ONE PIECE LIVE ACTION ON NETFLIX

Pleasantly surprised by the Netflix live action adaptation of One Piece – and with Netflix’s meme-level reputation for horrific anime adaptations, that’s really saying something!

It’s not an easy anime to portray with the original’s outlandish action, slapstick comedy and sometimes bizarre character designs (compared to something much more grounded like Rurouni Kenshin’s five historical setting films), but I feel they landed on a palatable selection & blend of realism and fantastic.

They went for a more ‘Caribbean’ pirates feel with a mix of different races (makes sense e.g. with Yasopp & Usopp having curly hair) and shanty-ish background music, something which the anime doesn’t go for. The sets and locations feel real while still looking very reminiscent of the source material – Baratie feels like a classy restaurant inside and a Club Med hotel outside, Arlong Park feels like a pool party. The plot changes and rearranging are sensible without straying too far.

Plenty of easter eggs or foreshadowing for the fans, like young Mihawk witnessing Roger’s execution, the News Coo’s gear, or wanted posters of Bellamy and Foxy.

The casting is spot on too, with a grounded take on the exaggerated personalities of the manga/anime that still falls within the orbit of the originals – Luffy is much less hyperactive and childish than the original, while Zoro is suitably serious and stoic (all while his look keeps reminding me of Great Teacher Onizuka lol). Especially the side characters they could easily have done a slapdash interpretation of – like Coby, Helmeppo, Morgan, and Garp (with a gruff Scottish accent that somehow fits lol).

Overall worth a watch, just that fans shouldn’t expect a 100% direct conversion of the anime and it’ll be enjoyable enough – including for normies, who might find this a much more comprehensible introduction to the franchise than the anime.

One Piece Characters as Memes

My favourite from Memecenter: One Piece:

Really suits the character of the characters.

You can look up at memes referenced yourself at Know Your Memes, thankyouverymuch.

The Ballad of Brave Sir Robin

Gotta love the trollaciousness of the minstrels who are supposedly Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot’s staunches supporters!

The Ballad of Brave Sir Robin

Bravely bold Sir Robin rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die, O brave Sir Robin!
He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways,
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin!

He was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp,
Or to have his eyes gouged out, and his elbows broken;
To have his kneecaps split, and his body burned away;
And his limbs all hacked and mangled, brave Sir Robin!

His head smashed in and his heart cut out
And his liver removed and his bowels unplugged
And his nostrils raped and his bottom burned off
And his pen–

(Sir Robin: That’s – that’s, uh – that’s enough music for now, lads.)

Upon meeting the dreadful Three-Headed Knight:

Three-Headed Knight: What do you want?
Minstrel: [singing] To fight! To figh-
Sir Robin: Shut up!

And after, umm, skilfully avoiding the Three-Headed Knight:

Brave Sir Robin ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!

Which is apparently continued all the way to when Sir Robin regroups with King Arthur:

He is packing it in and packing it up
And sneaking away and buggering up
And chickening out and p*ssing off home,
Yes, bravely he is throwing in the sponge…

Script and images here, including Sir Robin’s responses to the minstrels.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail full film here, via AoSHQ.

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And One Piece not only tributes the Three-Headed Knight:

But even provides a wholly possible (yet somehow even more absurd) explanation for the three heads, one body thing:

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My Python-esque take on a Malaysian news item at here.

One Piece’s Neptune – A Kingly Sacrifice: Christian and Muslim Views

From the One Piece Manga, chapter 617…

Shark-fishman and near-psychotic antagonist, Hodi Jones, throws water droplets so forcefully that they become like arrows:

The royal soldiers, tied up with ropes and helpless to defend themselves, bear the brunt of the attack:

When suddenly the giant merman and monarch of the undersea kingdom, King Neptune, unexpectedly flings himself in front of his subjects in order to absorb the blows with his own royal body:

Hodi laughs mockingly at this display of selflessness:

And a short while later, he demonstrates how he thinks a real leader should behave when faced with an incoming attack:

Two totally different views, from two opposing leaders.

King Neptune’s example is immediately relatable to a Christian.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. – John 15:13

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:7-8

The attitude of selfless concern, sympathy and self-sacrifice for those far lesser than oneself is exactly what makes God even more majestic, noble and commendable to Christian thinking.

Whereas for a Muslim, that a ruler would subject himself to such humiliation for the sake of his lowly subjects is unthinkable.

That God would degrade Himself and come down to the level of His own creation; that God would sacrifice Himself/His own son (in fact, even having a son) for lowly created beings; that a perfect, infinite, uncreated God could at all relate to a flawed, finite, created world; or even that an innocent prophet might die at the hands of sinful unbelievers – these ideas are anathema to Islamic thinking.

As Hodi Jones sneers, such actions would disqualify a King from being worthy of his throne.

So the same action of God sacrificing Himself for humanity makes Him more deserving of worship to Christians, while making Him totally undeserving of deity to Muslims.

It’s a case of Values Dissonance or even Blue And Orange Morality.

This is just one of the many clear differences between Christian and Islamic worldviews and attitudes.

UPDATE: A commentor sparked a long discussion. Key points are excerpted at Differences in Worldviews of Christianity vs Islam – As Supplied by menj.

See also related:

• A God Who Is Above All

• Whitebeard’s Prodigal Son

• Walad and Ibn: Christianity Agrees With Islam, God Did Not Have a Son (Sexually)

Real Life Emporio Ivankov

One Piece’s cross-dressing drag queen/king/both, Emporio Ivankov…

…Exists in the real world!

I am scared lol!

See another post related to caused by Ivankov at here.

Ushio & Tora: Kirio’s Mama

(Youtube opening that can’t seem to be embedded here)

From the supernatural shonen manga (and one of my personal favourites), Ushio & Tora, Chapters 159 to 165 (in the context of the story arc spanning chapters 139 to 165)…

One of the most Tearjerker/Complete Monster examples around…

This is Kirio’s mother:

Or at least, that what he thinks.

The reality is, Kirio was kidnapped as a newborn baby by an avatar of the dreadful monster Hakumen no Mono (White Face, a nine-tailed fox-dragon bent on destroying the world one nation at a time for its own enjoyment) – who then posed as his mother, with the intent of training him to destroy its most feared weakness, the Beast Spear.

When said plan seemed to have succeeded, Kirio’s ‘mama’ reveals the horrible deception:

Kirio, of course, cannot believe it:

Iceland Volcano Photo Geek References

Via Iowahawk:

Eyjafjallajokull pairs up with the sky for a dual display of raw awesomeness

Can anyone say Titan Quest Elementalist?

Or for the One Piece otaku, what a fight between Enel and Akainu would look like.

(Also, why Gaia needs human nukes.)

And lol from Very Demotivational:

Silly Coincidences Between One Piece and Hunter x Hunter

Warning: Major spoilers follow!

Bishonen emo guy, go home and cry

Wanze appeared in 2005 (chapter 367 though face was not shown) looking like this:

Before shortly afterwards (chapter 273), Sanji kicked his face into this Bishonen look:

Around (chapter 202), Shaiapouf/Shauapufu appeared looking like this:

But as the art style matured, looks more like this now:

And bursts into tears around 2007 (chapter 256):

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What the Straw Hat Crew Would Look Like as the Opposite Gender

Lol. Drawn by Oda himself in an SBS:

Compare how they actually look:

Well, Usopp is masked above, so you can try the Wiki page for individual comparisons instead.

Whitebeard’s Prodigal Son

From One Piece manga chapters 562 and 563:

See One Piece Wikia for the context.

From the Bible:

The Parable of the Lost Son

There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.” So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” – Luke 15:11-32

An interesting comparison: In the Bible it is the younger son who wrongs the father and is forgiven, which causes the older son to be angry at this perceived favouritism. While Squad is angry because of the perceived favouritism that Whitebeard shows Ace, and is the one who commits the wrong but is forgiven by the (adopted) father.