it's never had truly gobsmacking animation as Naruto occasionally gets (except in a couple of the movies). But overall it's a good show and an outstanding manga.