AWESOME ENGINE » Things I Know About Pirates

New One Piece Movie 10: Strong World Trailer

Brack — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:05:50 +0000

Some Kind of Terrible Nerd Collision

Brack — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:41:49 +0000

If there’s two things I love it’s One Piece and Talisman. And once I discovered that Strange Eons had a Talisman plugin, my mind turned to thinking of how to realise One Piece characters in Talisman. That one above is just a test, the Strange Eons program is really easy to get to grips with, the hard part will be figuring out the special abilities and creating the portraits – transparency is supported so you can get them looking kind of Talismany.

Zoro’s an easy one, as you can simulate the three swords thing easily in game and likewise his propensity for getting lost. Not sure if the three weapon thing is too big an advantage or if that extra die in the Crypts or Mines is a killer disadvantage.

The other neat thing is that One Piece gashapons should make nice counters for the characters too! I’ve a bunch from the Skypiea arc, and I’m afraid this is going to get me collecting gashapons again now I have a “practical” use for them (and probably not just One Piece too.)

Eiichiro Oda sends animators to early graves.

Brack — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:01:16 +0000

Since the beginning of the year, or thereabouts, One Piece has embarked on its most ambitious storyline yet. We’re just over halfway through the series and the characters are geographically halfway through their journey. So we’ve had 8 months now of huge storyline events that dwarf everything that’s come before.

On top of that we’ve had the anime catch up to the start of those huge events, it getting paired with Dragonball Kai in the schedule, the promise of the tenth One Piece film with Oda’s involvement and the promise of anime-only material that ties directly to the manga.

All this has boosted One Piece’s profile something crazy. Already easily the top manga in Japan, its Google Trending has more than doubled since the start of the year. And in the last two weeks, the strip has shifted up into yet another gear.

The last two chapters have been full of huge splash pages full of epic vistas, and more importantly, full of individual characters. Oda’s approached this level of insane crowd scenes before, but the sheer amount of wonderful looking badass weirdos he’s unleashed onto the page in the last two weeks is awe inspiring. The anime has struggled to match this in the past, and I question how well this is going to look when they animate it in a year or so. And how sane the animators will be after animating it.

There’s a couple of other key elements to the impact of the story. There’s a major revelation made in chapter 550 that flips a lot of things on their head, and we finally get to see a character who we’ve been told is powerful for years now, demonstrate that power and actually live up to the hype.

But that’s all for nought without Oda’s illustrations. Not only does he maximise the impact of those important scenes so well, he’s also giving you so many characters that you want to know more about just from one appearance. Why does that guy look like walrus? Why does that guy have clamps for hands? Why is that guy’s beard and hat so ridiculously large? And so on. And the fun thing is that the series has already proven that we will certainly get to see more of some of them. Nothing can ever be dismissed as a single panel throwaway in One Piece, that one guy you saw 9 years ago could end up being one of the most important people in the world!

One Piece Movie 10 : Strong World ~ Trailer #2

Brack — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:07:21 +0000

(via kunion’s cafe)

Q: Who Is Nami Speaking To In This Screenshot?

Brack — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:52:09 +0000

1) Someone off screen, standing in front of her?
2) Brook?

—

The One Piece anime in the last year or so has changed it’s visual style a lot. It’s simplified the character design and loosened itself up, seemingly influenced by the look of the 6th and 9th Movies.

For the most part it’s worked wonders, we’ve got a lot more movement in the show and the recent short filler looked far better than it had any right too. However the downside is you occasionally get duds like this week’s episode which contained poorly thought out scene after poorly thought out scene, of which the one above is but one example.

What’s worse is that scene is in the manga, where it’s posed correctly with Nami addressing Brook while she delivers her lines (and slaps). And it’s doubly annoying when they mess up some perfectly fine animation later on by framing it in the most obtuse way possible.

I’d still take it all over pretty much everything we got in the Skypeia episodes though.

—

A: She’s speaking to Brook!

Things I Know About Pirates #5

Brack — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:55:59 +0000

They can still make me tear up 380 episodes in.

Bink’s Sake:

Lyrics by Eiichiro Oda, Music by Kohei Tanaka, Chō as Brook.

More Soul Eater thoughts.

Brack — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:33:26 +0000

I think I can now pinpoint the problem I have with Soul Eater, and it’s a problem I have with some other shonen titles to various degrees. It’s the Adult Authority Figures.

I mentioned some time ago the difference between Sgt. Frog and it’s antecedent, Urusei Yatsura, in how they treated adulthood. Sgt Frog treats adulthood as being just as fun as childhood, Urusei Yatsura portrays it as some kind of living hell.

Now the difference between Soul Eater and what is obviously my favourite shonen series, One Piece, is also a difference between how they treat adults, but rather than a difference in a philosophical view of adulthood (Soul Eater seems to side more with UY, given Maka’s father’s characterisation), it’s in the use of Adult Authority Figures.

Soul Eater, like many shonen series has the main characters firmly placed as students of older, wiser, characters, who know more than they do. Naruto is an exemplary case of this format, for all the goofing off and disobeying orders that Naruto does, he’s never shown to be smarter than Kakashi. In Soul Eater, no matter how goofy Dr Franken Stein or the Grim Reaper are, they know more than the main characters, and at the current time, the main characters ultimately have to bow to their greater knowledge.

In One Piece, however, all characters who feasibly have authority over the main characters are wrong. Even if, in theory, they are right. Regardless of common sense, fact or circumstance, Luffy’s decisions always end up being the right one in the end. It’s resolutely anti-authority. It’s a bunch of kids having adventures, doing what they want, without adults telling them what to do. Even if some of the kids are 27, 34 and 100+ years old. Part of what turned me off Bleach was the slow turn of the main characters from being anti-authority, to doing what the series’ “grown-ups” want them to do.

The lesson is: if you are going to write an adolescent fantasy, go the whole hog and STICK IT TO THE MAN!

Things I Know About Pirates #4

Brack — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:30:05 +0000

The latest chapter of One Piece introduces a whole load of new characters, who are essentially the peers of Luffy and Zoro in terms of notoriety. And a couple whose notoriety exceeds theirs. Most have obvious historical references in their names but a few are bit tricky.

CAPONE “GANG” BEGE

We’ve had colour pages with the Straw Hats dressed as gangsters, and they are dressed that way in the next One Piece film, and with “The Fire Tank Pirates” we get actual gangster pirates in the manga.

Obviously the name is a reference to Al Capone. Not sure about the Bege part. A Google Image search for ベッジ gives us pictures of chairs designed by Alexander Begge. So your guess is as good as mine, if not better.

Physically, Capone has a passing resemblance to The Penguin from Batman.

“BIG EATER” JEWELRY BONNY

This cowgirl looking glutton of a female pirate appears to be a reference to female pirate Anne Bonny and possibly Billy The Kid (William H. Bonney).

“THE MAGICIAN” BASIL HAWKINS

Another easy reference, Hawkins being the surname of the hero of Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins. Possibly it may be a reference to John Hawkins, the 16th Century English Admiral, but Treasure Island seems a more obvious reference. Whether the Basil name is a reference to something remains to be seen.

EUSTASS “CAPTAIN” KIDD

The English spelling is given as EUSTASS, though the katakana is the same as for Eustace. This is a return of the same pun that lies behind Ace’s tattoo. Oh, and he appears to be an ass.

Another obvious reference – William Kidd, the Scottish sailor who set out to prey on pirates, but ended up on trial of piracy himself.

Physically, Eustass Kidd has a passing resemblance to The Joker.

“ROAR OF THE SEA” SCRATCHMAN APOO

Apoo looks to be a musically themed martial artist pirate. Oda seems to be drawing a connection between kung fu fighting stances and turntablism, as Apoo’s fighting stance could be read as either.

Oh and he has piano key teeth. Like 88 Teeth did in the Daffy Duck cartoon “The Great Piggy Bank Robbery”, that parodied Dick Tracy. There’s definitely a Dick Tracy note to One Piece in the distinct and often grotesque appearances of it’s villains. I believe that comes from Oda’s love of Kinnikuman though.

No idea if his name is a reference to something specific.

“RED FLAG” X DRAKE

Named for English naval hero/Piratical menace to the Spanish – Francis Drake.

“THE DEMON MONK” UROUGE

This one took a bit more research. This article was my first clue, and some Google language tools and then translating the junk English it gave me into something I could understand led me to come to the conclusion that UROUGE is a mangled version of Aruj aka Oruc Reis aka Barbarossa I aka REDBEARD, the 15th century Turkish corsair.

,Urouge is a Sky Island native, with wings similar to Ener’s priests.

“THE MASSACRE MAN” KILLER

I don’t think we’ve got any name references going on here with this South Blue Native.

“SURGEON OF DEATH” TRAFALGAR LAW

His name would be a reference to The Battle of Trafalgar. His symbol is another variation of the grinning face that Ace has on his hat and Doflamingo’s New Era Pirates have put a slash through on their flag.

Oh and one of his crew has a bear head like Panda Man has.

RALEIGH

As yet unseen, the former pirate who is 100 times stronger than the “Supernova Eleven”, is obviously a reference to Sir Walter Raleigh, the English explorer.

SHAKUYAKU

Raleigh’s partner shares a name with herb used for treatment of blood problems. Her appearance I’m sure is a reference to a real person that I can’t pin down. There’s something of a resemblance with Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace in how she holds her cigarette and her page boy haircut, but I think that was a reference to something else itself.

New Portrait of Pirates

Brack — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:50:39 +0000

HLJ have the latest Portrait of Pirates for pre-order

Red Hair Shanks~!

Looks like one of the nicest yet. I’m still waiting for the inevitable Brook one before I drop 20+ quid on one of these (though I might go for a sufficiently manic looking Blackbeard one too…).

Things I know about pirates, fresh for ’08!

Brack — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:54:46 +0000

I checked the couple of recent-ish threads by “Greg” on Arlong Park – the translated web interview with Oda and the Jump Festa coverage. Very interesting stuff.

The whole thing about OP being halfway through was interesting. You got the feeling that Oda hadn’t expected it to be this long/popular, and it was kinda scary to think he still had another 10 years to go.
The commitment to the SBS was neat. There is an underlying sense that as much as he admires Toriyama, on some level he wants to outdo him.
The comment about when Brook was conceived was shocking, and subsequent discussion of how he assembles One Piece was fascinating.
Also fascinating was the comment about writing Franky with Kazuki Yao in mind.
Talking of whom – I really want to see a proper interview with him now. His Franky-esque dress on stage at the Festa was hilarious, particularly in comparison to how everyone else was dressed. I’d like to know if he is the genuine eccentric he appears to be.
Brook seems to be all over the latest OP games, I’m guessing he’s proving popular.
The OP boat race looked fun and horribly reminiscent of seaside holidays on the east coast of England.

Also I see Yuichi Nagashima is apparantly Brook’s voice (he debuts on the 6th!). I’m only really familiar with Nagashima’s role as the deputy head on GTO and the sickly Kyasharin in Sexy Commando. So I’m guessing he’ll have a higher pitched voice than I was expecting (I was expecting a deeper, more gentlemanly voice ala Jouji Nakata – check the Club Escaflowne extras on the Escaflowne DVDs, Nakata can do the dirty minded gentleman perfectly, in fact, judging by that, he is one!). Still, Nagashima was good on GTO and Sexy Commando, so I’m sure it’ll be good. Just different.

Stuff on HLJ.com that caught my eye:

Straw Hat’s Flag Knitted Cap
Chopper w/ Wanted Poster – he looks so upset!
One Piece Barrel Mugs – in particular the Sanji one – I love that they are using that picture on merchandise.

I also caught some of the Chopperman special on youtube. Are the commentators on the wrestling bit real people? If so who? Also in the final battle, is that a parody of some of the Giant Robo music or am I imagining things because I want to buy this?

SUUPAAAA~ Eyecatch

Brack — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:05:25 +0000

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Brack — Thu, 17 May 2007 21:33:51 +0000

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