Manga: Chapter 663 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

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Anime: Straw Hat Reunion Arc- Episode 522

                                              

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First Thoughts 

First things first: so glad to be back in the review business! I missed this so much, and am overjoyed to have returned to this near-regularity once more. Things should get moving here soon, and more is still to come, so keep looking out for these Anime Reviews! Now, onto the episode, one of my favorites in this short arc.

The best part of watching this episode was the animation of Sanji’s nosebleed. That and Luffy’s reaction to his crew members made the episode excellent. To someone who had not read the manga in advance, this episode was filled with surprises and excitement, all of which were impressively brought to life from their ink and paper origins.

I tried something new for this review: I watched the episode then I read the chapter afterwards.  I will turn this into a habit in order to improve my understanding of the episode and my ability to convey what the anime improved or elaborated on from the manga.

Manga: Chapter 656 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

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Manga: Jump into the New World with Shonen Jump Alpha!

Prepare for the New World! Pre-Order Shonen Jump Alpha now! 

The end of this month will premiere the debut issue of Shonen Jump Alpha. This will be the best (legal) way to read the latest manga chapters of One Piece and several other Weekly Shonen Jump titles from Japan.

A weekly internet publication is something that One Piece fans have been asking after for years. Shonen Jump Alpha will contain a reliable and accurate translation done by long time One Piece fan and translator, Stephan Paul (Regular contributor on The One Piece Podcast). You get to read a year’s worth of manga from six popular series including One Piece straight from Japan for only $25 dollars a year.

The best part is that you will be going to the New World the right way.

Anime: Straw Hat Reunion Arc- Episode 520

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First Thoughts
Brook has really been playing up the rock star personality. I guess that when you are a rock star, dumping a bottle of water on yourself is normal. This must have been portrayed in a different show but I can't remember where. Either way, this was clearly a Brook episode.

This episode had other noteworthy moments but Brook was the focal point. You did see a scene featuring Caribou’s brutality and some awesome moments with Franky but those moments weren’t the first things I remembered about this episode.

Whatever the reason, Brook the Rock Star was the reason why we watched this episode.

Anime: Straw Hat Reunion Arc- Episode 518

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First Thoughts

This week's episode felt a bit weak compared to the episode from last week. You may have noticed that there was a lot of filler material in the episode. Filler material isn't a bad thing but it can be bad because  it can slow the pace of the episode. If you didn’t notice a slow pace then please let me know.

It is unfortunate because this episode has some good moments in it.

Anime: Opening 15- We Go!

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First Thoughts
You may have noticed that Episode 517 was full of action. Normally discussion of a new title sequence is within the anime review of the episode it premiered in. This time the review will be broken into two parts.

Episode 517 premiered Opening 15, “We Go,” the spiritual successor to “We Are.” It is fitting because the series is starting at the beginning in a way. The new theme is opening that will start a new chapter in the series.

So how about we go into this review!

Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 515

 

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Thoughts

This was a great episode to watch the first time through. Every scene felt meaningful and added another layer of depth to the characters that were focused on in this episode.

Then I had a second viewing of this episode. It was not as fun to watch and I wanted to skip to the highlights. This does not occur often when I re-watch episodes. Maybe it is because I know that cool things are in store very soon and that all of this is just set up.

The revelation at the end of the episode had the same impact through both viewing. I will get to that later in the post.

Also a reminder, next week is the premiere of Opening 15, We Go.

Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 512

What did you just say? Is it about my face? Oh no, it is just this great episode at OnePieceOfficial.com. Silly me.

First Thoughts

This episode ended up being quite excellent. It spotlighted a wide variety of characters, and conveyed a lot of information that was very interesting to hear. Not a lot of time was spent in any one location either, so I did not have to worry all that much about being immersed in a (bleh) pink landscape as much as I had initially imagined. Still, this was a fantastic episode, and I loved it. Every moment of the episode was incredible fun, and there was never a dull moment. This was an awesome episode through and through, especially involving the depiction of the ending. It was an instant classic.

Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 513

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First Thoughts 
Whoever that is in charge of merchandising for One Piece needs to get to work on creating a huge Bepo pillow. I would be willing to import one just so I can have it in my room. There will be many fans who would do the same. Screw all of those Chopper merchandise. We need more Bepo merchandise.

This episode moved pretty fast. I was very surprise to see how much was covered before the eyecatcher came. It was kind of strange since I thought we were only one-fourth though the episode when the eyecatacher appeared. It turns out that we were already at the fourteen minute mark. That is a sign of a good episode.

I still want a giant Bepo pillow.

Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 511

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First Thoughts
Alright Rayleigh. Alright. You are cool now. You are cool. You used to be some old dude for whom I did not care much. Still, if you are going to shoot bullets at cannonballs and the cannonballs explode in midair, then you have my seal of approval. This little moment made me a believer in Rayleigh.

This episode is proof that the anime production can introduce entertaining filler material. I never really had a problem with filler material. As long as the material is not outlandish or it does not last too long, then it is okay. One Piece seems to avoid extraneous filler material, which is positive for the continued appeal of the series. In this case the material expanded upon the manga’s depicted plot .

Also we got to see Rayleigh do cool things. That is always nice.

Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 509

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First Thoughts 
This episode had a lot of cool things to look at. Zoro himself is cool to watch and add a bit of Mihawk and Perona you have a party! Then we have Brook who is always a riot.

To tell the truth, I so really enjoyed watching this episode the first time around but it does not seem to do well in reruns. Either way it was a fun episode to watch as we get bits of information here and there via Mihawk.

Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 507

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First Thoughts
You know....it is scenes like the one above that help 'inspire' the boob fan art that you see all over the place. The ones where you see characters with SUPER huge boobs that in no way is possible in real life and totally look wrong.

Also those are some very badly drawn breast on Hancock. Even worse then what you see in the boob fan art.

Then again it was counterbalance by Rayleigh's manliness. So it all worked out.

Mikey's Note: Trying out something different with this post. Just play along and let me know what you think about this format. Maybe I continue this for future anime posts.

Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 505

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First Thoughts
Oh my! I don't care what anybody says. I truly believe that the anime is better then the manga. It is episodes like this one that makes me really love the anime. It is times like this where the anime takes what they are give and then improve upon it ten times. The manga is good and all but the anime just knows how to take it and fill in the blanks and shine the good parts even more.

Also I got a lot of screencaps of Makino. That is always good....I don't have a problem!

Also lots of StrawHat crew images. Wow.....

Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 503

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First Thoughts
I was so expecting tears when I went into this episode. You had the death of Sabo follow by his last words to his brother. How can a person not expect tears to happen.

This episode wasn't perfect though. There was one moment that made me wish to turn off my volume which I was close to doing. Overall the episode was everything I expected when it came to covering the material at the same time was able to add more to it.

Also Mikey is back to blogging. He shouldn't since he still has a convention report to do.

Anime: Post Marineford Arc- Episode 498

I don't watch filler often but when I do it is on OnePieceOfficial.com

First Thoughts
Meh....To tell the truth we get filler a lot via other animes we saw and though Marineford.  So I guess the above statement is a bit of a lie. Still as mention before not all filler is bad since it kind of help fill in the cracks that Oda left behind.

I figure we would get some filler episodes but I was kind of hoping that I will not work on said episodes but I guess I was wrong. At least this week's episode had cooler manga contend then this week's. The episode mostly seems interesting and surely somebody at Toei is milking young Luffy for all that he is worth. haha

Manga: Chapter 620 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

You know what goes great with tea? One Piece manga from Viz.

Anime: Marineford Arc- Episode 487

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First Thoughts 
In the town where I was born~,
Lived a man, who sailed the seas,
And he told~ us of his life,
In the land of submarine~,

Enough of that. I am sure that many of you know why I am singing that song but incase you don't know the song then take a listen to Yellow Submarine by The Beatles.

This episode did have it low moments but when the show was on a high moment it really was really high! So many great things happen that would make any One Piece fan squeal in excitement. We had Crocodile being awesome and such an great ending to the episode. What more can we ask for? Well beside pacing things that something fans asks for a long time. Still a fun episode.

Anime: Marineford Arc- Episode 483

First Thoughts 
Mikey: So here we are. After so many long years, One Piece has finally seen it's first real time death. Some people may say that we have seen death in real time but really this is the first real time death of a character that we knew. A character where the overall objective was to save him and along the way we saw some development via flashbacks and appearances.

Kind of hard to put what I want to say in words. This was an amazing episode that had an ending that left me speechless. Just like the last few minutes where there was no music playing to create silence, so was everybody else who were watching this episode.

To join me in this post I have Neku and Sora. Say hi guys.

Superneku: Hi everyone.

Sora: 'Sup.

Mikey: Also I guess the opening image for this post is a bit strange but I wanted to use the same scene that was used for the manga post which was done almost a year ago. Still for now sit down as we try to go over the events of this episode.

Manga: Chapter 607 (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! 

Don't panic! There is a lot of One Piece manga from Viz to get for Christmas!