- Hello and welcome to the "Grand Line Review"
your source for everything "One Piece".
And today we are going to get a bit controversial
or at least as controversial as a channel based around
one particular anime and manga can be,
which we are going to be achieving
by airing some unpopular opinions about "One Piece".
But there is a twist here,
because, here's the thing, after making close to 700 videos
based solely on "One Piece", which, wow, that's a lot,
I'm fairly certain that all of my unpopular opinions
have already well and truly been aired,
some even on multiple occasions, to you,
the long suffering Grand Fleet.
So in this particular instance,
I have decided to give all of you the floor
to state your own unpopular opinions,
and I'm just going to sit here and judge you for them,
which is of course a joke, mostly.
So let's jump straight into things
with our first unpopular opinion, which is:
"Ace's death was overrated.
"This may be because I was spoiled about
"all of "Marineford", but it didn't have an impact on me."
So I feel like you're definitely not alone in this.
The really weird thing about Ace is that
for such a startlingly popular character,
we really didn't actually get to know him
until well after he died.
All he had was that brief interaction on Alabasta,
a comical cover story,
and then he spent most of his time in chains.
So I completely understand not being able
to really connect with the character,
at the point of his death anyway.
However, I think what really sells it for most people,
isn't so much the sympathy towards Ace,
but the empathy with Luffy.
When Ace died it kind of put me into state
of narrative shock, more so than sadness,
because I just couldn't believe
that this thing had happened in "One Piece".
But when I saw Luffy, that's what made the event
emotionally impactful.
Seeing our strong, infinitely optimistic protagonist
fall apart like never before and never since.
But, look, all in all, despite being
one of the most important deaths in the series,
I think that, in the grand scheme of things,
almost every other case of death is sadder
than that of Ace.
"Usopp's fights are the best in the series."
All right, might disagree, but, hey,
that's the nature of holding unpopular opinions.
Still, let's try and get into the mind
of this Grand Fleet member,
and I think this argument could hold quite a lot of merit.
Usopp and his fights probably get written off a lot
because, quite frankly, he doesn't have
anywhere near enough of them.
And when he does, they're always against
these less than noteworthy opponents.
You know, he gets stuck with Chew during the Arlong arc,
Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas on Alabasta,
and Perona on Thriller Bark.
So, with the exception of Perona,
they all tend to be like the leftovers
of the antagonistic crew.
So there's not a lot of innate hype
in seeing him take them on.
However, despite the rarity and the riffraff
he has to work with these fights are all
pretty incredible when you think about it,
and they each result in Usopp
making a massive mental breakthrough
towards his ultimate dream.
With Chew he proves to himself
that he can defeat opponents stronger than him.
On Alabasta he fights for the pride of his captain,
abandoning all of his selfishness
for the first time in the series.
And on Thriller Bark he overcomes so much
just to beat Perona.
And, you know what, how's this?
I didn't even think of Luffy versus Usopp, actually!
So while Usopp really doesn't fight all that much,
they're all pretty groundbreaking events.
So, you know, I disagreed at first,
but I'm slowly coming around to this idea
of Usopp's fights being the best in the series.
"Unpopular opinion:
"The subscribe button is harder to hit than Katakuri."
All right, let's meet this with a popular opinion.
The subscribe button is easy to hit just not by you.
So I want all of you right now who have not yet subscribed
to show this fool what's what by casually pressing
that beautiful, gorgeous red button
and becoming members of the Grand Fleet,
which will result in regular "One Piece" content
being uploaded straight into your YouTube feed.
And, really, never before in your life
have you been asked to do so little
in order to gain so much.
But moving on!
"Chopper developed into a boring mascot character."
And I don't like the sentiment of this opinion,
but in the post time-skip era it's quite hard to argue with.
Chopper had a lot going for him in the pre time-skip
with all of the struggles of being a monster
and becoming a monster stuff.
But Chopper really seems to have conquered
all of that off-screen during the time-skip,
and after that he doesn't really have
any inner turmoil anymore.
So he does just, kind of, sit there and look cute,
which, to be fair, is what he does best,
so I'm not complaining.
"Sanji is stronger than most of the supernovas."
Hmm, power-scaling, er?
I mean, maybe, it's very hard to tell,
but I suppose that by virtue of that statement
that kind of, maybe, makes it true.
And, you know what, why shouldn't it be?
He isn't a supernova or a member of the Worst Generation,
they're different things,
but we all know he was a powerhouse
during the Sabaody days.
It just took him a lot longer to get recognized.
Still, I don't know, there's a whole ton of them
that I don't see Sanji topping in terms of strength,
like, say Rouge,
then there's ones where he has horrible, horrible
match-ups of power, like Law.
And some where he would almost certainly
come out on top, like Capone,
but there's just too many question marks.
All I'll say is that I don't care if he is.
It makes sense that he is as strong if not stronger
than most of them, so, nah!
"The manga has gone downhill in terms of paneling.
"Everything is so damn small.
"There seems to be no good close ups of characters anymore."
And this is an interesting discussion actually.
I find myself on the very opposite end
of the spectrum though.
I really love the small panels,
and I think they're used quiet masterfully
to compress incredible amounts of information
into a weekly 18 page product.
Without this choice in play I just don't think
we'd be able to tell this story,
at least not without another,
I don't know, thousand chapters.
So, no, it's not what "One Piece" used to be,
but, at the same time,
"One Piece" used to be a boy in a dinghy.
The story and the world have grown
ever so slightly more complex since then,
and I think the paneling very well reflects that.
"Oda has built up the One Piece for far too long
"for there to possibly be a physical object
"that could ever live up to be the treasure they find.
"And so the only suitable way to end the series
"would be a 'friends along the way' style of reward
"rather than a physical object."
Lots of agree here, and yet, lots of disagree.
I do think this 23 year mystery is going to be
nigh on impossible to solve without disappointing
probably a lot of people
after this kind of historic buildup.
That's just the nature of mysteries in general though.
Solving them is almost never satisfying
beyond the initial shock of the moment in which you do.
That's because it gives our brains permission
to stop thinking, which is very disengaging obviously.
However, the One Piece is definitely not going to be
along the friendship lines or any of that crap.
Oda has confirmed that the One Piece
is, indeed, a tangible thing,
and regardless of how satisfying it is
that's what we're gonna get.
Oh, and, also, I don't think the series is going to end
with finding the One Piece.
Rather, finding the One Piece is probably going to
trigger the end events of the series.
"I still hate Hachi.
"Never forget that he is the one who told Arlung
"about Nami's maps and tormented her village
"for years and years.
"Dude is a monster."
Yeah, Hatchan is a bit of a tough one.
Although, look, the whole map thing
wasn't him intentionally targeting and enslaving Nami.
It's more like a derpy octopus who found some paper
and went, 'Huh, maps!'
But looking back at Hatchan,
he's responsible for a hell of a lot of pain,
even if he wasn't the one directly inflicting it.
He was still facilitating it and quite willingly at that.
It's not as if he didn't know who Arlong was
and what he was doing.
He's definitely not as dumb as he looks.
So that's why that whole scene on Sabaody
when Nami is eating his takoyaki always hits me so hard.
Hatchan is a lovable guy in general,
but there's no excusing his actions or in-actions.
And, I don't know, he's trying,
he feels guilty, and I guess that Nami's moved past it,
so, so can I, and so can we, or not, up to you.
"Pacing can be absolutely atrocious,
"especially post time-skip.
"Atrocious and not always worth it.
"Edit: anime and manga."
All right, that second distinction
is actually pretty important.
I'm not going to address the anime here
because, look, I agree,
and most of you know my many, many issues.
But pacing with the manga,
well that's a fairly fresh discussion, and, in my opinion,
it can be great and it can be awful,
especially post time-skip
with the advent of all the mega-arcs.
Dressrosa is the obvious example,
but more recently the pacing of act two of Wano
started to get really quite grindy for me,
but that's only from the perspective of reading weekly.
And, for example, when I reread Dressrosa,
I don't see any pacing issues whatsoever.
I just enjoy a giant adventure,
which is something that manga is really good at
because it allows you to effectively set your own pacing.
So if you think things are taking too long,
then, well, you just speed up reading.
And if you think things are going too quickly,
then you slow down.
That's an advantage that the anime doesn't really have.
But, in the end, I guess,
feeling the grind is just a harsh reality
of reading or watching a mammoth series like this weekly.
"I like Frank's post time-skip design
"more than his pre time-skip."
I'm assuming Franky?
If you talking about Frank, let me know.
But in regards to Franky, yes, me too!
I've never, ever, ever understood the people
who hate on post time-skip Franky.
I love him!
I love it so much that I find it really difficult
to go back to arcs like "Enies Lobby"
and see what he used to be,
because it just feels so underwhelming.
But this is definitely an unpopular opinion.
I know that there are a massive legion
of pre time-skip Franky fanatics.
But here's the thing about that.
No matter what those people say, we win,
because post time-skip Franky is here to stay.
"Unpopular?
"I don't like Law that much
"and I think people treat him like a better character
"than he really is."
And you know I actually, kind of, did a whole video on this.
Law is the most popular non straw hat character
in the series according to official popularity polls.
And I think that most people's anecdotal evidence
would go on to suggest that as well.
But that's, what's going to happen
when you have a sleekly designed brooding cool guy.
It's a guaranteed formula for success.
Under these circumstances,
Law doesn't need to actually do anything
to achieve mass popularity,
as I explored and proved in my video.
However, after diving into his backstory,
that is what has solidified him as an established pillar
of "One Piece" popularity.
And, yeah, I don't quite see it myself.
I like Law, I like Law a lot,
but I like other characters more.
"The fights are easily the worst part of the series."
Hmm, now this might seem like a controversial statement,
but I don't disagree at all.
The fights are the worst part of "One Piece"
because they're the only times
where the story isn't moving forward
and the world isn't building,
which are the two crowning strengths of "One Piece"
in my opinion.
But that doesn't mean the fights are bad,
that's very different!
There are far too many people
who conflate the words worst and bad.
But, seriously, the fights are,
by and large, pretty fantastic.
However, when I compare them to everything else
"One Piece" does so incredibly right,
then, yeah, I guess by default the fights do become
technically the worst part of the series,
which is amazing because if that is the worst thing
that "One Piece" has to offer,
then it's best is going to be off the charts!
"Magellan is arguably capable of fighting with Admirals.
"The man literally guards thousands of infamous criminals."
Yeah, I guess, here's the thing,
the statement, it isn't technically wrong.
Magellan is capable of fighting with the Admirals.
So his Woop Slap, though, he's very capable.
I just don't think it would go particularly well for him.
Although, when you think about it,
Woop Slap actually has the advantage
of not being stuck on the toilet
for the large majority of a day.
So Magellan may do even worse in a fight against an Admiral
than Woop Slap would, with that in mind.
"I'm not a big fan of the no romance rule among straw hats."
Is it just amongst the straw hats?
I thought it was a general rule for "One Piece".
Actually, I guess there are one sided exceptions
like Boa Hancock and super rare couples
like Capone and Chiffon, who are adorable.
But those things are mostly played for comedy.
And adding romance on top of everything
that "One Piece" already needs to accomplish
would extend this series into infinity.
I mean, shippers' gonna ship,
but the reality of a romance story
is needing to add turmoil.
It's not like Luffy and Nami would just get together
and stay that way for the rest of the series,
because when romance is an element,
then it needs development,
which means that we'll need to be constantly exploring,
updating, and even breaking relationships, and, ugh!
It's just exhausting to think about it,
which is probably why in non romance focused stories,
that stuff always gets used
as a full stop at the end of the series.
You know these people get together
and live happily ever after.
"I think Mihawk isn't really cool
"and the only thing making him interesting
"is that he is Zoro's final enemy, probably."
This probably goes back to the Law discussion.
It's the standard outcome of creating a character
whose aesthetic is just so sharp
in a sea of mainly goofy figures.
Mihawk also has the supreme advantage of status though.
He holds the title of the world's greatest swordsman,
which means that even if we never see him do anything ever,
he still plays on the imagination.
And, all right, let's do one more unpopular opinion.
"Trebol is a good character."
You're wrong!
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
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uploaded straight into your YouTube feeds.
But, for now, this has been the "Ground Line Review",
and I'll see you next time.