September 14th, 2008 by Brack
This is the Girl’s High ED re-drawn/re-animated to feature One Piece characters. Mostly stills but on the whole they do a good job of drawing One Piece characters in Yasuomi Umetsu’s style without just being re-colours of the original art.
Posted in Anime | Tags: girl's high, One Piece | No Comments »
September 6th, 2008 by Brack
Well that was quite the thing.
OK this is going to get rather spoilery from here on out
Posted in Manga | Tags: bartholomew kuma, One Piece | No Comments »
July 29th, 2008 by Brack
This won’t actually be part of the panel as I can’t find a decent copy (nicovideo keeps loading a Persona ad instead of it…), but parody videos such as the one above are some of the many “delights” I will be inflicting upon playing to the audience.
Posted in Anime | Tags: azumanga daioh, madstravaganza, One Piece | No Comments »
June 10th, 2008 by Brack
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!
Posted in Anime, Manga, Things I Know About Pirates | Tags: bleach, naruto, One Piece, soul eater | 1 Comment »
April 28th, 2008 by Brack
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Anime, Manga, Things I Know About Pirates | Tags: One Piece | No Comments »
February 9th, 2008 by Brack
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…).
Posted in Things I Know About Pirates | Tags: One Piece, portrait of pirates, shanks | No Comments »
January 6th, 2008 by Brack
This is the ending to episode 337 of One Piece, so SPOILERS!
Really great work from Yūichi Nagashima. I love the way his voice veers all over the place. Earlier in the episode he uses a voice similar to Kyasharin’s to great effect. It’s not what I was expecting, but it works very well. The animation on the character was great too. The choice to focus on him tidying himself up before talking to Nami was inspired.
Posted in Anime | Tags: Brook, Luffy, Nami, One Piece, Sanji, Yuichi Nagashima | 1 Comment »
January 1st, 2008 by Brack
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.
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?
Posted in Anime, Manga, Things I Know About Pirates | Tags: One Piece | No Comments »
November 13th, 2007 by Brack
Posted in Animation, Anime, Things I Know About Pirates | Tags: One Piece | No Comments »
October 15th, 2007 by Brack
The latest episode, 326, has a new opening. A certain gentleman skeleton appears in it, and by the looks of things we’ve only one filler arc before we get to Thriller Bark.
Posted in Animation, Anime | Tags: One Piece | No Comments »