I was gonna create this in 2016, but procrastination got the better of me, but at least the AP Awards are following in my footsteps too
Time for the annual tradition where we nominate the best and the worst that happened in One Piece in 2016, the "Year of Sanji". Yeah, kind of obvious from the title I suppose. The categories are:
• Best Moment of the Year
• Character of the Year
• Best New Character of the Year
• Best Fight of the Year
• Best Surprise of the Year
• Quote of the Year
• Funniest Moment of the Year
• Shame of the Year
• Worst Character of the Year
• Worst New Character of the Year
• Worst Fight of the Year
• Worst Surprise of the Year Only nominations from Chapter 811 to Chapter 850 count. Chapter 851 officially comes out this year.
A lot of new characters were introduced this year, so I've listed them in the box below, separating by major and minor characters:
! MAJOR CHARACTERS
! * Vito
- Raizo
- Charlotte Pudding
- Vinsmoke Judge
- Vinsmoke Reiju
- Vinsmoke Ichiji
- Vinsmoke Niji
- Vinsmoke Yonji
- Charlotte Mont d'Or
- Charlotte Opera
- Charlotte Galette
- Charlotte Brulee
- Charlotte Cracker
- Pound
- Randolph
- Amande
- Diesel
- King Baum
! MINOR CHARACTERS
! * Milky
- Sally Isntoinette
- Gotti
- Nitro
- Rabian
- Charlotte Moscato
- Charlotte Praline
- Charlotte Perospero
- Charlotte Chiffon
- Charlotte Smoothie
- Anana
- Dolce
- Dragee
- Anglais
- Zeus
- Prometheus
- Capone Pez
- Cosette
- Epony
- Noble Croc
- Zepo
So, have fun! I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Mine are below.
! * Best Moment of the Year: Zunisha annihilating Jack's fleet. An awesome moment in every sense of the word. Honorable Mention: Kaido's drunken rampage in Wano Country, since it revealed a lot about the guy.
- Character of the Year: Sanji. Yeah this one was a no-brainer for me. Some people may not have liked how the year has ended with Sanji still sinking lower and lower, but I've loved how one of the core characters has fundamentally changed in just one year, and done it so well in the process. And yes, we'll be sure to get a sweet redemption this year.
- Best New Character of the Year: Charlotte Brulee. I was gonna do another predictable answer and say Pudding, but thinking back I really think I've enjoyed her the most. Oda really went all out on her design, she had a great power, and she was pretty fun to watch in any scene she was in.
- Best Fight of the Year: Luffy vs. Cracker. There weren't too many fights this year, so this may be a popular choice. Even with a relative lack of competition, I enjoyed this battle quite a bit, as it transitioned from a good ol-fashioned slugfest to a battle of endurance as Cracker designed elaborate biscuit weapons and Luffy ate them. Sure, perhaps a little more of it could have been shown, but it was still a great fight.
- Best Surprise of the Year: Sanji's heritage revealed. There were a ton of amazing surprises this year, but one of the earliest ones takes the cake because this fundamentally shook an extremely major character to the core and paved the way for this arc we've been having. Honorable mentions go to "Raizo is safe!", the Beasts Pirates taking over Wano Country and to Pudding's Face-Heel Turn.
- Quote of the Year: Kaido's badass boast in Chapter 824. And you know every single word of it is true, especially since he cites his sources.
- Funniest Moment of the Year: Pedro holding his sword to Pudding's throat. The sheer timing of that scene was hilarious. Made even better by the fact that Pedro was right all along.
- Shame of the Year: Luffy and Cracker's fight being skipped over. This actually wasn't that bad, but nothing really was bad to me this year. It's just a little disappointing because, even though it wouldn't ultimately be much more, it would've felt better to actually see Nami figuring out how to soften the biscuits, and Luffy eating the biscuits, and Nami using the homies to protect her, rather than being told all that and forced to infer the rest.
- Worst Character of the Year: Charlotte Cracker. Again, not a truly bad character, but just not as good as the others. Sure, he had fun quirks like his craftsmanship and his intolerance to pain, but overall he just felt like muscle and was not really very memorable.
- Worst New Character of the Year: Since Cracker is also new, he gets the dubious distinction of both awards. I'll throw in Honorable Mention: Diesel for debuting with Randolph and Amande as a dangerous warrior who massacred an island to get flour but then, unlike the other two, making his official debut only to be quickly defeated and used as a horseman. I like his design though, I'll give him that.
- Worst Fight of the Year: Carrot vs. Randolph. Should have been longer.
- Worst Surprise of the Year: Destruction of the Revolutionaries' Base. For an event as big as that, it was treated with quite a bit of brevity.