One Piece Review And Primer: My Favorite Anime

One Piece has been one of the big three in Anime for a long time. Now that Bleach and Naruto have ended, One Piece is the only one of the three to be still running. One Piece will always be special to me as it was also one of the first anime I watched. It hilariously is also one of the only anime to be dubbed by the 4kids studio a studio known for making cartoons more appropriate for children.

While this story may seem childish in the way Luffy the main character bounces around because he is made of rubber, it truly is something for everyone. The character’s really do grow and change and I love that Eichriro Oda even used a time skip so his characters could physically change.

Now here’s how the story go we find out about a treasure in the grand line there’s no doubt, the pirate who’s eye is on will sing I’ll be king of the Pirates I’m gonna be King! Those are actual lyrics to the first dub of One Piece before the great Funimation Studios took over the show. As a young man those lyrics, rapped of course sound pretty good to my ears, though now they do make me laugh.

What is really great about this anime is the characters. Now they may not seem to be so interesting on the surface but when a swordsman, a cook, a cyborg, a reindeer, two beautiful women, a skeleton, a liar, and a rubber man come together, you are in for a thrill. This crew cares for each other like family and Luffy will do anything to protect his crew. He truly is the captain of captains.

All Luffy wants to do is become Pirate King, he isn’t a good guy and he isn’t a bad guy. He faces who ever stands in his way with the only thing he really cares about being sailing with his crew. He loves the thrill of jumping out of his boat and exploring new lands, even if he can’t swim because of his cursed powers.

Along the way he meets characters who may at first be wary of him because of his pirate status but soon cheer him on as his bounty rises. They even appear in so many circumstances. You never know when a character will appear again, and with a two year time skip in play they even look different. Oda sensei has crafted a story that he says will last ten more years at least. We could even be in for another time skip down the line!

The music is also beautiful and fun and I thrill hearing every new opening. I will say that I have tried to memorize the japanese versions of the theme songs because honestly  I listen to them even when the show isn’t on.

Another amazing thing is the amount of work Oda puts into sharing Pirate lore. He has characters based on actual pirates and they may be totally anime style but he does them justice. Now I’m not saying you could watch One Piece and do a report on a pirate but he does them right.

All I know is I love watching this show and so many people love watching it too.This anime is really something to be applauded and if you like anime or haven’t really watched Anime, you could start with this one!

Adventure Time, C’mon Grab Your Friends, And Watch This Show!

Adventure Time started about the same time as Regular Show and is also one of my all time favorite shows. This radical show stars a boy and his dog after humans are wiped away from the Earth by a Mushroom cloud.  So basically a nuclear holocaust.

Just like Regular Show this show breaks down many of the old world Cartoon ideals. With a consistent use of the word sexy and other innuendos this show is hilarious. Though it only does this from time to time so it is still super charming.

Finn and Jake are two heroes of justice who protect the land of OOO from whatever may rear its ugly head be it the Ice King, or even a science cat. They are best friends and brothers who live in a tree house. This show really does go out of its way to highlight these characters pasts which honestly Cartoonnetwork has been really good at because it has backed amazing creators.

This show often brings in story lines that last for seasons or pop in suddenly and often unexpectedly. Hear a joke anywhere in the series, there is a chance for it to be used again. Finn has even aged with his actor over the course of the series and has been found in many a situation that the younger hero might not have found himself in.

It is nice watching this young man grow and change while he discovers what life is about in this weird world he lives in.He’s met and made many friends from a vampire, to a bubblegum princess, to a flame princess, and even a kingdom of cats. Really to go through this whole series would be a long thing to do, as anything goes.

All I know is I enjoy every episode and I think many of you will especially if you haven’t discovered this gem. So, seriously jump into this show with open eyes and expect the unexpected.I hope this show continues to last as Pendleton Ward is a fantastic man with a wonderfully weird mind.

 

Tokyo 2020 Olympics Elation: Japan’s PM Shinzō Abe Flares Inner Mario

Image taken from http://bit.ly/2bQEoUo

Just a few days ago, on the 21^st of August, the Closing Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was held at the Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, amidst a few good showers and, despite all, great enthusiasm. Fortunately, and putting aside a few incidents, this year’s Olympics have not been stricken by any major terrorist attacks, a possibility that, together with the Zika virus threat, worried both athletes and visitors alike and caused much less participation overall than Brazil would have desired.

Nonetheless, during the ceremony the Maracanã sparkled with wondrous fireworks and held a gorgeous visual and musical performance that joined together hundreds of enthusiastic dancers on the arena, in a Carnival-themed festival joyously shaken with a plethora of colourful parades, technological light effects, frevo, and the live songs and music by eminent samba myth Martinho da Vila, Brasilian singer Mariene de Castro, and Norwegian superstar DJ Kygo, amongst many others. Towards the end, the Olympic flame was slowly put out under a light, artificial drizzle, amongst much solemnity.

But one of the moments that have sparkled more interest worldwide during the ceremony has been the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games’s presentation. Already on September the 7^th, 2013, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Japan was the winner bid to host the XXXII Edition of the Summer Olympic Games, in 2020. The great news were received with much thrill on the part of all the Japanese community, and since then the Japanese Olympic Committee, led by Tsunekazu Takeda (who has also been/is involved in the organisation of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano and the 2010, 2014, and 2018 Winter Olympics), is totally immersed in the planning and presentation of the best Olympic Games ever – a bet that could spectacularly benefit Japan as regards not only tourism, financial gains and product, infrastructure investments, but cultural openness and wide-reaching societal promotion; principally as regards their particular idiosyncrasies and overly hi-tech lifestyle.

The Tokyo 2020 presentation has already given us a tasty appetiser. Japan is not afraid to uphold their best and most demanded national products in front of any international audience, be they highly advanced technology props or their most cherished pop or mainstream fiction. Following the moment in which Rio Mayor, Eduardo Paes, after waving it for one last time handed the Olympic flag to the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, Tokyo’s Governor, Yuriko Koike, dressed in a gorgeous and discreet traditional, golden-coloured kimono, graciously received it from Bach’s hands and gently bowed in appreciation. The Japanese national anthem, Kimi Ga Yo, was then played while a group of robotic-like performers gradually formed the shape of the Japanese flag on the arena, filled with expressions of gratitude, first to Rio and Brazil and subsequently in all the languages in the world. And then the funny part began:

After a promotional video showing Japanese athletes “warming up” in the crowded and orderly streets of Tokyo, portraying both images of the most emblematic buildings and anime and videogame characters from Captain Tsubasa, Pacman, Doraemon, and Hello Kitty, the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe, finally catches a red ball with which the athletes have been playing around. Still in Tokyo, and realising he’s not going to make it to Rio on time, he decides to release his inner Mario, from Nintendo’s Super Mario videogame series. With the red ball in his hands, and aided by a flying Doraemon who produces a green pipe for him, the 3D Mario representing Shinzō Abe goes through the center of the earth until the real Shinzō Abe finally arises, “at the other side of the green pipe”, in the middle of the Maracanã Stadium, still carrying the red ball (which clearly represents the Japanese flag) and the Mario cap on top of his head.

What’s so attractive about this? In our Western culture, we’re not used to seeing high-rank politicians dressed-up as fictional characters, even not many grown-up celebrities. Actually, although much less than years ago, it is still considered by many as a flaw of character to indulge too much in fanboying or fangirling over works of fiction, particularly after reaching adulthood. By contrast, for Japan leisure, fantasy and pop culture they are able to produce and export globally are considered a hard-earned and well-deserved success, the fruits of their work, and as worthy of display as a well-groomed Western suit or a traditional dress. Thus, we can see a 62-year-old Prime Minister at such an important event flashing the symbols of a videogame with which many of us we’ve played as kids. For us otakus and hi-tech geeks, it’s a powerful, enticing symbol of what’s to come during Tokyo 2020.

And it’s mouth-watering.

https://tokyo2020.jp/en/faq/

The XXXII Summer 2020 Olympic Games will be held from the 24^th of July to the 9^th of August. We are already talking about “Olympics 2.0”: there’s no doubt the next Games will be filled to the brim with classy technology and many other amazing surprises. Who knows what the Japanese will arrange for such a great occasion? A new, spectacular stadium packed with the newest and most amazing equipments? Huge, robotic sculptures portraying exemplary characters from their pop culture, like the 59-feet-high Gundam on display in Odaiba, Tokyo, since 2009, to celebrate its 30^th anniversary? Augmented reality of such a high quality that we might get the feeling, with just a computer or a phone and a pair of technological glasses (or even less than that), that we are virtually talking to a series of computer-made characters while we walk through the streets of Tokyo?

Whatever it is, what’s for sure is that it’s going to be very tough to wait for four more years, starting from now, until we finally see it.

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Sources:

http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/rio-2016/rio-2016-closing-ceremony-live-follow-along-as-the-olympics-come-to-an-end

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3752157/Rio-s-parade-rained-one-time-Olympics-closing-ceremony-hit-torrential-rainstorm-Brazil-brings-curtain-half-stadium.html

http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/how-japan-could-truly-benefit-from-the-2020-olympics/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/08/24/tokyo-gears-up-host-dazzling-and-futuristic-olympics-2020/89251522/

https://www.olympic.org/tokyo-2020