#and btw. only other time oda appears in the main series?

[flowers-of-buffoonery]

*gnawing at own forearm* do you ever think about the fact that the only time we clearly see oda in the main series is right when dazai's about to go on a speech that presents bsd's underlying philosophy & driving force for the agency?

"An ex-hitman has no right to turn good." ...do you really think that? That's utter nonsense.

of course it's nonsense – because turning good is what oda wanted for himself, even before he wanted it for dazai. oda didn't want to kill; he wanted to write. of course turning good is achievable – because that's what oda was trying to do. for dazai, that's proof enough that it's possible. he believes it because oda did.

and then!! he keeps going!!!

so you want to be good. you killed people and you want to be good and you don't think you can be, because of who you've been until now.

What should one do when what they want is at odds with reality?

you do what oda did, what the agency does: you fight for it, because that's all you can do.

What do we fight for? How should we live? Nobody can give us the answers to these questions – all we have is the right to agonize over them.

all you can do is try to make it happen, stumbling the entire way, getting lost trying to find your answers. recklessly dashing through the gutter, like stray dogs caked in mud.

this is what dazai believes, because he's seen it happen – with oda, and then with the agency. the ADA gives out second chances to anyone who's trying to be good, to fight to create meaning for themselves.

oda told dazai to be good, and the agency gave him the opportunity to act on it. so when he's trying to convince kyouka that she, too, can be good – that she can join the agency and leave the darkness she's been living in... of course he thinks of oda. of course.

[drkandraz]

What Makes One Piece Worth It?

One Piece is one of the most popular (and for good reason) shounen series ever, if not the most popular (at least in Japan). It is an epic of grand scale that takes the reader along with the characters for adventures in the huge sprawling world made by Oda-sensei. However, due to this fact, it is a very difficult series to start without feeling like you are not making any progress. That, coupled with the very deliberately slow starts in any shounen, makes it an almost impenetrable series to newcomers, who are encouraged to start from the beginning. Despite this, fans will still claim that the slow crawl through the first 3-4 arcs is worth it. Why? Let’s find out! (Btw, I’ll assume you know roughly what One Piece is about just so I don’t have to discuss that first)

Do you see that gif there? That character is Brook. He is one of the Straw Hats (the main crew of characters the show focuses on). His first appearance is 442 chapters into the manga and 337 episodes into the anime. That is a ridiculous amount of time to meet one of your main characters, even when they don’t become so right away. This is a perfect example of the planning and deliberation that Oda-sensei puts into every facet of One Piece and its Universe. If a character is mentioned 80 chapters in, he might actually appear at about the 520 mark. This is the slow boil at which Oda-sensei and his world operate and this is why many people don’t make it to the Grand Line with the Straw Hats before dropping the series altogether (and I don’t blame them, I did too). But this is also what makes One Piece great. Since the writer has already set up all the plot points, characters and world beforehand, he is free to explore the world within the limitations already set by himself years before. This allows him to relax whenever he has writer’s block since the plot is basically already written and all he has to do is set up the details, which make this an ideal situation for a manga whose main theme is adventure.

So, where does that leave new readers? It leaves them with the recommendation to “start from the beginning and stick with it” until, the arc most people say made them stay with the series, Arlong Park, the fifth arc in the series and about chapter 70. This is obviously a tough enough engagement, especially taking into account the fact that the previous arcs feel like old shounen tropes put together in a blender, mixed, and then, to add even more boredom, making the backstories of the crew members joining in those arcs pretty boring and standard (except you, Sanji, I love you, muah). It’s easy to see the barrier to entry here similar to older SMT games or the Kingdom Hearts storyline. Sadly, the truth is that the only way One Piece may be fully enjoyed is by seeing it all happen from the very beginning, with its old shitty shounen syndrome (which is in some cases almost completely rectified by later arcs).

So the question remains: What makes this all worth it? Well, it’s exactly this slowness of the series’ pace (in its grand plot, the individual arcs move along just fine) that allows its world to become real, vivid and full. It never lets the reader stop believing that it is all real and it wallows in its bizarre and kooky network of relationships between characters, locations, fight systems (really, this series has like 10 different anime magic fighting systems and they all work beautifully together) etc. The characters’ history, relationships, traumas, hardships and small joys are all a joy to behold and then see play out in their motivations and actions afterwards and before their reveal. Every character is a complex human (or animal, I guess) being and each tiny piece is a step toward the puzzle of One Piece’s world and goal, the eponymous treasure. But most of all, One Piece is worth it because of the prevailing theme of Dreams: every Straw Hat has a dream (to become Pirate King, to find All Blue, etc.), every villain has a dream, from the simplest of survival, greed and control over others to the most complex of “Absolute Justice” or revenge upon the whole world. The world in filled with people who dream, who dare, who want, who cease. In other words, One Piece’s is a world filled with passion, the essential emotion of any shounen. This…is what makes One Piece worth it.

Now, a couple of mentions: If you are planning to watch One Piece, you should know that the anime, while good, cannot compare to the manga. From terrible pacing problems (which are inherent to an adaptation of something made very specifically with manga in mind, not necessarily a criticism to the makers of the show) to sometimes stupid looking animation, it can only work as a companion piece to the manga at certain points. However, put that soundtrack on when it matches a moment in the manga, cause it is awesome and a great fit for the series.

In conclusion, One Piece is a huge investment, but it is a well worth it investment, in my opinion. Its slow moments only build up to grander and grander adventures to come and the world only gets deeper and deeper the more you read about it. If you are up to it, I recommend this as a rabbit hole you merrily (puns) jump into.