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Review One Piece (East Blue Saga)

This will probably be my last attempt to make a review on this particular series, as still being an ongoing manga. And thus, shall we begin?
The anime adaptation done by Toei Animation is probably the cringiest thing ever done since trendings, which you know, is something too dumb to exist. The manga though is something too good to be true, especially the beginning which I will be talking about in this review.

The manga of "One Piece" begins with Gold D. Roger (King of the Pirates) about to be executed. At that moment, he shouts to the crowd that his treasure is exactly where he left it but that to find it, one must search the whole world. This sparked the Golden Age of Pirates in which countless pirates raise their flags and set off to find One Piece.

East Blue is the introductory saga of the series, this is when Monkey D. Luffy meets Shanks as a young boy living in East Blue and where Luffy recruits most of his crew, which, ultimately, is where the adventure begins. Also, this saga is made up of six story arcs, which are Romance Dawn, Orange Town, Syrup Village, Baratie, Arlong Park and Loguetown which leads to Reverse Mountain, Whiskey Peak, and Drum Island.

The East Blue Saga focuses mainly on Luffy setting off for the "Grand Line" and gathering crewmates. During the saga, Luffy gains four comrades: Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji and earns a bounty of 30,000,000 berries. The first crewmate is Zoro, a brutal swordsman that was being held captive by the son of a maritime chief, Helmeppo. Then, the second crewmate is officially Usopp since Nami used Luffy for her own purpose. Usopp is a boy that is always causing chaos telling lies to the people of the village. He has three boy friends who follow him on their adventures of making lies, making Usopp a real "pirate." In the city of Syrup, there is a girl named Kaya who is a young girl who lives in the largest mansion in the village and who has two butlers, one named Merry and one named Kuro. But Kuro is also introduced to the reader as the chief of the Black Cat Pirates. He intends to take over the city but Usopp discovers the plans from behind and tries to stop him but as Usopp is already recognized as a liar, the villagers do not believe him and therefore only Luffy's crew is able to stop him. Luffy and his crew manage to contain the situation and rescue Kaya and the rest of the village, causing Usopp to join his crew and win an official boat they call Merry Go/Going Merry. The next arc of the story is the Baratie Arc. Since Kaya has given them a new ship, Luffy's crew tries to get a logo for the name of the pirates and the name they choose is Pirates of the Straw Hat (or "Mugiwara Pirates" / "Straw Hat Pirates"). Luffy and Usopp begin to experience the things that the boat offers them and end up accidentally firing a cannon at a ship that apparently passes through that area. The hunters attack back and Zoro recognizes that it is their fellow hunters, Johnny and Yosaku. The crew let Zoro's companions ship and Nami ends up healing her wounds. The crew quickly realizes they need a cook because it is very important not to die and to stay healthy in the middle of the sea, so the two hunters tell them about a floating ship that exists called Baratie. When they arrive, they enter a fight with a Marine called Fullbody and this one has to shoot a cannon but Luffy uses (once again) the skill of its fruit and sends back the cannon that had been fired, nevertheless it fails in the boat of the marines and Hits the floating boat, Baratie. While Luffy tries to arrange an alternative for the damage he has caused to the owner of the boat, Sanji comes on the scene. After Luffy defeats Krieg, Sanji ends up joining Luffy's crew (because his dream is to find All Blue) and the crew follows in a small boat towards the next adventure. The crew then keeps looking for Nami and the Merry Go. Johnny and Yosaku suspect she is going to Arlong Park because, by the time they were together at Merry Go, Nami kept looking at the wanted poster of Arlong, and moreover, there is nowhere else to go from that particular place in the middle of the sea. When Nami arrives near the big gates of Arlong Park, she sees a little boy who is trying to avenge his father's death. Right now, Nami gives him his stick upstairs and gives him money for him to go home and it is at this point that the reader is told that (actually) Nami is part of Arlong's crew. Usopp, Zoro, and Johnny arrive on the island but Zoro is left behind by the other two. Zoro ends up being caught by the pirates while Usopp is inconsistent with the boy from earlier and so Johnny is the only one who escapes. At the same time, Luffy, Sanji, and Yosuka are attacked by a sea cow but Luffy deals with the situation, using it to get to Arlong Park. Usopp wakes up at Nojiko's house, a village villager who quickly discovers that she is Nami's sister. At the same time, Zoro discovers that Nami works for Arlong as an official navigator, Nami's past is here discovered and so it is here that she discovers why what her goals are and why it is so difficult for her to be like this. Very briefly, Nami wants to save the village from the tyranny of Arlong and that for this, had the plan to raise enough money to buy the island to Arlong, making with the island was independent and that, finally, it did not have to do with the Arlong Park. The crew of Luffy enters the scene at the same time and before Arlong manages to identify who Luffy is, Luffy punches him with a brave punch by knocking him against one of the walls of his Arlong Park and is starting from this punch that begins The fight between the man-fish pirates and Luffy's crew. Eventually, Luffy wins and Nami decides (definitely) to join the Mugiwara as an official navigator. It is in the passage from Arlong Park to Loguetown that Luffy discovers that he had his head on the prize, thus worth 30 million Berries but he feels confident and happy even though Nami makes him see all the responsibility that is going to be to flee to the Marines not to be captured. The trudge decides that Loguetown is a good place to refuel some supplies and to get something to eat. Zoro decides to buy new swords since Mihawk has destroyed his old ones but inside the store, he encounters a familiar (or so he thinks), the crew separates and each one will buy things to his liking. This girl named Tashigi is extremely similar to her childhood friend, Kuina, and inside the store, she helps him choose some swords.
Meanwhile, Sanji, Usopp, and Nami decide to buy supplies for the boat and finally, Luffy decides to see the place where the king of pirates was executed, Gold D. Roger. Captain Smoker, a Marine, is informed of the situation and decides to execute Luffy before being involved. Nami foresees a storm soon and therefore prepares the ship ready for departure, Zoro and Sanji will save Luffy while Usopp stays with Nami in the boat. After the whole fuss, Luffy is miraculously released and flees to the Merry Go but Smoker chases him in his personalized speck. Eventually, Luffy and Sanji are saved by the Revolutionary leader, Dragon (who is an all-out figure), and they manage to escape along with the rest of the crew at Merry Go and that's how the crew sees their destiny, the Grand Line.

The East Blue Saga is a great start to the series and possibly one of the best sagas I've ever had the pleasure of collecting. The saga is slowly introducing characters as it develops small information about people previously revealed. It also has small cultural references as the concept of each character for each crew or from where came the idea of writing a story of pirates.
It is mainly the art that makes the manga, as the story is interconnected between the characters, the reading of the story is continuous and from there, it is simply impossible to stop reading. There are some things defined by Eiichiro Oda that I don't agree with, like Luffy's followed victories or Luffy's excessive protagonist during the saga, although I find normal the conviviality between the characters. However, I feel that Usopp or Sanji didn't have their 'zen' moment but I believe in its potential.

I recommend the East Blue saga to anyone who believes in Eiichiro Oda, One Piece and all the potential that the introduction story makes known to the reader.

Story: 8 | Art: 10 | Character: 9 | Enjoyment: 9
Score: 9

Personal Note: The actual manga volumes done by VIZ are my all-time favorite volumes and look awesome on the shelf and I personally love the shiny volumes which are almost exclusively to East Blue and Alabasta arcs, respectively.

Attack on Titan is an absolute masterpiece. I say that with no hesitancy, and with no doubt. Its story is so masterfully crafted from start to finish, each story beat perfectly referencing every story element that came before it, that it remains unparalleled by any other series. It has overtaken every other series on my list of greatest anime & manga of all time, particularly for having one of the most profound, meaningful, emotional, philosophical, psychological, topical, diverse, epic, disturbing, impactful, interesting, cohesive, deliberate, inventive, and flawless stories ever conceived. It addresses and comments on an insane variety of deep & controversial topics - everything ranging from nihilism, religion, & xenophobia to historical alteration, governmental corruption & international diplomacy - and asks all the right questions regarding everything worth thinking about, from the purpose of life & our shared human flaws to ambiguous morality & what it means to live. All of this is presented via a powerful cast whom all go through substantial & meaningful character development throughout, acting as the perfect set of eyes to perceive these events as they unfold and to appreciate the ingenious delivery of the story as a whole.

You're in for one hell of a mind-blowing ride, so sit back, take in all the little details with the incredibly expansive world-building, and enjoy the unforgettable experience of a lifetime.

I see a lot of people eagerly wrote off the series by the first few chapters.
But now that we are 13 chapters in, I can confidently say that the series has grown a lot.

Story - The story was great from the beginning. Especially the lore and workings of this series, the world building, etc has been good and it has only become better since then.

Art - The art in the beginning was rough and was hard to understand. But it has immensely improved since then and the art has become a lot better. The colour panels especially looks hella impressive.

Characters - The characters were seen as boring and bland in the beginning and a lot of people judged everything off of the first few chapters. But the characters have got a lot more development now and I am emotionally invested in them. A lot more intrigue has also been built on other characters but Hachimaru has grown the most as a character.

Enjoyment - I am really enjoying Samurai 8. I wasn't this invested in the beginning but I kept reading it because I knew that Kishi will come through. And honestly, I am glad I kept reading it cause now, the series is way more better than it was in the beginning.

Overall I would say, everyone should give this series a chance till chapter 13. You will find yourself enjoying the series and it's themes. You won't regret it.

Lolicon Phoenix is a perfectly self-aware parody of the superhero genre. It is not for everyone due to its obvious main theme, yes, but if your morals allow you to laugh at it, it's hilarious.

This manga focuses on absurd and unlikely situations, with the randomness involved being not unlike the level of works such as Gintama. The protagonist is only a speck better off than villains, which itself results in various quality slapstick situations that are even more comedic due to the fact that most of the cast are either extremely buff macho men or little girls. The humor could have gotten repetitive in the long run, but three volumes are exactly the right amount for it to work.

The art is not detailed or otherwise outstanding, but in the context of gag manga, the simplicity of the drawings works perfectly well.

Again, this isn't a comedy that is going to work for everyone, but if you're not offended by the concept itself, give it a try.

Honestly, I couldn't give two shits about the story. I was so zoned out by the fact that he just does whatever that its hard even remembering what happened in the previous chapters much less remembering the characters and their respective names and characteristics.

Some may enjoy it. It certainly is an OP MC, but the real turn off to me was how lackluster the perverted, unafraid of sex main character felt to me. He felt more like a serial rapist then being the opposite of the lonely virgin trope. Plus his abilities are so random I don't even remember if he had the abilities before, or if there was some sort of deity involved, or perhaps it just came out of thin air. Who knows.

Not my kind of story.

This is a fun little story to read. Nothing ground breaking, Just something to read to get some humor.

3 things i want to mention that bugged me.

1. The fact that even after the MC gets turned into a girl by his friend. The MC still is friends with him. I in all honesty would love for the MC to be like no i hate you now or something along those lines.

2. This one ties in with the 3rd. But the story has a female childhood friend ( Can't remember her name ) But she is the one that i feel should be shipped with the MC. They are honestly an adorable couple and would make sense for these two to get together than with the guy who changed the MC into a female.

3. There was this interesting thing near the end. Everyone forgot that the MC was originally a boy. The MC's female childhood friend is one of the only ones to remember. I think it may have been interesting for the story to end with only the two of them and the fairies to the only ones to remember.

Fun story. Recommend you don't take this seriously.

To me this is one of those manga that offers quite an enjoyable ride but nothing more. I can not see myself coming to back to Abara as it does not offer a lot.

Story:6
Not the most original thing I ever read but it is enjoyable. The story is told without much exposition or explanation from the characters. Not a lot of explanation behind the power system or the events that take place. I don't mind the lack of exposition, as it gives the story a cinematic feel (kind of like that movie 'The Angel Egg'), but there will be times when you will be confused and you will wonder if you accidentlly skiped some dialogue. When you get to the end you will probably have the story figured out, so all I said here does not really mean anything. I like the climax.

Art:7
Not much to say about the art. It's great, although some fights are a bit confusing. The flow could have been fixed with 2-3 bonus panels here and there.
Cool monster design. Really sells a parasitic like figure.

Characters:5
They exist only so that the story can move forward. I forgive this because, just like the story, the characters don't show what they think and feel. Again, a cinematic feel.

Enjoyment:6
As I said in the begining, despite being a bit confusing, Abara is enjoyable and worth your time. It's a fast read since it's short and there is not much dialogue.Recommenddddddddd

The story is fast-paced and not really well explained. The animation is terrific, it seems as though the author tells the story through his animation. The world is dark, bleak and controlled by guanas (black is good, white's bad) that metamorph into Akira like super beasts. There is a counter organization that never really gets fully explained, but is the main defense for mankind. The action was epic, with heads and bodies being ripped apart. Overall, it was a pretty good sci-fi short read.

So this is the first review I have every written so please forgive me if I miss somethings as I am writing this after I have blitzed the shit out of the story in one day. This manga is the definition of an edgy train wreck, what started out as an interesting premise of a girl getting revenge on her class goes into an interesting psychological story which shows the main characters intriguing progression as she starts feeling different ways. This goes on for most of the story until the ending because my god the finale of this story is such a fucking train wreck full of OMG plot twists that the story goes from being interesting to being the edgiest of edge lords. The whole psychological part of the story is thrown out the fucking window as so many OMG moments happen at the end that the finale loses all meaning the story offered in the first place. Having the character basically become useless at the end was horrible to watch as it didn't feel like karma in this story was distributed right. Many of the characters get off surprisingly scott free and the point where you expect everybody to die in the end doesn't come out in a very satisfying way. Also wow fuck the and the story goes on dumb ass cliche.
TL;DR Overall the story is fucking awful, starts out okay and interesting but quickly devolves into a shitty trying to be to weirdly shocking train wreck as everything gets blown WAY out of proportion. Skip this one.

I did not really come at this looking for a delinquent style "hilarious" manga, since I do not really care about that. What I wanted was some more Parasyte, and Iwaaki definitely delivers!

For me, the humor derived from his works starts and ends with the art, and this was some of the funniest. Nomura's straight, excessively wide mouthed :| face at the beginning to display his indifference is really humorous and carries the first several pages. When Nomura wakes up to an eyeless world on page 11, the humor jumps into overdrive, keyed around the middle panel on the page where the eyeless doctor dismisses the problem with a simple "That's astounding!" and overly happy grin.

Now, there are some weak points to the story. An example would be the indifference Nomura shows to a gang beating, and his sudden surprise and clichéd responses to the situation. There is also too much of an exaggerative cynicism with no one wanting to stop little kids from getting too rough with each other. I felt the character of Nomura's girlfriend, Fuyumi, was a bit too simplistic and detracted from the story. In the end, these flaws should not really matter much for enjoyment purposes with this being a 44 page one shot, but it is the reason for my 8/10 rating. If you enjoyed other works by Iwaaki, then read this!