What Hooked You on One Piece?

Zulen

I didn't start watching One Piece until mid-summer. The thing that originally got me into One Piece was just… well... it was appealing, so I picked up the first volume. It was pretty insane, because around the Buggy Arc, I was really hooked. My first "OMG LUFY IS TEH BADNEZZ" was when he kicked Mohji's ass.

I was surprised how reading Manga could be fun. As far as the anime goes, I used to watch the dub every night at 9:30. I had no proof, but I was pretty certain it was edited, because there were alot of sped up punches and such.

I went over to Youtube just to see how many Japanese episodes there were. I recalled up to 400 episodes, though I wasn't certain. The number "273" just spoke to me, because it's a common number that is used when calculating. I can't really describe it, but "37" is also commonly used. It's just a common number.

That said, I watched episode 273, reluctantly (This was the first Japanese Anime I'd watched). I thought that bit with the Judge and Zoro, Chopper, Nami, and the Franky Family was amazingly stupid, and I was ready to turn the damn thing off. That is... until Luffy and Bleuno showed up.

I was amazed. I'd never seen anything quite like it! And to think: What a great moment to start the series!!

I ran off to torrent, and found ADC Elites website. I joined APforums about 3 months after.

Strangely enough, 273 was the most recent episode at that time. Call me ridiculous, but I still believe that some divine force mentally told me to watch it. The number just spoke to me. What are the odds…?

Anyway, after that, I immediatly rid myself of Xiaolin Showdown, Avatar, and Dubs and started to rebuild my collection fresh from Japan.

Strange_One

I read the English Jumps back in mid '03. By the Baratie arc in 2004 I was hooked like CRAZY and got the HK DVDs. I ended up buying them to Skypiea (and reading the manga up to chapter 380 mid-late 2005).

So I liked it from where I started (Buggy), really liked it at the Kuro arc, and was 'OMG NEED MOAR!" by Sanji's introduction. Watching Arlong (HK as it was) was my point of no return.

Zulen

You bought the HK Subs up to Skypiea…?

Congratulations... you'd lived up to your name.

Strange_One

Up to W7, actually 8D I own 1-233 bootleg.

Yes, yes I know, they're evil, but when I first bought them I didn't know about the MSN groups or K-F. And when I bought them later I knew thhey were evil but I had dialup and… well... the temptation.

(Come on though, they're hilarious- "Home of Frankies" when "FRANKYHOUSE" is in big letters on the screen…)

gaara d. lucci

I hate HK subs so much. I don't know how you were able to get through them. I hated the Skypiea arc and HK subs just made it worse. Lucky I knew the plot already, or I would've been lost reading the subs. Strange One, you must have the patience of a saint.^_^

Hyper Dingo

In started reading one piece riggght after luffy freed zoro. mmmmm i was hooked.

gaara d. lucci

To be honest, I hated OP until around the Krieg Arc. Then watched the Arlong arc and started liking OP a bit more. Then somehow I was exposed to Rob Lucci before I even got to Arabasto. So I stayed because of the awesomeness of such a cool character. I figured if there are other characters this cool, I should stick around.

Then I went and watched Arabasta. That's when I knew that I had picked a winner. I proceeded to watch the entire to Water7 AND watch the entire Naruto series within the span of 4-5 days non-stop (I was hooked on those two series that bad). And I've been watching/reading ever since.

Toxicated

Okay! Okay! My turn!

Ahem… well… it all started when I saw the dub.
It was during the Baratie arc and I just happened to turn
on the TV while the suction-cups were being fired.
I thought it was pretty gay and I decided to see what
One Piece has in store on Youtube. Thus, spoiling myself.
I happened to watch bits of the Water 7 arc and the whole
Usopp ordeal. I automatically was attached to Kaku and Lucci.
And Robin became one of my favorite characters.

So... I looked up the manga. And up popped the MSN site.
I read the Arlong arc, Alabasta arc, some-what read
the Skypeia arc, and read the Davy Back fight.
And BOOM I was addicted.

And to think... if it wasn't for 4Kids' horrible dubbing,
I'd never would've like One Piece.

quotLCquot_Lapen

Basically, it all started with the DBZ card game.

At the time of Shonen JUMP's release, I was an avid card gamer, mainly with Dragonball Z. When the 3rd issue of JUMP came out, it included an exclusive Goku card. Naturally, I had to get it. At the time, I didn't even know what Shonen JUMP was, but I hate to waste things I buy. So not only was I introduced to the concept of reading a comic backwards, but I really enjoyed reading DragonBall Z & Yu Yu Hakusho again (still am a big fan of the dub). It also introduced me to the goodness that was One Piece & Naruto.

Naruto I liked for the action, One Piece for the humor and storytelling. I continued to read them up until the beginning of the Arlong Arc. That was when I decided to hell with it and tried watching the dub for spoiler purposes. After only 10 minutes, I only had one reaction:

"Bullshit".

I wasn't intimidated into getting subtitled video. I used to watch subtitled "Slayers" episodes on the international channel as a kid. I just had to learn a few things about bittorrent first. After Arlong and right about into Whiskey Peak (Zoro's scene on the rooftop), there was no turning back.

HinaThePrince

One of my best friends got completely hooked on it, so for months all she said was "GO WATCH ONE PIECE OMG OMG". Eventually I gave up and said "fine, burn it for me". So she did, up to episode 30 or so. I didn't watch them for weeks, though, since the length and the art style really turned me off. When I visited her house, she forced me to watch the first two episodes, and I liked them immediately . Came back home, watched some more, got to Arlong Park, decided that this series is one of the best ever, watched 130 episodes in two and a half weeks, and the rest is history. ^^

AWB

Zoro saving Luffy from Captain Morgan was what did it for me. That's right folks, it took less than 10 chapters for Oda to hook me on his series.

AD-HD Pirate

For me it was when they puplished first One Piece volume in here Finland.
First I was like "Why are all characters so odd?" But still I fell in love with series.

Tizoc

What got me into one piece….or rather let me tell you HOW I got hooked to one piece.

It was in 2005, probably spring IIRC. My bro's friend lent us his EX-Harddrive SO WE CAN CATCH up to Naruto, that's when I noticed whilst copying the first few chapters of One Piece. For the record, I had heard of the series before but never got to read/watch it.
So I copy them as well to my PC.

As I started reading it, I eventually liked Zoro, then Buggy, but at the same time HATED Luffy. Still despite the cartoony art I was OK with it.

Come summer I DLed more chapters from StopTazmo.com, while at the same time DLing Bleach. Funny little tid-bit:- at that time I used to diss OP cuz of it's cartoony art and once the Soul Society arc of Bleach began I paused DLing OP, lol!

BTW, at first I didn't like Usopp, heck when I first saw him I went 'WTF this wierdo's gonna join them?!'! Ironic how that all changed in the Arlong Arc when Usopp fucked up Chew and that's when he became and still is my fav. OP character!

My like-ness for Usopp would once again increase during his fight against Mr. 4, I mean who could forget the 'USOPP POUND!'?!

Now we get to when I REALLY started getting hooked to OP- The end of the Arabasta saga, and no it wasn't cuz of Robin, but because of the bigass Galeon that fell from the fucking sky!

Honestly I was 'SWEET WASHING MACHINE OF GILL'S THONG~HOW THE FUCK DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!?!?!'
...and from then became hooked, not to mention that the Skypiea saga is my fav. along with Enel being my 3rd fav. OP character.

Mr. All Sunday

I saw the dub in Summer 2005, and was amazed at how retarded the dialogue was, so a friend and I checked it out on the internet. We found the MSN manga groups and started reading. I was hooked by the Arlong Arc, and I read all the way to the newest chapter (albeit with some skipping around). When I was done, the newest chapter was 'Gear'. What really sold the entire series for me was the Strawhats holding up their arms for Vivi. That kind of powerful scene make me believe that Oda will manage to keep One Piece great 'til the end.

Local-chan

Paulie shown me a couple of pics and I was like omg! Who is she! She's beautiful! (about Robin) so I started to take more interest in the show.

Bon-Chan

The first I ever saw of One Piece was the One Piece shirt my friend has that has everyone up to Chopper(minus Vivi and Going Merry) on it. I was fasinated with the looks and started watching the dub since I knew there was a show for it. But the dub lacked interest so I abadoned it. My friend though showed me an AMV using Sanji's song Girls ni Kubiette(sp?) I asked her"WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU GET THIS!?!?! THAT IS NOT HIS VOICE!" After watching a few episodes and some Manga reading I was hooked. That's really what got me interested in Japanease shows period.Now I need to watch and listen to One Piece each day.

Shanks1Piece

One day a friend of mine from school was carrying around the American Shonen Jump in school (mind you-before this I had NEVER read a manga before). Anyway, I was bored with nothing to do so I asked him to borrow it and I started reading it-oddly enough starting with One Piece. It was the chapter where Zoro cuts himself during his fight with Cabaji (spelling?)-and I thought: THAT IS SO KICKASS!!! After that, I went to a local bookstore and picked up the first volume. I didn't plan on buying it, so I just decided to read the first chapter. The second Shanks' arm got eaten I became obsessed by its awesomeness and from then on was an OP fanatic.

Megadoomer

A couple years ago, a friend got me an issue of the American Shonen Jump because they knew that I liked Yu-Gi-Oh and Dragon Ball Z. I read through it, but I didn't really see anything special. A couple months later, I noticed Shonen Jump in my local grocery store and began buying it regularly. By this time, the Don Krieg arc had just begun. I think the moment that I began liking One Piece was around the point when Sanji kicked the Mackerel Head One out of the sky. I wanted to find out more, so I did a Google search and found this site and the MSN Group.

HEATXZ

I saw the first episode of One Piece on 4kids(evil) and i can tell that it's been edited so i went to the Internet and read the manga verison on MSN Groups site and i went here(AP Forums) as a Guest to view anime clips of One Piece then i bought mangas(some English and some Japanese) and join here as a member and i watch One Piece episodes and Movies on Youtube

Senshi Mizaka

My first experience with One Piece was the 4Kids dub. It didn't really seem entertaining to me since the corny lines were a major turn-off. But then, I found out about K-F. Captain Morgan and Buggy almost had me thinking that One Piece would end up being some childish anime, but the Kuro arc convinced me otherwise. As soon as I got to Arlong Park, I knew I'd be addicted to it.

I still remember last year when I got addicted to the manga. It all started last October when I finally ran out of K-F episodes. It was the beginning of Skypiea when Luffy and Sanji started fighting Satori. In a month, I caught up right before Luffy vs. Blueno.

Uhneed

I watch the dub first but it was kind of weird but I looked it up a little and thought the only changes was the black-to-white guy springhammerthingy and name changes :getlost: .

Then later I saw a few manga for sale and bought the first one and was WTF. Then I looked it up on…_youtube…_and watched nonstop "over the course of two months" until I was caught up with Japan. At about 250 I discovered torrents and the much greater quility and made the switch

Shark

I knew about the dub, and how horribly edited it was. After watching a few episodes for laughs, a friend of mine let me borrow the first 30 HK subbed episodes. What amazed me the most was how great the original BGM was. Later, I would find the manga online, just as chapter 398 came out, and I went from there.

zeroxtb

i got addicted to it reading it in shonen jump, and then realized that the internet is a vast treasure chest full of manga, and i hopped on the boat from there

Natty Bumppo

Funny story actuallly:

As a freshman, me and my "friends" made fun of a girl in my class who was obsessed with anime, because she liked anime (I think anime fans would make fun of her also, she was those fans who would bearhug the manga she was reading, and would always go "I love Gaara-chan". shudder) Anyway, one day me and my "friends" stole a whole bunch of her manga (including Shonen Jump) that she had in her locker. Well, I took one home….and out of curiosity, I started to read it. Out of pure coincidence, the first manga I had opended to was One Piece. I remeber the chapter I read had Buggy, Luffy, and Nami. It was the chapter where Buggy tears Luffy's hat. I immediately got hooked. I asked the girl the next day what I read, she said "One Piece". I asked her again, because I thought either I heard the name wrong or she was making fun of me. I asked her again what it was, and she said "One Piece".

So I went to Borders sometime after and bought all of the 1st 3 volumes and read them. Ive loved One Piece ever since.

Aoi Neko

My friends got me into the manga. But sadly, the dub got me hooked onto the anime. I went to a place called Bad Rap (can't find the link!) that explains how bad the dub is. Next, I went to saveonepiece.com and it took me a while to stop watching the dub until the old rap was used for the second season. Then I stopped watching the dub and got into the manga.

Zulen

@Natty:

Funny story actuallly:

As a freshman, me and my "friends" made fun of a girl in my class who was obsessed with anime, because she liked anime (I think anime fans would make fun of her also, she was those fans who would bearhug the manga she was reading, and would always go "I love Gaara-chan". shudder) Anyway, one day me and my "friends" stole a whole bunch of her manga (including Shonen Jump) that she had in her locker. Well, I took one home….and out of curiosity, I started to read it. Out of pure coincidence, the first manga I had opended to was One Piece. I remeber the chapter I read had Buggy, Luffy, and Nami. It was the chapter where Buggy tears Luffy's hat. I immediately got hooked. I asked the girl the next day what I read, she said "One Piece". I asked her again, because I thought either I heard the name wrong or she was making fun of me. I asked her again what it was, and she said "One Piece".

So I went to Borders sometime after and bought all of the 1st 3 volumes and read them. Ive loved One Piece ever since.

Hahahah! That's awesome! Although I agree that fangirls are subject to bullies. They deserve it.

Gaara-chan… sheesh. One Piece Fangirl's are teh best. Fanboys could use some work...

Mr. Death

@Aoi:

My friends got me into the manga. But sadly, the dub got me hooked onto the anime.

That how I came across it too. Except that I saw One Piece on Jump magnzine first but I over look it becuase of the cartoonish way it was drawn.

TakinawaTonfa

Started out reading the English SJ (The first one I have is from May 2003). Learned a little bit about the anime before 4kids licensed it (and I had come to know of 4kids and their practices with anime a while before that). Watched some of the dub when it was shown on the FoxBox, and then stopped immediately after the "poison suction" incident.

Afterwards, I started learning a little more about Bittorrent, and fansubbing groups in general. I downloaded the Arlong arc from K-F, and I've been a huge fan ever since.

FireFistAce 0

I've always loved pirates and history; When I first saw the dub version on Cartoon Network, I was like, "Not bad, but this is kinda crappy. This is gotta be edited."

So, having already read all volumes of Saiyuki, All the up-to-date of Saiyuki Reload, All of Trigun and Trigun Maximum up-to-date, and others, I decided to give One Piece a try.

I was very much impressed.

See, at the same time, I watched Naruto, which was less heavily edited, and was like, "Wtf? Sexy Jutsu? This is crap." I just couldn't get into it, but I read a bit of the Manga and found myself loving Hina (No pun intended, though I like Love Hina as well), who is the only character that I really like in Naruto; the rest have very flat personalities. Hina is the only dynamic character in that manga…

Anyway, since Naruto was junk, I started reading One Piece and really enjoyed it. I wish the translation was a little better, but the artwork and the story is still the same, and that's what attracts me.

Also, I was mildly intrigued by the name "Tony Tony Chopper". I had not seen a picture of him, so I pictured him as this huge dude that chops people up and was a gangster. When I first saw a picture of Wapol before Chopper, I thought Wapol was Chopper.

Saloma

Well, this spans about a year and a half ago, maybe even more.

Anyway, it all started when I got into Rurouni Kenshin again. I had loved the anime and started getting the manga when they stopped airing it. At the end of the book, the ad for One Piece caught my eye. My first thought was "What kind of voice would THIS guy have?" (refering to Luffy). After that, there was a dry spell for a while until 4Kids started showing it on tv. I had seen commercials for it, but none that had any voices, so it got me a little annoyed. It was then that they showed that annoying Sanji commercial. As soon as I heard Luffy yell "SANJI!" a part of me died. My ears almost started bleeding, all because of one word.

Fast forward a few months, there was nothing on tv, so I turned to Fox Kids (ask why you shall not), One Piece was on. As soon as I saw it, I knew there was something wrong. My first impression of Sanji was "Why is this guy's cigerette not lit?" and almost started crying about his voice. It was then that the forums I started going to were complaining about how 4Kids butchered the show, confirming my speculation.

Although I heard that the dub was terrible, I didn't really care about it enough to actually watch the series, as other fansubs caught my eye (Rockman and Detective Conan). It was after I caught up with both groups that I started yearning something. My first thought was Naruto, since I heard it was pretty good, but thank god I didn't spend much time looking for a fansubber. It was then that I said, "What the hell, I'll see if that 'One Piece' show is any good." I then found KF's site. I downloaded the first 10 episodes and started the first one. At this time, I was expecting Luffy's voice to be roughly the same as the dub, but I kept my fingers crossed during the op that it would be alright. It was then the title screen came up, I sighed with relief. Luffy's voice didn't make me want to kill things, so I kept watching… And watching... And watching. It was like being reborn into anime again.

Seeing all the things that were taken out made me realize I had a keeper. About two months later (after I finished KF and went on to other subbers) I finished the anime and went onto the manga and here I am today.

Geese

Around the fall of 2005 I decided to check it out because my brother and I heard many great things about it (I actually knew of One Piece as far back as 1999) and were nothing short of fed up with the Naruto anime. Unlike most people here, it didn't take long for me to fall in love with this series. I was pretty much into it from the first ep (then again, just about anything's greater than Naruto) but I would continue to like it more with each successive arc.

Mr. Death

But the Anime that got me into anime was Sailor Moon, Ronin Warriors, and Dragonball Z.

Roz

I kept seeing conversations about it pop up on IRC, and I saw a few pictures of Sanji and liked his curl.

Then I found out that One Piece was about pirates and that the curly eyebrow guy was in it, and was like "Woah, pirates and a guy with a curly eyebrow, awesome." I started skipping around episodes, but I had no idea what Luffy's deal was with the rubber so I started from the beginning. Luffy's face kind of creeped me out at first.

I never did quite get used to it. I also used to think of Elton John whenever I looked at Coby, but that's another story.

Then I followed Carter here later on.

Aznamateurkit

I don't remember exactly how I got hooked, but I watched the Dub right about the Don Kreig arc. I liked the show, but didn't really get hooked until I started watching the Japanese verson.

Roz

I'm amazed at how many people started off on the dub. To this day, I've never seen it.

Aznamateurkit

Is the Dub really that bad?

gaara d. lucci

@Aznamateurkit:

Is the Dub really that bad?

Yeah, it actually is. Although IMO the dub Krieg Arc wasn't that bad, the Arabasta fights were decent too. Overall tho, one of the worst dubs of all time.

Malintex_Terek

@Aznamateurkit:

Is the Dub really that bad?

Not really. It's pretty average for a 90's dub in terms of violence, though a lot more editing went into it. Things started getting out of hand during Krieg. Arlong, and Loguetown though; Drum and Arabasta were good, everything before Shelltown 'meh', Shelltown itself was OK, Kuro and Buggy were decent.

Taleran

Shanks and his entire 1st appearence

Zulen

If they kept the music, the dub would've been perfect, in my opinion.

Taleran

for those wondering

opguide.bravehost.com

read it and decide for yourself

gogoedward

The biggest issues I have with the dub are the story changes they make, in particular the ignoring of deaths early on but not ignoring them later (Bellemere and Kuina couldn't die, but everyone post Lougetown could)

ANd mainly the script-writing, which tried to be funny in places where it didn't need to be. Also, the overall inconsistency of the dub's edits and changes gets annoying when you notice them.

That being said, the dub was still One Piece and it did get me started. WHen I first saw Buggy and his gang of pirates I was like "ohh….ok so they're gonna go against different themed pirates each time" And that was my general understanding of the series for a while, not really paying attention.

They went from Circus Pirates to Cat Pirates to Hungry Pirates who cheat in battle, to Pirates that are half fish.

But then they got to the Arlong Arc, and Nami's backstory made me very sad. I had already realized the dub was heavily edited so I looked online and confirmed my suspicions that Bellmere died. HOWEVER what really hit me was that she was shot in front of Nami, which I found tragic.

At that point, the series went from "casual edited series I don't know much about I watch on Saturday mornings" to "series I like enough to research online about, try to catch each episode" to "new favorite series"

In terms of the story, the show was interesting enough to get my attention, Arlong Arc grabbed me, but the escape from Whiskey Peak is what made me into an avid fan.

I never really hated the dub, so much as I get disgruntled with it every now and again and try to look for good in it.

Ceestar

I started watching the dub when it first aired in Australia, and found the storyline of pirates being good guys and chasing their dreams very interesting. I soon discovered 'the original Japanese version of anime' (I'd heard bits but never understood it) and a couple of months later I found both youtube and fansubs.
As I continued watching One Piece I began taking in everything that happened in the series and just loving it more and more. One Piece really was the birth of the fangirl inside me.
Now I understand the process of manga to anime to overseas companies dubbing and licensing etc.

One Piece banzai!

BobTheDarkOne

@gogoedward:

At that point, the series went from "casual edited series I don't know much about I watch on Saturday mornings" to "series I like enough to research online about, try to catch each episode" to "new favorite series"

Its pretty much the same for me. Though I started reading the manga first and I didn't notice much differences.

Chaos Inferno19

Well While Watching The 4kids dub when it first started, I Watch the intro and i was like who is the bad ass in the black suit. I mean it was the slightiest, thing but I was like OMFG he also uses his Feet to fight he need no special power or swords, Then i wacthed it till he ame and past it. Then It Also hit even morewhen i was the black Hair hottie robin for the first time

FireFistAce 0

@Private:

If they kept the music, the dub would've been perfect, in my opinion.

Dude, I want whatever you're smoking.

Hammer gun? RUBBER KNIFE? Vivi sounding like she was in her 20's? Sanji sounding like a nasally 20's gangster? Shanks with an Irish accent?

It was horrible, and that's why most of my friends never got into One Piece.

LightningAce

Back in early 2005, Dub Piece aired for the first time on Toonami UK. I decided to watch it. 1st episode- i didn't think much of it. It had me interested so i continued watching on. Around the Luffy vs Don Krieg fight, i all of a sudden fell in love.

I got sick of waiting for new episodes to air so i decided to go to K-F and download the orignals instead. Needless to say, i just watched and watched. I totally loved it.

Nekogal

First Nekogal started watching some of the dub, but stopped because she thought about how much better the sub would be, so Nekogal started the sub but didn't like it that much and stopped watching it after episode 60.. After she finished some other anime and had nothing else to watch, Nekogal decided to start watching it again.. Nekogal thougt it was ok and only started to really like it in the Little garden arc.. eventually it became one of Nekogals favourites and Nekogal couldn't stop wathing it until she finished it.

Crickeylynn

Well two summers ago I was had this babysitting job every weekend from 6pm to about 2am. This little girl watched cartoon network constantly. I have always enjoyed cartoons more than regular sitcom type shows. One night One Piece came on toonami. I was reading a book, but would look up and watch from time to time. It was during the Kreig arc, and I thought, "wow, that guy in the suit is pretty cool" so i put down my book and started watching it. The next weekend I watched it again, and enjoyed that the story always picked up where the last episode left off. One night, I was bored and decided to google One Piece. I thought I wouldn't find much, but was surprised when quite a few things came up. I found this forum, and some of the manga. After reading a few chapters, i realized how good One Piece was. Over the next few months I read all the chapters up to water seven. I kept hearing people talk about the subs, so I figured out how to download them. Been a fan since. One Piece is what got me into Anime and Manga.

MC RaZaR

I remember awhile back, 4Kids was talking about a new show One Piece coming to their Saturday lineup. I saw a few commercials and thought it was pretty stupid. One day I was really bored. I decided to watch some One Piece. After that episode, I was addicted. I would watch it every Saturday in the morning. Then they stopped showing One Piece for quite a long time. After half a year, I decided to download some one Piece movies. I watched up to movie 6. I saw that the sub was so great. I decided to to download the anime. I found Kaizoku-Fansubs, where they started from the very first episode. I'm sticking to K-F unless something goes wrong. I started the scanlations from the beginning after I finished the G8 arc of the anime. I read a few scanlations and then I decided to buy the English manga by Viz.