Watashi wa Anime ga daisukidesu - One Piece

        Before I start, I must apologize. I am late posting, and I shouldn't be. I could make an excuse, but it would be lame and no one would care. I know these kind of apologies are mocked a lot, but I put them here because I honestly feel terrible I forgot to update, and that I should have upheld my promise of an update a day better. So, for the purposes of my life and sleep schedule, each day of the week 'ends' at 4am. Yes, that's when I go to bed.

       In punishment for my sin, I shall divulge a horrible, terrible secret. I love One Piece. Let me start by summarizing the show for the 8 of you on the internet who has no idea what I'm talking about. One Piece is set in a Constructed World (A setting with no connection of any kind to ours in geography or history.) where the world is one giant ocean, with some barriers separating it into four seas. It is the Age of Pirates, set off by the death of Gold Roger, and Monkey D. Luffy wants to find the legendary treasure One Piece, therefore becoming the King of the Pirates. Because he ate one of the Devil Fruits, cursed produce that grant mystical powers to those who consume them, he is made of rubber. He gathers a crew, gets a ship, and fights other pirates.

       Let me start with what is bad, the reason many do not like the show. The animation ranges, but it starts off on the closer end of bad. The dialogue is often cheesy and over the top. The characters, at first glance, are very 2-dimensional and annoying. It constantly breaks science and reason in every way you can possibly imagine. There are several filler arcs, many of which are bad. The original dub by 4kids Entertainment is probably the worst dub of all time, with a lot of unnecessary censorship and terrible casting and writing. It is, I think, the biggest reason for those who do not like it.

      Now for me to gush about what I love. The action is amazing, honestly my favorite from any anime I've seen. The dialogue is over the top, but that's the point. Everything in this show is over-the-top, because that's how it is. The drama, sadness, awesomeness, comedy, and heartwarmingness are all purposely turned up to eleven. That's part of the point. The music, both in show and the openings, are fantastic. And my favorite part is the characters. I said earlier that they can appear 2-dimensional and that's true, from a certain point of view. But once you start paying more attention, the characters have far more depth than you would have though from the silly shonen anime you heard about. Luffy is that "I'm gonna follow my dreams, eat a lot of food, and get stronger" kind of protagonist, but then he says stuff that is kinda amazing. "If I die while trying to reach my dream, then I die." And he's not blowing smoke out his ass either, at one point when he thinks he will die, he accepts it with a huge grin on his face. The whole cast is like this, and several backstories will make you cry.

     One Piece feels like it was made with a passion, and a message I agree with to a T. It is my shonen anime, and one I shall defend to the grave. Now if only Funimation would catch up on the collections and get back to dubbing the damn thing already! Laters.