[amphibian]

CapedCrusader, on 21 June 2014 - 03:44 AM, said:

P.S. What are your opinions on Bleach? I watched like 3 episodes and it seemed to be a decent show but since there seems to be so many I didn't want to jump in without knowing if its worth the watch.

It's a ridiculously fun dash up to the part where Ichigo rescues Rukia at the Sokyoku Hill. There's very little "waiting around" time and the action is fairly good. Ichigo vs. Zaraki is perhaps one of the very best "oh shit is getting real" pre-final-boss boss fights you will ever see and it's over in like 2 episodes.

Overall, the show is fully into the "random student is actually the secret superhero that can train real hard, develop every super power and save the universe". And into kendo style sword fights with the occasional magic power thrown in.

Once the rescue occurs, the show streeeeetches things. Not quite Dragonball Z levels, but it gets bad. The Bount filler arc is surprisingly good and deep. Then the main writing staff just kind of loses its way and starts making the battles all the same and the "popular" characters always given plot armor. It's chock full of filler by the midway point and not even good filler like the Bount arc.

If they could re-make the show and cut out the crap, it'd be kind of amazing in a narrow niche-encapsulating way.

One Piece remains the single best achievement in Japanese manga/animation. It may seem goofy and off-putting, but it does what it intends to do with such skill and flair that it's Malazan-like without the deaths and the constant gloom.

[LinearPhilosopher]

CapedCrusader, on 21 June 2014 - 03:44 AM, said:

BalrogLord, on 20 June 2014 - 06:02 PM, said:

amphibian, on 20 June 2014 - 04:45 PM, said:

BalrogLord, on 20 June 2014 - 01:58 PM, said:

You can't have a conversation about 90s anime without mentioning cowboy bebop. Go watch it.,

He's just said that he was re-watching Cowboy Bebop. So... what's after that?

i really need to work on my reading.

Anyways 90s... hmm there's Evangelion if you're up for the mindfuck. Beyond that not much to 90s anime that i can recall. For early 2000s anime i'd give darker than black and black lagoon a try.

aslos highly second both of amph's reccomendations To this dayte i've yet to see issues of post humanism tackled in the way GiTS did. I honestly thinkg GitS is up there with the top cyberpunk media such as do androids dream of electric sheep and the matrix.

it doesn't have to be from the 90's I just haven't kept up with anime since the then so that was all I had to reference.

P.S. What are your opinions on Bleach? I watched like 3 episodes and it seemed to be a decent show but since there seems to be so many I didn't want to jump in without knowing if its worth the watch.

amazing up to the soul society arc, then it's trash afterwords (i hate the bounto arc, but the zanpakuto rebellion arc was really cool)

also, in that case, try psycho-pass and shin sekai yori

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 21 June 2014 - 12:36 PM

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 21 June 2014 - 05:54 AM, said:

One Piece remains the single best achievement in Japanese manga/animation. It may seem goofy and off-putting, but it does what it intends to do with such skill and flair that it's Malazan-like without the deaths and the constant gloom.

I was waiting for Amph to suggest this one so that I could chime in and agree. It really is everything he says it is, and gets better and better as it goes along without stopping. I love this show.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Re: One Piece, just finished the Vol. 1 manga...which I only got because it was a $1.99 kindle daily deal. Fun enough, but AnimeTube has 600+ episodes of the anime. Dang son, I could quit my job and become a hermit and still not have time to catch up on that.

[amphibian]

The anime is about 20 minutes an episode. It's still a time investment and the "click"into a higher gear doesn't really start until they get to where the crew members start joining.

But it's great. It's so good that it's going to define how a manga and an anime should work together to create popular, complex and lengthy storylines for generations of artists and writers to come.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 21 June 2014 - 06:20 PM, said:

The anime is about 20 minutes an episode. It's still a time investment and the "click"into a higher gear doesn't really start until they get to where the crew members start joining.

But it's great. It's so good that it's going to define how a manga and an anime should work together to create popular, complex and lengthy storylines for generations of artists and writers to come.

Indeed, and in Oda we trust.

the Manga is awesome because of Oda's "corner" where he answers questions, usually hilariously.

[Luperci]

amphibian, on 21 June 2014 - 06:20 PM, said:

The anime is about 20 minutes an episode. It's still a time investment and the "click"into a higher gear doesn't really start until they get to where the crew members start joining.

But it's great. It's so good that it's going to define how a manga and an anime should work together to create popular, complex and lengthy storylines for generations of artists and writers to come.

Didn't DBZ already accomplish some of that? Ive never read the Manga so don't know firsthand how well the storylines are similar but I've heard from people that they loved the show better than the manga.

[Imperial Historian]

One piece is some way ahead of any of the other similar length series I've seen. I watched the anime which I loved then on to the manga as I couldn't wait for the show to catch up. The level of complexity and forethought that has gone into this series is pretty impressive. And it is a lot of fun!

[Silencer]

Can't say as I've been too enamored with One Piece. I'm not far into the anime, but half of each episode seems to be taken up with recapping the previous episode, and so far there hasn't been anything to keep me interested. I think it's been on my 'maybe watch the rest of this when my entire-and-growing backlog is finished' list for months now.

Honestly, the art style isn't helping. It was one of the main reasons I didn't consider watching the series until this thread pushed it as super-awesome for ages, and it really isn't doing much to keep me on board, either.

So far the characters are not very interesting, and there is no story to speak of. Every once in a while I can kind of see what people might be going on about, but after more than twenty episodes of a six hundred and counting episode series, I feel like maybe something should have caught me by now.

Comparatively, this amount of episodes would be nearly the end of a season, or what, like a third of the way through either FMA Brotherhood or a similar amount through the 'good' arcs of Bleach, based on this thread (which it must be said, gave me a lot more in the first two episodes to be going with, than the first twenty of OP has).

Maybe I need to watch another few dozen episodes for it to get good? Or maybe it's just not for me? Or maybe it's been way overhyped by you lot.. or the manga is just way better. But it's way too much of a commitment for me to recommend when most of the first episodes are DBZ-style recap-filler with no substance or character. XD



...let the bludgeoning commence! *runs for cover*

[amphibian]

CapedCrusader, on 21 June 2014 - 10:25 PM, said:

Didn't DBZ already accomplish some of that? Ive never read the Manga so don't know firsthand how well the storylines are similar but I've heard from people that they loved the show better than the manga.

DBZ streeeeetched everything they ever did out to absurdity. Remember Vegeta making the planet destroying spirit bomb over like 8 episodes? The pacing of DBZ was awful and somehow our child selves ate it up (because we didn't know any better).

One Piece has a cast almost the size of Malazan's and most episodes/arcs move quickly. There's no stretching out of fights or storylines (beyond the Hody/Underwater one). The characters have actual emotions and thoughts beyond righteous anger, finding dragon balls, dedication to training and being a villain. There are convergences, set-backs that are real, some crazy adventures, setting right old wrongs and so on. Very Malazan-like, but without the death and the gloom. Also very anti-hegemonic government in overall tone.

Silencer, on 22 June 2014 - 04:53 AM, said:

Can't say as I've been too enamored with One Piece. I'm not far into the anime, but half of each episode seems to be taken up with recapping the previous episode, and so far there hasn't been anything to keep me interested.

What you do is you skip the recap entirely. Skip the song intro after you've heard it a few times, skip the recap, skip right to the new stuff, which is after the episode title card part. When the song intro changes, watch it a few times, then go back to skipping it. You can pound out 3 or 4 episodes in an hour. The entire series will take you about about 9 days of total watching time.

Quote

Every once in a while I can kind of see what people might be going on about, but after more than twenty episodes of a six hundred and counting episode series, I feel like maybe something should have caught me by now.

You're right at the point where the story really picks up. I dunno if you caught this, but it's very baldly stated that each crew member has something they really want to do: Luffy wants to be king of all pirates (strongest pirate in the world), Zoro wants to be the best sword fighter in the world (fight everyone else who is a sword fighter and beat them), Nami wants to make the fullest, most complete map in the world, Usopp has a whole laundry list of things he wants to do (most of which are completely ridiculous) and so on. So they band together to help each other and Luffy makes them part of his "nakama", which translates as something like a group of loved ones.

Around episode 20, the crew goes to meet the Baratie Pirates, who are basically pirates who run a restaurant and there, the Strawhats find out that they need to go to the Grand Line to accomplish their goals. Cue the kickoff into the stratosphere, much like the Summer Knight book of the Dresden series.

[QuickTidal]

Follow Amph's sage advice here. I did. OP has a lot of table setting to get through, but one it does....man does it take off.

I'll say this. They do most of the inital crew's backstories...if you get to Nami's backstory episodes (Arlong Arc Eps 31-44) and aren't hooked...no seriously. That arc is what sold me.

[Imperial Historian]

arly one piece didn't really draw me in, the luffy, zoro and nami intros whilst OK weren't great (plus the initial art was pretty poor), at some point the art noticeably upgrades (I guess that was around season 2). The story really kicks into high gear once the initial 5 crew members are together as the interplay between the characters is what makes it. The nami back story and the baratie arcs are what drew me in. If you don't like it at that point give up I'd say.

[Dolmen 2.0]

One piece does rocket up the tempo fter you get past the intros. After Thriller bark I started to take every character seriously as individuals rather than as side characters.

If there is any direct opposite to Naruto character development its One Piece. Where the story all but revolves around Two people in Naruto, OnePiece is multi-threaded, more about the group than about any particular person. Even if Luffy is the main Protagonist he can take a back seat at times and let other crew members take the spotlight and, I think, of the big 3 One piece does this the best.

FairyTale lost me but I'd say it holds up in a similar fashion. OP and FT have a grander series of events at work that most malazan fans can identify with.

I will add though that One Piece and Naruto really dropped the ball at times. The problem with running these over-long story arcs is quality control in animation. I think anime fans interested in overall production quality will find it tough hence Silencers negative opinion.

[Silencer]

amphibian, on 22 June 2014 - 06:36 AM, said:

Silencer, on 22 June 2014 - 04:53 AM, said:

Can't say as I've been too enamored with One Piece. I'm not far into the anime, but half of each episode seems to be taken up with recapping the previous episode, and so far there hasn't been anything to keep me interested.

What you do is you skip the recap entirely. Skip the song intro after you've heard it a few times, skip the recap, skip right to the new stuff, which is after the episode title card part. When the song intro changes, watch it a few times, then go back to skipping it. You can pound out 3 or 4 episodes in an hour. The entire series will take you about about 9 days of total watching time.

So...normally, we would lambaste a show for this. It's filler, plain and simple. Wasted space. Useless and annoying recap. And yet here...no problems?

Quote

Quote

Every once in a while I can kind of see what people might be going on about, but after more than twenty episodes of a six hundred and counting episode series, I feel like maybe something should have caught me by now.

You're right at the point where the story really picks up. I dunno if you caught this, but it's very baldly stated that each crew member has something they really want to do: Luffy wants to be king of all pirates (strongest pirate in the world), Zoro wants to be the best sword fighter in the world (fight everyone else who is a sword fighter and beat them), Nami wants to make the fullest, most complete map in the world, Usopp has a whole laundry list of things he wants to do (most of which are completely ridiculous) and so on. So they band together to help each other and Luffy makes them part of his "nakama", which translates as something like a group of loved ones.

Oh, I caught it. And I thought it was incredibly basic and simple characterisation - one thing? Just the one? No depth here? And yet y'all go on like this thing has depth in spades.

Meanwhile, even for shonen anime, it does not take much at all for these people to start working together. I know, I'm not expecting wonders (except with all the hype you lot put on it, that is!) from what is basically a shonen anime, but when you cut out all the recap, it literally took like 3 seconds for everyone to decide to become a nakama - something which, imo, should at least need a bit of work! (And yes, I'm aware that this stuff is a progression, but seriously, the plot so far is so loosely built it might as well not exist. It's like Luffy is on a fetch-quest from some NPC to "collect friends", and that isn't exactly what I'd call strong writing - not when it takes almost nothing to get these people to join in, at least for five minutes.)

Quote

Around episode 20, the crew goes to meet the Baratie Pirates, who are basically pirates who run a restaurant and there, the Strawhats find out that they need to go to the Grand Line to accomplish their goals. Cue the kickoff into the stratosphere, much like the Summer Knight book of the Dresden series.

Yeah, so, that's pretty much where I stopped. Just after the Baratie thing. Again. Were this any other series, we would be jumping up and down and moaning that it took twenty+ episodes (of mostly recap-filler) to get anywhere near starting off!
And frankly, if the first twenty episodes were relatively comparable to the first couple of Dresden books, I probably wouldn't be stopped on the series right now!

QuickTidal, on 22 June 2014 - 12:21 PM, said:

Follow Amph's sage advice here. I did. OP has a lot of table setting to get through, but one it does....man does it take off.

I'll say this. They do most of the inital crew's backstories...if you get to Nami's backstory episodes (Arlong Arc Eps 31-44) and aren't hooked...no seriously. That arc is what sold me.

Honestly, Nami is the only character who interests me. Mainly because she's not just leaping into being "part of the group" like everyone else is. But even then, it's marginal. I'll give those epi's a shot, but honestly, I'm not holding my breath..

Imperial Historian, on 22 June 2014 - 01:56 PM, said:

arly one piece didn't really draw me in, the luffy, zoro and nami intros whilst OK weren't great (plus the initial art was pretty poor), at some point the art noticeably upgrades (I guess that was around season 2). The story really kicks into high gear once the initial 5 crew members are together as the interplay between the characters is what makes it. The nami back story and the baratie arcs are what drew me in. If you don't like it at that point give up I'd say.

Baratie was pretty 'meh' for me. It was better than the rest, but still 'meh'. And again - normally most of us would give up loooong before twenty episodes in. Except, it's not really twenty episodes, it's like three...only drawn out to twenty by virtue of the constant recapping! UGH!

And the art style annoys me as much as the quality. The quality is shit, yes, but the style also sits somewhere betweeen shoujo romance manga and shonen action manga and it just annoys me. XD

Dolmen Weeks, on 22 June 2014 - 02:39 PM, said:

One piece does rocket up the tempo fter you get past the intros. After Thriller bark I started to take every character seriously as individuals rather than as side characters.

If there is any direct opposite to Naruto character development its One Piece. Where the story all but revolves around Two people in Naruto, OnePiece is multi-threaded, more about the group than about any particular person. Even if Luffy is the main Protagonist he can take a back seat at times and let other crew members take the spotlight and, I think, of the big 3 One piece does this the best.

FairyTale lost me but I'd say it holds up in a similar fashion. OP and FT have a grander series of events at work that most malazan fans can identify with.

I will add though that One Piece and Naruto really dropped the ball at times. The problem with running these over-long story arcs is quality control in animation. I think anime fans interested in overall production quality will find it tough hence Silencers negative opinion.

And let's not forget quality-control on the story, and the episode format, and the characterisation. Never mind the fact that this is not a "long runner" at this point - this is literally it's starting run!




I mean; you guys basically go on about this series as the "Malazan of manga". Heck, even without that direct comparison, it comes off sounding like some god-given work of awesomeness. But so far, it's just another part of the Big Three, subject to all of their problems (and worse, in some instances), while having nothing exceptional to set it apart. I don't know whether I'm the one coming in with high expectations, or y'all have the beer goggles on/low standards (), but I expected this to at least be...well...watchable by the time I got to like episode 25 or whatever. Not just recap-filled drudge.

Again: it has its moments. But I'm not seeing anything that is setting this above, say, DBZ. Or Fairy Tale (which is also average so far). Heck, at least Bleach has a bit of punch in the first couple of episodes (pun, not intended).

I dunno. I'll try watching through the next dozen episodes or so, but I'm going to have to stop trusting QT's opinion if it doesn't grab me!

[amphibian]

FairyTale is like Baywatch/Power Rangers. Plenty of T&A on display with a kind of nonsensical chain of villains for the main characters to fight.

One Piece is like kid friendly Malazan, as in a Whiskeyjack/Ublala Pung (without the sex) mishmash character assembles a crew of pirates and sets out to be king of the world. There are convergences, long running meta plots, unfairness, complex enemies and sly/bold cultural references, plus constant and within the flow of the story callbacks to what went before in a way that layers the story. It's a signal achievement in Japanese storytelling and the massive amount of money it's made by staying somewhat kid friendly is astounding. Most shows and comics have to sell out to make money. One Piece really hasn't (except with a couple non canonical movies). I'm not sure there's even a Western parallel for it. Maybe if the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises were smooshed together and didn't sporadically suck or sell out.

Naruto is just terrible. Nothing was planned out beforehand, the characters just go around doing nonsense things and everything revolves around a driven into the ground concept of inherited talent/achievement plus ninja fakery obscuring random magic. Bleach is better and the writers lost their way in that years ago.

The foresight and the planning to put together a long-running book series, comic series and/or tv show is not something every artist or writer has the capacity or the luxury of doing. Erikson is one (Malazan). Jim Butcher (Dresden Files), Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Mike Carey (Lucifer), Dan Abnett (multiple series), Robin Hobb (Fitz series) and many more have all shown that they have the writing chops to 1) make people want to read their stuff and 2) build openings into their writings for more stories down the line to explore topics that interest them and the readers. It's not easy to do that and quite often, the market/editors push people to conclude stuff fast, sell out or just not start writing long series in the first place. Long series are risks, which make sense, and those who pull them off successfully are writers and artists I value tremendously. They set up their sandboxes in such a way that they can play around almost anywhere (while still mostly obeying the "rules" as set forth early on) and it pays off in the later stages.

The writers of Naruto and Bleach stumbled quite badly around the mid-points of their works (both are reaching completion this year) as they discovered that they wanted to take the story to places other than the early work/set-up was going to take them. Instead of ending the story and beginning a new one, they chose (for various reasons, mostly relating to the fat stacks of cash the series were making) to keep going and ret-conned or ignored much of the early stuff. At least Bleach took risks in resetting things and didn't jump the shark into nonsense like Naruto did.

Oda belongs in the company of Erikson and Gaiman. It's amazing that 10+ years later, he's yet to truly stumble in the manga. The rough sketches of things to come were planned out even as he started and the addition of arcs he didn't initially come up with at the beginning of the story isn't an intrusion because he fits them organically into the story anyways. It's like watching/reading JK Rowling, but if she was a phenomenally talented writer instead of a competent one with a kickass idea and a big sandbox. Huge success doesn't always mean shitty series, although the lure of money and the frustration of creative life after success hits means that it gets harder to maintain the quality standards over the years.

I think there's a few other writers and authors out there who are developing stories of similar complexity and detail now - much like those who made Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell and the other legendary classics of 20 to 30 years ago that still hold up well today (unlike DBZ and a few others). Kosuke's Gangsta series is terrific enough that I've already bought the first manga book and will get the second soon. Richard Morgan is an author I heavily tout to everyone who'd like his stuff. Imaishi has been involved with FLCL, Tengen Toppen Gurenn Lagann, Panty and Stocking with Garter Belt, Kill la Kill and more. Elizabeth Bear is another of my favorites, although she hasn't really gone in for the long series yet. Catherine Webb is someone I'm working through right now (Matthew Swift books) and I'm really close to just smacking her on this list as a must-buy-to-support-excellent-works author/artist.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 23 June 2014 - 06:06 AM

[QuickTidal]

Silencer, on 23 June 2014 - 01:58 AM, said:

amphibian, on 22 June 2014 - 06:36 AM, said:

Silencer, on 22 June 2014 - 04:53 AM, said:

Can't say as I've been too enamored with One Piece. I'm not far into the anime, but half of each episode seems to be taken up with recapping the previous episode, and so far there hasn't been anything to keep me interested.

What you do is you skip the recap entirely. Skip the song intro after you've heard it a few times, skip the recap, skip right to the new stuff, which is after the episode title card part. When the song intro changes, watch it a few times, then go back to skipping it. You can pound out 3 or 4 episodes in an hour. The entire series will take you about about 9 days of total watching time.

So...normally, we would lambaste a show for this. It's filler, plain and simple. Wasted space. Useless and annoying recap. And yet here...no problems?

While it is wasted space, it costs you nothing to skip the opening, recap and such...and the title card is even put there to know where to jump to. This is the equivalent of skipping the "Previously on...LOST, GLEE, BREAKING BAD..." segment of live action shows. I wouldn't call it filler as it's not REALLY a part of the episode and it's meant to keep track of things that happen and concern the plot, especially later on.

Silencer, on 23 June 2014 - 01:58 AM, said:

Quote

Quote

Every once in a while I can kind of see what people might be going on about, but after more than twenty episodes of a six hundred and counting episode series, I feel like maybe something should have caught me by now.

You're right at the point where the story really picks up. I dunno if you caught this, but it's very baldly stated that each crew member has something they really want to do: Luffy wants to be king of all pirates (strongest pirate in the world), Zoro wants to be the best sword fighter in the world (fight everyone else who is a sword fighter and beat them), Nami wants to make the fullest, most complete map in the world, Usopp has a whole laundry list of things he wants to do (most of which are completely ridiculous) and so on. So they band together to help each other and Luffy makes them part of his "nakama", which translates as something like a group of loved ones.

Oh, I caught it. And I thought it was incredibly basic and simple characterisation - one thing? Just the one? No depth here? And yet y'all go on like this thing has depth in spades.

The one thing that they each start out looking for, doesn't define them either though. There are many layers at work.

Silencer, on 23 June 2014 - 01:58 AM, said:

Quote

Around episode 20, the crew goes to meet the Baratie Pirates, who are basically pirates who run a restaurant and there, the Strawhats find out that they need to go to the Grand Line to accomplish their goals. Cue the kickoff into the stratosphere, much like the Summer Knight book of the Dresden series.

Yeah, so, that's pretty much where I stopped. Just after the Baratie thing. Again. Were this any other series, we would be jumping up and down and moaning that it took twenty+ episodes (of mostly recap-filler) to get anywhere near starting off!
And frankly, if the first twenty episodes were relatively comparable to the first couple of Dresden books, I probably wouldn't be stopped on the series right now!

Were this an average everyday, not-sure-where-it's-going show I'd agree with you...but here we are talking about an epic that will be 1000 episodes long when done and has been planned out as such by Oda...that makes the 20th episode page 20 of a 1000-page epic. At page 20 you wouldn't even know all the characters or their motivations.

Silencer, on 23 June 2014 - 01:58 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 22 June 2014 - 12:21 PM, said:

Follow Amph's sage advice here. I did. OP has a lot of table setting to get through, but one it does....man does it take off.

I'll say this. They do most of the inital crew's backstories...if you get to Nami's backstory episodes (Arlong Arc Eps 31-44) and aren't hooked...no seriously. That arc is what sold me.

Honestly, Nami is the only character who interests me. Mainly because she's not just leaping into being "part of the group" like everyone else is. But even then, it's marginal. I'll give those epi's a shot, but honestly, I'm not holding my breath..

You kind of have to get through everyone's respective backstory to discover that statements like "leaping into being part of the group" isn't what's at work here at all...at least not how it's being implied. I think Usopp's especially is one that will make you rethink things.

Silencer, on 23 June 2014 - 01:58 AM, said:

Imperial Historian, on 22 June 2014 - 01:56 PM, said:

arly one piece didn't really draw me in, the luffy, zoro and nami intros whilst OK weren't great (plus the initial art was pretty poor), at some point the art noticeably upgrades (I guess that was around season 2). The story really kicks into high gear once the initial 5 crew members are together as the interplay between the characters is what makes it. The nami back story and the baratie arcs are what drew me in. If you don't like it at that point give up I'd say.

Baratie was pretty 'meh' for me. It was better than the rest, but still 'meh'. And again - normally most of us would give up loooong before twenty episodes in. Except, it's not really twenty episodes, it's like three...only drawn out to twenty by virtue of the constant recapping! UGH!

And the art style annoys me as much as the quality. The quality is shit, yes, but the style also sits somewhere betweeen shoujo romance manga and shonen action manga and it just annoys me. XD

Like all long-running anime there will be shitty arcs...and Baratie is one of the early ones that annoyed me too...but I honestly can't recall one after that which annoyed me on the same level.

Re: the art. It DOES improve, if only in inks and lines. But part of what makes OP so fun for me was accepting the type of art that is being employed and see the fun in it. What make's it so brilliant a lot of the time is the scope and the world design and less the characters. At least for me. Skypeia for example is amazingly realized as a unique fantasy realm. As is the process of getting into the Grand Line itself (when they do). My appreciation of Oda's art multiplied exponentially when I began to read the manga as well. He is incredibly consistent, but at the same time as impressive in his page design as most modern Western masters in the comics community. Francis Manapul's FLASH run comes to mind in the unique category.

Silencer, on 23 June 2014 - 01:58 AM, said:

I dunno. I'll try watching through the next dozen episodes or so, but I'm going to have to stop trusting QT's opinion if it doesn't grab me!

Nami's arc is amazing and if you don't connect with it you are cold and dead inside.

[D'rek]

Hello again, BigOnePieceArgument! Haven't seen you in a little while! How are things? Ooh, I see you've been hanging out with Silencer now, that's funny, last time you and he didn't do anything together! Still besties with Amph and QT of course! Where's your buddy BL? Okay, bye, see you again in another year and a half!!!

[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 23 June 2014 - 02:42 PM, said:

Hello again, BigOnePieceArgument! Haven't seen you in a little while! How are things? Ooh, I see you've been hanging out with Silencer now, that's funny, last time you and he didn't do anything together! Still besties with Amph and QT of course! Where's your buddy BL? Okay, bye, see you again in another year and a half!!!

My buddy GitS was mentioned earlier, but the thing is he's not very talkative, more the contemplative type. Yes i try and promote him but nothing much comes of it epcept muted acknowledgement. I think that's the best for him though, His greatness can't be easily describe. Now, people like one piece, they tend to be kinda transparent so it's easy to describe. Add to the fact he's a loud one, always invited to all the parties, always mentioned in discussions etc... Basically he's like the cool kid, but from highschool and we're getting near the end of highschool so he's probably going to go through an existential crisis. Whether it's after prom or months after we've alll graduated only time will tell.

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 23 June 2014 - 04:05 PM

[Dolmen 2.0]

BalrogLord, on 23 June 2014 - 04:03 PM, said:

D, on 23 June 2014 - 02:42 PM, said:

Hello again, BigOnePieceArgument! Haven't seen you in a little while! How are things? Ooh, I see you've been hanging out with Silencer now, that's funny, last time you and he didn't do anything together! Still besties with Amph and QT of course! Where's your buddy BL? Okay, bye, see you again in another year and a half!!!

My buddy GitS was mentioned earlier, but the thing is he's not very talkative, more the contemplative type. Yes i try and promote him but nothing much comes of it epcept muted acknowledgement. I think that's the best for him though, His greatness can't be easily describe. Now, people like one piece, they tend to be kinda transparent so it's easy to describe. Add to the fact he's a loud one, always invited to all the parties, always mentioned in discussions etc... Basically he's like the cool kid, but from highschool and we're getting near the end of highschool so he's probably going to go through an existential crisis. Whether it's after prom or months after we've alll graduated only time will tell.

"My pal Naruto wants to share with the group."

"..."


"No seriously guys come back, he has feelings. Thought this was a safe space?"

--------

Heh honestly I stick with Naruto out of loyalty. Kishi just isn't getting a handle of the series and Amph is 100% correct. Some authors bite far more than they can chew.

Big 3 aside I am gutted to hear No Game No Life is only seeing a 12 episode season.

!!

[LinearPhilosopher]

Dolmen Weeks, on 23 June 2014 - 04:22 PM, said:

BalrogLord, on 23 June 2014 - 04:03 PM, said:

D, on 23 June 2014 - 02:42 PM, said:

Hello again, BigOnePieceArgument! Haven't seen you in a little while! How are things? Ooh, I see you've been hanging out with Silencer now, that's funny, last time you and he didn't do anything together! Still besties with Amph and QT of course! Where's your buddy BL? Okay, bye, see you again in another year and a half!!!

My buddy GitS was mentioned earlier, but the thing is he's not very talkative, more the contemplative type. Yes i try and promote him but nothing much comes of it epcept muted acknowledgement. I think that's the best for him though, His greatness can't be easily describe. Now, people like one piece, they tend to be kinda transparent so it's easy to describe. Add to the fact he's a loud one, always invited to all the parties, always mentioned in discussions etc... Basically he's like the cool kid, but from highschool and we're getting near the end of highschool so he's probably going to go through an existential crisis. Whether it's after prom or months after we've alll graduated only time will tell.

"My pal Naruto wants to share with the group."

"..."


"No seriously guys come back, he has feelings. Thought this was a safe space?"

--------

Heh honestly I stick with Naruto out of loyalty. Kishi just isn't getting a handle of the series and Amph is 100% correct. Some authors bite far more than they can chew.

Big 3 aside I am gutted to hear No Game No Life is only seeing a 12 episode season.

!!

I think it may be to early on that. Maybe they are waiting on dvd sales before they announce s2