Best of Anime 09 and Predictions

So here we are at the end of another year. So many things have happen this year. We had the start of the simulcast, explosive action in the manga and anime, ten year anniversary of the anime and the release of Movie 10. What a year what a year. It is enough to make a grown man cry tears of joy with so much great things that had happen this year. Yet do you know what will make a grown man cry tears of sorrow? Having no One Piece.

haha There is me stealing something from Oda in the latest SBS. haha Sorry for that.

Still what a year for One Piece overall. Truly 2009 was the year of One Piece and what a great time to be a One Piece fan right? Here we are going to look back at some of the great moments that the One Piece anime had and take a look into the future to make some predictions on what may happen in 2010 for this great series.

Best of One Piece Anime 2009
I knew I had a PwnGoat image on me somewhere from this year. haha

Lets look back at some of the best moments of One Piece Anime in the year 2009! This includes moments from the One Piece anime to events involving the anime. This is all based on my opinion so this isn't an end all list. These are just five moments that came to me as I looked back at the One Piece anime for 2009. Surely we can name tens of thousands moments in One Piece this year but overall I think these five moments truely define One Piece in this past year.

Moment #5: Revealing the the 100 Year Treasure (Episode 407)

I understand this is a strange choice but give me a minute here to explain. The Special Historical Arc came just as the StrawHats were separated by Kuma which the whole ordeal was a bit hard to take. Possibility the whole thing is one of the saddest things we have seen happen to the crew as Luffy struggles to save each one of his members. Then right after that we get these silly episodes about Luffy and crew during the Edo period. These two episodes were exactly what the doctor ordered. It was a breather to just watch our favorite characters do something just silly and in the end find out it was all for a pair of golden panties! haha Oh my gosh, I was so thinking that the 100 Year Treasure was something silly and I was right. I was laughing the whole time during the reveal and boy was it funny. This was the icing on the cake for the whole episode.

As I said, just what the doctor ordered after such a stressful arc ending.

Moment #4: StrawHats and Rayleigh Vs Kizaru, Kuma, Sentoumaru and Pacifista (Episode 403-405)

The climax of the Sabaody Archipelago Arc as the StrawHats are facing one of their most difficult battles. Zoro has found his head to be on the receiving end of Kizaru's lightning fast kicks then out of nowhere Rayleigh comes and blocks the kick with one of his own to save Zoro. Boy this was painful to watch as Zoro was about to be killed by Kizaru. I mainly want to focus on the part where Rayleigh comes in because it looks so cool as he came in and just blocks the guy's attack. It was that hopeful moment that let us know that the StrawHats were going to be okay. Here was this powerful person to save them. It even made me thought that maybe the StrawHats will be able to walk away from this okay. We later find out that they don't walk away from this together though. This moment kind of lasted three episodes but it was just a long and powerful moment as we watched our favorite StrawHats struggle though this time.

Moment #3: Movie 10: Strong World

"I say the new film being as successful as it is is a big highlight. The other is I think the Amazon Lily arc anime'd."
-NewBernsKevinG from Twitter

I am sure that some people may disagree with me in ranking Movie 10 so low but I feel like this is a perfect place to put it. The reason why it isn't ranked higher though is because this was mostly a thing that happen on the Japanese side of One Piece. It was nice to be part of the whole Movie 10 tie in specials and feel the awesomeness though the trailers that were shown on YouTube but the fact is that everybody outside of Japan was left out in this moment.

Overall, this movie was a perfect way to celebrate ten years of One Piece anime. A story created by Oda himself where all of our guys showing off their best moves. You could literally feel the awesomeness that the trailers gushed out for this movie. We got the StrawHats looking awesome in suits as they prepare to fight Shiki. The movie is doing great in theaters as it has broken opening weekend records in Japan.  I can only wait till we get Strong World stateside so we can enjoy the awesomeness that is part of this movie.

Moment #2: Luffy punching the Celestial Dragon Charlos (Episode 396)

"Luffy punching that celestial guy is my favorite this year"
-DragonPiece from Twitter

The moment where everything changed for the StrawHats. This punch was the start of a chain of events that lead to the StrawHats being disperse throughout the One Piece world. A moment that we all wanted to see but didn't understand how important this punch meant. We all wanted to see these Celestial Dragon jerks to go down and get what they deserve but it was at a price we didn't expect. The StrawHats since Enies Lobby have always been under the Marines radar but this just made them flash bright red as they were now once again in the world's eyes. We don't know how pubic this was made but clearly it was enough to make the news.

It was a strong moment when this happen as we seen Luffy become the most serious that we have ever seen him before. The guy looked intense as he was filled with anger. In the years that I have been watching One Piece I have never seen Luffy this angry before and moved like that. You could have cut the tension with a knife. A huge change there for our favorite characters deserving to be on this list.

Moment #1: One Piece Simulcast

What can I say? The moment ranked so high for me because it has been something that One Piece fans have been wanting for a long time. A sub that was out the same day as the show where we didn't have to worry about subtitles being blurry. The community was buzzing with excitement when it was announced that this was going to happen in late May and then upset when some guy decided to ruin the moment by saying he got the new episode before it was shown on Japanese TV. This was surely a set back but eventually we got our simulcast and now we get One Piece weekly an hour after it airs for free. Soon we may see this happen around the whole world, we can only dream and hope since this is a show about dreams. haha

Still one of the main reasons why this moment rates as number one on my list is because of what it did to bring the One Piece community together both in the US and around the world. Funi saw that there was enough One Piece fans in the US to do something like that in partnership with Toei since there was so many fansubs out there. Funi and Toei are challenging those fansubs by providing their own sub and now many US One Piece fans can watch One Piece legally. As in for the rest of the world, One Piece is now becoming a strong force as the fandom is coming out. If it wasn't for the simulcast, there wouldn't be things like the Unofficial One Piece Podcast or this blog itself. The Unofficial One Piece Podcast started because of the simulcast being canceled in May while I started this blog because of the simulcast happening in August. I was so happy that we can now have reliable One Piece subs and legal at the same time. The simulcast inspired me to start up this blog because I noticed there was no actual real blogs for One Piece and I wanted to change that.

These are just two examples that I know of where the One Piece Simulcast on OnePieceOfficial has sparked two new things and I am sure that there are many more One Piece related things out there that have been started because of this simulcast.

Predictions
So now for some predictions for One Piece in 2010. There predictions range from things that may happen in the manga to how far we will reach in the anime to things that may happen related to the manga, anime or One Piece overall. Then next year around this time we can look back at these predictions and see how wrong I was. Sounds like fun right? We had just a great year and we all know that Oda is a tricky person to predict but how about we give it a try eh? So join me as I look into my crystal ball to take a look to the...YEAR 2010!

Bentra bentra benta...SPACE PEOPLE! Opps...wrong thing.

Anime

1. Funimation will announce they will dub and subtitle Movie 10: Strong World. We will either get a DVD release late next year while news about voice actors will be announce sometime early to mid 2010. One thing is for certain is that the Japanese will get this DVD before the United States. Volume Zero will be released as it own thing but will be available at the same time if a few weeks before the DVD. Rumors about Funimation acquiring the rest of the One Piece movies will fly throughout the year around midyear but certain signs will appear toward the end of the year especially once Funimation start dubbing Skypeia.
   
2. We will start to see more episodes on the DVD sets starting late in 2010 where each set will have 16 episodes! This will happen during the Skypeia Arc.
   
3. We will get a Baroque Works cover story episode. It going to be strange but it will be used as a filler to explain how Mr. 3, Mr. 2 and Crocodile made it to Impel Down. The purpose is to create filler while also still tying into the current story arc.
4. We will see a small filler maybe even an arc sometime during Impel Down. This will be seen around March or mid year 2010. It will tie into Impel Down and the filler episodes will be short lived. (I don't have much faith in this coming true but I am seeing it happen for some reason.)
5. We will see the end of the Impel Down arc by the end of this year. (Duh but who knows. Maybe it will take longer to get though.) Last episode of Impel Down will be aired in December.
   

Manga (SPOILERS!!!)
I am going to whiteout the manga since this may involve spoilers for those that don't read the manga. If you want to read what I predict then just highlight it with your mouse to read.

1. The Marineford Arc will continued on til around Spring where Ace will be saved but Whitebeard will not be so lucky. Whitebeard will not die at Marineford but instead he will die off screen but not without leaving Luffy some very wise words that will stay with him till the end of the series.There will be no clear cut winner as in who wins at Marineford. Both Pirates and Marines would take a huge hit. The Marines will have some structure problems while the Pirates will loose a major figure head. All the same it should fall in Luffy and crew's flavor as they come back together. Also the real  Kuma won't die at Marineford but once again prove to be helpful towards Luffy.
   
2. The StrawHats will not be fully reunited till the end of the year. Come on, it is going to take some time for some of those idiots to come back like Zoro for one. It is going to take some time for everybody to be back but I don't expect to see Luffy return to Sabaody Archipelago and the rest of the crew is just going to be there.
3. We won't be going to Fishman Island this year. We didn't went last year nor the year before and surely didn't went to it when it was mention during the Arlong Arc. We are not going this year. Sorry kids, no fishmen this year. We will see ourselves heading there (again) but with Jimbei acting as a guide.
4. We will not see a person joining as the 10th crewmate. I want to see one join just to shut up all the talk but right now I think is too early since this is only halfway though the story and there all of the New World to look at.
5. Starting at Marineford, Luffy will slowly start controlling some of his Haki and the first to fall victim to this will be Kizaru who thinks that he could take out Luffy as easily as he did before. Kizaru would be proven wrong as Luffy kicks that smug look and glasses of his face. As for Haki itself, it won't play a major role at all during 2010 and after Marineford it will be kind of forgotten manga wise but slowly be gaining more shape without us noticing it. 

Overall

1. One Piece will grow in popularity even more especially in the cons as more One Piece cosplayers will be noticed. One Piece cosplayers will raise to rival the Naruto and Bleach cosplayers but to be at the level where Soul Eater is currently at right now at 2009. Luffy cosplayers will be seen a lot follow by Zoro and Sanji.
2. One Piece will see a TV deal sometime in 2010. Signs will show around the Spring but nothing won't show till later in the year. The anime will start with episode one and move up from there. At the same time there will be a bigger into push of the anime as it find itself over other medias as episode of One Piece will be feature on iTunes.
3. The US manga will see decent sales as it is being released in the next couple of months. Still overall sales will be positive as it moves on later in the year. 
4. We will see Viz attempt to do a simlucast manga by the end of the year with One Piece being one of the first in a group of other popluar manga titles own by Viz.

Those are my predictions and I will stand by them damn it! Now we wait a year to see how bad my predictions were!

So that is it! One Piece has a great year in 2009 where many great things happen. Simulcast, Manga catch up, great story arcs, great animated scenes and an awesome movie. On a personal note, I started this blog and glad to be here for the later half of the year and I plan to be here for all of 2010 and beyond! Expect some changes in the blog in 2010 as I work hard to get some cool interviews done and make this an enjoyable experience for all!

Any good series couldn't ask for anything more in 2009 but One Piece is more then just a good anime series. It is an awesome one! I said this before, 2009 was the Year of One Piece and 2010 will be even better!