rueful6

One Piece

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy

Mangaka: Eiichiro Oda

Length: 514 chapters, compiled in 51 volumes [So far. This manga has been going since 1997, and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.]

Rating: 9/10


Plot: It is the grand era of the pirates, brought upon when the great Gold D. Roger was executed 22 years ago. Pirates from all over search for his great treasure, the One Piece, hidden in the treacherous waters of the Grand Line.


Our adventure begins when an 8 year old boy, Monkey D. Luffy, eats the Gum Gum Fruit, one of the many Devil Fruits – a mystical fruit that will give you supernatural powers, while robbing you of your ability to swim. He gained the ability to stretch any part of his body, as he is now, quite literally, a rubber man. His dream is to become a pirate – and he does so, 10 years later. He travels the seas, picking up crew members, fighting against evil pirates and the Shichibukai, the pirate slaves of the government, and then facing the dangers of the Grand Line in order to capture One Piece and become the king of all pirates.


Analysis: It’s a fun manga to read. When it started, it was only supposed to go on for 5 years or so – you can tell this just from the way the plot works out in the beginning. It moves along a lot faster and the fight scenes aren’t as long as they get.


The characters are more loped on than anything – they aren’t given much of a background before joining, and there isn’t much reason for them to do so. However, later on, the manga gets very exiting. Characters are given a lot more depth before we even know that they’ll be joining the crew – sometimes we don’t even know if they’ll be joining at all.


That being said, the plot of the manga is very good. Because its such an open ended dream – become king of the pirates, get one piece – there are many things that can happen in between. This is furthered by the grand line by itself – its made of up many islands, each of which has their own magnetic pull – you need a special device, called a lock post to navigate through the islands. In order to get the lock post to lock, you have to stay on each island for a specific amount of time, which can vary. Its basically an excuse to have an adventure, and it works out really well.


As the manga goes on, the characters start to reveal themselves more fully. It’s the great part about having such a long manga, that you can develop the characters a lot. It also leaves room for very long fights, most of which are really well done. They’re fun to watch, and they’re filled with suspense. My only problem with them is this – the protagonist, Luffy, is extraordinarily strong, all due to his self training that was done during the 10 year time skip in the first chapter. We never actually see him training for anything. He gains one technique in one of the last arcs, and he made it up kinda spur of the moment. It just seems very unlikely that he can beat some of the strongest pirates in the world without training.


Finally, there is the matter of the grand line. Ignoring the sheer impossibility of the entire place, in the first part of the manga, the grand line is described as a place full of horror, fear, death, and destruction. Now, while the latter two might be true [there certainly are a lot of fights there], it doesn't seem like something very scary. The only real big deal are the pirates who you can circumvent [or fight – if you're too weak, then shame on you]. Everyone makes a big deal about how scary the grand line is, but i just don't see it. Now, it is dangerous mind you – the weather patterns make it almost impossible to navigate, which makes for very scary waters to travel through. But nothing as to the extent that you are made to believe.


Now, for fun, I thought that i would compare the pirates of one piece to the pirates of the real world [Yes, there is such a thing]


For the first part, the pirate ship does not work as it does in the manga. Its not a matter of who is the strongest in terms of fighting ability – rather, for the most part, it was done democratically, with the crew electing who the captain is. Their targets would not be a treasure, whether by following a map [of which the idea entirely came from Treasure Island], but any passing merchant ships. Most of the time, pirates would be working for a government – these were called privateers. It was often hard to tell the difference. Fights were not decided by who was the stronger fighter. They were usually decided by who caused the biggest amount of damage to the other ships. In most cases pirates would win without a fight, due to their fearsome reputation.


Next is the pirate flag. The jolly roger as we know it, and as every pirate crew has [although edited some per crew] in One Piece, wasn't prominent in a lot of ships. Often it would be a black flag for fight to the death, or red flag for fight with mercy. If it wasn't this, then it would be a national flag to try and lure prizes [ships] into a sense of false security.


Pirates were not respected by most people. They were seen as barbaric brutes who only were out for themselves. This is almost the exact opposite as the manga – pirates are often seen as a hope for people, while some people hate them.


The fact that there are women pirates in One Piece is astounding. Now, i don't have anything against women, but in history there have only been 5 reported cases. There might have been more, but either way it is a very rare occurrence. The women pirates in One Piece are often very important members of the crews, and in some cases lead them as the captain.


Finally, the last thing that I can remember is the noted lack of ships on the sea. Even before making it to the Grand Line, the only ships that you see are either pirate ships or marine ships. Its as though boats only exist for those two purposes.


Character Summary:


Please note that I'm only going to do the first 5 crew members, who are the ones that appear before the Grand Line. I'm doing this in order to avoid spoilers to the maximum, because generally a character joins at the end of an arc. I'm also not covering the villians, because they are usually arc specific. Secondary characters are not being covered as well because, even this far into the manga, we don't know alot about the important ones.


Strawhat Luffy, AKA Monkey D. Luffy: The hero of the story, he ate the Gomu Gomu Fruit [Gum Gum Fruit] when he was eight years old. Upon doing so, he gained the powers to stretch any part of his body to any length imaginable, however he gave up the ability to swim. He gained his nickname, Strawhat, from the straw hat that he always wears on his head. It was a gift from Red-Haired Shanks, a pirate whose crew used Luffy's town as base when he was young. It is his most treasured possession, and it becomes the symbol for his pirate crew.


Luffy is a very simple boy. He has a strong moral code, and he's not too smart. However, he is a very strong fighter. He has high agility and strength, which he calls out to its fullest when used in combination with his rubber-stretching powers, which usually consists of him flinging his arm back, then letting it snap forward to hit his opponent. Its more complicated than that, but its hard to describe in words. He LOVES meat - it is the only thing that can give him enough energy to do anything.


Roronoa Zoro: The second person to join Luffy's crew, and its 1st mate, he is a master swordsman. There is one difference between him and normal swordsmen however – he uses three swords [He places the third in his mouth]. He made a promise to a childhood friend/rival to become the greatest swordsman in the world, and as such whenever facing a swordsman he tries his hardest never to lose, even if losing would mean walking away alive. His strength is amazing [and his teeth are most likely made out of diamonds, as well as having a mouth as dry as the desert], and before joining the crew, was feared as one of the best pirate hunters. He has a fierce rivalry with Sanji [Look Below]


Zoro is a fun guy. Like Luffy, he isn't too smart, but he is very loyal. He has a terrible sense of direction, and as such usually gets lost. His skills, as mentioned, are very good. While he has not eaten any Devil Fruits, he can beat most of them. Fun fact about his attacks – most of them are named after food, and are puns. For example, one of the first 'special' attacks that he uses is Oni Giri. Oni means demon, and Giri means slash, so therefor it would mean Demon Slash. However, an Onigiri is a rice ball thats often eaten as a snack. The same is true for his swords – the kanji for them can be read multiple ways, mimicking food or something deadly.


Nami: The third to join the crew, she serves as the ship's navigator. Before joining them, she introduced herself as the pirate thief, stealing treasure only from other pirates. She is really one of the only ones with any brains in her head. She acts as the ship's conscience for a good part of the series, and while to start off she didn't have any fighting skills, they grew later on as a result of her feeling weak and helpless.


When Nami first shows up, you don't know whether or not she is going to join – she disappears for a while, then shows back up. She is the first one to have a real strong plot and back story appear, and as such is very memorable.


Usopp: The fourth to join the crew [Gee, I wonder if I'm going in some sort of order here ...], he is the ship's sniper. He has a very big head and is full of himself, often calling himself the captain before being shot down [Get it? He's the sniper and he's being shot down ... Ha ha ha ... Punny ... :(]. His father is a part of Shank's crew, and its partly for this reason that Luffy takes a liking to him. He's also a very big liar, and he loves making up stories to impress other people with his amazing, but very fake, deeds. For a lot of the series, he is a gag character, but he gains a lot of strength later on.


Usopp is mostly used as comic relief. Until one of the arcs, he is not too strong, but his attacks are always fun to watch. He uses a slingshot to do his sniping with, and he has an assortment of bullets, ranging from explosions to hot pepper. Contrary to what it appears, he can analyze situations very easily. His most defining feature is his nose ... which sticks out a foot in front of his face. He is also a big coward.


“Black Legged” Sanji: The fifth to join the crew, and the last to do so before the Grand Line, he is the chef of the ship. He was taught how to cook and fight by Red-Legged Sef, and as the name suggests, only fights with his legs. His dream is to find Deep Blue, a place where all of the oceans in the world intersect, that contains every species of fish imaginable. He loves women of all sort – except if they're ugly. But, even if they are, he will never hit a woman. The only times that he gets angry is when food/cooking is insulted, or if a woman is harmed. That, or any time that he is in the same room with Zoro, who as mentioned before, has a rivalry with.


Sanji is a good character. After Nami, he is the most level-headed of the crew, but he can still be an idiot sometimes. He is the third strongest in the crew, and like the first two, he has a strong code of honor. He constantly smokes a cigarette, which was changed to a lollipop in American versions of the manga/anime.


Overall, I really liked this series. Its quite addicting, even though it is rather long. I read it in a week, which was only possible because I was under a bet and I kinda forgot about doing everything else during that time. I highly recommend reading this [But definitely at a slower pace than what I did. Maybe do like 2 volumes a night]. I wish that i could have written a better summary, but its hard to do so with this manga without giving anything away. Maybe in a bit I'll go back, look it over, and rewrite it. Here are some pictures depicting some of the fights – these aren't the best in the series, nor are these comedy shots. Like I said earlier, the manga gets a lot better as it gets on, in terms of fights and comedy. I tried to not go too far into the manga so as not to ruin anything, but these pictures don't fully represent how good this manga is. Not only that, but the quality of the manga increases - another good part about it being so long is that you can see the artwork change over time.

review taken from animeruwlez, check out my profile for more details

The story is nothing special. It's virtually identical to every other "overpowered main character does overpowered things" story with nothing to make it unique. This can sometimes be okay, but only if the characters are really good. They're not. The characters are abysmally bad. Every single female character is a good person and the victim of some man. Every single male character is a bad person and is committing some crime against a female character. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule. In two whole novels, there isn't a good man or bad woman. This even extends to minor extras that only pass by for a moment of the story. If the author gives enough information to even know if the character is a man or not, there will be a description of some sort of crime or appalling behavior. This gets incredibly old and boring very quickly.

Bloody Maiden is a survival horror manga that takes place on an island. Basically it's like Umineko no Naku Koro Ni except replace the people fighting over control of a fortune with an all-girls high school Naginata Club (like a spear with a curved end) trying to stay alive. The setup is pretty weak, and it isn't really all that creative and other things like "Another" do the high school survival horror genre much better and with less stupid, bad fanservice.

Story: 5/10

It's a cool setup even if it is overdone. The author takes a little too long to explain some details that probably should have been addressed at the start though.

Anyway, the plot is that a group of twelve high school girls in this club and their adult advisor go to an island for a training camp (though they only get in like one actual practice fight before things start to turn to survival horror instead). It seems like no one is on the island, even the man who invited them there who is the curator for the museum there (I think). The one teacher decides to go and try to get cell service on the island, but as soon as she finally does she gets killed by a mysterious "creature." The other girls eventually notice that she hasn't come back and they stupidly split up (even a bit after they begin to realize the situation). From there, people start dying like flies.

The ending is one of the things I really don't like. It's confusing and seems very rushed with too many plot twists in the matter of two or three chapters to even understand what is happening. Plus it gets confusing about whether it's really supernatural or not as it just kind of throws a few knew things in towards the end out of nowhere.

Art - 6/10

The art's not too bad. The fanservice is though, especially since most of the nude shots are those "cover only the nipple" kind of thing even though at time they just go ahead and show everything like the author didn't know which way he wanted to go with the fanserice at first. Plus most of the nudity is shown when people are dying or are dead or just want to strip down to their underwear or wear bikinis so they don't get their clothes wet or because it's hot. Still the character designs aren't bad and the girls are all unique at least to some degree (there are twelve girls so that's not the easiest thing to do).

Characters: 4/10

Twelve girls, their teacher, and a few other people are all crammed into these 11 chapters. The get no development and aside from the main character Makia (I think that's her name) and the club president, everyone else is either just death fodder or so unimportant that you forget about them after the one chapter they have where they do something before getting killed. Still the main character isn't horrible, as at least she isn't whiny and actually is brave enough to take action and try to fight back. However a lot of minor characters are not the same way and are fairly annoying. Pretty much everyone fits into some archetype though:
- Busty, calm leader with long hair and a weapon
- Main character who takes action through revenge
- Busty, motherly figure
- Small-breasted, easily-angered girl who wants to be the best
- History geek
- Yuri couple
- other people who are unimportant

Oddly enough there's no Rei Ayanami clone so there's that at least that differs from most things.

Enjoyment - 6/10

I still enjoyed it, but I'm glad it's only 11 chapters because even with more length it would not have been any better. The ending was bad and rushed, but some parts in the middle were enjoyable once you got to know what roles the characters fell into and kind of recognized a few people though not really by name. Still other things like "Another" have taken this concept and done much better with it (though the characters are still pretty forgettable in both). If you like horror or ecchi manga than maybe you'll like this but it's really just not very good.

This is connected to "I am a Hero" in-name only. The stories are not set in the same fictional universe, and the work is more centred around the idea of zombies thematically, and uses the "I am a Hero" brand to draw in people who would otherwise pass over it. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I think fans of IAAH should go in with their expectations appropriately tempered

It is in general a pretty mediocre group of stories. Several of them dont even include zombies. Chapter 1 for instance is basically just softcore porn, with only the barest hint of connection to a zombie storyline. Another story is basically a slice of life romance, with some zombies in the background to keep things interesting. So considering IAAH is regarded as probably the best Zombie manga ever written, and these stories arnt especially good or even particulary related to zombies, you can see why this work is a bit of a let-down. Of the 8 chapters, "I am not a Hero" and "she is a slow walker" are pretty good, the other 6 are pretty much totally forgettable.

To expand on that caveat: the Junji Ito story is well done. It has good art, an entertaining premise, and is the closest to an actual story about zombies from the whole anthology. If you are a fan of Ito, this is another solid work from him, and almost makes up for the generally low quality of the rest of the stories. "I am not a hero" isnt amazing or anything, but its got the same weirdly comedic horror vibe of the original series, and stands well on its own.

TLDR: The Junji Ito story is good, "I am not a hero" is ok, everything else is entirely mediocre, 5/10.

Colorful Harvest is pretty much a hentai manga that isn't actual hentai.
Story and characters would be really good for a H title, but as it isn't one, I'm going to rate them as non-H manga, which means low. I mean, this is just hentai without directly shown genitals. The only purpose of story is to show sex scenes. Characters also don't have any depth or reason behind their behavior.
On the bright side protagonist pick a girl in the end and we get actual satisfying ending.
Art is good. Sex scenes are drawn really well and characters look great. It lacks in other fields, but for this kind of manga it's fitting.

Generally speaking, if it was a hentai manga, it'd be one of the better ones. But as a seinen ecchi/romance title, it is just weak. On the other hand it's short and "pleasant" to read, if you know what I mean. While I wouldn't actively recommend this manga, I wouldn't say it's not worth reading.

Disclaimer: only 4 chapters have been published at the time I'm writing this. My opinion might change later, but I have high hopes. Also, I intended this review to be short and sweet, but the minimum requirements by MAL are preventing me from that... But on to the real review!

So far, this manga has a nice touch of the supernatural (hint: look at girl's shadow on the cover), but it's still early enough that I don't know which direction it's going to take. It could be an intensely supernatural manga, or just a source of explanation for one of the characters.

I might be overlooking something, but so far it doesn't seem to be leaning in the direction of "harem" either... However, there's enough ecchi to give the already good story an extra boost of interest. It's not really perverted, and it's not constant, so when the occasional nude happens, it's a nice little event.

The undertones of potentially strong romance are definitely there, and the art is (in my opinion) fantastic.

I can't give too much more than that, other than that this is interesting, and I look forward to each new chapter that comes out. (If this were a "completed" manga, I probably would have binged on it and read it in a weekend.)

I strongly recommend giving it a shot.

Let me sum this up simply, it was like the author started off with using shock to get people in and then after around 20 chapters, all the actual plot and character development and twists spilled out of the jar. And that jar was pretty big.

This went from some weird, crazy ass shit, gore filled shitfest to a genuinely good manga with a very proper and memorable plot. Past that gore and just god knows what that other magical stuff is in the first 5 or so chapters, it starts to properly develop into a manga that plenty of good twists, a tint of gore (far far from what it was before) and 10x the plot.

It's definitely an enjoyable ride and if you think you'll enjoy a manga that has gore as a side tag, good plot (so far where I'm up to at least), pretty solid characters (don't worry "milk bags" girl isn't all there for fanservice), good memorable, funny moments and a swole af muscle magical girl who might not be all that she seems cut out to be then you'll definitely enjoy this manga.

Plus it'll be funny explaining the manga to someone with how f'ed up the beginning is.

Synopsis: I wanted to tell a story in a game world but I didn't want to actually build the world.

The Issue: The story is a gamer world story with levels and skills set in the modern world. Dungeons appear in the real world and now people go dungeon crawling with medieval weapons and armor. There is magic or the tablet ht MC gets would not work or have the "gamer" effect it has on him. We see that Japan still has a modern military as they show up to the MC's house when the dungeon is discovered. We know they still have gas and electricity as we see working card and the MC using a computer. We know there is an internet as we see the MC using it said computer. Yet people go dungeon diving using gear from the middle ages.

The best lame excuse I heard for this is that Japan does not have a lot of guns.

Why this is an issue: It is a plot hole that kills the suspension of disbelief. AS a manga/Anime fan going on 30yrs I can accept a lot of Manga/Anime logic. This is not one of them as it is nothing more than the author being lazy.

"Suspension of disbelief, sometimes called willing suspension of disbelief, is an intentional avoidance of critical thinking or logic in examining something surreal, such as a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe it for the sake of enjoyment." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief

It’s a cute short Yuri manga that made my day just a little better

Because it’s a collection of 10 different short stories my enjoyment of each varied. I liked most of them my favorites being 1, 3 and 10. they where my favorite because they where the least complicated relationships and therefore didn’t need a whole lot of development. Most of the stories lacked the development needed and fell a little short. Two of the stories also made me feel very uncomfortable because of the relationship dynamic.

Over all Yuri Life (Yurigurashi) is sweet, cute and wholesome. But is way to short to offer what a lot of other Yuri offer. 6/10

This is a cute short little story about a girl who has a complex about her mole (that apparently everyone thinks is a slut for it for some reason or another) and a complex about her younger childhood friend. When they were small, Hiroko always protected Tomoko when she was younger from bullies and always had the intelligence but Tomoko, on the other hand, hit puberty earlier than her, despite being two years younger, and already had a string of boyfriends while Hiroko… not so much.

For what it is, it’s fine. One could relate to the characters some way or another – there are some bits here and there that’s typical of Miwa Ueda (a good girl with a bad stereotype falling in love with the wrong guy and there’s always another guy in the mix somehow and the female best friend tends to be the real antagonist) but its a lot less complex than her other stories.

For most of the manga, we’re stuck in Hiroko’s point of view during the events of the manga not really in the others. We do kinda see Takeru’s point of view here and there but it’s not much. Hiroko isn’t a bad person by any means – she’s just jealous. And that’s understandable, especially when someone younger than you surpasses you in things that, in one’s mind, should have already happened.

The problem with this manga is that it, once again, falls into the typical story-telling the author usually falls into but at least the twist this time isn’t as foreboding or sets women against each other over a man and the good guy actually remains a good guy. Surprisingly, the end focused more on the relationship between Tomoko and Hiroko and the Takeru thing happened at the end.

Though, it’d be nice if the manga mostly focused on that instead of Hiroko trying to one up Tomoko for most of the manga but I can’t complain too much. The pacing itself was fine and, especially because of it’s low volume count, it didn’t feel that rushed. There are side characters that do show up but they’re not that prominent in the story and they really didn’t need to be.

Hiroko’s number one complex was her mole, so much so, that she started to save up for a mole extraction but eventually, especially after she realized that it’s not a big deal but Takeru’s right – she could use her beauty mark for good instead of the perceived evil. It would have been nice for Tomoko or one of Hiroko’s other friends to say something like that but maybe she didn’t listen to them before Takeru did and before she understood what he meant.

Again, there really isn’t a big twist but there are some decent dramatic moments. Tomoko apparently had been cornered by some girls because Tomoko was seen with her ex-boyfriend (the girl’s current boyfriend) and Hiroko defended her. Before, Hiroko and Takeru had received theme park tickets conveniently ending the next day but everyone was busy (plus, Hiroko hadn’t revealed her lie about the boyfriends at this point) so it was just the two of them.

Naturally, Tomoko was upset about what Hiroko did and accused her of being the other woman. Hiroko did apologize and did tell her they only went as friends and tried to avoid typical couple stuff as much as they could.

But Takeru did cross the line as he whispered, “I love you” in Hiroko’s ear as a way to tease her.

It’s a little unrealistic, the ending, in the sense that Tomoko decided to break up with Takeru right after her exams and after how hard she desperately wanted to keep Takeru away from the boy crazy Hiroko. It would have been a little bit better if she waited a bit more but at the same time, it’s best to end it early before anything else could happen.

Not only that, Hiroko’s own confidence grew since she started this broadcasting club. I only wished it wasn’t completely shoujo in the way that it ended so she could at least move on with her own life but this ending is fine. It’s not completely horrible but it’s not completely fantastical either – which is a nice balance.

I’ve always liked Miwa Ueda’s art, even the comedy bits as it tends to flow pretty naturally, especially for the characters she writes about. If anything, I wish this manga followed Tomoko a little bit more as well. We knew that she always had trouble with studies and that she was always jealous of Hiroko’s intellect but it feels rather pointless since it’s kind of moot anyway (Hiroko is two years older than her so of course she’s going to be a couple of grades ahead) and it felt rather forced.

Rather than focus on her relationships, with boys, it would have been better for Tomoko to actually show her jealousy for that intellect rather than just say, “Yeah, I ran away because you’re so much smarter than me!” or “Yeah, I ran away because you have everything!” But then, Tomoko isn’t really known for being logical much anyway…