You can watch my next One Piece review (Sabaody Archipelago) RIGHT NOW on Patreon here (5$+): www.patreon.com/Aleczandxr To follow the readthroughs on stream, you can follow me on Twitch here: www.twitch.tv/Aleczandxr/ Link to AJ's Discord server: discord.gg/Ekhz7PNuJd CURRENT TWITCH SCHEDULE: Mondays @ 10am EST: A Blind Playthrough of Disco Elysium (Soon) Wednesdays @ 10am EST: Top 100 Ranking Streams Fridays @ 10:30am EST: SOME FRIDAYS, I do full One Piece reading streams as well. Check Discord for updates/details. Sundays @ 11am EST: Vinland Saga S2 anime reactions & One Piece Chapter reads
#AJPiece just a quick comment: I feel the set up for Brook’s “I’m so happy to be alive” line is always missed by people. Brook throughout the arc kept making those “I’m dead/I’m a skeleton” jokes but at that final moment he only says “I’m happy to be alive” and he doesn’t follow it up with a joke
Before watching: despite its flaws, thriller bark is my favorite arc. I'm a big fan of zombie media and this is a really refreshing take on the trope. Also the scene where Luffy pushes the zombie back into the grave is hands down the funniest moment in all of one piece
I love Thriller Bark's aesthetic and the fight between Oars and the crew is easily the best fight in the series (for me); it's always a treat when they work together.
Idk about funniest but you are on to something. I think thriller bark is the funniest one piece arc . Usopps fight and moments are mad funny not only that but the robot docking which is so damn funny and it gives Luffy pushing that zombie a real run for it's money.
One of my FAVORITE parts about this is how the coward trio enters thriller bark first and the contrast of their reactions with the super trio later on. We feel the threat from the coward trio's perspective and they are constantly freaking the fuk out - while the super trio is chilling so hard we literally feel relaxed, like we're in some sort of weird amusement park lol
#AJPiece Some nice bit of subtlety with Zoro when vs'ing Kuma is the initial move he uses after Kuma'd taken everyone else out (barring Sanji), was titled “Ichitoryuu: Lion’s Song”, the same attack he used against Mr.1 in Alabasta, being something he could only perform when using “the sword that can cut nothing but can cut everything”, or in others words its a move he'd only use with the intent to protect, which shows how far he's come in finding purpose for his ambition through visual alone. It's a perfect cap-off to the arc which in contrast to W7/EL, a saga all about how far Luffy's willing to go to protect his crew or fill the shoes of a captain (and many other things ofc), puts a heavy emphasis on the crew and their loyal worth to Luffy as captain. I love the Tim Burton style horror comedy this arc and I'm glad you generally enjoyed it as well, anyways appreciate the great work as always and can't wait for more!
#AJPiece Starting in Thriller Bark, Robin starts calling the the crew members by name. Previously she only referred to them by their roles (navigator, swordsman, long nose, cook, doctor) which shows her hesitancy to officially join the crew based on past experiences. It was not until the events of Enies Lobby when the crew showed her their commitment and she was able to admit to herself what she desired that she was able to show those emotional bonds instead of closing herself off.
#AJPiece My friend Redx actually pointed this out to me a while back but the shadows themselves are also a metaphor for depression. Which despite it's comedy is what the whole arc is about. Gecko Moria is introduced having been sleeping for days. Which is a sign of depression and avoiding reality. He's hiding himself away in the shadows and avoiding the light. The characters have been living in the shadows. Trapped in the deep dark bowels of depression. Unable to ever again see the light. Which has become like poison to them. Chapter 482 is Lola saying she refuses to live in the darkness of depression anymore and chooses to cling to light(Hope) even knowing that hope may destroy her. Life comes with great pain and risk but you can't live in the darkness forever. Eventually, you have to come out of the shadows. Which is why it's so powerful when Brook who had been trapped in the darkness for so long, finally being allowed to step into the light is grateful to have been alive. Even though he suffered and even though he thought his torment was endless he was glad to have lived.
Just wanna address the community we got here: the AJPiece comments are and have been really freakin great, especially the ones addressed in this video! And the interaction between Alex (or Alec? Or any other short form? I'm not actually sure how to refer to him lol) and his community is amazing. And somehow he hasn't been spoiled about a lot! Also how dare people say this arc is boring - Nothing happens in this arc!
#AJPiece Something most people miss about this arc was the Theme of "Shadows". All of the opponents this arc were foils. Each sharing a trait with the Strawhats. They were meant to represent the darker aspects i.e. a shadow(a dark reflection) of the strawhats themselves. Chopper a Doctor, faces off against a dark Doctor one who neglects the Doctor's oath(hippocratic oath) and disrespects life. The difference between them being that Chopper protects and preserves life while Hogback abuses it. Usopp who is negative faces off against Perona who uses the power of negativity. Though while Perona uses her power of negativity to drag others down, Usopp uses his negativity to keep his crew safe from dangers they would have otherwise ignored. Sanji and Absolom are both perverts. They represent Lust. Absolom is the dark side of lust. He forces himself onto women without their consent and ignores their well being. Even going so far as to put their lives at risk for his own desires. He's a literal perverted Beast as shown by his animal modifications. Whereas Sanji may desire to peep, he's not a beast like Absolom and always puts a woman's well being above his own and this shown in the scene where he holds Nami above himself. Literally putting her above himself as he takes damage. It was showing that yes Sanji has the same desires as Absolom but he's always going to put them aside for a woman's safety. Next is Zoro vs Ryuuma. You may not know this but Ryuuma was once the world's greatest swordsman. So this battle is one of the Former world's greatest swordsman vs the Future world's greatest swordsman. The difference between them being that Ryuuma's spirit is not his own. The shadow of someone else guides his blade. So he isn't one with his sword like Zoro is. Zoro carries Kuina's spirit through his blade but Ryuuma's has none at all. Last is Luffy & Moria. Both are men who sought to become Pirate King but Ever since he was crushed by Kaido, Moria has grown lazy. This makes him weak. He's literally become a shadow of his former self. Just like his power. Whereas Luffy knows he needs a strong reliable crew to support him on the path to Pirate King but unlike Moria, Luffy is willing to give it his all for his crew while Moria doesn't put in any effort at all. Making others do everything for him. Hopefully that also eases your thoughts on the Sanji situation somewhat. Personally I never found an issue with it, because to me it is simply a man being open with his sexual desires. Theres a difference between expressing the desire and actually doing it. I don't think we should shame Sanji for his spoken desires when his actual actions are far more noble and brave. Then again, he is a Pirate. In fact they're all criminals. Pretty much everything they've done in the series counts as criminal and morally questionable behavior. I mean in the context of the real world Luffy has basically forced himself into various countries, assaulted the ruling monarchy just for pissing him off, stole from indigenous people, broken into a police holding facility, assaulted countless officers, and saved another criminal from being arrested. If anyone did stuff like that in real life they'd be considered an absolute psychopath. So I don't see why Sanji's comments need to be treated with more weight than anything else they've done.
The Shadows of their Former Selves is an interesting theme for this arc. Another way to look at it is Moria is a what if for Luffy and his crew. What if they failed? What if they fell? Spoils below 👇 Quite the foreshadowing considering the next arc.
This was one of my favourite videos of yours. I find it interesting for you to cover the more flawed and less "renowned" arcs because they point out things about the arcs that I didn't realize at first.
#AJPiece Usopp vs Perona may be my favourite fight in the series up until this point. I'm not exaggerating. Not only were the character dynamics between Usopp and Perona fantastic but the fight itself encapsulated everything Usopp has done over this long adventure and how much he's grown. He implemented Impact Dials from his time in Skypiea, the Hammer from Alabasta, Sogeking and Kabuto from Water 7/Ennies Lobby, the cockroaches from right here in Thriller Bark and of course all of these attacks that he actually used to knock out Perona were tricks. The Hammer was obviously inflatable, the cockroaches were fake, and Sogeking is a fake persona. All of this ties back to his origins in Syrup village as an homage to the boy who cried wolf. Someone who told his friend Kya all of these incredible adventures that he was making up. It ties beautifully into this fight where he defeats an enemy of immense strength but with tricks. Lies. I really like how the only actual tool he uses that does real damage are the Impact dials which originate in a mythical land that most people believe is just a fable. A place that people think doesn't exist. A lie, in most people's eyes. The fact that Perona passed out from fear against Usopp when her whole power set was instilling fear in others is brilliant. 10/10 fight honestly imo. Usopp is such a great character and this fight showed every reason why.
What I love about Usopp vs Perona is that it's a showdown between two tricksters. Shonen manga has plenty of fights where it's "brute force vs brute force" or "brute force vs trickster"; but it's very rare to see a fight that's "trickster vs trickster".
@@Blackhawk211 as someone whose favorite fights include luffy vs foxy and sanji vs bon clay, don't let it bother you lolol there are some real underrated gems
There is a lot more to Franky and Brooke’s conversation than the laboon thing, I think it’s one of the best moments in one piece , “death is not an apology” is a line that hits like a brick especially for those of us dealing with suicidal thoughts, Brooke wants to die at this point, but feels he doesn’t have a right to, the opposite of Robin in the prior arc, Brooke’s determination to keep his promise even after 50 years of loneliness is so emotional
1:13:45 The tonal problem you find with Sanji's joke about wanting to peep on women is mostly cultural. This was written in Japan, but most importantly, over 15 years ago. Applying 2020s western sensibilities to it, shows it didn't age well, mostly in young people like you who were teens or less when this was written, and have it harder to conceive that yesterday (in historical terms), this was not at all uncommon. Yes, sexual harassment was as wrong 15 years ago as it is now, but joking about it was not frowned upon. Also, the scene with Absalom at the beginning is taken from a class B horror movie from the 1980s called The Entity, just to add a bit of trivia.
#AJPiece Regarding the conversation about Devil Fruits having an effect on your personality, back during Water 7 when he saw Lucci's tranformation Chopper does mention how carnivorous Zoans make their users more aggressive. Add to this how Funkfreed (Spandam's sword) and Lassoo (the gun from Alabasta that turned into a dog) were inanimate objects that gained sentience from "eating" devil fruits, it's obvious that there's some kind of lifeforce in them. While fighting Ace, Blackbeard said his power chose him. Maybe he just thinks that, but maybe it did. At the very least Zoan fruits do have a will of their own, and it bears keeping in mind.
1:16:34 Actually yes, we do see in a short succession of panels following Luffy's defeat of Moria that shows the shadows' original owners rejoicing that Cindry DID have somebody's shadow animating her, the shadow of a maid named Margarita. This is what Chopper meant when he said Hogback wasn't actually bringing people back to life: he was just animating their lifeless bodies with other people's shadows, causing those people misery. It wasn't real medicine. It wasn't saving anyone's life. It was just making subserviant puppets, desecrating corpses and ruining other people's lives to do so. Also, Margarita's situation shows that a stolen shadow only captures the essence of its original proprietor at the moment Moria stole it, as we learn Margarita herself actually got over her aversion to plates a while ago, while Cindry was still acting on her shadow's owner's original instincts/personality traits, showing that while humans can grow, shadows can just copy.
One piece is a romantic, idealistic story set in a dystopian world. This is a beautiful contrast and it keeps the story rich while being light and fun.
"Nothing happened" in Thriller Bark. 👻 I really appreciate your perspective on this story. Can't wait to hear what you think of the rest! Thriller Bark is one of the most memorable arcs for me in hindsight because the ending is the first glimpse of the Straw Hats being truly overwhelmed and hopeless, especially considering what comes later in Sabaody. The skull jokes will never get old to me, because he's using them as a method to express the joy of hearing peoples laughter after all that time. As a side note, I love how by happenstance Luffy ends up in the territory of all these Warlords.
#AJpiece One thing I thought was interesting was the name of Moria's "ultimate" technique, Shadow's Asgard. Asgard, being the home of the norse gods, and Moria being the vessel for the shadows, revealing that he may have some deep regard for shadows. They are things he can take and not lose thanks to his devil fruit. They are a sort of immortal soul that a broken Moria has come to regard as more important than the people they come from, or the bodies desecrated to be made into shells for his beloved shadows. Additionally, one of the major realms of Asgard was Valhalla, a sort of heaven for the souls of warriors deemed worthy. Additionally, despite it being his most dangerous ability, he clearly no longer understands his limitations with it. His stockpile has overrun, and he is bloated and cumbersome and desperately trying not to vomit up shadows. It shows that he has not used it in a long time. I wonder if perhaps Moria used to fight by taking the shadows of his crew before they passed and front lining for them, an amount he would be practiced and experienced with, and also hold that power with extreme reverie, as if he lost or couldn't win before the sun comes up, his crew would be in grave danger. My friend also believes that since Oda loves wordplay (many of Zoro's attacks can be read as both animal attacks or food) that a literal "Shadows as guard" could be hidden within. Which would also be somewhat representative of the lazy, sit behind the minions leader he has become.
My headcanon is that Borook´s skull jokes are not just because he wants to make people happy. His story is one of the most tragic of the crew and anybody in his place would undoubtedly be insane by now, I think the only way he can cope with what had happened to his body and his crew is by making a joke out of it. His constant reminders of how he doesn't have skin or eyes or a tongue are traumatic for him but all those years alone taught him how to handle it, just joke about it and pretend everything is ok. He had done so so many times that by the time the Strawhats found him it had become a sort of nervous tick. I don't know if you watch it but the anime really make the point clear of how traumatically sad his situation was, being alone in his old ship surrounded by the bodies of his old crew unable to even see the sun for many many years all by himself with nothing to do but training and sleeping. It is truly traumatic
One of the things I’ve always loved the most about Thriller Bark is how creative Oda was about the wacky things he wanted to do. In a similar way to how AJ talked about Brook’s creepiness being accentuated by the small touches Oda adds to his backstory and presence, I feel the same way about the Thriller Bark zombies. He wanted to write a story on a horror movie island, and so he came up with a way to justify it within his own world, using Moria’s Devil Fruit power to justify both their existence and their weakness using fictional science. It really shows just how much fun Oda has writing this story, and how much he can flex his creative muscles to make even the wildest concepts work within the wacky world he’s created.
I think the villains of one piece are some of the best written characters thematically in the arcs they are introduced in. Gekko Moria is a great example even though people don't like him very much and I appreciate you understand him and what he represents.
"And who is to say, that Luffy wouldn't also crack, if he lost his crew?" I think this shows the REAL use of the Thriller Bark arc: building you up for the devastation of Sabaody Archipelago ending the way it does🤧
#AJPiece When Sanji interrupts Zoro and Kuma, he says something along the lines of "You idiot, what good will come out of your death? What happened to your ambition?" before offering up himself instead. This is of course just one interpretation, but it's almost like there's a part of him that believes that his own ambition is not worth that much and that something good would actually come from his own death. Obviously the straw hats would all sacrifice themselves for each other, but those are very interesting words to say while doing it. While Zoro's words allude to his duty to protect his captain and crew, Sanji's have at least hints of putting himself down at the same time. Also I'm sure others have pointed out, but Cindry's zombie does have a shadow and when we see everyone's shadows returning we see a girl dropping a plate as her shadow comes, implied to be her.
Your pronunciation of my name was good enough, don't worry. What a lovely video this is. Some of the best analysis on Moria & Thriller Bark. You mentioned how Kaido devastating Moria's crew affected him. Makes you also wonder who Kaido is, if they eliminated whole of Moria's crew so easily, when they're no slouches! Also, to answer your question. Oda revealed he planned Brook. He was one of the first Straw Hats that he designed. You can see him among OP one shot designs before OP even started serializing. So he always planned at least for him.
Bink's Sake is a heavily underrated poem. It is a pirate's song, almost all know it, and unsuprisingly it tells us less about any character from this arc, but more about the world itself. What kind of song would Oda write, that is so prodominent in this pirate world? I can't go into specifics, but I highly encourage you to reread it's lyrics when get cought up with the series. Oda also revealed that he had written the lyrics of the poem far before it appeared in the story...
The Sanji gags are a big point of divide leaning against it. But, in my opinion on the pervert/Sanji simping gags in One Piece is the same with all forms of humour. You can pretty much get away with anything if you do it in the right way and work the joke around the subject matter if its dark rather than the joke being the subject itself. Seeing as you're on the Dress Rosa arc at the moment you've seen the gag in say Fish Man island. Jokes like Sanji crying out that the mermaid island is his All Blue is hilarious I feel because it's not just that it's funny that he likes mermaids so much. It's funny because of all the context built around how much people cherish dreams in One Piece, how much he cherishes his own dream and the fact that he went on an island that he hated for 2 years and struggled. Seeing all that lead to this ridiculous personal catharsis where he jokingly abandons his prior ambitions for this fickle goal that is understandable given everything we now prior. This approach extends to all forms of dark humour or humour surrounding dark subject matter. It's a matter of presentation and building the gag around the gag. If you play it too straight and simple you end up with pretty much all of Thriller Bark. Where the gags end up coming off as predatory, gross, annoying and unenjoyable. Because, really you can make jokes on anything and it'll be funny if approached right. Murder, corruption, manipulation, power outages, etc. All awful things, but in the hands of good comedians you can end up laughing at the subject matter. Look at Trevor Noah. His previous stand ups touched on racism, colourism, poverty and all that jazz from his own personal experiences. But his shows were hilarious and really light hearted. Oda just needs to apply himself better when approaching this humour and it'll be fine. Although granted even then you have to consider subjectivity and personal opinions on what you find okay to make jokes out of. People can be...very "sensitive", for lack of a better term, to things these days without much consideration or openness to things they don't find okay.
I’m really glad I switched over to the manga for this arc. Made it a much more enjoyable arc to view. I had heard all the shit taking about this arc leading up to it, but I honestly enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Really the biggest issue with this arc is the final fight with Gecko Moria. Legit he could’ve won the fight by not doing anything.
Genuinely look forward to these videos so much, and love that they come often enough that the wait isn’t bad but also are spaced out to where we will have this series to look forward to for quite a while!
#AJPiece One small detail that I have never seen anyone comment about Brook is that when he died all his crew was on the deck of the ship, but when Luffy and the rest find his ship, all the corpses are in coffins, which means that after Brook's soul wandered for years looking for the ship he had to take the skeletons of all his friends and put them in coffins, each and every one of them. Also I've been watching your videos and the work, insight, opinions and references that you do in these videos is really beautiful, your ability to find the core of each character as well as the theme of each arc and open them as a treasure with such care show me the respect that you have for fiction in general, and has made me excited about One Piece (and anime in general) like I haven't felt in a long time, thank you very much.
Thank you for this. A great and very insightful video. All I can add is to emphasise how terrifying it is that this broken, obese, shell of a man, who's even given up walking around, is physically strong enough to shrug off 100-Luffy's attack and skilled enough to re-contextualise what abilities are capable of. This was the second battle where Luffy survived, despite being severely outclassed in power and skill. (There's also the rumours that Oda was forced to add something like the problematic scenes; I'm never certain how true it is that publishers mandate that, though there's a lot of evidence that authors feel pressured to add "lewd-comedy" and that publishers regularly insist on story changes.)
Very mild spoilers for Gecko Moria: The idea that he did in fact used to lead from the front is directly shown in his fight with Kaido. He lead the charge and took him on directly. You have to think too that he probably buffed his crew using his devil fruit ability, so the weight of his crew dying and leaving him behind feels like it is fully his fault.
After watching (had to get through it in bits and pieces xD): Cindry's shadow came from a maid named Margarita. She is shown discovering her shadow is back and gets so surprised at seeing her own reflection that she drops the plates she was carrying. Then explains she got over her hatred of plates years ago. This demonstrated that as long as the shadows are separate from their owner, their personality does not change to match their owner as they grow and mature far away. And thus I wouldn't call the shadows souls. They're more like an echo of the soul, stuck in time the moment they are separated grom their source. Have you read Monster? You should read Monster. It's an old one-shot manga Oda drew before he started One Piece, and it's about Ryuuma. Another character from ages past that Oda never forgot, and found a way to tie back into the story. Ryuuma was an easter egg for his oldest and most loyal readers. I love that Chopper is your least favorite strawhat xD makes me less guilty for putting him on the bottom of the list too. I think our list is almost identical actually, if we only look at straw hats. I must bow to your greater wisdom, though, as it took me until even a few arcs from now to truly embrace Usopp as the best One Piece character, whereas you clocked him right from the beginning! Very impressive
Excellent way to end off the weekend and start the week, thank you! These are wonderful for busy work, doing chores, in the gym, or trying to wind down.
#AJPiece It's very fitting that Moria's powers are shadows that allow him to create zombies since he himself is essentially a walking corpse, a shadow of who he used to be. I remember reading a fanfic where Moria was called "not a pirate, but a ghost" and that really stuck with me. The real Gecko Moria died in the New World with the rest of his crew. All that's left are the echoes of his loneliness and resentment. He's trying to fill the void left behind by his crew, he's trying to get revenge on Kaido, and he's trying to become Pirate King because otherwise he would have led his friends and crewmates to their deaths for nothing. It's crazy to me that people consider Moria to be a joke character because he has a nonstandard design when he is arguably the most tragic villain that we've seen so far.
36:16 Bruh no way you missed such a golden chance to slide in a *YOHOHOHO* in there 😂😂 Btw good video and I remember how Merphy also evolved from not fully going with Brook's awful amazing sense of humour to full on making videos with the YOHOHO jokes as their titles 😂😂😂
#AJpiece I'm glad you're remembering the deep cuts when they happen. This is part of what I love about One Piece, characters don't just fade away they persist in the world. You could make a list of literally every named character that isn't dead (or sometimes imprisoned) and be guaranteed that you'll see them again in SOME capacity.
alecxander i just want to say that i really appreciate the quality and passion you have behind your videos, you're truly one of my favorite content creators
Oda is really good at adding new characters to the crew. He never does it our of a left field. He always gives time for the audience to experience their personalities, dreams, convictions, dynamics, prior to their joining, so it never feels weird. By the audience's pont of view, they were already part of it, just maybe not "oficially". He also takes great care at showing wonderful other possible options, but having they stay back, so it also creates some sort of vaccuum that needs to be filled. The thought that "Hey, maybe there IS another spot here... when will someone take it?"
#AJPiece I've been positive every time I've commented since it's my favorite piece of media, but I think it's a good week to explain why Sanji's bit just doesn't work. It's not like the work is saying it's a good thing he's peeping and you have the gallery of zombies mocking him and Absalom, but it's treated as just a small character flaw. It's put on the same level of Zoro's directional issues as a light hearted joke when it's a very serious subject and invasion of privacy. It's funny because you can easily compare Hogback to Absalom. In many ways Hogback is worse, not just defiling corpses, but actively and constantly abusing Cindry's consent, making her his puppet to play with and violate. But it's all treated as incredibly dark and twisted with the appropriate level of disgust and horror it should be. I think this is why so many people look on the arc more fondly on rereads. It's such an obvious low point that it can ruin a lot of what's going on around it. Or it can just ruin the whole arc for people given how prominent it is for three chapters of the arc. Lovely analysis as always and thanks for always giving your honest opinion whether it's positive or negative.
#AJPiece I love how you pointed out the parallels between luffy and Moria. However, I would argue Brook is a better parallel with Moria than luffy is. Both Brook be Moria lost their crews. They both developed absurd and over the top personalities to cope. They are both throwing themselves at enemies they are unable to defeat. (Brook and Ryuma) (Moria and Kaido) However, they both differentiate in how they act in response to their grief. Brook kept up his physical strength, but lacks any emotional connections which is why he is an empty husk without a shadow. Moria looked for connections with other people at expense of his physical strength which is why he is a shadow of his former self. They also treat people differently. Brook helps others even to his own expense. His actions rewarded him because as he regained his shadow with help from Zoro. On the other hand, Geko Moria would hurt other people for his own gain which made the straw hats his enemies which caused him to lose all the shadows he collected.
Honestly i just pretend sanji's perviness from thriller bark never happened. Its so out of character for him and his entire philosophy and adds nothing to his character. His simping is one thing, that part is the genuine character flaw for sanji that fits him and his view on women. Him wanting to perv on women has nothing to do with his simping and goes completely against his white knight demeanor.
The dynamic between Brooke and zorro is extremely understated, they’re both swordsmen sure, but after Brooke witnesses what zoro did here, Brooke is reminded of the loyalty and love of his original crew, inspiring him to join up, he immediately develops so much respect for zoro, and zoro, who understands the mourning Brooke is going through, has the same respect for brooke
#AJPiece Zoro is my favourite OP character; not just because "he looks cool" as the standard shonen stoic character, but because of his insecurities. (Plus, as someone who's dyslexic and can't tell left from right, or east from west sometimes - in my headcannon Zoro is also dyslexic.) Many people don't realise just how insecure Zoro is deep down. Zoro starts out as someone who encourages his own childhood rival to shoot for being the best swordsman alongside himself, and continues to encourage everyone else around him to chase their dreams. He believes in Luffy's dream to be the pirate king, which he outright says, but it's clear from his actions that he's fighting for everyone in the crew's dreams, too - not just his own. Zoro is constantly training because everytime he wins it's always by the skin of his teeth, and he knows that if he loses he can't protect his crew, and can't help them achieve their dreams just like Kuina was unable to achieve her dream. This man was so adamant that his friends achieve their dreams that he carried on his dead friend's dream as his own. That's why he's always training to be stronger, so that he can protect them. It's why he refuses to let Sanji give up his own dream to Kuma. Because Luffy is the carefree captain who has complete trust in his crew's own abilities to defend themselves, Zoro has to be the one who worries about them, who has to be strong just in case they can't handle a situation. (Spoiler for Sabaody, incase anyone reading this comment hasn't gotten that far but since AJ has read that at this point I'm including it:) It's why he's the first to get sent away by Kuma, it wasn't coincidence, it was because he would never have allowed Kuma to get to anyone unless he want through him first. He's always been the one to step up first. It's one of the reasons why they butt heads with Sanji, because Sanji has his own insecurities about proving his own worth while Zoro is constantly one-upping him because he believes that he has to. It's why he says "nothing happened", yes it's because he sees it as his job as first mate/quartermaster, but also because he sees himself as the "Tank" of the party to borrow from gaming lingo, it's because as long as he's there to protect them - nothing will happen to them. (edited because lol, dyslexia strikes again.)
I first wanted to say I enjoy your in depth analysis of this series that I love. I also wanted to say I don't disagree that as a society that we should not promote Sanji's behavior. However I will say that he (Sanji) is still a teenager and it is not uncommon for teenage boys to think with the wrong head. Shounen Jump main demographic is also teenage boys as well. I know my personal experience as a teenager was a confusing time learning to deal with new urges and changes going on with my hormones and I think that is very common. Sometimes I think we forget as we get older sometimes what it was like being a teenager. We are still learning who we are around that age I personalty did not fully grow up and truly understand what it meant being an adult was till my mid 20's and some people never do. I personally think Oda did this to make that connection with the main demographic what is teenage boys because he himself is a bit of a pervert based on the SPS's and probably was like that too as a teenager. As far as the shower scene I don't disagree with you either that this should not be something we promote as a society, however this is unfortunately a very common troupe in the horror movie genre such as 28 days later, 30 days to die. nightmare on elm street 5, 99.9, act of Vengeance and literal over 400 hundreds more movies have this troupe. So personalty I don't disagree with your take on the shower scene or Sanji's behavior. I can still understand why these elements are here and I do think it's important to respect and understand our past to appreciate where we are today not that we should not strive to make things better, but shows that as a society how much better we have gotten and I think that element is why you have such a disconnect as the teenage boy troupe and the shower troupe has been used for hundreds of years and is being shunned further each passing year but I could be wrong on this line of thinking of why you have a disconnected. I could break down further but society 10 years ago to 50 years ago to 1000 years ago are so vastly different I feel the evidence should be clear and I hope what I was trying to say came through. list of movies with shower troupe www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&genres=horror&keywords=female-nudity,shower&sort=alpha,asc&explore=keywords&view=advanced
I’m aware that Sanji is a teenager and that Jump is geared towards teenage boys, and that times were different. I was aware of all of that when I said what I said about the scene. Thank you for the context regardless, and glad you enjoy the videos.
Appreciated the video, Had a great time ! Your streams & this video made me think of Moria a lot, I like him much more now. I never really disliked him, but I did not see some the parallels with Luffy which make him much more interesting
#AJPiece your work is always amazing. It becomes a pretty big highlight of my week. It really feels like I'm reexperiencing one piece with an old friend and for that, I thank you! Regarding Thriller Bark, I think there's one theme that's kind of the opposite side of the coin for water 7. While Water 7 focused on Luffy and the burden of being a captain, you see that Thriller Bark has emphasis on the importance the crew in a way and how a leader is essentially nothing without those who follow him. Moria constantly talks about how the seas will become more rough, inferring that Luffy can't carry the entire team all the time. Zoro and Sanji's loyalty to give their lives up in spite of not fulfilling their dreams. Usopp noticing the toll on Luffy's body. The teamwork they had to implement to take down Oars. This arc shows us so many instances of the importance of the crew. Even if Luffy ends up being the big hero of so many arcs, he knows he can't become Pirate King unless he has his crew behind him.
#AJPiece Hi, I’ve been watching your video essays for I think a couple of years now so imagine my surprise when I saw you were doing one piece reviews right as I picked up the anime. I’ve been using these reviews both as a second opinion to bounce my own thoughts off of as well as see the differences between the manga and anime and I’m super excited to now be caught up with these videos (fingers crossed over spring break I can get caught up with your manga readings bc those streams seem like a lot of fun) Now that all of that is out of the way I have a lot to say about this arc. When it first started I was like ok a nice funny arc. Cool. And then the scene with Nami and absalom happened. I was so frustrated because one piece is something I use to relax after a long day and now I was having to risk triggering myself (I have sexual trauma) in order to get through this arc. Thankfully I made the smart decision and skipped the rest of that scene as well as any other scenes with absalom in the them that made me feel uncomfortable after checking with my friend who is caught up with the series and making sure I wouldn’t miss anything important. And thankfully there wasn’t really anything else like that that made me uncomfortable. Though the sanji and absalom fight did make me angry. And I kept that anger in the back of my head until I got to the scene with chopper and dr.Hogback which completely changed my opinion on this arc. To take what you said about this arc being about life and it’s sanctity, I see this arc as specifically focusing on how autonomy is an integral part of that life. When I say Autonomy I mean a sort of intersection of identity and freedom. Each member of morias crew focuses on a specific type: perona-emotional, absalom-consent or mental autonomy, dr. Hogback-physical, and Moria taking all of those into account with his ability To elaborate on all of that, the Marios have had there autonomy stripped from them in death (forgive me for getting dark for a moment but the whole scene of dr.Hogback talking about what he had done to cinder made me think of necrophila, and how even in death people, minorities in particular, are not safe from the cruelty of others in death) The shadows are forced to accommodate their dreams to fit Moria into them and those who lose them must find a way to live without a part of themselves. A part of their autonomy stripped painfully from them in front of their eyes (i found the pacing of the scenes where we saw Moria separate peoples shadows from their bodies to fit this very well, though I cannot speak for the pacing of the scenes in the manga) Peronas ability quite literally causing people to not be able to function because they are so caught up in the negativity her ability makes them feel. And of course theirs the scene with absalom and Nami. But what sticks out more to me is that sanji doesn’t succeed in trying to beat him in the name of regaining nami’s autonomy because he can’t do that. Only Nami can get that back and she succeeds in doing so once she gets the chance. This form of thinking continues into the oars fight. None of the straw hats can reclaim luffys shadow for him but what they can do is offer their unending support in reaching that goal. They can weaken oars, they can set everything up for him. They just can’t reclaim that piece of autonomy for him. Again this is shown in Lola’s and luffy’s plea to their shadows and even farther into zoro and sanji’s decisions respectively. Neither of them try to force the other to do anything because of the respect they hold for the crew and each other. They follow what their heart tells them to do for as long as they can. This line of thinking is in direct contrast to Morias and all of his main subordinates to a different degrees. As he talks about how the power of the new world will strip everything away from you, not just your autonomy but also your life. In some twisted way I think that he believes him having total control over thriller bark will lead to everyone remaining safe from harm. Which the strawhats prove to be untrue. All of this has lead me to find thriller bark to be a mark of subtle genius on oda’s part and while I definitely think the scenes concerning SA could have been handled a lot better, I understand what he was trying to get across with this arc. As well as think that it’s placement directly after Enies lobby (which focused on how deserving people and things capable of great destruction were of existance) and before the next couple of up coming arcs is perfect, as it lays the groundwork for a lot of those arcs themes to work off of. Not to mention it’s planting of that seed of doubt of: what would happen to luffy were he to lose one of or all of his crew, and or close friends/family which has definitely been bouncing around in my head the more and more I see of these next arcs. Sorry for the long comment, but I had a lot I wanted to say about this arc. I’m really looking forward to the next video and all your reviews/reactions down the line!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Unfortunately the AJPiece comments were already recorded for the next video, but please continue to share! I enjoyed reading this a lot, and in case you didn’t know, the next video on Sabaody Archipelago is out too.
@@Aleczandxr no worries! I have seen the saboady archipelago and while I don’t have a lot to say about that arc specifically I do know I’ll have a lot to say about marineford when that video is released which brings up a really quick question about aj piece comments if you don’t mind: I have two main things I want to talk about with that arc, would you prefer I put both of them in one comment even if that comment is really long, or would you prefer i separate it into two comments instead?
Ironic, given the Absalom in this arc, but one thing Thriller Bark does surprisingly well is female characters. Nami and Robin continue to be great, obviously, but look at the three new women added in for the arc. Perona, Lola, and Cindry are all really well-written in different ways and all of them provide their own benefits to the story. Perona is a genuinely threading trickster villain, Cindry makes up the emotional core, and Lola is solid comic relief. As bad as Absalom is, Lola makes his scenes more bearable by being a sort of ironic punishment for his antics; similarly, as rather bland as Hogback is, Cindry gives us a specific individual to focus on as the subject of Hogback's perversion of medicine.
There were a couple of parallels Oda drew between Moria and Don Creig. Both characters kinda acted as an introduction to the next stage of the Straw Hat's adventure. You hear the echos of the horrors and difficulties of the next phase in these losers who weren't capable of standing up to those horrors. Thriller Bark not only makes you remember about the past, it also makes you look at the future and how seemingly insurmountable it looks. Also, i am pretty sure Bink's Sake was the first time i cried from a show. Its such a sad and cheery. It perfectly encapsulates the sorrow of reflecting on the past and looking at the future with hope and happiness rather than anxiety and trepidation. A lesson i should have learned through my life.
I haven't watched the vid yet but Thriller Bark is one of my sleeper favorite arcs. I'm always a sucker for a cartoony, horror aesthetic. Also Brook is probably in my top 3 Straw Hats. Edit: After finishing the video I have to say that it's always refreshing to hear the good points of this arc talked about instead of only the negative ones. Another great discussion video.
I just caught up with the series, and I can't wait to take my time and listen to your analysis on some arcs. Always great points and easy to follow explanations. Thank you!
#AJPiece one subtle thing that I thought was really interesting was how robin currently addresses the strawhats. When we met Robin at the end of Alabasta, she would refer to the crew by their distinctive traits, like Ussop being called Long-Nose kun. However post enies lobby she starts to refer to them by their name instead of a title, showing how she is seeing the crew as a family that will protect her and vice versa. Outside of the very dark humor and banter that robin has with the strawhats, this is something that made me appreciate her journey to accepting her new family even more. Love the videos AJ and I can’t wait for the next one to come out!
I love that I am able to re-experience the story through your videos. You don't know, how much I appreciate them. My honest and greatest thank you, never stop!
#AJPiece something i dont think was mention or talk about was about the location of this arc. This arc is set on the floriane triangle and is a direct comparision of the bermudas triangle (to be fare it exist this type of locations with the same characteristics around the world, so could be another triangle) and how this connects with all the morias tematics aswell. Also here in this arc it shown my favorite secret of all one piece: at the end of the arc, when the straw hats are going off of the floriane triangle we can see this HUGE shadows and they are not shadows from the skypeans like we see before. We have NO CLUE what those things are and how they get so masive (those are the most masive figures of all one piece) and to be honest im not sure if i want to know because of the setting that mimics the real world and that we dont know exactly what happen theres.
I just so happened to first read this arc during October and that really added to atmosphere. Halloween is my favorite holiday and Thriller Bark captures the aesthetic perfectly.
#AJPiece We're now far enough into the story where one of my favorite themes of One Piece as a series is starting to become quite apparent, and that's the idea of "light and darkness." At this point its par for the course that Luffy and crew will show up to an island where the people are being oppressed or put down by some force, whether that be marines, pirates, warlords, anything really; and Luffy and the crew are always the ones who free the people from this tyranny that they've been experiencing. Put simply, Luffy and his crew represent the "light," and freedom, while the antagonists and villains represent the "darkness", and oppression. Oda really seems to love this theme, as he's subtly (not-so subtly) mentioned it countless times up until now. At the end of Alabasta, when saying farewell to the crew, Vivi says that in a storm of darkness, the Straw Hats were her "light" that guided her. During Skypiea, Luffy clearing the dark sky and yelling "Let the sun shine!" When we get to Water 7/Enies Lobby, Robin talks about the World Government itself as being a great darkness, which the Straw Hats illuminate with light by shooting the flag with fire and declaring war. In post Enies Lobby, their new ship is even called the Thousand Sunny, a ship that shines with the light of the sun. And now in Thriller Bark, with the whole arc taking place at night and revolving around shadows, victims of Moria being unable to walk under the light of the sun; and the final battle concludes with a rising sun. Its such a beautiful theme and one that continues to be proven over and over by the Straw Hats as they bring freedom and light from island to island. I wanted to bring this theme up because I feel that as obvious as it is knowing all the details, a lot of people seem to miss this greater point being made about light and freedom, as it can get jumbled up in all the goofy, silly, and wacky pirate shenanigans the crew always get up to. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews on One Piece so far and I hope you enjoy the rest of the series going forward!
Brook intro is one of my favorite and while corny his jokes hit for me 90% of the time but i wonder if its because of the anime? Hearing his VA + laugh really elevates alot for me. Its all personal obviously and you're reading the manga so it doesn't really matter :)
Nice community you've built here, literally the first comment section to not suck off Sanji/Absolom stuff or excuse it for sanji but not the other. Anyone talking about 'he gets redeemed later' doesn't understand what they're saying, it's not unusual for manga, especially manga of the time to have this humour, Toriyama's work is flooded with that kind of humour or characterization but it's not enjoyable to read. My least favorite part of talking about anime/manga through highschool by a country mile was talking about these kinds of topics with guys.
#ajpiece I think you’re spot on when you said Oda/ One Piece is king of payoffs. The Laboon element of this arc takes Thriller Bark to one of those upper echelon arcs in my opinion. Hilariously though the two highest selling manga series per volume all time are One Piece & Dragon Ball & where Oda is somehow able to make literally everything he writes come back into play eventually, Toriyama casually forgets things he’s written all the time. Even things that are integral to certain characters or races/ cultures. Sometimes entire characters all together. Nothing is safe in Dragon Ball. Just something I’ve been chuckling about lately.
Just to clarify, he didn't say Oda was the king of payoffs. Just that he was really good at them. I think AJ would think of another mangaka as the "king" of payoffs given his most favourite stories.
I get why this arc is one of the lower scoring ones, and agree with some of those reasons, but seeing it for the first time, I loved it like any other - And I have a list of things I liked off the top of my head. 1) The amazing and tragic character of Brook. He's likeable, sensitive, sincere honourable, and resilient. The parallels between him and Moria that you mentioned are make him even better, and the organic way Oda weaved him into the crew through Laboon and Crocus was an excellent way of immediately making him belong. 2) There's also the tragedy of Moria as a character, which I've didn't fully appreciate until more recently, and which will be explored further in the future. 3) Lola, who explains certain aspects of the story and world, and sets other stuff up for later - But is an actual character rather than just someone used for exposition, like a lot of stories do. She's also a genuine badass who refused to hide from the sun, even if it meant death, and refused to dishoner the unyielding bravery of the Strawhats who were fighting on behalf of everyone. I always respected the hell out of that. 4) Amazing dynamics and interplay between the crew, everyone using their own unique strengths in tandem with one another in a way we haven't quite seen before. -Luffy casually putting a zombie back in its grave, and other excellent humor 🤣. Him seeing past Brooks appearance, and earnestly asking him on board because he took an interest in him as a person - And Brook's complete outpouring of gratitude at the gesture alone. -Usopp's natural pessimism negating Persona's power - which I totally called. -Chopper defending the sanctity of life and Robin backing him up in doing so, and this touching moment with Cindry as she fades away -Franky and Robin being a great tagteam -Nami having a mini solo adventure -The comradery between Brook and Zoro, which is a reoccurring dynamic - And is honestly fitting given that they're both swordsman. And the similar respect that existed between Zoro and 'Ryuma'. As well as Zoro and Sanji being two pillars of the crew. -An epic team battle against Oars and Moria, the likes of which we've never seen before, with all these excellent combo moves from a united Strawhat crew. -The most absurd twist of them beating a Warlord, only for another one to show up to finish the job. A radical break from the formula which will become more common and which bellies the scope of the chaotic and unpredictable world. -Bink's sake -Nothing happened I could go on. I also like that you recognized the roundabout nature of how things work. Brook isn't just a classic undead, a set of very specific circumstances caused him to revive as a skeleton. Oars doesn't copy Luffy's Gum Gum powers, Moria exploits his shadow power to manipulate the shadow, and this the body to mimic them - Which comes full circle when everyone's bodies recover from their disintegration in much the same manner. Nothing is simple or straightforward, and even the powers are more complicated than one would think. This is a very key aspect of One Piece, and one you've seen before: Almost nothing is ever as it initially seems. It only gets better from here, so keep sailing ahead...
Me personally, at the *start* I found the arc to just be spinning it's wheels, and I had to force myself a bit to stay interested. But the moment Brook talked about Laboon, I was fully invested. Funny bc this arc has my favorite chapter in it (Brook singing the song one last time with his crew, alone on the ship after reviving, and with Luffy’s crew) Perona vs Usopp was also a very great fight, especially with him locking in as Sogeking in a pinch. Then it's hype up until the end the moment Kuma shows up
I personally just didn't get that strong reaction from the sexual assault stuff from Absalom and Sanji, since it's an old Manga trope that was (and sometimes still is) very often used. It's more of a cultural difference of how this topic can be treated. I'm sure that some of the entertainment produced in the West has points that are treated in a way to which Japanese people are more disgusted by, where we are not. Though I am not denying that Sanjis fight with Absalom was just because of a gag and he didn't really get anything out of it, experience wise.
#AJPiece Something I think we should keep in mind about why the 'Nothing Happened' scene is different for Zoro than any other Straw hat, I have no doubt all the Strawhats would die for Luffy but It's not about Zoro giving up just his life for Luffy, it's about him giving up something even more important to him, his Ambition, It's in his dialogue with Kuma too, Kuma was asking if Zoro was going to give up his Ambition, In Baratie against Mihawk we saw how Zoro would choose to die than being anything less than the Strongest Swordsman, Anything that comes even close to this in my Mind is Sanji choosing to die than hit Women.
I thought this arc was kind of dookie. The villains were not compelling to me and it followed a boring, played out arc structure, and the very end is just an ass pull where the Warlord doesn’t kill everyone because he… admired Zoro’s resolve? Like why would that excite me
There are some people who think what Sanji says in this arc is okay. They somehow exist and are probably watching this video too. I am not saying anything about them other than.. yup, they exist.
Thriller Bark is my second favourite arc. It captures the very essence of One piece. In a similiar way like Skypia. It is about adventure. Stepping into a island without really knowing whats to come. The humor in this arc is my favourite and i also like the contrast it brings nu focusing mostly on the strawhats whereas ennies lobby focused on Luffys role as the captain. Zoro became my favorite character over Sanji after this arc. You could see and feel that something changed but the confrontation with Kuma fully showcased Zoros subtle development throughout the series. Sanji too. Best Zoro moment to this day imo. Regarding absalom i understand the complaints and i wasnt a huge fan as well. About Sanjis dream of becoming invisible. Lets say i have a different take on that but can only expand when you get further into the story. Overall you are slowly becoming my favorite TH-camr when it comes to One piece eventhough you are not caught up. You are so in tune with the series and its themes. One big plus for me is that you rarely talk about powerscaling. Keep it going! You are in for a wild ride. 👀
Vivi said it best so I am just going to paraphrase her, that ship is like a beacon of light in a dark world. The world is a dystopia but we don't experience like that because our point of view is nearly always on this radiant exception to the norm the WG is enforcing.
#AJPiece I feel like One Pieces is at its best when it's wacky and adventures. On the Grand Line there's an island with dinosaurs and giants, island devouring goldfishes, an island in the sky with its own habitants and their culture, currency and even religion! There's these big and floaty balloon-like fish and now a giant Bark that devours smaller ships with zombies and a mad scientist living on it Sure the fights are good and very emotional but this feel of adventure and romance is what made me love One Piece so much, it's that brief moment before the storm where the Straw Hats are still discovering this new island and interacting with its unique culture by eating, wearing new clothes experiencing things like the water elevator in Water 7 that are the heart of this series
#ajpiece near the end of the video you mentioned the importance of the sun in some of the arcs so far. And a while back I saw a post somewhere comparing Luffy's Stawhat with the red band to the sun rising over the ocean. I couldn't find a good picture of it, but under the right conditions the light of the sun passing through the atmosphere and water vapor on the horizon will have a yellow brim and a red band making it look like Luffy's Strawhat
28:00 I just wanna say, luffy said at the very beginning of the series that he wanted a crew of 10. We've got 9 now, with Brook, so you should already know what to expect. Just mabye not when.
#AJPiece One thing I noticed about the Hogback and Cindry dynamic that makes him look even more pathetic is that, yes he did dug up te corpse of the woman he loved, but ussed a shadow of someone else, making this zombie have a personality that had nothing to do with Cindry, showing that he was just in love with the idea of her but knew nothing about her, the cindry zombie only looked like her but acted like this other woman who threw plates and was obedient.
Thriller Bark is by far the funniest arc in the series to me, the comedy at its peak here and hopefully, you'll like the arc later down the line cause it sets up a lot also love how Brook is introduced with his backstory and Franky literally creates Fortnite plus has that docking scene lol not to mention Zombie Luffy with everyone teaming up to take down Oars Jr was wicked sick and the Halloween look of the whole island I love then "Nothing Happened" 😵
#AJPiece Lack of respect for the integrity of other people, in the multiple meanings of that word, is something recurring in Thriller Bark. People are being thorn of their own shadows, not being treated with respect any human being should, having their will being disregarded, being seen as objects and tools for the satisfaction of egoistic desires, etc. Absalom, Hogback, Moria and even Sanji share that. I am a chatter that said that this is one of the things that make Sanji a not ideal character in a pretty idealist work of fiction, which I see as a good thing. I do not love the scene any more than the average person, but I do not take him being put in the same bag as the most disgusting character of One Piece as a joke, but a pretty intentional character flaw to be taken notice of. It is uncomfortable that one of the "good guys" that we've seen being so gentle can have so much in common with villains, but it is also interesting for the character. Or maybe I'm completely wrong. I know some people in the community gnarl their teeth when someone suggests these things might not be just bad taste jokes(and those exist for sure).
#AJPiece I think one of the most interesting things about the straw hats that is coming into view is the nature of each of them having a "negative" sort of interpretation of them, or maybe "evil" would be the right way to say it. the most obvious would be in the Demon Child Nico Robin, or Sanji with his Devil Leg (Diable Jambe), but we also have Monster Chopper, Asura Zoro, Nami the Weather Witch, Frankenstein Franky (ha) and then the very obvious Skeleton Brook. Usopp and Luffy are a bit harder to pin down, but Usopp simply being a liar could potentially fit, but I'm not entirely sure myself, unless Sogeking is some devilish figure we've never heard of. And Luffy, well, he's the only one who can oppose god (Enel) so I guess that's enough, but you could also say he's the quintessential pirate, and so maybe that's it? I think it just comes together to add more into the ideas of the straw hats rebelling against heaven and the "gods" which we first saw with Enel, but you've also now seen in Sabaody with the "Celestial Dragons", but maybe I'm just making connections where there aren't any. Anyway, what do you think?
No? There’s a very clear difference between “pervy” and what I described here. This was different and if you’ve watched my others videos then you’d know that I usually don’t have a problem with Sanji’s simping.
I guess what I’m saying is that the peeping Tom pervy character has been a trope in anime for a long time and usually used for comedic purposes. So I don’t think it takes anything from sanji’s character and I know you don’t have a problem with the simping, but simping and being Pervy are not the same thing. Anyway love your videos so I hope you don’t take any disrespect from this.
I know simping and perving are not the same thing, but likewise as I said there is a clear distinction between a character being generally horny and this, again for reasons I described. And just because it’s a common trope does not mean I’m going to excuse what I view as bad writing for both the story and character. I don’t understand why I should dismiss that when it’s a part of his character that I dislike. Glad you enjoy the videos.
@@Aleczandxr i guess I just think sanji is such a great character especially later on that the Pervy part of his character is something most people overlook or find funny.
#AJPiece If Enies Lobby explored the meaning of existing and living in the world, Thriller Bark expanded on those themes by literally showing the differences between life and death. The most obvious examples being the zombies and the humans, but there are some other types of death, like the death of Zoro's sword, Yubashiri (I find it interesting that he prays to it despite not believing in God) I also enjoyed meeting Brook. In an interview, the song, Bink's Sake/Brew, is tied to Brook's musical theme, a laidback version of the song, but Oda told the composer, Kohei Tanaka, to get to work writing the melody in "a year or so." And I find it interesting that the song was completed before Brook's first appearance and appeared in the anime 5 years after the song was finished. You mentioned how One Piece can cover dark topics in a lighthearted tone, but I think that applies to this piece too. The song balances itself between whimsical and sad, and each time it's used, it feels like a different interpretation. For example, when Brook played the piece with his crew to Laboon, the mixture of brass and the fast tempo creates a swing/jazz style. But when he starts playing it alone on the violin, it feels melancholic. And I know this is coming from an anime-only fan of One Piece, but I admire Tanaka's compositions and the themes he used for each Strawhat. It's slowly becoming one of my favorite soundtracks in anime. But what are your thoughts?
Brook is my favorite Straw Hat I won't defend Absalom and his scenes, it's gross and I don't need it, however Sanji's invisibility thing I do legit think is funny because of how much of an nth degree exageration of his gag it is
I’ve been reading one piece weekly and following the weekly review community since the beginning of Dressrosa, but it’s amazing reliving these arcs through Aleczandxr and his community - it’s a different perspective than the weekly commentary and by far the most well-rounded analytical view on the series I’ve been able to see.
Comedy 15 years ago was a very different landscape to what it is today, and the perv character is a trope in shonen manga of that time. Not so much in newer shonen. I understand your sentiments but almost 2 minutes going off about something written ages ago nearly took me out of the video. It's fair to criticise the scene, but not offering any context paints Oda in specific kind of light.
There is really no need whatsoever to be so hyper defensive of Oda. I didn’t paint Oda in any sort of light, I didn’t even mention Oda during that stretch at all because none of what I said was making any statements about him whatsoever, and everyone is well aware of the date the manga was published and of the “perv” trope. This is all assumed knowledge and none of it makes the content better, which is why I didn’t feel a need to mention it. And 2 minutes out of a near 2-hour review to properly explain the reasoning as to why I found it bad is more than reasonable. Apologies but I am not going to just say “this is bad” without explaining myself.
Cmon now. One Piece still has way more of this as compared to other battle shounen. And there is a reason classics are knows as classics. Cause they age like fine wine. Not to say Oda is bad for writing like this but it shouldn't be defended like this too.
one piece is not self contained to arcs sometimes u learn easons motives and backstories of other charecters in other arcs that make older arcs shine and are more appreciated Skypia is a great example of that
Something to think about the whole, being influenced by the devil fruit, is interesting. Thinking just from a combat point of veiw, suddenly gaining a "magic" ability via devil fruit, would force you to become creative in how you utilize it. What can it do? What can't it do? Do i know this just from eating it? Or do i have to test myself? Just from that it 100% influences the person that eats the fruit. Even if the fruit has a will or not. Cool
So many great clips from the anime from this arc (well, really, from all arcs). Had to immediately look up these scenes while watching the review. Brook meshi meshi: th-cam.com/video/9bd28j4oBYM/w-d-xo.html Franky builds a bridge: th-cam.com/video/kg8tEKmGfHc/w-d-xo.html Usopp is negative: th-cam.com/video/GVZ3jYHEj1o/w-d-xo.html Docking scene: th-cam.com/video/H2ULlRqI7nc/w-d-xo.html Nothing happened: th-cam.com/video/sXXTOKClXbU/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/sAtZoIFW2Uw/w-d-xo.html Brook cries: th-cam.com/video/xnlutUYcy9o/w-d-xo.html
Thats why I was sad that Sanji didn't rise in your rankings after Water 7/Enies Lobby. Because I knew that he would not be gaining any favors in a while.
You can watch my next One Piece review (Sabaody Archipelago) RIGHT NOW on Patreon here (5$+): www.patreon.com/Aleczandxr
To follow the readthroughs on stream, you can follow me on Twitch here: www.twitch.tv/Aleczandxr/
Link to AJ's Discord server: discord.gg/Ekhz7PNuJd
CURRENT TWITCH SCHEDULE:
Mondays @ 10am EST: A Blind Playthrough of Disco Elysium (Soon)
Wednesdays @ 10am EST: Top 100 Ranking Streams
Fridays @ 10:30am EST: SOME FRIDAYS, I do full One Piece reading streams as well. Check Discord for updates/details.
Sundays @ 11am EST: Vinland Saga S2 anime reactions & One Piece Chapter reads
Do you prefer the anime or the manga
I can see you loving Sabaody Archipelago.
@@tayloredwards4968 he doesn't watch the anime
@@SakuragiLastname9 He reacts to it on Twitch sometimes.
#AJPiece just a quick comment: I feel the set up for Brook’s “I’m so happy to be alive” line is always missed by people. Brook throughout the arc kept making those “I’m dead/I’m a skeleton” jokes but at that final moment he only says “I’m happy to be alive” and he doesn’t follow it up with a joke
This video contains some of the best analysis of Gecko Moria I've ever heard.
Agreed.
Thank you!
onion man
He's so underrated, I knew AJ would see the vision.
In that case, you should totally donate 420 bits in one of AJ's streams! It plays a line which sums up his insightful Moria analysis.
Before watching: despite its flaws, thriller bark is my favorite arc. I'm a big fan of zombie media and this is a really refreshing take on the trope. Also the scene where Luffy pushes the zombie back into the grave is hands down the funniest moment in all of one piece
I love Thriller Bark's aesthetic and the fight between Oars and the crew is easily the best fight in the series (for me); it's always a treat when they work together.
Idk about funniest but you are on to something. I think thriller bark is the funniest one piece arc . Usopps fight and moments are mad funny not only that but the robot docking which is so damn funny and it gives Luffy pushing that zombie a real run for it's money.
One of my FAVORITE parts about this is how the coward trio enters thriller bark first and the contrast of their reactions with the super trio later on.
We feel the threat from the coward trio's perspective and they are constantly freaking the fuk out - while the super trio is chilling so hard we literally feel relaxed, like we're in some sort of weird amusement park lol
That was one of my favorite moments reading one piece. I remember laughing and being so excited all throughout that part.
#AJPiece Some nice bit of subtlety with Zoro when vs'ing Kuma is the initial move he uses after Kuma'd taken everyone else out (barring Sanji), was titled “Ichitoryuu: Lion’s Song”, the same attack he used against Mr.1 in Alabasta, being something he could only perform when using “the sword that can cut nothing but can cut everything”, or in others words its a move he'd only use with the intent to protect, which shows how far he's come in finding purpose for his ambition through visual alone. It's a perfect cap-off to the arc which in contrast to W7/EL, a saga all about how far Luffy's willing to go to protect his crew or fill the shoes of a captain (and many other things ofc), puts a heavy emphasis on the crew and their loyal worth to Luffy as captain. I love the Tim Burton style horror comedy this arc and I'm glad you generally enjoyed it as well, anyways appreciate the great work as always and can't wait for more!
#AJPiece Starting in Thriller Bark, Robin starts calling the the crew members by name. Previously she only referred to them by their roles (navigator, swordsman, long nose, cook, doctor) which shows her hesitancy to officially join the crew based on past experiences. It was not until the events of Enies Lobby when the crew showed her their commitment and she was able to admit to herself what she desired that she was able to show those emotional bonds instead of closing herself off.
*AJ mentioned he’s aware of Wano*
Oda planting seeds for Wano (Ryuma) all the way in 2007 is just one of many reasons we adore this series.
usually that's just how stories work
@@luluna5228 Doesn't work like that in One Piece itself after Whole Cake Island.
How about 1994 (Monsters)
#AJPiece My friend Redx actually pointed this out to me a while back but the shadows themselves are also a metaphor for depression. Which despite it's comedy is what the whole arc is about. Gecko Moria is introduced having been sleeping for days. Which is a sign of depression and avoiding reality. He's hiding himself away in the shadows and avoiding the light.
The characters have been living in the shadows. Trapped in the deep dark bowels of depression. Unable to ever again see the light. Which has become like poison to them.
Chapter 482 is Lola saying she refuses to live in the darkness of depression anymore and chooses to cling to light(Hope) even knowing that hope may destroy her. Life comes with great pain and risk but you can't live in the darkness forever. Eventually, you have to come out of the shadows. Which is why it's so powerful when Brook who had been trapped in the darkness for so long, finally being allowed to step into the light is grateful to have been alive. Even though he suffered and even though he thought his torment was endless he was glad to have lived.
I would like to add that this arc is the start of Robin referring to the Strawhats by their actual names rather than her nicknames for them.
Just wanna address the community we got here: the AJPiece comments are and have been really freakin great, especially the ones addressed in this video! And the interaction between Alex (or Alec? Or any other short form? I'm not actually sure how to refer to him lol) and his community is amazing.
And somehow he hasn't been spoiled about a lot!
Also how dare people say this arc is boring - Nothing happens in this arc!
I second this completely, AJPiece has been awesome the whole way through but especially lately!
#AJPiece Something most people miss about this arc was the Theme of "Shadows".
All of the opponents this arc were foils. Each sharing a trait with the Strawhats. They were meant to represent the darker aspects i.e. a shadow(a dark reflection) of the strawhats themselves. Chopper a Doctor, faces off against a dark Doctor one who neglects the Doctor's oath(hippocratic oath) and disrespects life. The difference between them being that Chopper protects and preserves life while Hogback abuses it. Usopp who is negative faces off against Perona who uses the power of negativity. Though while Perona uses her power of negativity to drag others down, Usopp uses his negativity to keep his crew safe from dangers they would have otherwise ignored. Sanji and Absolom are both perverts. They represent Lust. Absolom is the dark side of lust. He forces himself onto women without their consent and ignores their well being. Even going so far as to put their lives at risk for his own desires. He's a literal perverted Beast as shown by his animal modifications. Whereas Sanji may desire to peep, he's not a beast like Absolom and always puts a woman's well being above his own and this shown in the scene where he holds Nami above himself. Literally putting her above himself as he takes damage. It was showing that yes Sanji has the same desires as Absolom but he's always going to put them aside for a woman's safety. Next is Zoro vs Ryuuma. You may not know this but Ryuuma was once the world's greatest swordsman. So this battle is one of the Former world's greatest swordsman vs the Future world's greatest swordsman. The difference between them being that Ryuuma's spirit is not his own. The shadow of someone else guides his blade. So he isn't one with his sword like Zoro is. Zoro carries Kuina's spirit through his blade but Ryuuma's has none at all.
Last is Luffy & Moria. Both are men who sought to become Pirate King but Ever since he was crushed by Kaido, Moria has grown lazy. This makes him weak. He's literally become a shadow of his former self. Just like his power. Whereas Luffy knows he needs a strong reliable crew to support him on the path to Pirate King but unlike Moria, Luffy is willing to give it his all for his crew while Moria doesn't put in any effort at all. Making others do everything for him.
Hopefully that also eases your thoughts on the Sanji situation somewhat. Personally I never found an issue with it, because to me it is simply a man being open with his sexual desires. Theres a difference between expressing the desire and actually doing it. I don't think we should shame Sanji for his spoken desires when his actual actions are far more noble and brave. Then again, he is a Pirate. In fact they're all criminals. Pretty much everything they've done in the series counts as criminal and morally questionable behavior. I mean in the context of the real world Luffy has basically forced himself into various countries, assaulted the ruling monarchy just for pissing him off, stole from indigenous people, broken into a police holding facility, assaulted countless officers, and saved another criminal from being arrested. If anyone did stuff like that in real life they'd be considered an absolute psychopath. So I don't see why Sanji's comments need to be treated with more weight than anything else they've done.
I think it's moreso that Absolom & Sanji are subject to their own lust rather than "victims" of it.
The Shadows of their Former Selves is an interesting theme for this arc. Another way to look at it is Moria is a what if for Luffy and his crew. What if they failed? What if they fell? Spoils below 👇
Quite the foreshadowing considering the next arc.
What an amazing point of view. Thank you for such a rich comment.
This was one of my favourite videos of yours. I find it interesting for you to cover the more flawed and less "renowned" arcs because they point out things about the arcs that I didn't realize at first.
Glad to hear it, I love covering the more controversial arcs too!
#AJPiece
Usopp vs Perona may be my favourite fight in the series up until this point. I'm not exaggerating. Not only were the character dynamics between Usopp and Perona fantastic but the fight itself encapsulated everything Usopp has done over this long adventure and how much he's grown.
He implemented Impact Dials from his time in Skypiea, the Hammer from Alabasta, Sogeking and Kabuto from Water 7/Ennies Lobby, the cockroaches from right here in Thriller Bark and of course all of these attacks that he actually used to knock out Perona were tricks. The Hammer was obviously inflatable, the cockroaches were fake, and Sogeking is a fake persona. All of this ties back to his origins in Syrup village as an homage to the boy who cried wolf. Someone who told his friend Kya all of these incredible adventures that he was making up. It ties beautifully into this fight where he defeats an enemy of immense strength but with tricks. Lies.
I really like how the only actual tool he uses that does real damage are the Impact dials which originate in a mythical land that most people believe is just a fable. A place that people think doesn't exist. A lie, in most people's eyes.
The fact that Perona passed out from fear against Usopp when her whole power set was instilling fear in others is brilliant.
10/10 fight honestly imo. Usopp is such a great character and this fight showed every reason why.
What I love about Usopp vs Perona is that it's a showdown between two tricksters. Shonen manga has plenty of fights where it's "brute force vs brute force" or "brute force vs trickster"; but it's very rare to see a fight that's "trickster vs trickster".
In the whole series?!! That's wild man but I love it, great explanation and I hope this gets chosen
@@calcelmoanayru5870 "up until this point", meaning my favourite fight as of Thriller Bark.
Still in my top 5 though
@@Blackhawk211 as someone whose favorite fights include luffy vs foxy and sanji vs bon clay, don't let it bother you lolol there are some real underrated gems
@@alonedownthere47 sanji vs bon clay is great i especially likd thier rotating kick shot in the anime lol
"unless the tone of the series changes drastically and SOON" ...
LOL
Sabaody enters the chat
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
😅
Oh boy..
There is a lot more to Franky and Brooke’s conversation than the laboon thing, I think it’s one of the best moments in one piece , “death is not an apology” is a line that hits like a brick especially for those of us dealing with suicidal thoughts, Brooke wants to die at this point, but feels he doesn’t have a right to, the opposite of Robin in the prior arc, Brooke’s determination to keep his promise even after 50 years of loneliness is so emotional
47:00 you forgot the best scene - Luffy casually pushes the zombie back into the grave LMFAO
I was literally dying when I first read that
Gecko Moria is so underrated and overlooked, I knew you would see the vision.
1:13:45 The tonal problem you find with Sanji's joke about wanting to peep on women is mostly cultural. This was written in Japan, but most importantly, over 15 years ago. Applying 2020s western sensibilities to it, shows it didn't age well, mostly in young people like you who were teens or less when this was written, and have it harder to conceive that yesterday (in historical terms), this was not at all uncommon. Yes, sexual harassment was as wrong 15 years ago as it is now, but joking about it was not frowned upon.
Also, the scene with Absalom at the beginning is taken from a class B horror movie from the 1980s called The Entity, just to add a bit of trivia.
I’m aware that it’s cultural, but everything I said stands.
#AJPiece
Regarding the conversation about Devil Fruits having an effect on your personality, back during Water 7 when he saw Lucci's tranformation Chopper does mention how carnivorous Zoans make their users more aggressive. Add to this how Funkfreed (Spandam's sword) and Lassoo (the gun from Alabasta that turned into a dog) were inanimate objects that gained sentience from "eating" devil fruits, it's obvious that there's some kind of lifeforce in them. While fighting Ace, Blackbeard said his power chose him. Maybe he just thinks that, but maybe it did. At the very least Zoan fruits do have a will of their own, and it bears keeping in mind.
1:16:34 Actually yes, we do see in a short succession of panels following Luffy's defeat of Moria that shows the shadows' original owners rejoicing that Cindry DID have somebody's shadow animating her, the shadow of a maid named Margarita. This is what Chopper meant when he said Hogback wasn't actually bringing people back to life: he was just animating their lifeless bodies with other people's shadows, causing those people misery. It wasn't real medicine. It wasn't saving anyone's life. It was just making subserviant puppets, desecrating corpses and ruining other people's lives to do so. Also, Margarita's situation shows that a stolen shadow only captures the essence of its original proprietor at the moment Moria stole it, as we learn Margarita herself actually got over her aversion to plates a while ago, while Cindry was still acting on her shadow's owner's original instincts/personality traits, showing that while humans can grow, shadows can just copy.
One piece is a romantic, idealistic story set in a dystopian world.
This is a beautiful contrast and it keeps the story rich while being light and fun.
"Nothing happened" in Thriller Bark. 👻
I really appreciate your perspective on this story. Can't wait to hear what you think of the rest!
Thriller Bark is one of the most memorable arcs for me in hindsight because the ending is the first glimpse of the Straw Hats being truly overwhelmed and hopeless, especially considering what comes later in Sabaody. The skull jokes will never get old to me, because he's using them as a method to express the joy of hearing peoples laughter after all that time. As a side note, I love how by happenstance Luffy ends up in the territory of all these Warlords.
A reminder: If you are going to comment something that will influence AJ's expectations on the plot events in the future, USE A SPOILER WARNING.
#AJpiece One thing I thought was interesting was the name of Moria's "ultimate" technique, Shadow's Asgard.
Asgard, being the home of the norse gods, and Moria being the vessel for the shadows, revealing that he may have some deep regard for shadows. They are things he can take and not lose thanks to his devil fruit. They are a sort of immortal soul that a broken Moria has come to regard as more important than the people they come from, or the bodies desecrated to be made into shells for his beloved shadows. Additionally, one of the major realms of Asgard was Valhalla, a sort of heaven for the souls of warriors deemed worthy.
Additionally, despite it being his most dangerous ability, he clearly no longer understands his limitations with it. His stockpile has overrun, and he is bloated and cumbersome and desperately trying not to vomit up shadows. It shows that he has not used it in a long time. I wonder if perhaps Moria used to fight by taking the shadows of his crew before they passed and front lining for them, an amount he would be practiced and experienced with, and also hold that power with extreme reverie, as if he lost or couldn't win before the sun comes up, his crew would be in grave danger.
My friend also believes that since Oda loves wordplay (many of Zoro's attacks can be read as both animal attacks or food) that a literal "Shadows as guard" could be hidden within. Which would also be somewhat representative of the lazy, sit behind the minions leader he has become.
I'm so glad your overall feelings are positive for Thriller Bark, that's a VERY good sign for things to come..
My headcanon is that Borook´s skull jokes are not just because he wants to make people happy. His story is one of the most tragic of the crew and anybody in his place would undoubtedly be insane by now, I think the only way he can cope with what had happened to his body and his crew is by making a joke out of it. His constant reminders of how he doesn't have skin or eyes or a tongue are traumatic for him but all those years alone taught him how to handle it, just joke about it and pretend everything is ok. He had done so so many times that by the time the Strawhats found him it had become a sort of nervous tick.
I don't know if you watch it but the anime really make the point clear of how traumatically sad his situation was, being alone in his old ship surrounded by the bodies of his old crew unable to even see the sun for many many years all by himself with nothing to do but training and sleeping. It is truly traumatic
One of the things I’ve always loved the most about Thriller Bark is how creative Oda was about the wacky things he wanted to do. In a similar way to how AJ talked about Brook’s creepiness being accentuated by the small touches Oda adds to his backstory and presence, I feel the same way about the Thriller Bark zombies. He wanted to write a story on a horror movie island, and so he came up with a way to justify it within his own world, using Moria’s Devil Fruit power to justify both their existence and their weakness using fictional science. It really shows just how much fun Oda has writing this story, and how much he can flex his creative muscles to make even the wildest concepts work within the wacky world he’s created.
I think the villains of one piece are some of the best written characters thematically in the arcs they are introduced in. Gekko Moria is a great example even though people don't like him very much and I appreciate you understand him and what he represents.
"And who is to say, that Luffy wouldn't also crack, if he lost his crew?"
I think this shows the REAL use of the Thriller Bark arc: building you up for the devastation of Sabaody Archipelago ending the way it does🤧
#AJPiece
When Sanji interrupts Zoro and Kuma, he says something along the lines of "You idiot, what good will come out of your death? What happened to your ambition?" before offering up himself instead. This is of course just one interpretation, but it's almost like there's a part of him that believes that his own ambition is not worth that much and that something good would actually come from his own death. Obviously the straw hats would all sacrifice themselves for each other, but those are very interesting words to say while doing it. While Zoro's words allude to his duty to protect his captain and crew, Sanji's have at least hints of putting himself down at the same time.
Also I'm sure others have pointed out, but Cindry's zombie does have a shadow and when we see everyone's shadows returning we see a girl dropping a plate as her shadow comes, implied to be her.
Your pronunciation of my name was good enough, don't worry. What a lovely video this is. Some of the best analysis on Moria & Thriller Bark. You mentioned how Kaido devastating Moria's crew affected him. Makes you also wonder who Kaido is, if they eliminated whole of Moria's crew so easily, when they're no slouches!
Also, to answer your question. Oda revealed he planned Brook. He was one of the first Straw Hats that he designed. You can see him among OP one shot designs before OP even started serializing. So he always planned at least for him.
Bink's Sake is a heavily underrated poem. It is a pirate's song, almost all know it, and unsuprisingly it tells us less about any character from this arc, but more about the world itself. What kind of song would Oda write, that is so prodominent in this pirate world? I can't go into specifics, but I highly encourage you to reread it's lyrics when get cought up with the series. Oda also revealed that he had written the lyrics of the poem far before it appeared in the story...
The Sanji gags are a big point of divide leaning against it. But, in my opinion on the pervert/Sanji simping gags in One Piece is the same with all forms of humour. You can pretty much get away with anything if you do it in the right way and work the joke around the subject matter if its dark rather than the joke being the subject itself. Seeing as you're on the Dress Rosa arc at the moment you've seen the gag in say Fish Man island. Jokes like Sanji crying out that the mermaid island is his All Blue is hilarious I feel because it's not just that it's funny that he likes mermaids so much. It's funny because of all the context built around how much people cherish dreams in One Piece, how much he cherishes his own dream and the fact that he went on an island that he hated for 2 years and struggled. Seeing all that lead to this ridiculous personal catharsis where he jokingly abandons his prior ambitions for this fickle goal that is understandable given everything we now prior. This approach extends to all forms of dark humour or humour surrounding dark subject matter. It's a matter of presentation and building the gag around the gag. If you play it too straight and simple you end up with pretty much all of Thriller Bark. Where the gags end up coming off as predatory, gross, annoying and unenjoyable.
Because, really you can make jokes on anything and it'll be funny if approached right. Murder, corruption, manipulation, power outages, etc. All awful things, but in the hands of good comedians you can end up laughing at the subject matter. Look at Trevor Noah. His previous stand ups touched on racism, colourism, poverty and all that jazz from his own personal experiences. But his shows were hilarious and really light hearted. Oda just needs to apply himself better when approaching this humour and it'll be fine.
Although granted even then you have to consider subjectivity and personal opinions on what you find okay to make jokes out of. People can be...very "sensitive", for lack of a better term, to things these days without much consideration or openness to things they don't find okay.
I’m really glad I switched over to the manga for this arc. Made it a much more enjoyable arc to view. I had heard all the shit taking about this arc leading up to it, but I honestly enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Really the biggest issue with this arc is the final fight with Gecko Moria. Legit he could’ve won the fight by not doing anything.
Genuinely look forward to these videos so much, and love that they come often enough that the wait isn’t bad but also are spaced out to where we will have this series to look forward to for quite a while!
#AJPiece One small detail that I have never seen anyone comment about Brook is that when he died all his crew was on the deck of the ship, but when Luffy and the rest find his ship, all the corpses are in coffins, which means that after Brook's soul wandered for years looking for the ship he had to take the skeletons of all his friends and put them in coffins, each and every one of them.
Also I've been watching your videos and the work, insight, opinions and references that you do in these videos is really beautiful, your ability to find the core of each character as well as the theme of each arc and open them as a treasure with such care show me the respect that you have for fiction in general, and has made me excited about One Piece (and anime in general) like I haven't felt in a long time, thank you very much.
Thank you for this. A great and very insightful video.
All I can add is to emphasise how terrifying it is that this broken, obese, shell of a man, who's even given up walking around, is physically strong enough to shrug off 100-Luffy's attack and skilled enough to re-contextualise what abilities are capable of. This was the second battle where Luffy survived, despite being severely outclassed in power and skill.
(There's also the rumours that Oda was forced to add something like the problematic scenes; I'm never certain how true it is that publishers mandate that, though there's a lot of evidence that authors feel pressured to add "lewd-comedy" and that publishers regularly insist on story changes.)
Very mild spoilers for Gecko Moria:
The idea that he did in fact used to lead from the front is directly shown in his fight with Kaido. He lead the charge and took him on directly. You have to think too that he probably buffed his crew using his devil fruit ability, so the weight of his crew dying and leaving him behind feels like it is fully his fault.
“Thanks for bringing back the Sun” dude Oda kills me with how good his writing is
Worst thing this arc did was take sanji from a hopeless romantic to just a big creep.
After watching (had to get through it in bits and pieces xD):
Cindry's shadow came from a maid named Margarita. She is shown discovering her shadow is back and gets so surprised at seeing her own reflection that she drops the plates she was carrying. Then explains she got over her hatred of plates years ago. This demonstrated that as long as the shadows are separate from their owner, their personality does not change to match their owner as they grow and mature far away.
And thus I wouldn't call the shadows souls. They're more like an echo of the soul, stuck in time the moment they are separated grom their source.
Have you read Monster? You should read Monster. It's an old one-shot manga Oda drew before he started One Piece, and it's about Ryuuma. Another character from ages past that Oda never forgot, and found a way to tie back into the story. Ryuuma was an easter egg for his oldest and most loyal readers.
I love that Chopper is your least favorite strawhat xD makes me less guilty for putting him on the bottom of the list too. I think our list is almost identical actually, if we only look at straw hats. I must bow to your greater wisdom, though, as it took me until even a few arcs from now to truly embrace Usopp as the best One Piece character, whereas you clocked him right from the beginning! Very impressive
I just love that the last word of the Japanese version of Bink's Sake is 笑い話, literally "Laugh Tale".
Excellent way to end off the weekend and start the week, thank you! These are wonderful for busy work, doing chores, in the gym, or trying to wind down.
You're very welcome!
#AJPiece
It's very fitting that Moria's powers are shadows that allow him to create zombies since he himself is essentially a walking corpse, a shadow of who he used to be. I remember reading a fanfic where Moria was called "not a pirate, but a ghost" and that really stuck with me. The real Gecko Moria died in the New World with the rest of his crew. All that's left are the echoes of his loneliness and resentment. He's trying to fill the void left behind by his crew, he's trying to get revenge on Kaido, and he's trying to become Pirate King because otherwise he would have led his friends and crewmates to their deaths for nothing. It's crazy to me that people consider Moria to be a joke character because he has a nonstandard design when he is arguably the most tragic villain that we've seen so far.
36:16 Bruh no way you missed such a golden chance to slide in a *YOHOHOHO* in there 😂😂
Btw good video and I remember how Merphy also evolved from not fully going with Brook's awful amazing sense of humour to full on making videos with the YOHOHO jokes as their titles 😂😂😂
#AJpiece I'm glad you're remembering the deep cuts when they happen. This is part of what I love about One Piece, characters don't just fade away they persist in the world. You could make a list of literally every named character that isn't dead (or sometimes imprisoned) and be guaranteed that you'll see them again in SOME capacity.
alecxander i just want to say that i really appreciate the quality and passion you have behind your videos, you're truly one of my favorite content creators
That’s very sweet of you to say, thank you :)
Oda is really good at adding new characters to the crew. He never does it our of a left field. He always gives time for the audience to experience their personalities, dreams, convictions, dynamics, prior to their joining, so it never feels weird. By the audience's pont of view, they were already part of it, just maybe not "oficially". He also takes great care at showing wonderful other possible options, but having they stay back, so it also creates some sort of vaccuum that needs to be filled. The thought that "Hey, maybe there IS another spot here... when will someone take it?"
#AJPiece I've been positive every time I've commented since it's my favorite piece of media, but I think it's a good week to explain why Sanji's bit just doesn't work. It's not like the work is saying it's a good thing he's peeping and you have the gallery of zombies mocking him and Absalom, but it's treated as just a small character flaw. It's put on the same level of Zoro's directional issues as a light hearted joke when it's a very serious subject and invasion of privacy. It's funny because you can easily compare Hogback to Absalom. In many ways Hogback is worse, not just defiling corpses, but actively and constantly abusing Cindry's consent, making her his puppet to play with and violate. But it's all treated as incredibly dark and twisted with the appropriate level of disgust and horror it should be.
I think this is why so many people look on the arc more fondly on rereads. It's such an obvious low point that it can ruin a lot of what's going on around it. Or it can just ruin the whole arc for people given how prominent it is for three chapters of the arc. Lovely analysis as always and thanks for always giving your honest opinion whether it's positive or negative.
#AJPiece I love how you pointed out the parallels between luffy and Moria. However, I would argue Brook is a better parallel with Moria than luffy is. Both Brook be Moria lost their crews. They both developed absurd and over the top personalities to cope. They are both throwing themselves at enemies they are unable to defeat. (Brook and Ryuma) (Moria and Kaido) However, they both differentiate in how they act in response to their grief. Brook kept up his physical strength, but lacks any emotional connections which is why he is an empty husk without a shadow. Moria looked for connections with other people at expense of his physical strength which is why he is a shadow of his former self. They also treat people differently. Brook helps others even to his own expense. His actions rewarded him because as he regained his shadow with help from Zoro. On the other hand, Geko Moria would hurt other people for his own gain which made the straw hats his enemies which caused him to lose all the shadows he collected.
I actually discussed the Brook-Moria parallels in this video, I believe it was near the end! I agree that it’s a very apt comparison.
@@Aleczandxr ah, sorry must of missed it. Great video though.
Honestly i just pretend sanji's perviness from thriller bark never happened. Its so out of character for him and his entire philosophy and adds nothing to his character. His simping is one thing, that part is the genuine character flaw for sanji that fits him and his view on women. Him wanting to perv on women has nothing to do with his simping and goes completely against his white knight demeanor.
Yeah I agree. Despite it seeming to be in line with his simping it feels totally left field to me.
The dynamic between Brooke and zorro is extremely understated, they’re both swordsmen sure, but after Brooke witnesses what zoro did here, Brooke is reminded of the loyalty and love of his original crew, inspiring him to join up, he immediately develops so much respect for zoro, and zoro, who understands the mourning Brooke is going through, has the same respect for brooke
#AJPiece Zoro is my favourite OP character; not just because "he looks cool" as the standard shonen stoic character, but because of his insecurities. (Plus, as someone who's dyslexic and can't tell left from right, or east from west sometimes - in my headcannon Zoro is also dyslexic.) Many people don't realise just how insecure Zoro is deep down. Zoro starts out as someone who encourages his own childhood rival to shoot for being the best swordsman alongside himself, and continues to encourage everyone else around him to chase their dreams. He believes in Luffy's dream to be the pirate king, which he outright says, but it's clear from his actions that he's fighting for everyone in the crew's dreams, too - not just his own.
Zoro is constantly training because everytime he wins it's always by the skin of his teeth, and he knows that if he loses he can't protect his crew, and can't help them achieve their dreams just like Kuina was unable to achieve her dream. This man was so adamant that his friends achieve their dreams that he carried on his dead friend's dream as his own. That's why he's always training to be stronger, so that he can protect them. It's why he refuses to let Sanji give up his own dream to Kuma.
Because Luffy is the carefree captain who has complete trust in his crew's own abilities to defend themselves, Zoro has to be the one who worries about them, who has to be strong just in case they can't handle a situation. (Spoiler for Sabaody, incase anyone reading this comment hasn't gotten that far but since AJ has read that at this point I'm including it:) It's why he's the first to get sent away by Kuma, it wasn't coincidence, it was because he would never have allowed Kuma to get to anyone unless he want through him first. He's always been the one to step up first. It's one of the reasons why they butt heads with Sanji, because Sanji has his own insecurities about proving his own worth while Zoro is constantly one-upping him because he believes that he has to.
It's why he says "nothing happened", yes it's because he sees it as his job as first mate/quartermaster, but also because he sees himself as the "Tank" of the party to borrow from gaming lingo, it's because as long as he's there to protect them - nothing will happen to them.
(edited because lol, dyslexia strikes again.)
I first wanted to say I enjoy your in depth analysis of this series that I love. I also wanted to say I don't disagree that as a society that we should not promote Sanji's behavior. However I will say that he (Sanji) is still a teenager and it is not uncommon for teenage boys to think with the wrong head. Shounen Jump main demographic is also teenage boys as well. I know my personal experience as a teenager was a confusing time learning to deal with new urges and changes going on with my hormones and I think that is very common. Sometimes I think we forget as we get older sometimes what it was like being a teenager. We are still learning who we are around that age I personalty did not fully grow up and truly understand what it meant being an adult was till my mid 20's and some people never do. I personally think Oda did this to make that connection with the main demographic what is teenage boys because he himself is a bit of a pervert based on the SPS's and probably was like that too as a teenager. As far as the shower scene I don't disagree with you either that this should not be something we promote as a society, however this is unfortunately a very common troupe in the horror movie genre such as 28 days later, 30 days to die. nightmare on elm street 5, 99.9, act of Vengeance and literal over 400 hundreds more movies have this troupe. So personalty I don't disagree with your take on the shower scene or Sanji's behavior. I can still understand why these elements are here and I do think it's important to respect and understand our past to appreciate where we are today not that we should not strive to make things better, but shows that as a society how much better we have gotten and I think that element is why you have such a disconnect as the teenage boy troupe and the shower troupe has been used for hundreds of years and is being shunned further each passing year but I could be wrong on this line of thinking of why you have a disconnected. I could break down further but society 10 years ago to 50 years ago to 1000 years ago are so vastly different I feel the evidence should be clear and I hope what I was trying to say came through.
list of movies with shower troupe
www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&genres=horror&keywords=female-nudity,shower&sort=alpha,asc&explore=keywords&view=advanced
I’m aware that Sanji is a teenager and that Jump is geared towards teenage boys, and that times were different. I was aware of all of that when I said what I said about the scene. Thank you for the context regardless, and glad you enjoy the videos.
@@Aleczandxr The pervert stuff still happens with other people, even politicians. It’s behind doors.
My brother and I cosplayed as Brook and Ryuma respectively at Supercon. Glad you liked both of them :)
Appreciated the video, Had a great time ! Your streams & this video made me think of Moria a lot, I like him much more now. I never really disliked him, but I did not see some the parallels with Luffy which make him much more interesting
#AJPiece your work is always amazing. It becomes a pretty big highlight of my week. It really feels like I'm reexperiencing one piece with an old friend and for that, I thank you!
Regarding Thriller Bark, I think there's one theme that's kind of the opposite side of the coin for water 7. While Water 7 focused on Luffy and the burden of being a captain, you see that Thriller Bark has emphasis on the importance the crew in a way and how a leader is essentially nothing without those who follow him.
Moria constantly talks about how the seas will become more rough, inferring that Luffy can't carry the entire team all the time. Zoro and Sanji's loyalty to give their lives up in spite of not fulfilling their dreams. Usopp noticing the toll on Luffy's body. The teamwork they had to implement to take down Oars. This arc shows us so many instances of the importance of the crew. Even if Luffy ends up being the big hero of so many arcs, he knows he can't become Pirate King unless he has his crew behind him.
#AJPiece Hi, I’ve been watching your video essays for I think a couple of years now so imagine my surprise when I saw you were doing one piece reviews right as I picked up the anime.
I’ve been using these reviews both as a second opinion to bounce my own thoughts off of as well as see the differences between the manga and anime and I’m super excited to now be caught up with these videos (fingers crossed over spring break I can get caught up with your manga readings bc those streams seem like a lot of fun)
Now that all of that is out of the way I have a lot to say about this arc.
When it first started I was like ok a nice funny arc. Cool. And then the scene with Nami and absalom happened. I was so frustrated because one piece is something I use to relax after a long day and now I was having to risk triggering myself (I have sexual trauma) in order to get through this arc.
Thankfully I made the smart decision and skipped the rest of that scene as well as any other scenes with absalom in the them that made me feel uncomfortable after checking with my friend who is caught up with the series and making sure I wouldn’t miss anything important.
And thankfully there wasn’t really anything else like that that made me uncomfortable. Though the sanji and absalom fight did make me angry. And I kept that anger in the back of my head until I got to the scene with chopper and dr.Hogback which completely changed my opinion on this arc.
To take what you said about this arc being about life and it’s sanctity, I see this arc as specifically focusing on how autonomy is an integral part of that life. When I say Autonomy I mean a sort of intersection of identity and freedom.
Each member of morias crew focuses on a specific type: perona-emotional, absalom-consent or mental autonomy, dr. Hogback-physical, and Moria taking all of those into account with his ability
To elaborate on all of that, the Marios have had there autonomy stripped from them in death (forgive me for getting dark for a moment but the whole scene of dr.Hogback talking about what he had done to cinder made me think of necrophila, and how even in death people, minorities in particular, are not safe from the cruelty of others in death)
The shadows are forced to accommodate their dreams to fit Moria into them and those who lose them must find a way to live without a part of themselves. A part of their autonomy stripped painfully from them in front of their eyes (i found the pacing of the scenes where we saw Moria separate peoples shadows from their bodies to fit this very well, though I cannot speak for the pacing of the scenes in the manga)
Peronas ability quite literally causing people to not be able to function because they are so caught up in the negativity her ability makes them feel.
And of course theirs the scene with absalom and Nami. But what sticks out more to me is that sanji doesn’t succeed in trying to beat him in the name of regaining nami’s autonomy because he can’t do that. Only Nami can get that back and she succeeds in doing so once she gets the chance.
This form of thinking continues into the oars fight. None of the straw hats can reclaim luffys shadow for him but what they can do is offer their unending support in reaching that goal. They can weaken oars, they can set everything up for him. They just can’t reclaim that piece of autonomy for him.
Again this is shown in Lola’s and luffy’s plea to their shadows and even farther into zoro and sanji’s decisions respectively. Neither of them try to force the other to do anything because of the respect they hold for the crew and each other. They follow what their heart tells them to do for as long as they can.
This line of thinking is in direct contrast to Morias and all of his main subordinates to a different degrees. As he talks about how the power of the new world will strip everything away from you, not just your autonomy but also your life. In some twisted way I think that he believes him having total control over thriller bark will lead to everyone remaining safe from harm. Which the strawhats prove to be untrue.
All of this has lead me to find thriller bark to be a mark of subtle genius on oda’s part and while I definitely think the scenes concerning SA could have been handled a lot better, I understand what he was trying to get across with this arc. As well as think that it’s placement directly after Enies lobby (which focused on how deserving people and things capable of great destruction were of existance) and before the next couple of up coming arcs is perfect, as it lays the groundwork for a lot of those arcs themes to work off of. Not to mention it’s planting of that seed of doubt of: what would happen to luffy were he to lose one of or all of his crew, and or close friends/family which has definitely been bouncing around in my head the more and more I see of these next arcs.
Sorry for the long comment, but I had a lot I wanted to say about this arc. I’m really looking forward to the next video and all your reviews/reactions down the line!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Unfortunately the AJPiece comments were already recorded for the next video, but please continue to share! I enjoyed reading this a lot, and in case you didn’t know, the next video on Sabaody Archipelago is out too.
@@Aleczandxr no worries! I have seen the saboady archipelago and while I don’t have a lot to say about that arc specifically I do know I’ll have a lot to say about marineford when that video is released which brings up a really quick question about aj piece comments if you don’t mind: I have two main things I want to talk about with that arc, would you prefer I put both of them in one comment even if that comment is really long, or would you prefer i separate it into two comments instead?
It doesn’t really matter to me but I think the mods who pick the comments may prefer two separate ones!
Genuinely started crying when you explained brooks back story
Ironic, given the Absalom in this arc, but one thing Thriller Bark does surprisingly well is female characters. Nami and Robin continue to be great, obviously, but look at the three new women added in for the arc. Perona, Lola, and Cindry are all really well-written in different ways and all of them provide their own benefits to the story. Perona is a genuinely threading trickster villain, Cindry makes up the emotional core, and Lola is solid comic relief. As bad as Absalom is, Lola makes his scenes more bearable by being a sort of ironic punishment for his antics; similarly, as rather bland as Hogback is, Cindry gives us a specific individual to focus on as the subject of Hogback's perversion of medicine.
There were a couple of parallels Oda drew between Moria and Don Creig. Both characters kinda acted as an introduction to the next stage of the Straw Hat's adventure. You hear the echos of the horrors and difficulties of the next phase in these losers who weren't capable of standing up to those horrors. Thriller Bark not only makes you remember about the past, it also makes you look at the future and how seemingly insurmountable it looks.
Also, i am pretty sure Bink's Sake was the first time i cried from a show. Its such a sad and cheery. It perfectly encapsulates the sorrow of reflecting on the past and looking at the future with hope and happiness rather than anxiety and trepidation. A lesson i should have learned through my life.
I haven't watched the vid yet but Thriller Bark is one of my sleeper favorite arcs. I'm always a sucker for a cartoony, horror aesthetic. Also Brook is probably in my top 3 Straw Hats.
Edit: After finishing the video I have to say that it's always refreshing to hear the good points of this arc talked about instead of only the negative ones. Another great discussion video.
I just caught up with the series, and I can't wait to take my time and listen to your analysis on some arcs. Always great points and easy to follow explanations. Thank you!
#AJPiece one subtle thing that I thought was really interesting was how robin currently addresses the strawhats. When we met Robin at the end of Alabasta, she would refer to the crew by their distinctive traits, like Ussop being called Long-Nose kun. However post enies lobby she starts to refer to them by their name instead of a title, showing how she is seeing the crew as a family that will protect her and vice versa. Outside of the very dark humor and banter that robin has with the strawhats, this is something that made me appreciate her journey to accepting her new family even more. Love the videos AJ and I can’t wait for the next one to come out!
I love that I am able to re-experience the story through your videos. You don't know, how much I appreciate them.
My honest and greatest thank you, never stop!
#AJPiece something i dont think was mention or talk about was about the location of this arc. This arc is set on the floriane triangle and is a direct comparision of the bermudas triangle (to be fare it exist this type of locations with the same characteristics around the world, so could be another triangle) and how this connects with all the morias tematics aswell. Also here in this arc it shown my favorite secret of all one piece: at the end of the arc, when the straw hats are going off of the floriane triangle we can see this HUGE shadows and they are not shadows from the skypeans like we see before. We have NO CLUE what those things are and how they get so masive (those are the most masive figures of all one piece) and to be honest im not sure if i want to know because of the setting that mimics the real world and that we dont know exactly what happen theres.
I just so happened to first read this arc during October and that really added to atmosphere. Halloween is my favorite holiday and Thriller Bark captures the aesthetic perfectly.
#AJPiece We're now far enough into the story where one of my favorite themes of One Piece as a series is starting to become quite apparent, and that's the idea of "light and darkness." At this point its par for the course that Luffy and crew will show up to an island where the people are being oppressed or put down by some force, whether that be marines, pirates, warlords, anything really; and Luffy and the crew are always the ones who free the people from this tyranny that they've been experiencing. Put simply, Luffy and his crew represent the "light," and freedom, while the antagonists and villains represent the "darkness", and oppression. Oda really seems to love this theme, as he's subtly (not-so subtly) mentioned it countless times up until now. At the end of Alabasta, when saying farewell to the crew, Vivi says that in a storm of darkness, the Straw Hats were her "light" that guided her. During Skypiea, Luffy clearing the dark sky and yelling "Let the sun shine!" When we get to Water 7/Enies Lobby, Robin talks about the World Government itself as being a great darkness, which the Straw Hats illuminate with light by shooting the flag with fire and declaring war. In post Enies Lobby, their new ship is even called the Thousand Sunny, a ship that shines with the light of the sun. And now in Thriller Bark, with the whole arc taking place at night and revolving around shadows, victims of Moria being unable to walk under the light of the sun; and the final battle concludes with a rising sun. Its such a beautiful theme and one that continues to be proven over and over by the Straw Hats as they bring freedom and light from island to island. I wanted to bring this theme up because I feel that as obvious as it is knowing all the details, a lot of people seem to miss this greater point being made about light and freedom, as it can get jumbled up in all the goofy, silly, and wacky pirate shenanigans the crew always get up to. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews on One Piece so far and I hope you enjoy the rest of the series going forward!
Nice analysis.
Yep, also great symbolism with Blackbeard being a foil to Luffy as a literal "darkness man"
Brook intro is one of my favorite and while corny his jokes hit for me 90% of the time but i wonder if its because of the anime? Hearing his VA + laugh really elevates alot for me. Its all personal obviously and you're reading the manga so it doesn't really matter :)
That Sanji and Zoro picture edit is hilarious, thank you for thinking of it and thank you to whoever made it
Nice community you've built here, literally the first comment section to not suck off Sanji/Absolom stuff or excuse it for sanji but not the other.
Anyone talking about 'he gets redeemed later' doesn't understand what they're saying, it's not unusual for manga, especially manga of the time to have this humour, Toriyama's work is flooded with that kind of humour or characterization but it's not enjoyable to read. My least favorite part of talking about anime/manga through highschool by a country mile was talking about these kinds of topics with guys.
#ajpiece I think you’re spot on when you said Oda/ One Piece is king of payoffs. The Laboon element of this arc takes Thriller Bark to one of those upper echelon arcs in my opinion. Hilariously though the two highest selling manga series per volume all time are One Piece & Dragon Ball & where Oda is somehow able to make literally everything he writes come back into play eventually, Toriyama casually forgets things he’s written all the time. Even things that are integral to certain characters or races/ cultures. Sometimes entire characters all together. Nothing is safe in Dragon Ball. Just something I’ve been chuckling about lately.
Just to clarify, he didn't say Oda was the king of payoffs. Just that he was really good at them. I think AJ would think of another mangaka as the "king" of payoffs given his most favourite stories.
I get why this arc is one of the lower scoring ones, and agree with some of those reasons, but seeing it for the first time, I loved it like any other - And I have a list of things I liked off the top of my head.
1) The amazing and tragic character of Brook. He's likeable, sensitive, sincere honourable, and resilient. The parallels between him and Moria that you mentioned are make him even better, and the organic way Oda weaved him into the crew through Laboon and Crocus was an excellent way of immediately making him belong.
2) There's also the tragedy of Moria as a character, which I've didn't fully appreciate until more recently, and which will be explored further in the future.
3) Lola, who explains certain aspects of the story and world, and sets other stuff up for later - But is an actual character rather than just someone used for exposition, like a lot of stories do. She's also a genuine badass who refused to hide from the sun, even if it meant death, and refused to dishoner the unyielding bravery of the Strawhats who were fighting on behalf of everyone. I always respected the hell out of that.
4) Amazing dynamics and interplay between the crew, everyone using their own unique strengths in tandem with one another in a way we haven't quite seen before.
-Luffy casually putting a zombie back in its grave, and other excellent humor 🤣. Him seeing past Brooks appearance, and earnestly asking him on board because he took an interest in him as a person - And Brook's complete outpouring of gratitude at the gesture alone.
-Usopp's natural pessimism negating Persona's power - which I totally called.
-Chopper defending the sanctity of life and Robin backing him up in doing so, and this touching moment with Cindry as she fades away
-Franky and Robin being a great tagteam
-Nami having a mini solo adventure
-The comradery between Brook and Zoro, which is a reoccurring dynamic - And is honestly fitting given that they're both swordsman. And the similar respect that existed between Zoro and 'Ryuma'. As well as Zoro and Sanji being two pillars of the crew.
-An epic team battle against Oars and Moria, the likes of which we've never seen before, with all these excellent combo moves from a united Strawhat crew.
-The most absurd twist of them beating a Warlord, only for another one to show up to finish the job. A radical break from the formula which will become more common and which bellies the scope of the chaotic and unpredictable world.
-Bink's sake
-Nothing happened
I could go on. I also like that you recognized the roundabout nature of how things work. Brook isn't just a classic undead, a set of very specific circumstances caused him to revive as a skeleton. Oars doesn't copy Luffy's Gum Gum powers, Moria exploits his shadow power to manipulate the shadow, and this the body to mimic them - Which comes full circle when everyone's bodies recover from their disintegration in much the same manner. Nothing is simple or straightforward, and even the powers are more complicated than one would think. This is a very key aspect of One Piece, and one you've seen before: Almost nothing is ever as it initially seems.
It only gets better from here, so keep sailing ahead...
I recommend watching the anime episode of brooks backstory. They did a really good Job.
I’ve seen it already, reacted to it on stream! It made me cry hahaha
@@Aleczandxr We all cried with you in the chat, AJ 🫡
Me personally, at the *start* I found the arc to just be spinning it's wheels, and I had to force myself a bit to stay interested. But the moment Brook talked about Laboon, I was fully invested. Funny bc this arc has my favorite chapter in it (Brook singing the song one last time with his crew, alone on the ship after reviving, and with Luffy’s crew)
Perona vs Usopp was also a very great fight, especially with him locking in as Sogeking in a pinch. Then it's hype up until the end the moment Kuma shows up
I personally just didn't get that strong reaction from the sexual assault stuff from Absalom and Sanji, since it's an old Manga trope that was (and sometimes still is) very often used. It's more of a cultural difference of how this topic can be treated. I'm sure that some of the entertainment produced in the West has points that are treated in a way to which Japanese people are more disgusted by, where we are not. Though I am not denying that Sanjis fight with Absalom was just because of a gag and he didn't really get anything out of it, experience wise.
#AJPiece Something I think we should keep in mind about why the 'Nothing Happened' scene is different for Zoro than any other Straw hat,
I have no doubt all the Strawhats would die for Luffy but It's not about Zoro giving up just his life for Luffy, it's about him giving up something even more important to him, his Ambition,
It's in his dialogue with Kuma too, Kuma was asking if Zoro was going to give up his Ambition,
In Baratie against Mihawk we saw how Zoro would choose to die than being anything less than the Strongest Swordsman, Anything that comes even close to this in my Mind is Sanji choosing to die than hit Women.
I thought this arc was kind of dookie. The villains were not compelling to me and it followed a boring, played out arc structure, and the very end is just an ass pull where the Warlord doesn’t kill everyone because he… admired Zoro’s resolve? Like why would that excite me
There are some people who think what Sanji says in this arc is okay. They somehow exist and are probably watching this video too. I am not saying anything about them other than.. yup, they exist.
Thriller Bark is my second favourite arc. It captures the very essence of One piece. In a similiar way like Skypia. It is about adventure. Stepping into a island without really knowing whats to come. The humor in this arc is my favourite and i also like the contrast it brings nu focusing mostly on the strawhats whereas ennies lobby focused on Luffys role as the captain.
Zoro became my favorite character over Sanji after this arc. You could see and feel that something changed but the confrontation with Kuma fully showcased Zoros subtle development throughout the series. Sanji too. Best Zoro moment to this day imo.
Regarding absalom i understand the complaints and i wasnt a huge fan as well. About Sanjis dream of becoming invisible. Lets say i have a different take on that but can only expand when you get further into the story.
Overall you are slowly becoming my favorite TH-camr when it comes to One piece eventhough you are not caught up. You are so in tune with the series and its themes. One big plus for me is that you rarely talk about powerscaling.
Keep it going! You are in for a wild ride. 👀
Vivi said it best so I am just going to paraphrase her, that ship is like a beacon of light in a dark world. The world is a dystopia but we don't experience like that because our point of view is nearly always on this radiant exception to the norm the WG is enforcing.
#AJPiece I feel like One Pieces is at its best when it's wacky and adventures. On the Grand Line there's an island with dinosaurs and giants, island devouring goldfishes, an island in the sky with its own habitants and their culture, currency and even religion! There's these big and floaty balloon-like fish and now a giant Bark that devours smaller ships with zombies and a mad scientist living on it
Sure the fights are good and very emotional but this feel of adventure and romance is what made me love One Piece so much, it's that brief moment before the storm where the Straw Hats are still discovering this new island and interacting with its unique culture by eating, wearing new clothes experiencing things like the water elevator in Water 7 that are the heart of this series
#ajpiece near the end of the video you mentioned the importance of the sun in some of the arcs so far. And a while back I saw a post somewhere comparing Luffy's Stawhat with the red band to the sun rising over the ocean. I couldn't find a good picture of it, but under the right conditions the light of the sun passing through the atmosphere and water vapor on the horizon will have a yellow brim and a red band making it look like Luffy's Strawhat
28:00 I just wanna say, luffy said at the very beginning of the series that he wanted a crew of 10. We've got 9 now, with Brook, so you should already know what to expect. Just mabye not when.
Could also be interpreted as Luffy not counting himself there so it would be 10 additional members.
#AJPiece One thing I noticed about the Hogback and Cindry dynamic that makes him look even more pathetic is that, yes he did dug up te corpse of the woman he loved, but ussed a shadow of someone else, making this zombie have a personality that had nothing to do with Cindry, showing that he was just in love with the idea of her but knew nothing about her, the cindry zombie only looked like her but acted like this other woman who threw plates and was obedient.
Thriller Bark is by far the funniest arc in the series to me, the comedy at its peak here and hopefully, you'll like the arc later down the line cause it sets up a lot also love how Brook is introduced with his backstory and Franky literally creates Fortnite plus has that docking scene lol not to mention Zombie Luffy with everyone teaming up to take down Oars Jr was wicked sick and the Halloween look of the whole island I love then "Nothing Happened" 😵
Oars acting like an adventurous Luffy took me out
@@sogekingsniper4637 Yes Yes Yes 🤣
#AJPiece Lack of respect for the integrity of other people, in the multiple meanings of that word, is something recurring in Thriller Bark. People are being thorn of their own shadows, not being treated with respect any human being should, having their will being disregarded, being seen as objects and tools for the satisfaction of egoistic desires, etc. Absalom, Hogback, Moria and even Sanji share that. I am a chatter that said that this is one of the things that make Sanji a not ideal character in a pretty idealist work of fiction, which I see as a good thing. I do not love the scene any more than the average person, but I do not take him being put in the same bag as the most disgusting character of One Piece as a joke, but a pretty intentional character flaw to be taken notice of. It is uncomfortable that one of the "good guys" that we've seen being so gentle can have so much in common with villains, but it is also interesting for the character. Or maybe I'm completely wrong. I know some people in the community gnarl their teeth when someone suggests these things might not be just bad taste jokes(and those exist for sure).
#AJPiece I think one of the most interesting things about the straw hats that is coming into view is the nature of each of them having a "negative" sort of interpretation of them, or maybe "evil" would be the right way to say it. the most obvious would be in the Demon Child Nico Robin, or Sanji with his Devil Leg (Diable Jambe), but we also have Monster Chopper, Asura Zoro, Nami the Weather Witch, Frankenstein Franky (ha) and then the very obvious Skeleton Brook.
Usopp and Luffy are a bit harder to pin down, but Usopp simply being a liar could potentially fit, but I'm not entirely sure myself, unless Sogeking is some devilish figure we've never heard of. And Luffy, well, he's the only one who can oppose god (Enel) so I guess that's enough, but you could also say he's the quintessential pirate, and so maybe that's it?
I think it just comes together to add more into the ideas of the straw hats rebelling against heaven and the "gods" which we first saw with Enel, but you've also now seen in Sabaody with the "Celestial Dragons", but maybe I'm just making connections where there aren't any. Anyway, what do you think?
Are you really surprised that there are Pervy characters in anime and manga?
No? There’s a very clear difference between “pervy” and what I described here. This was different and if you’ve watched my others videos then you’d know that I usually don’t have a problem with Sanji’s simping.
I guess what I’m saying is that the peeping Tom pervy character has been a trope in anime for a long time and usually used for comedic purposes. So I don’t think it takes anything from sanji’s character and I know you don’t have a problem with the simping, but simping and being Pervy are not the same thing. Anyway love your videos so I hope you don’t take any disrespect from this.
I know simping and perving are not the same thing, but likewise as I said there is a clear distinction between a character being generally horny and this, again for reasons I described. And just because it’s a common trope does not mean I’m going to excuse what I view as bad writing for both the story and character. I don’t understand why I should dismiss that when it’s a part of his character that I dislike. Glad you enjoy the videos.
@@Aleczandxr i guess I just think sanji is such a great character especially later on that the Pervy part of his character is something most people overlook or find funny.
#AJPiece
If Enies Lobby explored the meaning of existing and living in the world, Thriller Bark expanded on those themes by literally showing the differences between life and death. The most obvious examples being the zombies and the humans, but there are some other types of death, like the death of Zoro's sword, Yubashiri (I find it interesting that he prays to it despite not believing in God)
I also enjoyed meeting Brook. In an interview, the song, Bink's Sake/Brew, is tied to Brook's musical theme, a laidback version of the song, but Oda told the composer, Kohei Tanaka, to get to work writing the melody in "a year or so." And I find it interesting that the song was completed before Brook's first appearance and appeared in the anime 5 years after the song was finished.
You mentioned how One Piece can cover dark topics in a lighthearted tone, but I think that applies to this piece too.
The song balances itself between whimsical and sad, and each time it's used, it feels like a different interpretation. For example, when Brook played the piece with his crew to Laboon, the mixture of brass and the fast tempo creates a swing/jazz style. But when he starts playing it alone on the violin, it feels melancholic.
And I know this is coming from an anime-only fan of One Piece, but I admire Tanaka's compositions and the themes he used for each Strawhat. It's slowly becoming one of my favorite soundtracks in anime. But what are your thoughts?
Subbing to pateron next few arcs. Literally at the edge of my seat to see someone experience my favorite span of chapters across all media
Brook is my favorite Straw Hat
I won't defend Absalom and his scenes, it's gross and I don't need it, however Sanji's invisibility thing I do legit think is funny because of how much of an nth degree exageration of his gag it is
I’ve been reading one piece weekly and following the weekly review community since the beginning of Dressrosa, but it’s amazing reliving these arcs through Aleczandxr and his community - it’s a different perspective than the weekly commentary and by far the most well-rounded analytical view on the series I’ve been able to see.
Comedy 15 years ago was a very different landscape to what it is today, and the perv character is a trope in shonen manga of that time. Not so much in newer shonen. I understand your sentiments but almost 2 minutes going off about something written ages ago nearly took me out of the video. It's fair to criticise the scene, but not offering any context paints Oda in specific kind of light.
There is really no need whatsoever to be so hyper defensive of Oda. I didn’t paint Oda in any sort of light, I didn’t even mention Oda during that stretch at all because none of what I said was making any statements about him whatsoever, and everyone is well aware of the date the manga was published and of the “perv” trope. This is all assumed knowledge and none of it makes the content better, which is why I didn’t feel a need to mention it. And 2 minutes out of a near 2-hour review to properly explain the reasoning as to why I found it bad is more than reasonable. Apologies but I am not going to just say “this is bad” without explaining myself.
@@Aleczandxr Appreciate you for responding even if I disagree with you.
Cmon now. One Piece still has way more of this as compared to other battle shounen. And there is a reason classics are knows as classics. Cause they age like fine wine. Not to say Oda is bad for writing like this but it shouldn't be defended like this too.
one piece is not self contained to arcs sometimes u learn easons motives and backstories of other charecters in other arcs that make older arcs shine and are more appreciated Skypia is a great example of that
"He beings forth the sun."
Something to think about the whole, being influenced by the devil fruit, is interesting. Thinking just from a combat point of veiw, suddenly gaining a "magic" ability via devil fruit, would force you to become creative in how you utilize it. What can it do? What can't it do? Do i know this just from eating it? Or do i have to test myself? Just from that it 100% influences the person that eats the fruit. Even if the fruit has a will or not. Cool
So many great clips from the anime from this arc (well, really, from all arcs).
Had to immediately look up these scenes while watching the review.
Brook meshi meshi: th-cam.com/video/9bd28j4oBYM/w-d-xo.html
Franky builds a bridge: th-cam.com/video/kg8tEKmGfHc/w-d-xo.html
Usopp is negative: th-cam.com/video/GVZ3jYHEj1o/w-d-xo.html
Docking scene: th-cam.com/video/H2ULlRqI7nc/w-d-xo.html
Nothing happened: th-cam.com/video/sXXTOKClXbU/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/sAtZoIFW2Uw/w-d-xo.html
Brook cries: th-cam.com/video/xnlutUYcy9o/w-d-xo.html
Thats why I was sad that Sanji didn't rise in your rankings after Water 7/Enies Lobby. Because I knew that he would not be gaining any favors in a while.