- Hello, and welcome to the Grand Line Review
a source for everything One Piece.
And today it's time to talk about
one of those fun little words
that pops up quite consistently
in online discussion with One Piece in particular
and that is the concept of off-screening or off-paneling,
specifically in regards to fights.
And this is a fairly recent phenomenon
in the grand scheme of things,
which only noticeably started to increase its presence
in One Piece with the Dressrosa Arc,
but forget that for a second.
What is off-screening?
Well, it's around the vague definition,
but it basically refers to a piece of action
that occurs off-screen or off-page
that we either hear about
or see the results of after the fact
and it can include either the fight being partially
or entirely off-screen.
But just before going further,
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And unlike many fights in One Piece,
it is essential that we see this happen
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But a good example of off-screening
would be Garp and Sengoku versus Shiki
which occurred in chapter zero.
We saw the very beginning of their fight
and then it cuts to some narration describing the outcome
and the next time we saw Shiki,
well, he was in Impel Down,
but the actual fight itself was off-screen.
And there are countless examples of this happening
over the course of the series,
especially in the New World era.
And unlike the Shiki example,
which occurred in what was effectively canon bonus material,
most of these instances
do happen within the core fabric of the series.
And that leads to some dissatisfaction
amongst parts of the fan base, because in many ways,
yes, One Piece can be considered a battle manga
and there is a certain expectation of experiencing,
you know, action.
One that to be fair, One Piece has delivered on
for most of its life.
And that face value,
this leads to all sorts of claims most common of which
is that Oda is rushing the series
or that Oda hates certain characters or whatever,
I'll be honest, it's mostly nonsense,
because these thoughts really only take into consideration
what is missing rather than why it is missing.
So that's what we're here to talk about
at great length today.
Why off-screening fights is necessary,
both technically and narratively,
as well as at least one case
where I do admit it was a questionable decision to do so.
But to get into the great benefits of off-screening,
we should actually start by recognizing that this practice
is pretty much as old as storytelling itself,
which is mostly operated on a tell don't show theory
throughout human history.
And good old William Shakespeare is a great example of this,
because even in some of his most violent plays
very key moments of action happen off-stage,
like in Macbeth, where Duncan's murder
as well as the deaths of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
all happened off-stage,
which is almost unthinkable by modern narrative standards.
And while a lot of this was out of technical necessity,
because it was difficult
to make these things happen on stage,
it did push Shakespeare and his contemporaries
to come up with ways of conveying action and meaning
without seeing the act itself.
So to go back to Macbeth
and I promise I will apply this to One Piece
very, very soon.
But instead of seeing Duncan's murder,
what we see is Macbeth into the scene
with his hands slathered in blood,
which immediately says so much more
than actually seeing the murder ever could.
It sparks the imagination immediately with questions like,
what exactly did he do to him?
How brutal was this?
And it leads to increased mental engagement
throughout the scene because our minds have a gap to fill
with whatever our imaginations are able to come up with.
Meanwhile, if this was to happen
in a modern day One Piece chapter,
then I 100% bet
that there would be a chorus of comments like,
OMG, I can't believe Oda off-screened Duncan-san's death,
he's just rushing to get to the end.
Or Macbeth-sama has not had a good fight since the time skip
and this is what we get?
I'm dropping Shakespeare.
And yes, while we're here,
I would equate Oda to something of a manga Shakespeare
having radically redefined and explored
the true potential of the shown in area,
that doesn't make him a One Piece perfect, far from it.
Shakespeare also not perfect, far from it.
But there is often a good and very effective reason
as to why things like off-screening are performed.
So let's take a key example of what has become
the poster child of off-screening in One Piece
which is Sanji versus Page One.
And I happen to think it's one of the worst examples
that we could choose,
but it's the one that people really latch on to
when off-screening comes up, particularly in the manga
because the anime did expand on the fight a bit
and we'll get to that.
But one key thing to remember about fights
especially in a shown in series,
is that they're probably the weakest aspect
of most properties.
And that's because roll action in and of itself
doesn't do anything to progress anything.
Fights sent to act as roadblocks or barriers to progression
with the exception of when they occur
at the climax of an arc, be it story or character.
Because by that point,
we've gotten through all of the necessary story
and generally all that remains
is to defeat the ideologically opposed villains
and that is where action shines.
These are the kind of moments like,
say the Alabasta match ups
where every fight holds incredibly deep meaning
for every Straw Hat
and their character progression is on the line
because their ideology is challenged to the core.
Stuff like Luffy's desire to become the Pirate King
needing to break through a seemingly insurmountable opponent
who is denying him that dream,
Ozora facing the ultimate barrier
to his progression as a swordsman
who stops belief in both Luffy and himself
coming to the forefront and so on and so forth.
These battles are essential character moments
and not just fun action pieces
and that is why we need to see and experience
the struggle to completion with those characters.
Meanwhile, Sanji versus Page One
as well most off-screen fights in the series is not that.
Sanji versus Page One in particular
is a fight that occurs circumstantially
very early on in an arc,
where we have not yet achieved a full emotional investment.
It really only serves one main purpose,
which is to show Sanji being willing to use the raid suit,
a massive step forward in his character
due to his you know, family feelings.
And I suppose as a secondary measure,
it is to show us what the raid suit can technically do
so that it can be put to better use in the future,
neither of which requires seeing the fight in its entirety,
we have two key beats to hit.
One, Sanji making the decision to embrace the suit
and two, Sanji demonstrating the power of the suit
both of which we see quite succinctly
and we leave that fight running away
with Usopp, Franky and Lauren, a rather nice transition
with the knowledge that Sanji is undoubtedly going to win.
And I'm pretty happy with that.
In fact, at this stage,
I really don't see the point in expanding that
to show the moment of actual victory.
Because Page One is not an enemy
whose defeat carries any meaning whatsoever,
there would be such a diminishing return of satisfaction
in seeing him pummeled into oblivion at this stage.
So sure, Oda can take the rest of the fight off-screen,
because we have the information we need.
And there is nothing that Oda is going to show us
that can possibly add to that experience,
which interestingly enough, we do have conclusive proof of
because the anime just so happens to go
beyond that final manga moment,
you know, we linger on the Sanji versus Page One fight
and take it to a point
that I guess we could call completion.
Basically, they scuffle for a bit,
we see Sanji do another super powered kick
and then he runs away,
which if anything defeats the entire point
of leaving the fight early in the manga,
because it makes Sanji seem incredibly underpowered
by not actually being able to defeat Page One,
as we were lead to believe he could do comfortably
in the manga.
And this would be my main argument
in favor of off-screen events.
There are certain times in One Piece
where the imagination of the reader
is going to be far greater than anything Oda could show us
and he selects these moments very carefully
to increase our mental engagement.
In the Sanji versus Page One example,
I was left imagining just how utterly wrecked
Page One was getting.
But if it played out the same way the anime did,
then there was nothing left to imagine.
The scene came to a full stop
and that gives permission for my mind
to completely disengage.
There was just no need for that extra information
and in fact, I do think it's a great detractor
and they will move on from this soon, I promise.
But I would also like to point out
that Sanji versus says Page One took place
over a total of 12 pages across two chapters.
And that is a shocking amount of time
dedicated to a single minor conflict
and I would ask, do people really want to see this material
expanded into what?
Two whole chapters?
And have such an irrelevant scuffle
take precedence over everything else happening on Wano?
I definitely would not.
But let's move on to a different brand of off-screening now
because it's one thing to see bits of a fight.
However, what about the cases where we see
absolutely none of the fight.
Two great examples of this in One Piece
would be at the Payback War
or Kuzan versus on Sakazuki on Punk Hazard.
These are grand conflicts
that we only found out about in retrospect
and are yet more prime targets for being labeled
as Oda off-screening fights.
All of the best fights happen off-screen,
the people will say.
Once again, lamenting what they have seemingly lost
rather than recognizing everything that they've gained,
because instances like this are the lifeblood of One Piece,
the strategic dishing out of tantalizing
morsels of information, which once again,
are designed purely to spark the imagination.
The mere mention of Kuzan versus Sakazuki
was enough to have my mind frothing at the thought
of what happened over the course of that 10 day battle.
And it makes me view both of those characters
in an almost legendary status these days,
because I've heard the myth of what they did.
Meanwhile, if I'd seen that with my own eyes,
I don't think that would quite be the case.
And you can see this quite clearly with Luffy actually,
he is a beautiful example.
We as readers get to see every single move that Luffy makes.
And as a result,
we don't quite see him the way the rest of the world does.
To the rest of the One Piece citizens,
Luffy's achievements are completely off-screened.
And as a result of that,
they see him as this terrifyingly powerful figure
because they've heard the Luffy myths.
The man who destroyed Enies Lobby,
the man who invaded Impel Down,
the man who stood side by side with Whitebeard
at the Paramount war,
the man who took on an emperor of the sea in Totto land
and so on and so forth.
That's obviously not how we see Luffy
because we get to follow his journey
and we know the truth of the situation.
But it is how we see the rest of this world
and its characters through these off-screen instances,
which I think is only for the betterment of One Piece.
I maintain that if Oda were to show us
more than the briefest of glimpses of the Payback War
or Sakazuki versus Kuzan,
then it would only lead to disappointment.
Because in cases like this,
there is nothing that even Oda can do
to trump the power of our imaginations
and yeah, show don't tell
would be a very stereotypical statement
that you'll hear in regards to any visual media
but it does neglect that there can be incredible power
in the act of telling rather than showing
when used appropriately that is
and for the most part, it is in One Piece.
And with that said, I would like to talk about
one potential exception now though
and for this I'm going to put up spoiler warning for events
deep into Act Three of Wano.
If you're not caught up with the manga
or you're an anime only watcher who dislikes spoilers
then you will definitely want to skip to this time
because it's a pretty big spoiler for multiple reasons.
So I'll just give you some time to do that,
but for everyone else, here we go.
So a more recent example of off-screening
that does kind of irk me is the whole Kanjuro situation.
Now I want to preface this by saying that
at the time of this recording,
Wano is not over and for all we know,
this is a fake out and Kanjuro could still be alive.
So I'm just working with what we have at the moment.
And what we have is an off-screen death
of one of the most pivotal characters
of the entire post timeskip era.
Kanjuro is shockingly responsible for a lot of the situation
that we find ourselves in here today
and he carried some incredible emotional weight behind him.
Kanjuro was not some last minute villain addition
like Page One.
He was a character who had been with us
ever since Dressrosa and his betrayal hit hard,
not just the Scabbards but also the readers.
So to begin a miscellaneous chapter
and just finding him dead on the floor
is what I find to be a less than satisfying way
of dealing with him.
I think that the Kanjuro situation
is more akin to our climax fights
where it is important to see that moment of defeat
to give our seven year journey with this figure
some proper closure.
With that said, I would like to reiterate
that this may not be the end of Kanjuro.
He is indeed a sneaky mofo
and he could make his way back into things.
But as the story currently stands,
this is one instance of off-screening action
that I do have trouble reconciling,
because even if I do go back to my own Macbeth argument,
yes, we do see the impact of Kanjuro's death
on the scabbards, which does ignite the imagination,
much like Macbeth's bloodied hands after killing Duncan.
The difference is nobody cared about Duncan.
He was an incompetent old man
that you knew for like half an hour and then he's gone.
What was more important was that Macbeth killed him.
Meanwhile, with Kanjuro,
there is a much stronger connection to the readers
that really does demand an on screen resolution,
at least to me.
But of course, you're all very welcome to argue that point,
but in essence, conducting fights
or the conclusion to fights off-screen
is a beneficial practice for One Piece overall,
both in terms of the technical needs
such as needing to condense story,
as well as for narrative impact
by producing potent shots of information
and feelings that we do need,
but not allowing us the time to linger on them
and have that feeling dissipate.
And something else I will say is that
I would be very curious to know the ages
of the average person
who complains about Oda off-screening fights.
And I say that because as I flagged many times,
these devices are dependent on imagination
and being able to fill those gaps yourself.
And it might be difficult for younger readers to do that,
specifically, I don't know around the ages of 12 or 13,
because they might not have the life experience
or the wealth of stories consumed
to activate that imagination,
which I don't mean as a derogatory statement,
it is what it is.
But I suppose that is the gambit that Oda takes
with this sort of stuff,
which I quite like, because to me,
it invites the reader
to become part of the storytelling process.
You know, we can look at examples like say,
Sabo versus Burgess,
where we see the beginning of their fight
and then cut to the end with Burgess defeated
and we can construct our own impression
of how that played out
through all of the cues that we were given
or even better,
we can be given a dramatic chapter ending
like Kaido facing off against Kid and friends
and be left to ponder exactly how that played out
without the need to ever actually show us what happened.
There is just so much absurd power in the unseen
that goes unappreciated with One Piece,
but also media in general, when properly utilized that is.
There are many cases in other series where it is not.
But with One Piece, if you're one of those individuals
who gets annoyed by not being able
to see certain bits of punching,
then I want you to ask yourself,
what would seeing that fight achieve
that you did not already have?
And much more importantly,
how could seeing that potentially detract
from the overall experience?
Because I guarantee you
that if we took the time to play out every conflict
that the fan base accused Oda of rushing and off-screening
then One Piece would become a much more shallow experience
because yes, we would have more action
but overall much less value.
But what do you guys think?
Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below
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But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review
and I'll see you next time.