Best Moment of the Year:
Hard to say, there were actually a fair number of great moments this year even though two main ones come to mind. Before I get to my top two for this particular year I will say flat out that I have quite a few honorable mentions, from Doflamingo's epic speech, to the reveal of Jack, to Bartolomeo taking down Gladius via homage (Bartolomeo in general is amazing. Still waiting for him to be 11th nakama! :wub:) to Sai and Baby 5 falling in love, with Baby 5 deservedly being the only member of Doffy's crew to be spared (Shut up! I think that this ship is adorable! :wub:) to Zoro and Franky both being major hardcore badasses (Franky might've actually been just as badass as Zoro in a way, because while he may not have been as flashy as Zoro with his mountain cutting showing off-ness… Franky more then made up for it in terms of being hard boiled. )
But in spite all of that amazing epic-ness my top two moments, and yes I have a #1 in spite of everything. Are: Close 2nd, (Almost like #1B) was the reveal of Kaido. Seriously there'd been so much hype surrounding this mofo for so long and yet Oda actually pulled it off. I have to give Oda some major credit for that. I even will randomly tell people I know about the Kaido chapter to finally get people to stop saying OP is down hill: Also this. Don't normally like King of Lightning but his reaction to Kaido was… Pretty much mine lol
Also, whenever Kaido says that he's going to: "Start the Biggest War this World Has Ever Seen!!!" I always think of that line from Game of Thrones where the one guy says he'll start the biggest Fire the North has ever seen. Has Oda been confirmed as a GoT fan? Because I'd honestly be more surprised if he wasn't confirmed at this point.
But yeah Luffy taking down Doflamingo was the best moment in OP this year in my opinion, in spite of how amazing so many other moments were. I literally got out of my chair and fist pumped when that happened. And I literally started to think to myself "Maybe One Piece really is just as good as it was pre-timeskip?" Cause I mean, we're still not quite back at the consistent levels of amazing quality that the series frequently reached during the Sabaody, Impel Down and Marineford arcs (the Golden age of One Piece imo :wub:) Oda put in the time, he put in the effort, and Doflamingo, the man who held the record for highest bounty in One Piece for a good 300-400 chapters (and now Jack has completely ****ed up the OP Bounty system in a way so that it'll never be fixed. But we'll get to that later… we'll get to that) was taken down in a manner that was satisfying and realistic. Great, great moment. Wonderful.
I'm going to speed through the other ones because I'll kind of just hit a lot of the same beats with most of them. Here gos!
Character of the Year:
Hard to say. You know what... I'll list my top 10.
1. Monkey D. Luffy. Lazy answer I know, but he really was great this year. I've followed this guy's adventures for literally 8 years now and yet him taking down Doflamingo really made me proud somehow. I almost felt as though one of my best friends had grown up in this moment where he proved that he was high Shichibukai level. I was really proud of him in that moment honestly, I know that that's kind of nerdy and pathetic, and he's fictional character at the end of the day, but in my opinion if one doesn't become emotionally invested in their fictional stories then... What's the point of reading them?
2. Donquixote Doflamingo. People I think are neglecting how amazing he was this year as well. He had a badass as all Holy Hell speech. He put up a really good fight against Luffy that Luffy really would not have won without outside help (not that it isn't still an amazing feat on Luffy's part though!) and in general the dude is a major badass that could probably put even Crocodile to shame in terms of Magnificent Bastard-ness. Past Crocodile anyway. :ninja:
3. Kaido. I know... lazy answer, and he was literally in one chapter but... All of the hype surrounding him where Law literally called him the strongest CREATURE alive… he lived up to it in that chapter. And that's just amazing to me.
4. Roronoa Zoro. His fight with Pica was badass. Because Zoro is amazing. Not really anything else to say besides that, Zoro will be an MVP until the series end. I'm pretty sure that he and Luffy are probably going to go on to be the only 2 characters that end up in every top 10 best characters list until the end of the series. I used to think that Sanji would also end up in all of those lists but... We haven't truly seen him in about 2 years. sniffle. :sad:
5. Bartolomeo. Because he's the best. And I probably shouldn't gush about him anymore then I already have... Because we'd be here for several hours...
6. Sabo. Because... as Sawyer7mage once said... If my man Sabo really wanted to he could go off to Shanks' house while drunk, urinate on his porch, smack Shanks once Shanks comes out and TOTALLY GET AWAY WITH IT! Don't believe me… ask Drunk Sawyer... Below...
7. Franky... Because he's so Hard Boiled.
8. Senor Pink. Because he's… possibly even more Hard Boiled. Were Franky not Franky he might #7 after all.
9. Jack. Because he's the One Billion Berry Bounty man. And as ridiculously stupid as that is… I'd be lying if I said I didn't wet myself a little bit Sheepshead said that... I shouldn't have said that...
10. Sai. Weird choice but... I really like what Oda did for this character... He might be the shining example of a OP character with a Happy Ending. He got the best possible ending this character could've gotten. He became the Don of the Fleet. He got Baby 5 as his wife, because I mean seriously she may not be Hancock or Nami levels of hotness, but given that this is Sai we're talking about he got really lucky given where he is in the One Piece hierarchy. And became probably the 3rd or 4th most prominent of Luffy's captain (after Barto and Cabbage obviously... and possibly that little puke Leo... but we'll get to that)
I considered putting both Usopp and Trafalgar Law in this list but... I've started to realize that the 2 of them had their best moments last year sadly.
Also I don't know why but I find this video to be amusing. Admit it, deep down you want that to happen between Sabo and Shanks. :3
Damn it I'm going to have to get through these other ones really quickly.
Best New Character.
Kaido. Already been said why. Jack is a fairly close second. Edward Weevil is a somewhat distant third. I'm willing to wait and see how he turns out though. All the other new characters this year kind of sucked and don't deserved to be ranked. Except maybe the Cat Viper. :ninja:
Best Fight.
Luffy vs Doflamingo. Already been said why. Zoro vs Pica, Franky vs Senor Pink, Bartolomeo vs Gladius and Sai vs Lao G/Baby 5. Pretty good set of fights honestly.
Best Surprise of the Year.
I want to say Kaido… But to be honest with you I actually thought that the reveal of what Zou was was honestly a bit better at least in terms of the surprise factor. Admit it… Most of you didn't think it was going to be on an Elephant. That's a pretty big acid trip even by Oda's standards. Honorable mentions are Kaido, Jack and Edward Weevil's reveals. And also finally seeing the Blackbeard Pirates, Monkey D. Dragon and (most importantly) BUGGY after multiple years.
The Buggy has arrived. Tell the people.
Quote of the Year: Doflamingo's speech. I can't post it though because this post is already ridiculously long. But all I can really say is… Some people don't think OP will end at chapter 1200 (although a lot of my friends and my gf say that the series is too long as it is and that 1200 chapters is too long... I'm worried 1200 chapters is going to be too short) but I do know that Oda knows by the time he's done with this series (as Ice Cube would put it) his bitch ass will be 50. So he kind of knows he has to speed it up a little bit. And that's kind of why a looming Throne war (Oda has to be a GoT fan... he just has to be...) needs to happen. And why the status quo seems more and more like it's starting to get shaken up, what with Kaido and Big Mom both having a stake in Zou, Kaido actually having a reason to go to Impel Down when you think about it, and a war between the Blackbeard Pirates and the Revolutionary Army looming. And I can only see things in the OP world getting more and more chaotic from there honestly. I kind of think the reason Dressrosa was so long was because Oda knew that would be the last arc of the series he'd get to write before chaos reigned in the OP world. So he was sentimental. It happens to all of us. And I really fear that Sabo will end up like Ace... Please Lord no... I mean from a storytelling standpoint it would be brilliant... But please Lord no...
Also this: Because his reaction to the BB Pirates vs Revolutionaries plot thread... I think he might be on to something:
Also… The Buggy has arrived bitches... :ninja:
Funniest Moment:
Let me think... There was nothing this year that was quite as amazing as Usopp being the 500 Million Berry Bounty man (I laughed so hard honestly… Even though now Jack makes that bounty look pathetic but... still it's Usopp) but I did still find a lot of Bartolomeo's fanboy/girl moments over the Straw-Hats really amusing. And him jizzing himself multiple times over Zoro and Robin, figuratively and possibly literally in the latter case, will always make my day pretty much.
Also... Ryunosuke and Robin's reaction to him was great. Wait... Who the Hell am I kidding Ryunosuke should've been 3rd best new character this year! He's almost on par with Jack why the Hell did I forget him!? He makes Edward Weevil look pathetic by comparison!
R.I.P. Ryunosuke. You gave so much and asked so little. Sniffle.
Ryunosuke's death was sadder then Chojiro Sasakibe's in Bleach. You heard it here first folks! … My God that's a callback... Also I'm actually only half-joking when I say that... I actually kind of mean it now that I think about it... :blink:
Shame of the Year:
No Sanji. That is all. Actually wait, I guess... Also Rebecca is still worthless. I know that hating on Rebecca has kind of become like a beating dead horse, and believe me it brings me no pleasure to consistently rag on a female character but... She really does in my opinion kind of deserve... not all of it mind you, because I don't think she "Roooiiined this arrrrke!" like some other people seem to (stupidly) think that she did but... She was the biggest problem with this arc. Even those useless Tontatta weren't (quite) as bad as her. (They were close though. I don't know why more people don't rag on them.)
But back to Sanji... Sanji this one's for you... No matter what happens, and no matter how many times Oda-sensei illustrates that he's clearly forgotten that you exist... You were my hero. No. Correction. You are my Hero.
Sanji needs to be back in 2016. I mean seriously people. I think part of the reason I have such a giant mancrush on Kaido is because his reveal was actually so badass it overshadowed the return of Sanji after a full goddamn
year of publication. Oh if only we knew that would also be the last we'd see of him for another long while. Sniffle.
Worst Character of the Year.
Rebecca. Already been said why. The Tontatta are a close second though (well, not that close but…), although I'm starting to realize that Mansherry is pretty worthless too. I normally have a pretty high tolerance for diabetes causing levels of cuteness but even I can't stand her. Also... I don't know why but I can't bring myself to truly like Cavendish. Don't really know why, he's just always overshadowed by Bartolomeo. And possibly also Sai. :ninja:
Worst New Character.
Meh. No one was really that bad. Most everyone this year was either good (Kaido. Jack. ... Ryunosuke) ... Or didn't do enough to truly leave an impact... I think maybe Edward Weevil was slightly disappointing but even then I still think Oda has plans for that character that I'm about 90% sure will pay off in the long run. His mother is as annoying as sin but... she's supposed to be so I can't get mad at Oda for that.
Worst Surprise.
Jack's bounty was... A bit of a strange moment... Because while on one hand I can understand the reasoning behind it... And I do sort of get why Oda's decided to raise the limit on Bounties... I can't help but ask... Why now? I mean... It kind of raises some questions. Like why the Hell does the WG enlist guys who's Bounties are generally in the 100-300 Million Berry Bounty range to be in the Shichibukai when there are 1st Mate's with Bounties in the 1 Billion range. Why the Hell are Kidd and Law and Apoo and Hawkins considered "notorious" pirates when their bounties are positively dwarfed by a subordinate of Kaido's? How high do the bounties of the Yonko (or Dragon?) go if Jack is worth literally a billion? Infinite? World Noble status? The possibilities, and questions, are endless… And I don't know if Oda can answer them honestly. I don't think he wants to, and I don't think I truly care... but regardless it was a cool twist, but it still throws a lot of our prior expectations of the series out of whack. It just feels like Bounties kind of mean nothing at this point if Luffy and Law can be considered the highest active bounties with 500 Million each at chapter 801... And then a month or two later Oda already goes up to the Billion range. I mean... I just feel like maybe if you were finally going to go there then you should have done it at Marineford you know? Just me.
Anyway... Those are my thoughts... And I had a lot of them. I really need to get help because I am spending too much damn time thinking about fictional pirates with superpowers. It's amazing that I actually have a social and professional career. But... this was a great year for One Piece regardless, and I think that that's obvious because of how much there was to talk about. Hopefully 2016 will be just as good or even better (maybe). Till next time. Now I leave y'all with this.