Now, I know a lot of people groan and complain about the 4Kids version of One Piece for a lot of reasons...most of them are completely justified, too, particularly with alterations that just don't make any sense.
One of those, like Sanji's mysterious accent that has nothing to do with his character and occupation, is a random accent given to Shanks. I don't know what they were going for, honestly...and it feels like an almost-offensive attempt to blend all kinds of stereotypical accents together, because whoever was deciding what he should sound like got confused every so often when trying to come up with...y'know, I'm just running out of excuses.
Whatever it is, it's definitely not Irish, it's not Scottish, it's not Cockney...and trying to combine elements from the three because I guess "it sounds 'pirate-y'!" is just not a very well-founded idea. It's like, "let's do an accent!" ...and that's all the thought that went into it.
This is the one pointless accent above all the others that I just can't figure out...and it's laid on so thick (whatever precise mishmash of incompatible regions it's supposed to hail from) that I absolutely cringe whenever he opens his mouth. I can tolerate Sanji, because he amuses me...but this...I don't know why, it just absolutely enrages me, and I don't even know exactly what part of it in particular is supposed to be the target of my ire.
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Red-Haired Shanks with Ben Beckmann vs.
Monkey D. Luffy with Wyper
Fusha [Fuchsia/Windmill] Village "On a serene afternoon"
So it seems that Luffy and his childhood hero have a reunion in his home town, and things are just as sleepy as ever...so what are two pirates to do in such a setting? Why they must fight!
I honestly don't know what the eventual reunion between Luffy and Shanks will be like, because all we see of Shanks are flashbacks to when Luffy is a kid and some limited insight into his relationships with other characters and a lot of just hanging around partying and taking good, bad, and uncertain news with equal cheer.
Although a really weird variation on that was a scene in the 4Kids dub where we see Dracule "Hawkeye" Mihawk meeting up with Shanks to deliver notice of Luffy's assignment of a rather sizable bounty, and he's asked to stick around and party with them...not so out of character for Shanks at all, but the *delivery* was so...weird. It sounded like something downright sinister, which is a weird thought, considering we already know this man as the guy who willingly intervened to save a young Luffy from an oncoming Sea King at the cost of his own arm...and young Luffy was absolutely wrecked by the thought and sight of this, but Shanks could only point out that it was "just an arm" in the usual kind-hearted and cheerful way.
Anyway, I pointed out that Luffy feels a bit "above average" in terms of general character usability and strength, and I don't know if it's in deference to Shanks's status as a legend in Luffy's eyes or because his name alone is enough to catch the attention of even hardened and world class pirates, but Shanks is really tough in this game...even a tough guy like Luffy can be quickly torn a new one by Shanks and his quick and fierce swordsmanship...all while he manages to make it seem like he's not even trying, which may very well be even more appropriate than I know, since I'm nowhere near being up to date with my One Piece intake, sad to say.
Actually, a weird thought...Ben Beckmann's name might seem natural enough as-is to English speakers, but given how character names are in this game, the surname precedes the given name (think "Monkey D. Luffy" and "Nico Robin" for example), so that actually indicates that his family name is "Ben" and his personal name is "Beckmann" and of course, this is the name that Shanks will call him by to summon him into battle, since they are good friends and crewmates after all they've been through.
I have no idea why Wyper is here, though. Strange, eh?
Anyway, Shanks's fighting style is just...strong and fast. There's no two ways about it. If he starts up a Special attack, you might as well just get out of his way. His Secret Attack is initiated by a quick long-range flying spin attack... although terrain can cause headaches landing it. As if all that wasn't enough, his specialty action is an innocuous and punishing counter attack. Definitely exercise more than your fair share of caution against this one-armed pirate.
Oh, and in the victory pose, say "hi" to the random cameo by Mayor Woop Slap of Fuchsia in Shanks's Secret Attack victory pose...he just likes to hang around, yelling at people who cause a ruckus, don't mind him too much.
You may have noticed that of all of Luffy's choices of costume, I made the AI use the simple palette swap. Don't worry, you'll see all the Straw Hats' alternate costumes when it comes time to explore the Grand Adventure mode.
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27 videos
I am loving these videos, including the lengthy descriptions. Nice work!
SverigeHobbes 10 months ago
@SverigeHobbes Why thank you! I always love to receive positive feedback about people enjoying these videos as much as I enjoyed making them.
YuuGiJoou 10 months ago
Wow...forgot how Shanks...sounded in the 4Kids version. I have no idea what that's supposed to be either.
Surprising how little we know about him, other than that he is insanely strong. I wonder why he was in this game, since he hadn't really done much (outside of flashbacks) at this point.
strategist9 1 year ago
@strategist9 I would have originally guessed that he was added in to pad out the roster, like Zeff and Kuina...but in fact, Shanks has been playable in every iteration of this game series since its inception in Japan, which is just as confusing, since to that point he'd never been seen to do anything yet either.
Clearly he must just be THAT good...at...something...that we obviously can't know how or what or why. So here's some one-armed swordplay that'll totally tear you to pieces.
YuuGiJoou 1 year ago
@YuuGiJoou buhm badum.... uhhhm are you sure it's an australian accent using a european voice?
eliza097 1 month ago
@eliza097 I...what? I didn't even suggest such a thing, and for that matter the accent they decided on doesn't sound particularly Australian to me. I'm not really even sure what you described would sound like.
YuuGiJoou 1 month ago