One Piece More: Do We Ever Talk About One Piece Here?

So summer is finally over and by now everybody should be back to the grind of school. May you be rushing to finish last minute assignments or just being the good student by getting your assignments done in time. It seems like the dogdays of summer have clearly ended as the days become cooler and autumn is beginning to set in if you live in the northern hemisphere. The ones in the southern part of the world I am guessing things are getting hotter and I wish I could be there because I surely hate the cold. Still for the ones that are starting school then I wish you all to stay strong because we need to live in a strong world as both One Piece fans and people.

-Mikey

Top Three Things We Want To See Dub
by One Piece at a Time Crew
So Funimation has been in charge of the One Piece dub since early 2007 and so far they have done a good job in dubbing. In these three years they have roughly dubbed all the way though Skypeia and should start working on things beyond G8 this coming Fall if the rumors are correct. Still there is so much in One Piece that has to be dub like Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark and most likely high on everybody's list is the events of Marineford. Still here is a small list of some of the things we want to see dubbed.

Mikey's Top Three:
Number 3: Moria

I really want to hear how Moria will sound like dubbed. He has such a strange voice that would be interesting to hear speaking in English. My personal pick for Moria's VA would be Chris Ayres. Since interviewing him, he has become one of my personal favorite VAs and I think he will really enjoy the chance to voice Moria. Chris says that he enjoys playing villains that have comedic and serious moments so Moria would be perfect. So using the words that Chris said in our interview, it would give him the chance to 'stretch his comedy chops' while giving a beat down on the StrawHat cast. I kind of imagine Chris's voice for Moria to be similar to his voice for Freeza on the DBZKai dub but a bit raspy and deeper.

Though I am sure that whoever Funimation picks to voice Moria would be good but I am crossing my fingers for Chris to be dubbing Moria. Either way we are going to have a great time watching Moria dubbed during Thriller Bark.

Number 2: Bink's Brew

So many reason to wanting to see this dub. One reason is that I love to hear the Japanese music of One Piece dub. Funimation has always done a great job dubbing the opening and endings and recently did a good job of Family during the Skypeia arc. So I have high hopes that whoever does the voice of Brook and the rest of the Rumbar Crew will do this song justice when they reach Episode 380.

It is mostly agree that Bink's Brew (or Sake depending on whatever version you are going by) is a great song and watching it with the animation where it starts off happy with the StrawHats and the people who got their shadows back on Thriller Bark partying then slowly getting sad as you watch Brook's old crew slowly dieing. When reading this in the manga I felt the tears beginning to form which is something that the anime wasn't able to do. Though I am sure that if this was dubbed in the anime that those tears would be trying to push their way though. It just something that happens with me when I see something dub. Watching Hiluluk's death in Japanese doesn't give me the teary eye effect that the dub gives me. That is one of the main reason why I enjoy the dub over the Japanese because I can connect better emotionally in my own language. The moment where Brook countdown the deaths of his crewmates is something that deserves some tears.

Number 1: Merry's Death

Rounding everything out would be the moment where we see Merry off as she makes her journey to the bottom of the cold, dark sea. There is a reason why the Going Merry is on the main banner of this site and her death is one of the saddest moments in the anime for me. It is the something that makes me cry in Japanese and I can't wait to cry during this scene once it gets dub. Just listening to Dear Friends gets me tear up as I recall the last moment that the StrawHats had with their beloved crewmate. Reading this in the manga really pull at my heartstrings and watching it really get to me.

Funimation will have their work cut out for them when doing this moment since they have to find somebody to sing Dear Friends, make Merry sound really thankful towards the StrawHats and lastly just make the cast of the StrawHat pour really strong emotions into their acting. I have complete faith that the voice talent behind the StrawHats can lay down the feeling and  I am just going to be crying when Merry finally says, "Thank you. I was truly happy."


Sora's Top Picks:
Number 3: CP9

All of the CP9 people (including Spandam) are really interesting me, especially Kaku and Lucci. Kalifa will be a very interesting one, as will Blueno. Seeing them face off in those huge, epic scenes against the crew, and especially when Robin has her huge emotional outbursts I hope will be fantastic, and I am seriously looking forward to this.

I really hope that they give Spandam (I keep calling him Spandex in my head, which is really fun) a really nasally, irritating voice, just so that I can really enjoy my immense hatred of him. I also want to see how the VA's can change their tones to more serious attitudes when the CP9 reveal themselves in the plot to get the blueprints for Pluton. This just sounds like a rather epic area to dub, and I am so excited for it.

Number 2: Franky

I love Franky. I don't know why everyone always stares at me funny when I say that I love his character, haha, but I do think that he is awesome and totally SUPER!!! I really hope that they can still catch his amazing character through his entrance to his joining with the crew and beyond. This is really interesting me, and I am really expecting big things.

Since Franky is very eccentric, and since that is shown so beautifully in the original Japanese, I am expecting great things from Franky's English VA. All of Franky's greatness is going to be a really exciting thing to hear, and I am definitely looking forward to it.

#1: Whitebeard War

I must admit that I just seriously want to hear how this huge war sounds in English. I mean, it is already such a huge event right now, it is going to be monstrous to get all of this done. I am really hopeful that this is going to be great though, and I especially want to hear the main characters from each side have their characters developed thru their English voices.

The sheer amount of people who are going to be VA-ing in this large arc is colossal, and already the Japanese VA's are doing a terrific job with the epicness. This will surely be beautiful to hear in English though, and I'm really excited for it.

Superneku's Top Picks:
Number 3: 11 Supernovas 

Yes we technically already have 2 of them dubbed (Luffy and Zoro) but I'm talking about the other 9 we have yet to have seen dubbed (Eustass Kidd, Basil Hawkins, X Drake, Trafalgar Law, Scratchmen Apoo, Killer, Jewelry Bonney, Capone Bege and Urouge). Now who would voice these characters, its rather hard to choose since they're all distinct and differ quite a bit from each other mostly in terms of their personalities. But they're some of the most  interesting characters we got introduced to at this point so I'm interested as to what they would sound like in our language.


Number 2: Boa Hancock

Thats right, the beautiful Snake Princess and Shichibukai Boa Hancock is my next pick. Why? Because she too is an interesting character and happens to be one of my favorites. Now obviously she would need a sexy, seductive voice to win over the English speaking fanbase, but she would also need to sound intelligent and partly naive when she has her comic moments/lusting for Luffy as well as an empowering, commanding voice when she is fighting or issuing commands to someone. I hope Funimation will manage to bring a fine lady to voice the character (although I don't think that should be that hard since Funimation have been doing great so far).

Number 1: Strong World

Now this one is kind of hit and miss. First of all, I've seen Strong World and not only  is it THE best One Piece movie thats been made so far, it is one of the most beautiful anime movies I've ever seen. What would make the movie experience even better is if it was in English! Now there's been speculation as whether Funimation will license Strong World or not, but considering it did so well in Japan and the film has been shown at many film festivals (subtitled) worldwide, I think its time we got to see this with the Funimation cast at hand, with of course Patrick Seitz as Franky hopefully, the English VAs for Brook, certain marine officers and of course Shiki and his goons. Strong World is bloody brilliant, only Funimation can make it better...

Favorite OP Villains
by One Piece at a Time Crew
Most shonen animes have at a few villains so with One Piece we tend to see our fair share of villains. Some of them we hate with a passion while others we just love to hate. Some we just love to love. One Piece has so many interesting villains that we just have to love them because they have a certain charm to them. Maybe it be how fierce they are or just how evil they can be. These villains are just some of our favorites that we love to see get the screen time.

Mikey: I am sure that anybody who reads this blog can tell who is my favorite villain. Sir Crocodile takes the cake as my favorite villain. He is as vicious like a croc and cunning as an alligator. During Alabasta he just took his time waiting then when the time was right he came out of the sand and attack. Several times during his run as a main villain you just had to hate Crocodile for what he was doing to Alabasta while applauding him for just being able to screw with the heroes so well with little ease.

Crocodile was such a great villain. The guy never lost his cool during his battles against Luffy and made sure to never show any signs of weakness. Even when Luffy found out Croc's weakness to water, the sand gator didn't let that stop him in knocking Luffy around. It is that style and grace that really made me love Crocodile. This guy that made me love One Piece and knew that this was the show for me. One Piece was always a great show before the appearance of Crocodile but when I saw this guy and what he was doing then I just fell in love with this show. I love this villain so much that Crocodile was the first person I wanted to cosplay as. He is such an evil man. You knew what he wanted and he was willing to do whatever it took to get it. May it be ruining a country or backstabbing his own subordinates. The guy did it because he has a bigger plan in mind. Then his ability is a scary one since anything he touches gets dried up while he can turn himself into sand and control it at the same time. Still Crocodile's power is a fine example of how Oda can make some powers that you never thought to be a threat into something formidable and scary. It is one of my favorite powers to where I wish I could just turn to sand and fly in the air just to get to my classes. haha

The return of Crocodile during Impel Down made me so happy. Now that the sand crocodile is out of prison then it won't be long until we see his golden hook around the neck of an unlucky victim.

Sora:  Well, I know who I'm picking. Yes, I'm mentioning...Doflamingo don Quixote, the "Scum of the Sea", no surprise there. I have to say, I am quite enamored with him. Which is odd, considering that he is a terrifying, vile, sadistic crook who actually made a very successful living selling human and other creatures as slaves. Still, he remains an enigma, even this far into the series. Already 598 chapters, halfway through the Grand Line, and still very little is known for sure about him.

He is also one of the few antagonists (not counting Marines) who is actually really evil, seems to have no redeeming quality to him, and also has the current (as to my knowledge) highest ex-bounty of any One Piece character. He really is a curious character, although I believe that since he is so notorious and evil right now that I can really estimate where he will end up. Since he has no redeeming quality and his whole motive so far seems to be some strange ideal of a "New World", which is interesting considering the place that One Piece is at right now, I can see him going insane and being defeated by Luffy, no surprise there. Although, he is one of the largest threats I can see right now, if he ever feels like entertaining himself by messing with the Straw Hats. Heck, he is so twistedly powerful, he may anger someone else and get himself killed.

Anyway, he is definitely my villain choice, for obvious reasons. He is intriguing to study, and I like to note exceptional villains and how their minds work, and how or if they can change into a good person or not. This man, however, is so horribly evil, no amount of good working could ever change him.

Superneku: This is a really tough question for me since the entire series thus far has had so many great villains, but I think my favorite would have to be Rob Lucci since he is the most cold blooded I've ever seen. Sure Luffy has indeed met stronger foes since then, but I felt that Lucci made a bigger impact on not only Luffy (since he first uses Gear Second & Gear Third on him when he had just began using the techniques), but myself since he was one of the first villains I came across when first discovering the series in Japanese as well as the fact that Lucci pretty much wanted to fight Luffy since he always had that wicked smile on his face when Luffy was coming to save Robin. Since I was a noob at One Piece at first, I feared for Luffy's life. Also I gotta say, those Leopard Devil Fruit powers of his (combined with his Rokushiki techniques) are just vicious beyond belief. But of course like every other villain, he gets the smackdown from Luffy that he deserves and is defeated. However, he and the rest of CP9 are still alive and they could return to the series at any given time to take revenge on the Straw Hats.

OniCon 2010
by Mikey
Coming up on the weekend of October 29th-31st will be OniCon where I would be returning once again but this time as a member of the press. Hopefully this time I can bring more things and cover this con better then I did last year. I am hoping for a huge One Piece turn out. I am really excited about this con for a few reasons. One of them is the opportunity to speak with the Ayres Brothers again. I really want to do a follow up interview with Chris Ayres (Voice of Johnny) to ask him if Freeza was one of the characters he had to keep hush about while recommend a few One Piece characters to be on the look out for. As for Greg Ayres (Voices of Cabaji and Young Franky) I would hopefully tell him that he may be called in again depending if Funimation ever make it official they are going to be dubbing Water 7 and CP9. I also want to compare this year's OniCon to last year's to see if there are more One Piece cosplayers and love. So far I haven't been disappointed in the amount of One Piece cosplayers and I hope that we get even more great One Piece cosplayers then last year. Maybe we will see the return of the One Piece cosplay group that did the wonderful skit for the cosplay contest again.

Other things relating to guest that have worked on One Piece includes Carrie Savage (Voice of Kaya), Carli Mosier (Sung Ending 5: Before Dawn), and Jerry Jewell (Voice of Kaku and Merry). So we got some potential great interviews coming from OniCon and I will try my best to talk to these people to provide an inside look behind One Piece and some interesting characters. haha Carli Mosier is a native Houstonain so it sounds exciting to be able to talk to another hometown native who works on One Piece but does something different outside of the realm of voice acting.

So hopefully OniCon will provide many great experiences. Currently I am trying to see if it is possible to hold a One Piece panel at the convention. Though expect me to provide the same great coverage at cons that I always do by tweeting live from OniCon. I will keep you guys posted on the latest happenings at OniCon comes closer.

Mikey: So it has been great so far. For once we finally talk about One Piece in a More post and I think we over did it. Talking about future cons too and I am sorry if I can't make it to other cons. Not sure if you want me there at a con but I would love to talk to you guys since we are all One Piece fans. Maybe in the future I would be able to attend more cons but we see. School makes it hard to travel at times but we are trying to do more cons with Sora in her part of the country and Neku being out of the US. Still we see.

Also since we shared our favorite villains, how about you guys share yours? Just scroll up to the top and pick which one of the listed villains there are your favorite. If we forgot your villain or want to go into detail then the comment section is your friend. While you are voicing your opinion, tell us what you guys want to see dubbed by Funimation or in your own language. Maybe yours won't be as depressing as mines. haha

So I hope you guys all enjoy school so far and till next time true believers!