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Apr 19, 2023

"One Piece": Buddy Bonding During a Quest to Own Everything in the World


 One Piece, a Japanese anime series on Netflix with a 95% "similarity" rating.   The only one-pieces I've heard of are ballet leotards.  Maybe it's set in a ballet school, with muscles and bulges.  

Prologue:  No such luck.  This is about pirates. Back story: years ago, the King of Pirates buried a treasure, "everything the world has to offer," so now thousands of pirate ships are scouring the oceans, looking for it.  Um...those would be scavengers.

Scene 1:  Some sailors see a barrel floating in the ocean, and pull it aboard, even though their shipmates are  screaming with rage and yelling "You suck!"  I can't imagine what their beef is.  

Meanwhile, at a fancy ball on a cruise ship  -- the same ship? -- redhead girl is asked to dance.  

Suddenly pirates attack!  Everyone at the fancy ball panics, except for the redhead girl, who just smiles.


The pirate leader, Iron Club Alvida, forces the crew to say that she's the most beautiful woman on the ocean.  They all board rhe cruise ship except for Coby, a frightened pink-haired boy.  She assaults him.

This is not what Coby looks like in this episode.  He must grow up.

Scene 2: The pirates have entered the ball room: "We won't take yer lives, but we'll take yer valuables." (That's what the subtitles say.)  

Coby runs into the kitchen, and finds the barrel that the sailors pulled out of the ocean earlier (the one that made their shipmates furious).  The pirates follow and break it open: it contains a boy!  They attack, but he easily subdues them, and introduces himself to Coby as Monkey D. Luffy.  Maybe they'll have a gay subtext buddy-bond.

Meanwhile the redhead girl puts on a pirate uniform and swings over to the pirate ship.  She kicks a guard in the balls, and smiles for about ten seconds.  

Scene 3: Luffy is hungry, so he raids the kitchen.  He explains that his ship got swallowed by the maelstrom in Scene 1, and he escaped by sealing himself in a barrel. Apparently he's a paranormal being, maybe a trickster god.   Coby tells us his back story: he was out fishing one day, when he was shanghaied by the pirate queen and forced to work as a chore boy.

Luffy: "Why didn't you just run away?  You're dumb and stupid, and a wimp.  I hate you!"  So much for the gay subtext.

Meanwhile, the redhead girl is investigating the pirate ship.


More plot dump: Luffy is planning to become King of the Pirates, a title given to the person who "finds everything in this world."  That's a lot of booty.  No, wait, these subtitles must be off.  He's not looking for everything in the world, just a single object called the One-Piece. Sort of like the One Ring that gives you infinite power, and allows you to take over?

Coby has a goal, too: to join the navy, and catch bad guys like pirates.  Uh-oh, conflict!

Scene 4:  Having eaten, Luffy needs a new ship: "I wonder if they would give me this one, if I asked nicely."  But at that moment Alvida the Pirate Queen arrives.  He disparages her beauty, which makes her furious. He grabs Coby and flies to the upper deck.  There he subdues some regular pirates by stretching out his arm and boomeranging back.  

When Alvida approaches again, Coby stands up to her, disparaging her beauty and stating that he's going to join the navy, while Trickster God laughs.  She attacks, but Luffy deflects her blows onto himself, and of course he can't be hurt.  He punches her into the stratosphere.

Meanwhile, the redhead girl is leaving with the pirate booty.

Scene 5:  The navy arrives!  Coby and Luffy grab a small boat and leave to avoid capture.  Couldn't he just clobber them all?  

Luffy still needs a crew.  He suggests recruiting the pirate-hunter Zoro, who is incarcerated at a navy base. Coby is opposed to the idea: Zoro is a bad guy.  They argue.

Cut to the navy base, on a small island.  Zoro is tied to a stake in the courtyard.  He grimaces.  The end.


Beefcake:
  No. But in the One-Piece movie, also on Netflix, all of the male characters are semi-shirtless, with spectacular physiques.  Maybe I'll review that next.

Gay Characters: Coby and Luffy have a gay-subtext buddy-bond, right now, but the redhead girl will no doubt be joining them, and become the object of  heterosexual desire for one or both.

Culture Clash:  Why were the sailors so upset over pulling a barrel out of the ocean?  

Why does Luffy insult Coby and say that he hates him, when he obviously likes him?  

 Why is a person who owns everything in the world called the King of the Pirates instead of The Emperor or the Supreme Leader?  

Why would a trickster god have to work hard to own everything in the world?  Doesn't he control it already?

Maybe these things make sense to Japanese viewers, or maybe they're explained in later episodes.

Will I Continue to Watch: Holy cow, there are over 1,000 episodes!  One a day for the next three years!  I don't think so.

See also: Three One-Piece Movies in One Sitting

6 comments:

  1. it is also a hugely popular long running manga series. if you get through them, the first 6-12 episodes should give you most of the back-story (as i recall) & by the end of the first 24 eps the basic scenario of the series is set up & it's (mostly) a long/endless-journey adventure story after that, with many battles against many villains, & only slow changes to luffy's crew & basic circumstances. (they eventually get a hulk-transforming sentient reindeer named mister choppers, they acquire/change ships, etc.)

    luffy is pretty asexual. lots of male bonding; his crew is mostly-male. there is some stuff with the redheaded girl & other female characters come & go, but it's pretty much always to do with other guys in the crew, &/or other male characters; luffy is pretty much clueless-indifferent to women or sex.

    he's actually got a huge daddy crush on this older brother/father figure pirate, who gave him his straw hat.

    cannot RECAll if there are any openly gay characters or not. (if i remember right the original author/creator is either an ally or gay; but don't hold me to that, i am going from sketchy memories of things i read years ago, cannot google-research it just now)

    it's basically a cartoon pirates high-fantasy adventure. good fun if you're up for it. i like it in moderate doses once in a while. luffy has a definite cross-spectrum fandom. he is complete idiot in the wise/lucky fool sort of way, always hungry &/or eating, cute guy, fit, pretty much eternally 17 (compare with ash ketchum, the perpetual ~12 year old of pokemon), & very good hearted & earnest. he's almost always lightly dressed, sometimes shirtless, & there is lots of fan yaoi/hentai/etc. content out there. i rather like him myself.

    hope that helps w/o giving away too much? xD

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  2. did my last post send? i got a wierd "behaviour" from the page when i hit "publish"

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    1. goog good; did not want to try re-typing all of that. hope i did not over-explain; i'm moderately fond of the series, in limited doses. it's good epic adventure fun.

      i think boy-hood you would have really liked luffy(/ruffi pronunciation varies with that l/r thing) & the show; & there is MUCH less cheese-cake heterosexism than average for manga-anime (but not zero).

      hope your covid episode was brief & is fully recovered for of both you? sorry i'm crap @ keeping up on the comments threads; it's hard to keep track so hit & miss, depending on where i wander in your blogs...

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    2. I watched the second episode, and was upset when Coby decided to stay behind. I also wondered how there can be much conflict with someone who is not only invulnerable, but can stretch out instantly to protect his friends. No doubt he'll eventually display an Achilles Heel.

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    3. yep; big one (weakness) comes up shortly, in his 1st showdown battle (multi-parter) with a major baddie (as well an an explanation of his powers & history). & he is not completely invulnerable, just really really elastic. as he builds his crew, they cover each other on strengths & weaknesses (& not just intelligence); he is the main "superhero" though.

      & yeah i didn't want to give that away; coby isn't in luffy's crew, but he does turn up from time to time as a recurring character.

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