I decided to make a second post today, just for anime.
BIG news in Anne’s Anime World. After about a half year of deliberating, I have had an epiphany. After about eight years, Dragonball has fallen from Anne’s All Time Favorite Anime List’s #1 to be replaced by -drumroll please-One Piece. Yes, I finally saw from behind my rose colored glasses. Not to say Dragonball isn’t an awesome story (or at least the original Japanese storyline is… ), but One Piece is so much more. It’s not about just one guy saving the world, it’s about a whole team - or rather a family - realizing their dreams while defeating bad guys and corrupted good guys.

One Piece is compromised of ten+ (counting the Going Merry) lost, lonely and misunderstood individuals with dreams finding a family in a group of pirates. At first, it seems like a silly kids show, starting our with a teenage boy with a stretchy rubber body joining a bunch of random people together to form a pirate crew and go find the treasure “One Piece”.

At first, the character design, sight gags and the slapstick comedy had me thinking of moving on to the next show. About halfway through the second arc, I realized I hadn’t stopped watching yet and I wondered why. It seemed there was more to the story than was first apparent. Each and every character, while at first seeming cookie-cutterish, seemed to have something about them that defined them as very human. Everyone of them had past that, while tragic or not, had a very big role in shaping them and the entire crew.

******************Spoiler Alert******************

As an example, I will use Nami, the navigator. As a first impression, Nami comes off as a Bulma clone. She loves material possessions (a huge obsession with treasure) and seems to be somewhat vain and very selfish. She has a flirty attitude that says “Yeah, I just did something selfish, tee hee “. At first I didn’t like her. During the Arlong Park story, we learn that the reason she is so greedy is because she is trying to save enough money to buy back her village which has been held ransom by the pirate Arlong since she was a child. Arlong murdered her adopted mother right in front of her eyes and she doesn’t want anyone else in the village killed. She became a crew member under Arlong as a navigator, so she can earn the money. Her village shuns her because she sold out to become a partner of the one who killed her mother. She works diligently trying to save a village of people that she thinks hate her anyway. This is a far cry from the selfish, greedy brat that I originally thought she was.

******************End Spoiler******************

The story line is surprising and keeps you captivated, without a doubt. Every time something emotional happens, I feel the same emotions that the crew feels. If they feel ecstatic, pissed off or lonely, so do I. When there is a tragedy, like a death, I even get as upset at the crew. Imagine that, feeling like you are actually a part of a crew, or family, when they aren’t even a part of ‘reality’. Like I said in the last post, reality is overrated.

Listening to :: Sayaendou - One Piece