 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line review or source for everything One Piece, and today we have a masterpiece of writing to delve into. No, it is not One Piece, but basically I was contacted while ago on Twitter by a user named Hypotoot who brought my attention to some negative One Piece reviews on my anime list and then suggested that I make a video going through and debunking them, which I was all on board with. However, there was a very, very clear gem to be found in this here mine. Quite possibly simultaneously the most thorough yet least well thought out review of the series I have ever experienced, which does come with legitimate criticism, but that is mainly served as a side dish on this incredible narrative journey that this my anime list user is going to take us on. And I want to say right here and now that the purpose of this video is not to make fun of this guy, but on the other hand, he does say some some pretty interesting things that require some pretty interesting responses. Which, speaking of, if you are interested in interesting things and please do subscribe to the Grand Line review, which will result in regular and interesting One Piece content being uploaded straight into your YouTube feed, and please do say hi in the comments below if you are a new member of the Grand Fleet. Welcome. But for now I invite you all to join me on a journey, a journey of quite possibly the most hilariously questionable take on One Piece that you have or will ever hear. And it begins as all confusing muddled reviews do with this opening statement. I like it, but in all honesty, it's not good. And I really do want you to keep this first part in mind. Allegedly this user does indeed like One Piece. However, I think that both I and the reviewer come to question that during the course of the review. Please do understand this is not me taking shots at this series in any way. This is just me expressing my views on the show in terms of its merits and failings to see if it's as great as fans really suggest this to be. And fair enough, this is a perfectly reasonable statement. I myself have a number of videos on the concepts of exploring both the merits and failures of One Piece in an ideally clear and concise way. However, this is the first and last reasonable statement that we will come across in this review. The basic story premise is about pirates with super fruity power-ups known as devil fruits, laughing excessively here at this point. And I added the uh-huh. But this here is the first example of this user having a bit of an inner monologue during their statements. It's sort of like a Shakespearean actor turning to the audience to perform a soliloquy. Except instead of saying some of the greatest words ever put to page, they're complaining about One Piece on the internet. More to it lies with our main character Monkey D. Luffy, a wannabe young man who wants to be king of the pirates. Wow, I had no idea there was royalty to begin with with pirates, but oh well. And the inner monologue strikes again with some sharp and witty remarks regarding the pirate king, a concept that appears in almost all world-renowned pirate-based media. I mean, there's Pirate King in the Pirates of Penzance, as well as Pirates of the Caribbean, and historically, there are actually two real-life people who were dubbed as a Pirate King. So at this stage, my best guess is that this reviewer has never actually seen or heard of the concept of pirates in general prior to One Piece, so we won't hold that against him. So far in the midst of everything, the story tries its hardest to keep building up and gets messed up at an early point right after 50 episodes, which was supposed to be its greatest strength but also becomes its greatest weakness. You probably won't believe me for saying this, but that weakness being is world-building. And you're right, I don't believe you, I don't believe you at all. I'm glad we've come to an understanding there at least, but let's hear you out. Basically what I mean by that is a constant dragging of episodes to make you feel that you are on a long journey of some sorts, but in reality, all it really is doing is stalling on the part of the mangaka, Oda Ichiro's art design, and writing for whatever wage he seems to be earning on demand at the moment, and yes, it's fact, since the industry is supposedly hard on the condition of writers on a weekly basis. In other words, the pacing of this anime is awful, and it took an awfully long time and a fair few detours to get to those other words. But okay, so if I understand this correctly and I may not, his criticism about world-building is that the anime's pacing is too slow, which realistically has nothing to do with world-building whatsoever, and furthermore, it's the fault of the manga author who has nothing to do with the anime that the anime's pacing specifically is awful. And not only that, it's the fault of his art design, specifically his art design that the pacing is awful. I think these ideas might just be a bit too high a level for me to really get my head around them. Sounds familiar? It's pretty much very similar to Hunter Hunter Mangaka, Togashi Yoshihiro's approach in the story that constitutes for being excessively greedy in its approach. Then again, quite a lot of Shonen animas are like that, I guess. And this is where I start to get very, very confused, because I'm really not sure what he's referring to here in terms of a greedy approach. I mean, is he accusing the Hunter Hunter anime of poor pacing when it's probably one of the most solidly built Shonen adaptations in existence? I mean, in the case of 2011 anyway, but we're not here to talk about Hunter Hunter, so perhaps reading more will make his point clearer, probably not though. Think to yourself this, if this was such a great Shonen, for examples like Death Note or even FMA Brotherhood, why the need for so many episodes? And I think the argument here is that if one piece is so great, why can't it tell its story in even less episodes? I don't know actually. But this is not an argument, because you could say the exact same thing in reverse. For example, if FMA and Death Note are such great Shonen, then why do they have so few episodes? Both statements are equally as meaningless and it's almost as if they're all their own series with unique content requirements. Why am I so serious? Very simple answer. Again, it's world building, which demands many slow pacing in a lot of episodes. So much so that they probably need loads of spin-off specials and movies like you haven't watched enough of this already, as it is in and outside of the franchise, also referring to Japanese one-piece merchandise, of course. And at this point I think it's pretty clear that the reviewer doesn't understand what world building is. It's a term he's tossing around like a child who's just learned a word for the first time. World building and pacing are two entirely different concepts that do not link to one another. One is a detailed layered narrative expression, and the other is a strictly technical aspect of storytelling. This is no rant here. Okay, that's a lie. This is no rant here. I'm only stating the obvious critical point towards the show as a whole, but like I mentioned, it's because of this world building this leads to the major reason why the story at most becomes tedious and below mediocre at best on a consistent level in almost every arc. And here's the thing, he does have a very legitimate criticism about pacing, especially with the anime, but world building is not the culprit responsible for this criticism. And as an example of how world building and pacing function side by side, let's take an example of a quote unquote great series being Death Note. In the very first chapter we are introduced to the Shinigami realm. We spend approximately two and a half pages there and that tells us everything we need to know to build that location. It's aesthetically bleak, everyone's bored and it has this general macabre kind of feel about it. Amazing, the world is built. But now let's say we move to the anime adaptation of these two and a half pages and it takes, I don't know, two and a half episodes to adapt. Now in this situation are we going to blame the concept of world building for that poor pacing? Probably not. Instead, we're probably going to blame the organization that decided that these two and a half pages were going to be stretched out to create that poor pacing. In other words, there is no correlation whatsoever between pacing and world building. Can we be honest and say for any anime watchers out there that loads of episode can harm world building because of timing and pacing problems such as this? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's all just wait for a bit. So now you're saying that the pacing is the feature that is harming the world building after going on a massive tangent about how world building is the feature that harms pacing? And furthermore, like I just said, the pacing being slow doesn't harm the world building in any way at all. What pacing does is harm the story and the action which, when elongated, can come to lose its potency and in some cases even its overall meaning. But the world building doesn't lose anything because it exists entirely separate from the realm of pacing. But now moving to a different topic altogether, females in this series turn out to have the same physique as every other hourglass shaped female in the show. Wait, is this fairytale? Oh boy. I might have hit the nail on that one. There is a legitimate criticism here being Oda's stock standard female design, but it's just completely masked by another witty in a monologue. Like sure, make the aesthetic comparison to fairytale if you want, despite one piece predating both fairytale and Mashima's previous series, Wraithmaster. But my favourite bit is where the reviewer congratulates themselves for having had a thought. With the whole, oh boy, I might have hit the nail on that one. And in this case, let's all just remember the great words of one Rick Sanchez. Don't break an arm jerking yourself off. Haki, a.k.a. brackets. Haki of the colour of the conquering king. Domination of the wills of others is the dumbest made up bullshit in the entirety of this franchise. So live a queen. Oh wow, conqueror's Haki. Ong. That guy just looked at another person and that person fell down. Ong. Seriously. And at this point, I'd like you all to remember, just remember that this reviewer said they were actively trying not to be too negative and weighing the series fairly according to its merits and its failures. And in order to do exactly that, what this reviewer has done is cherry picked one example of Haki that he doesn't personally like because quite frankly, he doesn't understand it. And his example makes that very clear. And with this in mind, I would simply love to hear more of this reviewer's thoughts on Hunter Hunter. Because according to this reading, Nen should be even more of a bullshit power system because it is entirely based on will power, drive and desire. But then again, Hunter Hunter is a story that quote constitutes for being excessively greedy. So maybe he does hold that opinion about Nen. Villains in this show are typically one dimensional. They're the kind of villains that like to display his cruel tendencies to other characters that you wouldn't really care for. And that is so true. Nobody ever cared about Nami while she was being tortured by Arlong. No one whatsoever cared for Robin while she was being tortured by Spandam. And no one cared for Vivi when she was being tormented by Crocodile. Actually, some people legitimately don't care about Vivi. So I guess there is that. But otherwise, the statement is fairly incorrect. Main characters, the simple and short version. Luffy, IMO, as the lead character, he is one of the most uninspiring main character leads I've ever seen in a shonen. He has two fixated moods, dumb ass or constipated raging manchild. Take your pick. Wow, that's actually quite the tough pick. I think I will take the constipated raging manchild. Because at the very least that manchild has managed to helm the third high-selling comic book in the history of the world for well over two decades now. So he may be constipated, but he is still insanely likable and very inspiring. Zorro is useless in direction making the punt of his efforts in a lot of situations where he is lost at every turn very stupid, which in turn leaves his three sword style. I don't actually don't understand that sentence. I know this is a very easy joke to make, but I feel like Zorro getting lost in this sentence. So I think I'm just going to move on. But then who cares when you see characters like Killer B from Naruto who uses his own eight sword style. So right off the bat, what so impressive about this three sword style? And this is quite fun because Zorro can actually wield nine swords, which according to the reviewer's metric is like so much cooler than eight. Primarily because according to mathematics nine is a bigger number than eight. Sanji is basically Brock from Pokemon as he is just a generic character who tries to be a hit with the ladies and never gets any, including that he is also a chef and still never gets any woman or pussy or bastard. Right, because I'm sure this reviewer is such an eloquent character that he is literally swimming in pussy as we speak and female viewers in the comments, please do feel free to confirm or deny this. Brooke, probably my favorite straw hat out of all of them, but Otis sometimes devalues his character like others. Yeah, this is actually legitimately fair enough. I mean, I really like Brooke, but apart from whole cake island, he doesn't really get a whole given to him. So yeah, Nico Robin is Tomb Raider, but with a cool ability, if I might add. And yes, you may indeed add because that's basically exactly what I thought about her as well after discovering she was an archaeologist. I loved it, as do you apparently. That's two very positive comments in a row. I wonder if it will hold up. Chopper, I don't want to know any further about this annoying Dr. Yogi bitch. That's pretty great. And to be fair, I liked the backstories of the characters. So well, that's nice at least. So long as you enjoyed Dr. Yogi bitch's backstory, I'm pretty happy with that. As for the sound department, it's lacking, but by no means bad. It suits whatever mood you could be feeling in this long arse snail pace of a series. The voice act and quality were few and not so many. So I'm not sure about the few and not so many bit, but more fair criticism here actually, because the sound of one piece is not bad at all. However, it does get quite old when you have to experience the same sound effects in the same tracks for nearly a thousand episodes straight. So yeah, overall, am I enjoying this series? I am trying to. But because of those obvious glaring flaws on the surface still exist just like the treasure one piece. And look, I suppose I do commend you for trying because it would seem like literally every element of this series completely disagrees with you. You hate the fact that it's so long you despise the concept of world building, you find the villains completely one dimensional, you think that most of the action is meaningless, you scoff at the devil fruit power system, you think that hockey is the dumbest thing to have ever been invented. And apart from Robin and Brooke, you seem to profoundly dislike the straw hats. I honestly don't know how or why you've made it this far into one piece, but that is an accomplishment under these conditions. You deserve an award. If you want the most silliest longest shounen adventure ongoing, where everything changes with the times except this, then by all means give this a shot. You might end up loving it, just not in the same way it has been for me. I can be sure I'm probably not the only one. And that is the conclusion of this review. With one last very confusing statement calling one piece the longest shounen adventure where everything changes except this. I don't know guys. Just to put this into some perspective, this entire review is over 2,000 words long and I didn't even read half of it here today. So feel free to check it out if you do want to laugh and there are some valid criticisms. It's all just buried in this dark tomb maze of disjointed thoughts and frequent soliloquies. But it's been a long time since I was this entertained reading a review, so thank you kind reviewer for your profound insights. But what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my discord server. And if you'd like to see more videos like this then please do go and check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious one piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feeds. But for now this has been the ground line review and I'll see you next time.