One Piece More: Down Goes 2010

We are now at that time of the year where things are coming to a close. Another year is about to come to an end and while some part of it has sucked, things for One Piece has been nothing but good. Many great things have happen in both the anime and manga, Japanese and American, and lastly with the fans. Now just like many other blogs I guess we are going to be cliche and try to take a look at some of the things that we like concerning One Piece that has happen this year. Meh...We here try not to do what all the other blogs do but then again who am I trying to kid? haha

-Mikey

Best of 2010
Mikey: 2010 was a big year for One Piece. In the anime we have a moving storyline featuring Luffy's quest to rescue his older brother Ace and learned many family secrets while watching the family affairs of the Monkey family unravel. The manga has given many shocks to fans as well as many heartwarming moments. Then staying strong has been the fandom where they been watching One Piece raise in popularity and breaking sales records left and right. We are going to go over our top three One Piece moments for 2010.

Superneku:
 3: Seeing Strong World

While Strong World was released in Japanese theaters in 2009, it came out on DVD and Blu Ray this last summer. While we have yet to see this film being licensed by Funimation, it did premiere at many film festivals around the world. This hyped me up even more that I had to see it as soon as it came out on DVD. Once I finally got around to seeing it, I can determine that this is definitely the best One Piece movie. Not only because it is canon (although its not entirely said when this takes place in the timeline) but also because the story, the voice acting, the music, the animation and art, pretty much everything was great. I really do hope that this gets licensed by Funimation mainly since every film festival that showed it got a lot of positive feedback so it should be profitable as well as the fact that it may help bring in new viewers which will again make more money. If you haven't seen the film yet, go see it. It is definitely worth it, also look out for One Piece: Straw Hat Chase 3D next year which premiers along with Toriko 3D at a special Jump event. Will it be as good as Strong World? Probably not. But, I won't judge it just yet since...well...haven't seen it yet.

2: Viz Media's Manga Speed Up

Let's face it, if Viz was still printing One Piece volumes the same rate as it was last year we'd still be in Skypiea in the manga, so thank god they made the decision to release 5 volumes a month from January until June. This seems to have worked out for the most part since its been bringing in more fans as well as making new ones. The joy of reading Skypiea, Water 7, Thriller Bark, Sabaody and Impel Down in English was just tearjerking to me, since the anime is non existent over here. As well as the fact that US Shonen Jump had chapters printing that were very close to the episodes airing in Japan (and still are in fact). Viz has also reprinted older volumes to ensure that new fans can know how many volumes making up each saga which I think is cool. As of this post Viz has released up to Volume 55 so far in English. Volume 56 is set to come out in February, I believe Volume 61 is set to be released in Japan in the same month so we will still be about 5 volumes behind Japan but thats better than being 30+ behind them. So even though Viz seems to be returning to their original printing schedule, at least we'll have so many volumes to read and admire until the newer ones are released.

1: (Spoilers: Please Highlight if you want to read)
The Deaths of Ace and Whitebeard and the Time Skip

Okay I'm technically cheating with this one. But I seriously could not choose between these two moments in the story mainly because they all had such a huge impact on me. I will admit the anime was a little slow for me this year, but it was still epic don't get me wrong. But the manga's story definitely affected me the most with the deaths of Ace and Whitebeard both broke tradition as they're both the first major characters to die outside of a flashback and how this event will affect not only the people close to them but everyone around them and even the nature of both the world and the story itself. Which of course leads us to the timeskip, never in a million years would I expect One Piece ever getting a timeskip, with the possible exception of the end of the series which would be slightly reminiscent to the end of the series' pilot Romance Dawn. But like I said, the deaths of these two characters broke ground and changed everything, it caused our main character Luffy to not only come to terms with the fact that his long brotherhood between himself and Ace is gone but to also grow up a little. He doesn't become an ultra serious, ripped tactician, he's still the same person he was before, but now he is a fully grown man learning not to just rush in blindly and only through this does he manage to become stronger and master haki. Of course this also affects the other Straw Hat pirates who still stand by their captain even when they are separated and build themselves up to become stronger in time for their reunion in 2 years. RIP, Portgas D Ace and Edward Newgate.

Mikey:
3: Return of Crocodile

It is clear that Crocodile is one of my favorite characters in One Piece. The guy was damn awesome in Alabasta as playing the cunning villain who was always three steps ahead of everybody. So when he returned during the Impel Down arc then that made me give a fangirl glee of joy. I just couldn't wait till the anime got around to show Crocodile walking around and just pimpslap everybody like he owns the place. Then lord and behold he did just that. Sables the Impel Down guards and Crescent Cutlass the Marines. Overall Crocodile was just pimping everybody that got in his way include big bad Whitebeard (or tried to).

2: The Rescue of Ace

I felt so much joy\once Luffy took his first steps on the execution platform and said, "I made it." and was able to put the key to Ace's freedom though the shackles. Then once the smoke cleared there was a burst of flames as we saw Ace, Luffy and Mr. 3 floating there. My heart literally sang when I saw that Ace was free. Then moments later Ace and Luffy went on a Marine butt kicking spear. Seeing those two brothers together made me so happy since clearly they love each and and the amazing part is that they are not really brothers. Now that made this moment really special to see.

The build up of the reunion of Ace and Luffy was nicely done as we saw Luffy struggle though Impel Down and then we found out that Luffy and Ace weren't really brothers and that he knew this fact the whole time. The two are not even blood related but Luffy still cares for Ace. Then we had the family struggles between Garp and Ace since Garp had to choose between his duty and family. In the end it was family that prevail as he allowed Luffy to rescue his grandson (who isn't even a blood relative of Ace either). It is such a touching story that has brought much joy when the moment that Ace's salvation finally came.

1: Viz Media's Manga Speed Up

No...Clicking this image will not take you to a site to buy the manga.

Boy did it suck spending $250 dollars for six months just on manga but it was well worth it. A manga speed up for One Piece was much needed since the series was almost eight years behind what was actually happening in Japan here in the United States. One of the major things that was keeping me from reading the One Piece manga was that it was so damn behind compare to what was actually happening. I remember watching Skypeia back in 2007 and was hoping to buy Shonen Jump to see what was happening later on but got disappointed to see it was braying going into Alabasta. Then when Viz started to push out the One Piece manga with five volumes a month I then realize I have no more excuses now and saw that it was time to support the manga. Now I have a whole row full of One Piece manga going from Volume 24 to 55.

It literally looks beautiful because it looks so colorful on the bookshelf compare to the rest of my manga collection. You can clearly see that One Piece dominates my bookshelf.  It is also great that I now have everything after Skypeia at my hands so it is easy to read. I don't even need a computer to read it especially now with OneManga gone, it is much harder to read the old One Piece chapters (and there is no way in heck I going to use that other site). If I want to read the death of the Going Merry then all I have to do is just pick up Volume 44 and read the last chapter in it while trying to suppress my tears. haha

Thank you Viz very so much for giving One Piece fans so much manga to love.

Some great moments right? Now how about you share some of your favorites One Piece 2010 moments in the comments.

Mikey's Predictions from Last Year
by Mikey
Remember last year when I predicted what will happen concerning One Piece? Well let take a look and see close I was to try to predict this unpredictable series.

Anime:
1) Funimation will announce they will dub and sub Movie 10: Strong World.- WRONG!
Yeah. We got nothing in terms of movies much less Strong World. I so wish this was true...


2) Start to see more episodes on the DVD sets starting late in 2010.- WRONG!
Another one of those things that I wish. Though here we are in December of 2010 and the DVDs still have thirteen episodes on them. Sigh....Maybe in 2011.

3) We will get a Baroque Works cover story episodes.- WRONG!
Another thing that I hoped but we didn't get. It would have been some nice filler and better then clipshows.

4) We will see a small filler maybe even an arc sometime during Impel Down.- WRONG!
We did get some filler but that was after Impel Down was over. Though we did get a lot of filler involving Buggy and Mr. 3 during Impel Down that could have been an arc. haha

5) We will see the end of the Impel Down arc by the end of this year.- WRONG! 
Yeah...Apparently we were done around June with Impel Down. Missed that one big time.

 Mikey's reaction when he realized got everything wrong for One Piece in 2010

Manga (SPOILERS: Highlight if want 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.- CORRECT!

Ace was saved...Then he got killed. Whitebeard was killed and it happen on screen but I got the killing part right! Lastly Kuma did prove to be helpful to the StrawHats since he watched over the ship for a while during the time skip. So I got most of it right. haha

2) The StrawHats will not be fully reunited till the end of the year.- CORRECT!

Meh...September/October is close enough to the end of the year. I am not complaining.

3) We won't be going to Fishman Island this year- WRONG!

Look like Oda wanted to prove me wrong. I came damn close to being right too but the last two chapters did show that we went to Fishman Island and after who knows how long of waiting we are there. Damn...And I came so close to being right too.

4) We will not see a person joining as the 10th crewmate.- CORRECT! 

This one I did get right! Come on guys! We are halfway though the story and I am sure that the StrawHats are going to pick somebody up in the New World who is familiar with it to join them. Now just watch as Oda makes them pick somebody up at Fishman Island...He would do that.

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.- WRONG!

I should have been more general. Should have said that Luffy would start controlling his haki or something. Oh well.

Overall
1) One Piece will grow in popularity even more especially in the cons as more One Piece cosplayers will be noticed.- Correct!
 Just look at the con section of the blog and see how many pictures of One Piece cosplayers there are. Even the VAs from Funimation have notice this. One Piece is rising up in popularity!

2) One Piece will see a TV deal sometime in 2010.- WRONG!
I wish but it hasn't happen yet. Still it seems like some fans one this and I am on that side that wants a One Piece TV deal.

3) The US manga will see decent sales as it is being released in the next couple of months- CORRECT!
I was right about this! As the Manga Speed Up went on, we saw One Piece hit the New York Times Best Sellers List for Manga and One Piece Vol 55 stayed on there for about two weeks. Pretty good! haha

4) We will see Viz attempt to do a simulcast manga by the end of the year with One Piece being one of the first in a group of other popular manga titles own by Viz.- WRONG!
No attempts but there seem to be rumblings as the manga companies in Japan seem to be working on something. Let see if 2011 will bring us closer to a legal simulcast manga of One Piece.

So I got about 9 misses and 5 hits. Hmm....Yeah...I don't think I will make any predictions this year.

What We Want to See in 2011 
Mikey: So 2010 has gave us many things including good and bad. Still with the old year coming to a  close we are about to enter a new year where many new things that can happen in One Piece concerning the anime, manga and fans. Exciting things are coming for anime fans including something huge in the upcoming month. Then for the manga fans we have so many twist and turns to see as Oda is in charge of driving this ship.

So many things to expect and hope for in 2011 concerning One Piece. One of the biggest things I am looking forward to is speculation for the series concerning the anime in the United States. Currently One Piece anime fans are worrying about One Piece being dropped or put on hold similar to Detective Conan, Shin Chan and Sgt. Frog. There is no known word from the StrawHat voice actors about them being in the recording booth and no release dates for anything passed Season 3, Fifth Voyage. Personally I think One Piece the anime is going to be fine and we will hear something concerning what will be consider Season 4 in the near future. Not too afraid if S3V5 got push back a few months. Just wait a little bit and see what happens and eventually Funimation will announce street dates for things beyond S3V5. Then everybody can keep quiet about how One Piece is failing in the United States. Also come on lets face it, if a series like Bleach can still find itself being dubbed and distributed with the sells it is racking in then One Piece is good.

I just know that the manga storyline is going to get better and better. Oda may drag his feet at some points but eventually it will just skyrocket as the guy is a master in cliffhanging. Just give us more about the world and surely we will be happy especially now that everybody's favorite rubber-band pirates are back together. haha

Superneku: So as the year ends, we are finally at Fishman Island with new discoveries and explorations (also fights) to behold. But we still have a lot of the world we haven't seen yet due to the major events at Marineford like the Blackbeard Pirates or more of the Marines. But for now, we'll explore the New World as we head towards the new year. I realize thats not a lot to think of right now, but in terms of the rest of the story and franchise I really cannot think of anything else beyond what we haven't seen in post-timeskip so far. I'm sorry if that doesn't satisfy you but thats it.

Mikey: The year 2010 was a great year to be a One Piece fan. So many records in Japan were broken and some of them were records that One Piece itself set earlier in the year. Even if things cool down for One Piece it will still be kick butt itself.

It has been a great time covering One Piece in 2010 and I can speak on behalf of the whole staff, SuperNeku and Sora, that we had so much fun doing it. Don't expect us to slow down either as we are planning to go into 2011 in full steam. Covering every episode in the anime in detail while the manga will be covered in vigor. Expect so much new content as well with the new Art Piece as well an interview with J. Micheal Tatum from OniCon2010 within the next month. We just hope that all you readers will stay with us in 2011 and leave us some great comments!

Onwards to 2011!