Catching Up On One Piece
Anime is a thing I keep going back and forth with throughout the years. My sister was obsessed with Sailor Moon, but me being a young dumb boy in Middle School, I hated it. I hate the Japanese cartoons with the mouths that don't move right for what they're saying, and before I even finished this sentence I could hear Heidi saying to me, "but it's not a cartoon Joey, it's ~Anime~." I remember Heidi rushing home after school to catch Sailor Moon on Toonami around 4pm, luckily I didn't have to watch it with her every day, as I'd play sports or whatever with my friends, but rainy days meant watching Sailor Moon with Heidi... It was awful. (1999)
Until this show came on after Sailor Moon, it was called
Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball Z was cool, it was tough, and it was dudes slamming dudes around a planet with insurmountable strength. Heidi hated it, I loved it. Goku having to deal with some scoundrel names Vegeta and Freiza, and becoming so powerful he ascends to a power level so great, he becomes a Super Saiyan. Scream for 10 minutes, get bleach blonde hair, kill anyone who gets in your way. It was the coolest show I'd ever seen. (1999)
Then came Tenchi Muyo, Inuyasha, Big O, G Gundam (arguably the worst Gundam), Yuyu Hakusho, and a few others that would circulate through Toonami until it's untimely demise out of the afternoon cartoon slot, and off to a weekend timetable that no one watches. I fell out of love with Anime, I had other things to do, it was High School and I liked girls and hanging out with friends, not being attached to the couch. (2004)
Some of my friends were into Anime, so I started watching some with them, Greatest Teacher Onizuka, Full Metal Panic, Black Lagoon, and I fell in love with a pirate manga called, "One Piece." I'd never really read a manga before, and this one I jumped in the deep end. I bought every possible One Piece manga, which at the time was volume 16. I loved the superhero aspect where everone gains a certain power based on the Gum-Gum Fruit they ate, but it was pirates and the open ocean, not some big city with lame repeating story lines. (2007)
I fall out of touch with One Piece by manga number 22 or 23, haven't bought one since. Life keeps twisting and turning. I'm reading "real" books and not mangas, I have a full time job, I have more friends and more places to be and to see, I don't have the time to fit Anime or Manga in anymore. (2009)
I started dating a girl who loved to cosplay, read mangas, watch anime, and overall be a weeaboo. This was cool, and it meant her friends coming around too and also being weeaboos and we'd all weeaboo. I know I know, if we spend any more time on weeaboo we'll be out of business by the end of the week. Problem though, I'm now a manager at my job and most of my free time is associated with either work or keeping the girlfriend happy. I hardly had any time for myself and even worse, I was really really bad at making time for myself (I used to do that thing of trying to entertain the girlfriend while just doing my own thing and leaving her thinking "why did I even come here?"). I honestly don't think I watched or read a single new anime or manga during this entire time (an episode here or there, or one book here and there don't really qualify- Whole season, whole series, or nothing!). The girl and I broke up. (2012)
The great hiatus. I don't watch any new anime, read new mangas, nothing for nearly three years after this, and I mean nothing. Not a book, not an episode, nothing. (2015)
Winter of 2016 into 2017 is my first off-season from work and I binged down all of Mobile Suit Gundam Original/0079), and Mobile Suit Gundam 00. I believe it's also this winter I binged Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood. Rolling 2017 into 2018, I ate a lot of ramen and married my lovely spouse. Since then though, I've had a new awakening: MY HERO ACADEMIA. I'm all read, all through the show, reading scanlations and fanfics, this is the deepest deep end I've ever dove into. Hinomaru Sumo, Goblin Slayer, Gurren Lagann, Rin, Cells At Work, The Devil Is A Part Timer, Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, New Game!!, and just started watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure... and also One Piece again. (2019)
As of this writing today I picked up the show One Piece where I left off from the Mangas, and I'm now at episode 198. There's only 700 more to go? Jesus. You don't realize how much you missed out on something until you try to catch up with it again nearly 12 years later. One Piece is the background of whatever it is that I'm doing, including writing this post. When I have time to pay attention to the TV (so I can read the subs), that's when I watch normal anime, and sometimes on the go to/from work. I love this show and I'm happy that I'm catching up to it all, albeit later than anticipated... If I watch 10 episodes a day, it'll only take me... 67 days to catch up on One Piece! Wow!
For now,
Joe
Until this show came on after Sailor Moon, it was called
Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball Z was cool, it was tough, and it was dudes slamming dudes around a planet with insurmountable strength. Heidi hated it, I loved it. Goku having to deal with some scoundrel names Vegeta and Freiza, and becoming so powerful he ascends to a power level so great, he becomes a Super Saiyan. Scream for 10 minutes, get bleach blonde hair, kill anyone who gets in your way. It was the coolest show I'd ever seen. (1999)
Then came Tenchi Muyo, Inuyasha, Big O, G Gundam (arguably the worst Gundam), Yuyu Hakusho, and a few others that would circulate through Toonami until it's untimely demise out of the afternoon cartoon slot, and off to a weekend timetable that no one watches. I fell out of love with Anime, I had other things to do, it was High School and I liked girls and hanging out with friends, not being attached to the couch. (2004)
Some of my friends were into Anime, so I started watching some with them, Greatest Teacher Onizuka, Full Metal Panic, Black Lagoon, and I fell in love with a pirate manga called, "One Piece." I'd never really read a manga before, and this one I jumped in the deep end. I bought every possible One Piece manga, which at the time was volume 16. I loved the superhero aspect where everone gains a certain power based on the Gum-Gum Fruit they ate, but it was pirates and the open ocean, not some big city with lame repeating story lines. (2007)
I fall out of touch with One Piece by manga number 22 or 23, haven't bought one since. Life keeps twisting and turning. I'm reading "real" books and not mangas, I have a full time job, I have more friends and more places to be and to see, I don't have the time to fit Anime or Manga in anymore. (2009)
I started dating a girl who loved to cosplay, read mangas, watch anime, and overall be a weeaboo. This was cool, and it meant her friends coming around too and also being weeaboos and we'd all weeaboo. I know I know, if we spend any more time on weeaboo we'll be out of business by the end of the week. Problem though, I'm now a manager at my job and most of my free time is associated with either work or keeping the girlfriend happy. I hardly had any time for myself and even worse, I was really really bad at making time for myself (I used to do that thing of trying to entertain the girlfriend while just doing my own thing and leaving her thinking "why did I even come here?"). I honestly don't think I watched or read a single new anime or manga during this entire time (an episode here or there, or one book here and there don't really qualify- Whole season, whole series, or nothing!). The girl and I broke up. (2012)
The great hiatus. I don't watch any new anime, read new mangas, nothing for nearly three years after this, and I mean nothing. Not a book, not an episode, nothing. (2015)
Winter of 2016 into 2017 is my first off-season from work and I binged down all of Mobile Suit Gundam Original/0079), and Mobile Suit Gundam 00. I believe it's also this winter I binged Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood. Rolling 2017 into 2018, I ate a lot of ramen and married my lovely spouse. Since then though, I've had a new awakening: MY HERO ACADEMIA. I'm all read, all through the show, reading scanlations and fanfics, this is the deepest deep end I've ever dove into. Hinomaru Sumo, Goblin Slayer, Gurren Lagann, Rin, Cells At Work, The Devil Is A Part Timer, Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, New Game!!, and just started watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure... and also One Piece again. (2019)
As of this writing today I picked up the show One Piece where I left off from the Mangas, and I'm now at episode 198. There's only 700 more to go? Jesus. You don't realize how much you missed out on something until you try to catch up with it again nearly 12 years later. One Piece is the background of whatever it is that I'm doing, including writing this post. When I have time to pay attention to the TV (so I can read the subs), that's when I watch normal anime, and sometimes on the go to/from work. I love this show and I'm happy that I'm catching up to it all, albeit later than anticipated... If I watch 10 episodes a day, it'll only take me... 67 days to catch up on One Piece! Wow!
For now,
Joe
Comments
Post a Comment