My computer is working okay so Wanze will be evaluated tomorrow.
Our next character has the mightiest nose in One Piece.
My computer is working okay so Wanze will be evaluated tomorrow.
Our next character has the mightiest nose in One Piece.
Love: Let it be no secret that I have a fondness for the more excentric “gag” characters. And among those, Wanze stands tall; he’s not just a good one – joke character, he’s a rapid fire multi-joke machine, and almost everything lands. Count Mario already covered one gag, but theres also his disgusting food serving, his Usopp impression, getting dizzy from Sanjis eyebrows and –my personal favourite - his Shitty Chef Surprise Kitchen Knife Throwing technique.
And though Wanze may look and feel random, theres a progression to his madness that makes him a marvelous Sanji opponent; “I wanna make Sanji fight an excort member. Lets make him really zany…and how about he’s manning the kitchen cart, since they’re on a train? So, like a kooky chef…lets make him Mad-Hatter crazy, so crazy that he makes noodles from his nosehairs! No, wait, he fights with noodles!!! He has NOODLE ARMOR! And Sanji can’t kick noodles, so he’ll have to fight using kitchen techniques!!”
And what a fight it is! Sanji vs Wanze is full stop entertaining, and one of the scenes I find myself revisiting to get a quick fix of fun One Piece. His time might’ve been limited, but I’d much rather have memorable and condensed focus on a one-off character than seeing characters fade into the background of larger arcs(cough, Bellamy)
Loathe: Lets be clear about one thing: Wanze has no reason to exist. It makes no logical sense for CP9 to have a Boss Rush escort of people way, way wayyyyy weaker than themselves, and the whole thing is an obvious excuse to give some breathing space between Water 7 and Enies Lobby. Wanze fits snugly in the Shonen cliché of “last minute placeholder villains to stall for time!”, but I don’t mind too much, as he’s executed so well. The only major gripe I have with him is the same one as for Jabra: the Robin bashing feels forced and unneeded.
Character: 4.5/5. I grade OP characters in terms of entertainment value and how well they serve their intended function, and on these scales, Wanze performs admirably.
Design; 5/5. Wanze is supposed to be freakish even by OP standards, and his design communicates that perfectly, without going overboard like with Van der Decken. Apart from his unforgettable face Wanze is just a fat short guy with poofy hair on scates, but everything sells his “crazy kung-fu chef” persona. Well, having “MAD” on your shirt helps too.
@Count:
Character: 2.5 - I don't care what anybody says. Wanze is a beautiful character just because of the gag of unexpectedly fearing for his life in combat. It's so entertaining to see main characters fight people who are eager than them, but actually has the story hilariously acknowledge that throughout the battle rather than always throwing the next big intimidating foe at them (which in turn makes it more special when powerful opponents do show up).
It's a bit sad how Wanze's personality was more memorable and entertaining than the undercover CP9 members at Water 7.
Design: 2 - I barely caved in on giving him a 2 just because I respect how Oda gave him one of the most unique faces in the manga.
Out of curiosity, how come you scored Wanze so comparatively low? Not because I find it “unacceptable” or anything, but our reasoning and feelings on Wanze are just so similar that I’m curious what criterions you base your score on, compared to myself. I guess its another way of asking what you value in a character.
@Daz:
Out of curiosity, how come you scored Wanze so comparatively low? Not because I find it “unacceptable” or anything, but our reasoning and feelings on Wanze are just so similar that I’m curious what criterions you base your score on, compared to myself. I guess its another way of asking what you value in a character.
Oh, you're aiming this at me?
Well…I stand by my ruling on his design. I appreciate it's uniqueness, but outside of being funny, it really doesn't do much for me where I can say that it's actually a GREAT design. Uniqueness does not equate to greatness. Although I suppose it's enough for the random minor role he has. I still don't care for the attire or random skates.
Character-wise though... I feel as if I should do that more on a universal series scale than a case-by-case basis. I love Wanze, but something is just going to be weird if I give him a 5 in a character category like I would for a major character like a Straw Hat, where their characters and designs can/should be at the damn top for how effective they are.
It's like when you watch a dumb action flick, but the movie kind of knows it's a dumb action flick. So the movie just embraces what it is and gives you everything you want because you're in a dumb action flick mood. And that type of humility and creative perspective is awesome. But would you then HONESTLY think it deserves an Oscar or something near a perfect score compared to movies that actually have some of the most refined stories, characters, and action in them? That actually have raw creative and philosophical passion poured into them and are truly triple A material? I'm just Saiyan.
Perhaps my score was still too low though. I will reevaluate it.
@Count:
It's like when you watch a dumb action flick, but the movie kind of knows it's a dumb action flick. So the movie just embraces what it is and gives you everything you want because you're in a dumb action flick mood. And that type of humility and creative perspective is awesome. But would you then HONESTLY think it deserves an Oscar or something near a perfect score compared to movies that actually have some of the most refined stories, characters, and action in them? That actually have raw creative and philosophical passion poured into them and are truly triple A material?
I probably would not recommend it for an oscar but I would not hesitate to give it an higher score than a deeper movie. If it does what he sets to do perfectly than it deserves it.
I probably would not recommend it for an oscar but I would not hesitate to give it an higher score than a deeper movie. If it does what he sets to do perfectly than it deserves it.
That's a valid perspective. But I wasn't just talking about a deeper movie in general. As if a movie should be placed on top of another movie just because it has a more complex message. It can still be inferior as literal entertainment, which always matters just as much or even more than whether your movie really "means" something or has a lot of resources behind it.
I mean a movie that is pretty much good in whatever areas the "dumber" action movie is proficient in, and then a bunch more on top of that in literal entertainment value and depth. In Wanze's case. I like his humor, personality, and maybe his design. There aren't any real apparent flaws aside from how I don't think any of those things are particularly great. Then comes a main character, let's say Usopp, who I would view as being near-perfect in all of those categories and obviously a lot more depth than a side character. Is it really wrong to think that Usopp deserves a noticeably higher score than Wanze in that case?
This isn't about Wanze or average flicks that do what they're "supposed" to do deserving bad scores. This is about if they deserve perfect ones.
@Count:
That's a valid perspective. But I wasn't just talking about a deeper movie in general. As if a movie should be placed on top of another movie just because it has a more complex message. It can still be inferior as literal entertainment, which always matters just as much or even more than whether your movie really "means" something or has a lot of resources behind it.
I mean a movie that is pretty much good in whatever areas the "dumber" action movie is proficient in, and then a bunch more on top of that in literal entertainment value and depth. In Wanze's case. I like his humor, personality, and maybe his design. There aren't any real apparent flaws aside from how I don't think any of those things are particularly great. Then comes a main character, let's say Usopp, who I would view as being near-perfect in all of those categories and obviously a lot more depth than a side character. Is it really wrong to think that Usopp deserves a noticeably higher score than Wanze in that case?
This isn't about Wanze or average flicks that do what they're "supposed" to do deserving bad scores. This is about if they deserve perfect ones.
I wouldn't mind giving a dumb action flick a good prize, but in terms of One Piece I agree.
Wanze fulfilled his role splendidly. However he is a gag character. There for a couple chapters and then gone forever. Try writing Wanze for over 800 chapters and I might consider a better score.
That's one of the reasons Luffy would be a perfect 5 for me. He has plenty of faults. But he's been a great protagonist for soon-to-be 20 years. That's insanely hard to pull off. He's gone through ups and downs, he's been in funny and heartbreaking scenes, and after all those years I still root for him to find One Piece. It doesn't feel fair to put Wanze on that level.
Love: Wanze had a LOT riding on him. If Oda was going to put a final obstacle for Team Sanji on the way to the car with CP9 and Robin, then he had better be damn good. And…he was! Oda really gave him a silly shtick, but he gave Wanze the competence of a Cipher Pol agent and what ensued was glorious. It's a shame Sanji was never called Naruto, because I really enjoyed Wanze walloping him with ramen noodles. There were so many creative uses of it, from the uncooked projectile noodles to the ramen super suit. All the while Wanze demonstrated his talents as an agent, from his reflexes to his very real danger despite how funny he was. Oda went to the zany zone, and he emerged all the better and stronger. Wanze was only around for four chapters before he was defeated, so he didn't get stale or tiresome, but he was around long enough to give Sanji a good challenge. Plus, props to him for being possibly the most creative Sanji fight and giving Sanji the ability to do something he normally couldn't do in battle. And afterwards, his restructured face proved to be just as funny as his original one.
Loathe: His poison knife felt kind of out of the blue and dissonant, even if it was an effective last ditch effort
Character: 4.5/5
Design: 5/5
@Zar:
I wouldn't mind giving a dumb action flick a good prize, but in terms of One Piece I agree.
Wanze fulfilled his role splendidly. However he is a gag character. There for a couple chapters and then gone forever. Try writing Wanze for over 800 chapters and I might consider a better score.
That's one of the reasons Luffy would be a perfect 5 for me. He has plenty of faults. But he's been a great protagonist for soon-to-be 20 years. That's insanely hard to pull off. He's gone through ups and downs, he's been in funny and heartbreaking scenes, and after all those years I still root for him to find One Piece. It doesn't feel fair to put Wanze on that level.
Exactly. I like Wanze for what he is as a random hilarious foe. But have him become a recurring character, or even a part of CP9, and his character in those couple of chapters alone probably wouldn't be able to hold up much value and would look more flawed than entertaining. Even though I would still give Wanze a higher character score than the bland meathead that was Rob Lucci, but still lol.
Luffy's a great example of a character deserving a 5 for character. I wonder what scores he would get for his rather simplistic protagonist design though. That has plenty of room for debate.
@Count:
Oh, you're aiming this at me?
Right, sorry, got my post formatting messed up.
@Count:
Well…I stand by my ruling on his design. I appreciate it's uniqueness, but outside of being funny, it really doesn't do much for me where I can say that it's actually a GREAT design. Uniqueness does not equate to greatness. Although I suppose it's enough for the random minor role he has. I still don't care for the attire or random skates.
Character-wise though... I feel as if I should do that more on a universal series scale than a case-by-case basis. I love Wanze, but something is just going to be weird if I give him a 5 in a character category like I would for a major character like a Straw Hat, where their characters and designs can/should be at the damn top for how effective they are.
It's like when you watch a dumb action flick, but the movie kind of knows it's a dumb action flick. So the movie just embraces what it is and gives you everything you want because you're in a dumb action flick mood. And that type of humility and creative perspective is awesome. But would you then HONESTLY think it deserves an Oscar or something near a perfect score compared to movies that actually have some of the most refined stories, characters, and action in them? That actually have raw creative and philosophical passion poured into them and are truly triple A material? I'm just Saiyan.
To me, it all comes down to how well the movie executes whatever it sets out to do, and how that translates into entertainment value for me. I wouldn't rank something like "The Room" as "good" despite being eminently entertaining, but I'd score a well-oiled and eminently watchable action flick over a more film-technically proficient yet pretentious/boring oscar nominee. Of course, a lot of what makes something entertaining for me is solid characterization, theming, pacing, action choreography, cinematography etc etc. which is why I'll rate Predator above Cyborg with Jean Claude Van Damme…yet also place it at the same tier as Pans Labyrinth, despite them being wildly different in terms of genre, intent and style. I don't think any movie becomes automatically "better" by virtue of deeper/more artistic or however you might define oscar-worthyness; I'd rather Kiss Kiss Bang Bang got oscar nominated than arrival, as I enjoyed the former more, and thought it achieved its goals better.
So in the same vein, if I had to compare a split-second character like Wanze to a far more important character like, say, Doflamingo, Wanze would win out because his Throwaway Villain role was more fun and well-handled than Doflamingos major-villain role. But of course this is all very case by case and arbitrary, I just personally find it too hard to go by a universal scale. I mostly just go with my gut feeling, lol.
@Count:
Perhaps my score was still too low though. I will reevaluate it.
Only if you feel like it; you can rate on whatever criterion you want, I was just curious. If Wanze is a 2.5 to you, he's a 2.5 :-)
@Count:
Character-wise though… I feel as if I should do that more on a universal series scale than a case-by-case basis. I love Wanze, but something is just going to be weird if I give him a 5 in a character category like I would for a major character like a Straw Hat, where their characters and designs can/should be at the damn top for how effective they are.
It's like when you watch a dumb action flick, but the movie kind of knows it's a dumb action flick. So the movie just embraces what it is and gives you everything you want because you're in a dumb action flick mood. And that type of humility and creative perspective is awesome. But would you then HONESTLY think it deserves an Oscar or something near a perfect score compared to movies that actually have some of the most refined stories, characters, and action in them? That actually have raw creative and philosophical passion poured into them and are truly triple A material? I'm just Saiyan.
To me, I try to rank characters based on how well they fill their role in the story. So the requirements for someone like Wanze to get a high score would be different than the ones for someone like Sanji - for Sanji, I would try to look at how well he's worked as a long-term character and probably pass over tidbits regarding him that aren't so great but don't really detract from his overall character, while those would have significantly more effect on someone like Wanze. So if I gave them both the same score I'd give the tiebreaker to Sanji in that regard for him managing to maintain that score across the entire series.
Oh! didn't noticed this.
Love: I love all about Wanze, he's the primarily reason for all what Sanji has been doing finely after the timeskip, he was there to show what he can do with hands too! Besides that, his looks, his attitude, his jokes, personality, and stupid attacks makes him the perfect comedy character. One of the best of Oda by far, leader combatant of the CP7, both chef and waiter and funniest ability because of his uniqueness, nobody else does Ramen Kenpo.
Loathe: I'm kinda sad that helped Sanji, he just doesn't deserves to be aided in plot development by Wanze, which is to me far superior than Sanji.
Character: 4.5/5 Only for Sanji, he deserved Luffy, and Zoro it would've been flawless.
Design: 5/5 One Piece's Mona Lisa
@Daz:
Right, sorry, got my post formatting messed up.
To me, it all comes down to how well the movie executes whatever it sets out to do, and how that translates into entertainment value for me. I wouldn't rank something like "The Room" as "good" despite being eminently entertaining, but I'd score a well-oiled and eminently watchable action flick over a more film-technically proficient yet pretentious/boring oscar nominee. Of course, a lot of what makes something entertaining for me is solid characterization, theming, pacing, action choreography, cinematography etc etc. which is why I'll rate Predator above Cyborg with Jean Claude Van Damme…yet also place it at the same tier as Pans Labyrinth, despite them being wildly different in terms of genre, intent and style. I don't think any movie becomes automatically "better" by virtue of deeper/more artistic or however you might define oscar-worthyness; I'd rather Kiss Kiss Bang Bang got oscar nominated than arrival, as I enjoyed the former more, and thought it achieved its goals better.
I actually completely agree with you. I would take simple proficiency over boringly pretentious any day of the week. There's a reason why I'm so much more into comic books specifically than being devout literature/novel fan (not to say that I don't have novels I love or that they should all be categorized as being boring/pretentious. I'm just talking about the overall stigma of comic books supposedly looking like juvenile entertainment in comparison). I wasn't talking about solely deeper/more artistic stuff in my initial post. I was talking about overall entertainment value and credentials, deep and simple. Your reasoning for why you prefer Predator over Cyborg is exactly how I like to review things. But when I said "Oscar-worthiness", I was not talking about pretentious artsy stuff. I was talking about generally entertaining stuff that has passion poured all over it and is absolutely great at what it sets off to do rather than settling for being decent/mediocre for dumb fun where you completely turn your brain off.
The thing about a character like Wanze though is that while he is entertaining in his own right, he's never going to be AS entertaining as someone like Luffy, Usopp, or Franky for me. And it's not just because they have the title of being main characters, and thus should be viewed as being automatically superior to all supporting characters. To tell you the truth, I'm probably always going to like Jaya Bellamy or certain flashback characters more than how consistently unimpressive Chopper and Robin tend to be with all of their wasted potential. But it's because Luffy, Usopp, and Franky are literally better at whatever Wanze is good at or tries to do in entertainment value, and then a lot more depth on the side. I love Wanze, but because of how I recognize that the point of his character is being a random mediocre character. And not even a clever satire or anything, just a random mediocre character and is acknowledged by the plot as being such.
Achieving his purpose puts him above being bad. But because his character is also purposefully being held back from actually being a great or even really good character, I do not think he deserves a perfect score. I suppose that you could say my philosophy with grading character/stories are that they play it too safe and are fine with getting a B or C grade to pass in school, which is nothing to really criticize that much. This isn't even really about giving Wanze a low score just because he's a side character. I don't even really think he's that great as a side character at the end of a day despite one or two of his gags making me laugh my ass off. He fulfills his role fine, but that's it. He just fulfills his role fine. Oda never tried to go above and beyond with Wanze. Your review of his design literally acknowledges that Oda threw random cooking/gross stuff at the wall and stuck with whatever happened to make him laugh from how stupid it looks.
The reason why I use the dumb action movie flick example is because it might fulfill the role it set out to do in being a mildly entertaining dumb action movie flick. But it still has a story, characters, humor, and action. And it still half-asses most of that on purpose besides maybe the action part (and even then, those other elements can help complement the action so much). We could have gotten a clever and awesome action movie if it utilized its potential right. But it didn't want to put in the work and settled for being another dumb action movie flick. I won't judge it harshly if it's fine with what it contributed, but I'm not going to award it either. I'm not criticizing it for the genre it decided to be a part of, I'm criticizing it for the effort it put into the things it tried to include. If done with enough effort and efficiency, I am COMPLETELY cool with a cool superhero movie like Spider-Man winning the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year even if it's not all that complex a film or story. I'm not going to automatically label it as an "inferior" movie to something pretentiously artsy just because of what type of movie it is. I'm going to judge it based on how well it does with the things it tries to do in story, characters, humor, action, and cinematography, whether there's much artistic/philosophical depth or not. It's that simple. Wanze more or less tries to impress based on how half-assed his character is most of the time, hence why I don't give him a perfect score because, guess what, he's still a half-assed character even for a supporting character.
So in the same vein, if I had to compare a split-second character like Wanze to a far more important character like, say, Doflamingo, Wanze would win out because he his Throwaway Villain role was more fun and well-handled than Doflamingos major-villain role. But of course this is all very case by case and arbitrary, I'm just personally find it too hard to go by a universal scale. I mostly just go with my gut feeling, lol.
Now that's a highly debatable example. I would definitely say that Wanze is a more successfully rounded character than how flawed Doflamingo is. But the relative heights of entertainment that Doflamingo has achieved despite flaws absolutely eclipse Wanze's best moments. I enjoyed Wanze, but nowhere near as much as Doflamingo's best moments. And you might think it would be too unfair to compare that type of stuff, and I agree slightly with that. But supporting characters always have the potential to get away with some of the most awesome stuff in a series in their own right.
All Wanze could say he has above Doflamingo is having a more consistently satisfactory random gag villain role than main arc antagonist role. But I feel we should look more into how generally entertaining one is more than the other at their highest and lowest points. Because I might even like some of Doflamingo's lowest points more than I did with some of Wanze's best.
Only if you feel like it; you can rate on whatever criterion you want, I was just curious. If Wanze is a 2.5 to you, he's a 2.5 :-)
Nah. I actually made a typo and meant to give him a 3.5. ;-)
I think all-in-all, I don't even really think Wanze's that good of a character despite the praises I gave him. He just happens to mildly amuse me because of how dumb he is. And not because he's really a well-done dumb character, he's just dumb lol. The "I thought i was going to die" gag and forcing Sanji into a cooking-based fight are the only merits I can really give this guy in legitimate entertainment value. Everything else, even his face, is unimpressive to me.
@Kaido:
To me, I try to rank characters based on how well they fill their role in the story. So the requirements for someone like Wanze to get a high score would be different than the ones for someone like Sanji - for Sanji, I would try to look at how well he's worked as a long-term character and probably pass over tidbits regarding him that aren't so great but don't really detract from his overall character, while those would have significantly more effect on someone like Wanze. So if I gave them both the same score I'd give the tiebreaker to Sanji in that regard for him managing to maintain that score across the entire series.
Well, I suppose that I just don't think Wanze is really all that good at the role he fulfills in the story. I'm merely amused by how Oda spins it into such a kooky scenario and a funny gag. But it still doesn't make up for how I don't think Wanze's even that good for a minor opponent character. I think T-Bone could have been great, but… Yeah.
Like Zar said, he's a gag character. A character based around a gag rather than actually having a compelling personality, big or small. And that's fine, I'm just not going to inflate it to be all that good.
@Count:
A character based around a gag rather than actually having a compelling personality, big or small. And that's fine, I'm just not going to inflate it to be all that good.
Any character with a jacket with MAD on the back is destined to be Chef King, y'know.
@Shobu:
Any character with a jacket with MAD on the back is destined to be Chef King, y'know.
I can agree that this gives Wanze the essential credibility needed to find All-Blue before Sanji. Hopefully he has joined Blackbeard's crew to become Sanji's endgame opponent.
You guys have converted me to the Church of Ramen
LOVE: An absolutely insane character in every way, with a great fight against Sanji, that gave him great new sides and traits.
LOATH: Is basically just a filler character
Character: 4/5
Design: 5/5
You guys have converted me to the Church of Ramen
I nominate this to the favorite comment section!
Wanze with Teach!? Oh boy… thrills, pure thrills. Him and Van Auger as best pals, then at the showdown with pairs against Sanji and Usopp at Mariejois.
Wanze: Ramen beam!!!
Auger: shoots many bullets in the middle of the ramen
Usopp: Sanji! cover me please!!
Sanji: Hold off! I only rescue ladies! sky walk and avoids everything, Usopp hanging on his foot
Usopp: Hey!! don't bother us or my army of giants will come to destroy your ugly faces!!!
Wanze: ? looks at Teach
Teach: Why're ya lookin at me!?
Wanze: Captain, will you and Catarina sacrifice for us!? Really!?
All the boys stops their fights to ROLF.
Catarina: What the fuck you're sayin, you ill noodle man!
Wanze: ... "I though i could die of an ugly sickness"
Usopp: Don't steal my catch-phrases!!
Auger: keeps shooting with a slight smile on his face
Something of the sort will be amazing xD
Wanze was once the chef of Gold Roger's crew, but after 184 days of Ramen dishes and some harsh comments from Crocus about the importance of a balanced meal he was kicked off.
Broken! Betrayed by those he called comrades, and stolen of his chance to find One Piece and go down in the legends! He joined the Marine to get revenge but ended as a chef for some crappy sea train. Then during the time skip, he is approached by the shadow of Blackbeard.
"Zehahahaha… Old Man Whitebeard used to tell some interesting stories about Gold Roger's days. You used to be on board, hm? We happen to be in need of a chef. What do you say, comrade?"
Wanze looks at the reflection in his kitchen knife - no, actually, there's a fly on the wall. But he sighs, "I've gotten old. I'm not the ramen warrior I used to be. Back then I was all MISO RAMEN but now it's more noodle spaghetti".
"Hooo... then what about this? I know the strawhats came by here some time ago. With my fleet nothing will stop you from getting revenge on them."
Wanze touched is bishonen face. His hands shivering. Memories flooded back. PAIN! DEFEAT! HUMILATION! SUDDENLY ALL THE LADIES WANT TO GO OUT WITH HIM!
"You got a deal" he said and shook the towel beside Blackbeard. I'll join your crew, so I can take revenge on that filthy cook!
And so Wanze became the chef of Blackbeard crew.
Love and Loathe #17
Wanze
Here's what you loved about Wanze
Favorite Comment goes to Daz "Let it be no secret that I have a fondness for the more excentric “gag” characters. And among those, Wanze stands tall; he’s not just a good one – joke character, he’s a rapid fire multi-joke machine, and almost everything lands. Count Mario already covered one gag, but theres also his disgusting food serving, his Usopp impression, getting dizzy from Sanjis eyebrows and –my personal favourite - his Shitty Chef Surprise Kitchen Knife Throwing technique. And though Wanze may look and feel random, theres a progression to his madness that makes him a marvelous Sanji opponent; “I wanna make Sanji fight an excort member. Lets make him really zany…and how about he’s manning the kitchen cart, since they’re on a train? So, like a kooky chef…lets make him Mad-Hatter crazy, so crazy that he makes noodles from his nosehairs! No, wait, he fights with noodles!!! He has NOODLE ARMOR! And Sanji can’t kick noodles, so he’ll have to fight using kitchen techniques!!” And what a fight it is! Sanji vs Wanze is full stop entertaining, and one of the scenes I find myself revisiting to get a quick fix of fun One Piece. His time might’ve been limited, but I’d much rather have memorable and condensed focus on a one-off character than seeing characters fade into the background of larger arcs(cough, Bellamy)"
Here's what you loathed about Wanze
Favorite Comment goes to Count Mario "His attire and ramen armor is bland. And I don't know how a giant poison knife and slicer roller skates that can ignite on fire have anything to do with ramen except for the vague general kitchen theme being shared. I also felt that Wanze bashing Robin was bait random and unneeded for such a gag fight."
With 7 votes, Wanze got: Character/Actions: 3.96
Design: 3.71
~~ RANKINGS: Character ~~
~~ RANKINGS: Design ~~
And with that, let's present the 18th Character! Whose nose is better, Usopp's, Buggy's or Arlong's?
Arlong
To get the whole picture, please tell us the following:
What are the things that you love about Arlong?
What are the things that you loathe about Arlong?
At the end please give Arlong two ratings:
One for his character & actions in the story.
One for his look & design.
These must be between 1 and 5, with 5 being the highest (.5's are acceptable - ex. 1.5 or 4.5).
This analysis will be open for the next 72 hours.
Missed the previous character? You can still comment on them and the points will be counted. But only the previous character.
Enjoy!
Love: Arlong is the series' first introduction to the ferocity of the fishmen, and what an intro it was. Oda teases him towards the end of Baratie by having Nami react to his wanted poster, and when he's fully on screen, he's laughing it up with his crew….and almost kills Genzo. Usopp setting off his shark-like rage does not help.
And that's the brilliant duality of Arlong - a friend to his men one minute, your WORST enemy the second.
He as a villain does a very good job of making the reader want Luffy to clobber his face in - he took over an innocent village, killed Bellemere (with the gun, which is much more sadistic and cunning then simply using his sharp teeth to kill her), kidnaps Nami and forces her to work for him, and in the end, he doesn't even keep the promise to free Cocoyashi.
Again, this speaks volumes to how twisted he can be - when his look, at first glance, would suggest someone who just brute-forces his way to win. Arlong's strong AND smart, which puts him even more at odds against our rubber hero.
The design is one of the manga's finest - the tropical shirt, shorts, and sandals reflect the easygoing nature he can have with his crew, and when things are going well, but then you have the tattoo, the sharp nose and sharp teeth, and the hat….which tells you Arlong means business.
I also really liked his battle with Luffy. It felt satifsying for him to crush the tower and destroy Nami's prison, but our fishy rogue was no pushover, and he gave a tougher fight than Krieg. He almost killed Zoro, almost killed Sanji, almost drowned Luffy…..which all ties into the points over.
Overall, a villain that you won't forget, and neither will any of the Straw Hats.
Oda doesn't even give Arlong a change of fate. He's relegated to prison and we never see him again, outside of flashbacks involving Hachi and Jinbei. And that's the brilliant thing - these flashbacks show the contrast to Hody, how Arlong cares for his kind in spite of his racism to humans, and they show the shackle of slavery.
But they're never used to make the reader forgive Arlong. Just to understand who he really was.
Loathe: Not really his fault, but I wished the connection to his sister(!!!) Sharley could've been expanded upon. Doubly so when you realize Nami, the main target of his torture, has a sister too.
Character 4.5/5
Design 5/5
Love
Arlong is the original big bad of the series, and no matter how many years pass he remains one of my favorite villains.
He feels like a natural progression from the previous East Blue villains. Morgan's pride, Buggy's absurdness, Kuro's intelligence, Krieg's brutality - Arlong takes all their standout traits and combines them into one well-rounded package. But he also does something unprecedented by taking a cue from the Strawhats: their camaraderie and friendship for their own. This is something that didn't re-appear in a main villain for many years to come. He's not just an evil villain that the Strawhat's must overcome, he's a person with a dark ideology. That's what sells him.
Luffy VS Arlong is one of the best fights in the series. The differences between the two serves to highlight just why Luffy is a good guy. I love when he admits that he can't fight with swords, he can't navigate or cook or lie and that's why he needs his crew. I love how he'll go through hell for the sake of his friend. This fight wasn't just an incredibly satisfying beat down of a despicable villain, it's what turned Luffy from a funny protagonist into something more. The finisher, while not my favorite, is a classic, satisfying moment.
Arlong's made a huge impact for the crew, and even in later arcs he's still mentioned, such as during the Slave Auction on the Sabaody Archipelagos. During Fishman Island I was worried Oda would try to make Arlong more sympathetic, but instead his past ended up giving him an understandable origin while never retracting from the evils he's done. In the present it was amazing to see how his defeat two years ago had an impact that far away. I love his relationship with Jinbei, and even better how he's constantly compared to Hody. It was very satisfying to see it acknowledged that Hody would never be as "good" as Arlong was.
His design is great. The tourist look, strong physique and of course that nose. I love that Oda didn't go for some classic sea creature like the Great White Shark or Blue Whale, instead opting for the lesser known Sawshark. It's the perfect combination of something wacky that's still pretty damn scary.
Loathe
Part of me wants to see an update on his whereabouts. While I wouldn't want him to return (that's a recipe for disaster) I at least want an update. I'm guessing he's in Impel Down?
His relationship with Shyarly was never expanded upon. Were they ever in the same panel?
Character: 4.5
Design: 4.5
Damnit, Wanze is at Zoro level… and Carue is even better, you guys are like Oda, unpredictable.
Ehm,
Love: I loved how this man cared women, also the first responsible for a touching story and deep sad feelings to cover Nami's flashback. Yeah, quite the nemesis... almost every reader advancing the world of One Piece finally could be catched with him as villain. His strength and sharped weapons are his trademark too.
Loathe: I must say that even with Fishman Island explanation regarding his actions, i didn't feel something towards his character, Nami is one of the first characters and we've seen her very happy with Luffy around. I don't hate him at all, but it's more of a lack of sentiment with him rather than other feeling. He's easily forgettable, almost every villain here is cocky and he was the first to enter like that, bad for that.
Character: 3.5/5 The man served his purpose and you could feel his overpower presence in Cocoyashi.
Design: 3/5 Pretty nice because of his simplicity, like a Luffy of the bottom of the sea; wielding a sword too.
Hey it's been quite a while since I commented on here, but I have been following along. Lots of really great in-depth analysis all around, though it often makes me rethink my thoughts on various characters/plots, or at least remember past criticisms. That's not a bad thing though haha, but it does bring to light some of the shortcomings of the series - but anyways. Onto Arlong!
Love:
Wew, Arlong was always one of my favorites. To be honest I really admire East Blue & all of it's villains. Considering Buggy's recurrence since then it'd be hard to say Arlong was the best East Blue villain, but he kinda was. Even if I think Buggy became more memorable later on. All of the little arcs back then felt like really compact, but very tight and effective - Arlong Park being a huge & famous highlight.
First things first about Arlong, he was menacing. In a way no prior East Blue villain had been, and in a way even later series villains have struggled to reach. This is kinda hard to express, but I'll do my best. Much as I love battle shounen (especially One Piece) & the villains that come with them, very few of them manage to feel truly threatening. Even some of my favorite villains, who I love as characters, never quite gave me a raw gut feeling of danger. The Pillarmen from Jojo Part 2, and the Royal Chimera Ants from Hunter x Hunter are some characters who've elicited this response from me. Arlong did too. All throughout the story arc his presence loomed, and he felt insurmountably strong. Every blow dealt to him he seemed to barely scratch him, while his own strength was terrifying. Leading up to the climax & into the final battle, Arlong was a force to be reckoned with.
All that might've been a little too abstract and personal, lol so don't worry it's not the most important element of a villain. But I'm always impressed when an enemy's strength actually seems to have a tangibly oppressive weight to it. It's a good thing though Arlong himself was a pretty great character. As many have mentioned, I really appreciated how multi-faceted he was. How clearly he cared about his men. The little moments of him enjoying himself with fellow fishmen in his palace, or his genuine anguish when coming across his friends cut down by Zoro. Even forgetting about the wonderful little insights Oda would add in Fishman Island, Arlong Park really did sell his dual love for his comrades as well as his disgust with humans.
We knew right from the get-go that Arlong was on a different level. From Nami's reaction to his poster, to the true opening of the arc where Arlong bribing Nezumi & his cynical conversation with his men after, to his established dominion of the island. All these moments immediately establish his nature. He's menacing and powerful, but also calculating, intelligent, and money-hungry. His elaborate and indulgent headquarters display his confidence and ambition. He was the first villain who was a serious force & opposition. Buggy was an egotistical but jealous wannabe scraping by via assaulting middle-of-nowhere villages, Kuro was a tired old opportunistic tactician looking for a way out, Krieg was just returning from a crushing defeat on the Grand Line. All the others to some degree were already beaten down and no match for Luffy's drive and ambition. Along comes Arl_o_ng, a (fish)-man driven by hatred and powerlust. Unlike the others, he has a successful operation set-up to expand, he's not merely confident but with plans and means to back them. In a lot of ways Arlong feels like the first truly active villain. While the others all had goals, they were seriously lacking in either ambition or force to back up those dreams. We have our first villain who lives up to Luffy's force and is his first big obstacle. Just the set-up sells this whole battle as a clash of ideals and ambitions, something Oda had always alluded to early on.
And what a battle it is. While each fight had gotten progressively harder for Luffy, none challenged him or brought him so close to defeat as Arlong. Dangerous as they might've been, Luffy exerted comparatively less effort and emerged practically unscathed in the earlier bouts. Not so here. Arlong's power and influence is overwhelming and his actions despicable. Luffy's angry demands to see Arlong & his first reckless punch make up one of the most memorable early One Piece moments. Here more than ever we see Luffy's flagrant disregard for the odds stacked against him, and love him all the more for it. As the brawl around Arlong's palace develops, every punch, bite, and wound feels real and immediate. Oda makes every hit land and the battle's escalation is incredibly exciting. The final scene in the map room, which finally pushes Luffy to smash the villain through his manufactured throne, is another classic and moving moment. The entire arc is just exhilarating and it has a brilliant villain to drive the conflict.
Loathe**:**
After all that it's hard to think of many issues I have with Arlong. I suppose despite all my praise, he could come across as just a little too scummy/underhanded to sell his more devoted side, but really I think it's handled well. He comes off as a brutal and uncompromising conqueror and, considering his outlook on humans, treating Nami as anything more than a mildly interesting pet would've felt more out of character. Really can't complain here. Loved seeing him get beat down.
Character: 4.5/5 A powerful and climactic villain for the last part of early One Piece
Design: 3.5/5 Nothing too complex, but very striking and iconic.
Whose nose is better, Usopp's, Buggy's or Arlong's?
Kaku's. And Arlong is an awesome choice for a review.
Love: He's a great villain, with more gravitas than those who preceded him. His initial appeal comes from the impact and influence he had on Nami's life. Until that point, it was unlike anything seen in the series before, and is still pretty unique even now.
I like to view Arlong as the epitome of prejudice and xenophobia. The personification of both concepts taken to the darkest extreme. I believe what makes this facet of his character so effective, is that he doesn't hate indiscriminately. By making his contempt specific to racial prejudice towards humans, it elevates his heinousness to such a degree it makes his character a milestone for the series. This unpleasantness also gives the world of One Piece a degree of depth simply by having a character like Arlong exist. His hatred for humanity defines him so intensely it raises awareness about the nature of what the relationship between humans and fishmen could be. Without needing any other context beyond Arlong's racism. There's something to be said about a character who can get you to contemplate a state of affairs within a fictional world unprompted.
Loathe: The strength of his character lies in what he's able to bring out in others. He doesn't actually need to be present in the story to make use of him in that way. As a character himself he's a shallow one trick pony.
Character: 3
He's one-note personality-wise, but compensates for that shortcoming by being an excellent catalyst for drama.
Look: 4
He's one of the first fishmen we see, and he remains one of the coolest examples of one in terms of character design. For a guy with such a rotten disposition he has a deceptively disarming fashion sense, so there's this snazzy Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde contrast just with how he looks. The Sun Pirates tattoo on his pectoral is very striking even without the added significance of what it stands for. Then there's webbed hands with the jewelry on his fingers, the gills, and the teeth. Truth be told, the reason why I admire Arlong's design stems from a cartoon I used to watch in the 90s called "Street Sharks". Arlong could fit right into that show seamlessly and I just find that to be an amusing coincidence.
His sword Kiribachi bears an uncanny resemblance to his nose, adding another cool layer to his character design. Which brings me to this very important question.
@Zar:
Whose nose is better, Usopp's, Buggy's or Arlong's?
Arlong certainly has the most dangerous nose since it can be used as a weapon.
Usopp's nose looks weird but not to the same extent of Arlong or Buggy. So his wins the honor of most boring.
Buggy has a red nose, red happens to be my favorite color. Thus, his is champion.
[hide]
Dat nose is best nose.[/hide]
Enter the thread, find the concept interesting. Might participate
See characters like Wanze and Carue in higher position than Robin
lol, How the hell are we supposed to take this thread seriously? I don't think more screen-time = better character (Robin my least liked SH btw) but this is insulting Oda at this point.
Well,I guess it gonna be ridiculously funny seeing Nami and Chopper ranking below Conis
Enter the thread, find the concept interesting. Might participate
See characters like Wanze and Carue in higher position than Robinlol, How the hell are we supposed to take this thread seriously? I don't think more screen-time = better character (Robin my least liked SH btw) but this is insulting Oda at this point.
Well,I guess it gonna be ridiculously funny seeing Nami and Chopper ranking below Conis
You know what I just realized? Robin and Wanze actually share something in common.
! They both only have one on-screen fight in the series.
@Count:
You know what I just realized? Robin and Wanze actually share something in common.
! They both only have one on-screen fight in the series.
You forgot Pell, but still made me smile.:ninja:
It's not that I don't agree with Robin being a wasted potential, but the virtue of good moments she offered (Her introducting herself to the straw hats crew is still top notch) I find her being below one-time gag character kinda ludicrous but whatever.
You forgot Pell, but still made me smile.:ninja:
It's not that I don't agree with Robin being a wasted potential, but the virtue of good moments she offered (Her introducting herself to the straw hats crew is still top notch) I find her being below one-time gag character kinda ludicrous but whatever.
I don't count Robin's "fights" with Pell, Tashigi, or Crocodile because they're all either quick stomps for one side. Like how she snapped Spandam's back in five seconds when she was free from her cuffs. Her fight with Yama in Skypiea is the only fight where she had to put in a bit of effort. And it's not that I don't agree with you, I'm just poking some fun out of Robin's portrayal lol.
Well,I guess it gonna be ridiculously funny seeing Nami and Chopper ranking below Conis
Nah man, Nami's done enough as a main character to avoid that fate for sure. Chopper, however…
Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if Carue kicked Chopper's ass in the best Strawhat animal ranks. For all Chopper's fantastic backstory and build up he gets robbed of character spotlight moments during the actual adventure all the damn time for the sake of remaining a cutesy marketable character, or hyping up Law who can do everything Chopper can but infinitely better due to his fruit's power being inheritely OP for surgery.
Mind if I put a placeholder here for Wanze? I missed him but want to throw my two cents in tomorrow. Want to avoid missing one of these.
Wanze LoveWanze is a pretty unique character. He sums up the absolute insanity that is One Piece's crazier cast members. Taken to a logical extreme, Wanze's abilities are outlandish, flashy and ridiculous. Creating a mecha armour out of ramen? Kind of crazy. He's infinitely more entertaining than he has any right to be considering he's at best a quirky miniboss and runs rings around fellow Sea Train guards Jerry, Nero and even T-bone.
Wanze also provided a little more insight into Sanji's opinions on food and gave him a super rare opportunity to combine both his fighting skills and cooking skills into a single battle, and foreshadowed how the issue with Duval would be resolved.
Wanze driving everyone crazy was hugely entertaining, and watching my three favourite Strawhats blow up at the annoying chef was crazily amusing.
Loathe
Like many already said; poison knife was pretty random, and unfortunately Wanze felt disconnected from the main events of the arc. However even then he's more entertaining than the many other additional characters the World Government had working for them during this arc outside the CP9.
However being as wacky as he is, Wanze doesn't feel like a real person unlike many other comical characters such as Buggy, Usopp, Franky or even Foxy.
Character: 3/5 I like wacky, but his role didn't have a big impact on the plot. The cooking battle was well worth a point on it's own however. Design: 3.5/5 Wanze's design is a pretty unique look, and in nearly any other manga this would probably land him a perfect score from me, but with other unique designs that actually gel considerably better aesthetically such as Gecko Moria or Jinbei kicking about, Wanze falls a little short. His design may be a little TOO off beat to actually work quite right and he ends up looking a little wonky as a result.
Nah man, Nami's done enough as a main character to avoid that fate for sure. Chopper, however…
Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if Carue kicked Chopper's ass in the best Strawhat animal ranks. For all Chopper's fantastic backstory and build up he gets robbed of character spotlight moments during the actual adventure all the damn time for the sake of remaining a cutesy marketable character, or hyping up Law who can do everything Chopper can but infinitely better due to his fruit's power being inheritely OP for surgery.
Mind if I put a placeholder here for Wanze? I missed him but want to throw my two cents in tomorrow. Want to avoid missing one of these.
Placeholder now in place!
For the Strawhats, I'm guessing they'll rank something along these lines:
Very Popular
Franky, Usopp, Luffy
Moderately-to-very Popular
Sanji, Zoro, Nami, Brook, Jinbei
Not that Popular
Robin, Chopper
Chopper is similar to Robin. They had one excellent arc then never got to do anything important afterwards. Chopper's fights get interrupted, Robin's fights don't exist. Chopper's big "dream fulfillment moment" of curing children from a seemingly incurable drug was stolen by Law who made it look easy-peasy, much like how Robin had the Road Poneglyph given and explained to her for no real reason. Poor people.
Nami had her hype arc in Arlong Park but she's been consistent since then. Her dreams of making a map are all but forgotten, but we still see her navigating and predicting the weather and she's gotten a couple of fights.
Love: Arlong was a really great villain. He had a role in one of the Straw Hats' past like no other villain before him, and I don't think we got another villain who's played such a central role in a main character's past until Doflamingo. There is so much at stake when confronting Arlong, and you feel every emotional beat of it. And he doesn't go down without one of the best fights in the series, where he truly gives the main characters a run for their money in so many creative ways. When he goes down, it's so unbelievably sweet.
Then, when Fishman Island comes around, we learn how he essentially grew up in this sort of hive of fishmen who've been orphaned and discriminated against, and it was great seeing how he got his role as a polar opposite of Jinbe, and how he ultimately influenced Hody.
Loathe: Honestly nothing. I could perhaps say that after how big his past was, it seems a little weak to have him settle into a small East Blue village, but it does make sense and he pulls off that role extremely well.
Character: 4.5/5
Design: 5/5
Love: Arlong was a breath of fresh air following the villains of One Piece who had previously not cared one bit for their followers. Arlong loved his men like family and while Buggy eventually developed a very family-like relationship with his followers, Arlong was the first villain who didn't kill them for the sake of establishing dominance. He and his crew were basically family. However, he was also a cruel, sinister and conniving bastard. Which largely played into his racist worldview and I think there is a really interesting point being established in his introductory moment. In which he says he hates humans, but likes those who are money minded. But he proves towards the end of the arc that he doesn't care one bit to screw over Nami, for the sake of doing so and utilizing her abilities. Usually when there is a streetsmart, business oriented racist around in fiction, they usually allow their thirst for money come before their ideals.
Arlong subverts that in a way that isn't ridicolously contrived or dumb. It also helps that Arlong as a villain was pretty well established as a ridicolously strong opponent. I remember pondering for several years after the arc ended, how Arlong would measure up against other villains. He's in every sense Hody's superior. Had I not known better, I would think Hody would be Oda basically lampshading how bad Arlong could have been.
Loathe: I mean, nothing really. He's basically as well written a character can be as a shorter arc villain.
Character: 4.5
Design: 5. He has a really cool and memorable look.
Arlong subverts that in a way that isn't ridicolously contrived or dumb. It also helps that Arlong as a villain was pretty well established as a ridicolously strong opponent. I remember pondering for several years after the arc ended, how Arlong would measure up against other villains. He's in every sense Hody's superior. Had I not known better, I would think Hody would be Oda basically lampshading how bad Arlong could have been.
I always thought that Arlong would trash all of the Baroque Works except Sir Crocodile and Daz…
I always thought that Arlong would trash all of the Baroque Works except Sir Crocodile and Daz…
I think Arlong vs Mr 2 is a match up worth pondering. Simply because we have no way of knowing whether Sanji was stronger than Arlong at that point or not. Although, powerscaling and hype would sort of indicate it. But yeah, I agree. Crocodile and Daz would wreck him. Whereas it was made pretty clear early on that mr 5 and mr 3 were never really any match for Zoro or Luffy, while Arlong was.
I think Arlong vs Mr 2 is a match up worth pondering. Simply because we have no way of knowing whether Sanji was stronger than Arlong at that point or not. Although, powerscaling and hype would sort of indicate it. But yeah, I agree. Crocodile and Daz would wreck him. Whereas it was made pretty clear early on that mr 5 and mr 3 were never really any match for Zoro or Luffy, while Arlong was.
Arlong vs Mr.2 makes me wonder how heat affects Fishmen. Would they dehydrate in Alabasta?
But for that fight… I'm slightly leaning towards Arlong. Mostly because Mr.2 is a bit naive and Arlong would take advantage of that. And if it's near/on the sea it's definitely Arlong's win. But it'd be a close battle.
Well agility and Speed wise Mr. 2 would have a clear advantage over Arlong but brute Strength is something what Arlong represents the most and i had never the impression that Mr. 2 could tank that much…
Arlong's evaluation will be up later today
The next character has bottomless hair
Love and Loathe #18
Arlong
Here's what you loved about Arlong
Favorite Comment goes to Rocko 52 "We knew right from the get-go that Arlong was on a different level. From Nami's reaction to his poster, to the true opening of the arc where Arlong bribing Nezumi & his cynical conversation with his men after, to his established dominion of the island. All these moments immediately establish his nature. He's menacing and powerful, but also calculating, intelligent, and money-hungry. His elaborate and indulgent headquarters display his confidence and ambition. He was the first villain who was a serious force & opposition. Buggy was an egotistical but jealous wannabe scraping by via assaulting middle-of-nowhere villages, Kuro was a tired old opportunistic tactician looking for a way out, Krieg was just returning from a crushing defeat on the Grand Line. All the others to some degree were already beaten down and no match for Luffy's drive and ambition. Along comes Arlong, a (fish)-man driven by hatred and powerlust. Unlike the others, he has a successful operation set-up to expand, he's not merely confident but with plans and means to back them. In a lot of ways Arlong feels like the first truly active villain. While the others all had goals, they were seriously lacking in either ambition or force to back up those dreams. We have our first villain who lives up to Luffy's force and is his first big obstacle. Just the set-up sells this whole battle as a clash of ideals and ambitions, something Oda had always alluded to early on."
Here's what you loathed about Arlong
Favorite Comment goes to Lucky Dragon "The strength of his character lies in what he's able to bring out in others. He doesn't actually need to be present in the story to make use of him in that way. As a character himself he's a shallow one trick pony"
With 7 votes, Arlong got: Character/Actions: 4.14
Design: 4.29
~~ RANKINGS: Character ~~
~~ RANKINGS: Design ~~
And with that, let's present the 19th Character! I bet nobody anticipated it'd be Ivankov… NOT!
Ivankov
To get the whole picture, please tell us the following:
What are the things that you love about Ivankov?
What are the things that you loathe about Ivankov?
At the end please give Ivankov two ratings:
One for his character & actions in the story.
One for his look & design.
These must be between 1 and 5, with 5 being the highest (.5's are acceptable - ex. 1.5 or 4.5).
This analysis will be open for the next 72 hours.
Missed the previous character? You can still comment on them and the points will be counted. But only the previous character.
Enjoy!
I'll just sneak Arlong in here…
Love:
I agree with most of the previous comments.
He is an overall fantastic villain. Definitely the best pre-Crocodile. His role in Nami's backstory, his fight with Luffy, his underhanded tactics, his crew and the relationship he has with them, and him being so easily hateable all contribute to an overall memorable character.
His role in the Fisher Tiger flashback is well done. It expands on his relationship with his fishmen allies and ties him in to the story of Fishman Island without trying to redeem his character or contradicting the fact that he was only ever a big fish in a small pond.
Arlong's design is fantastic. His Hawaiian shirt, fedora, jagged nose, and prominent teeth all make him stand out even among other fishmen. Even in the Fisher Tiger flashback with the more identifiable crew of fishmen, he still stands out.
Loathe:
As was mentioned by others, his relationship with Sharly could have used some elaboration in story.
Other nitpicks:
He has a sawtooth sword and he only pulls it out at the end of the fight? That's disappointing.
His shark darts, while providing some funny Luffy moments, always take the momentum out of the fight for me.
Arlong's berserk mode feels kind of tacked on, as it only appears at the very end of the fight and doesn't go anywhere.
Rating:
Character: 4/5 - Arlong is not in the story nearly as long as most of the villains who appear later, yet he still manages to be a benchmark for villains throughout the series.
Design: 4/5 - He stands out even compared to the other wacky looking fishmen who appear throughout the story.
I did actually get Wanze in before the time limit, but here's the direct quote for ease;
! @Tanuki:
! > Wanze Love
Wanze is a pretty unique character. He sums up the absolute insanity that is One Piece's crazier cast members. Taken to a logical extreme, Wanze's abilities are outlandish, flashy and ridiculous. Creating a mecha armour out of ramen? Kind of crazy. He's infinitely more entertaining than he has any right to be considering he's at best a quirky miniboss and runs rings around fellow Sea Train guards Jerry, Nero and even T-bone.Wanze also provided a little more insight into Sanji's opinions on food and gave him a super rare opportunity to combine both his fighting skills and cooking skills into a single battle, and foreshadowed how the issue with Duval would be resolved.
Wanze driving everyone crazy was hugely entertaining, and watching my three favourite Strawhats blow up at the annoying chef was crazily amusing.
Loathe
Like many already said; poison knife was pretty random, and unfortunately Wanze felt disconnected from the main events of the arc. However even then he's more entertaining than the many other additional characters the World Government had working for them during this arc outside the CP9.However being as wacky as he is, Wanze doesn't feel like a real person unlike many other comical characters such as Buggy, Usopp, Franky or even Foxy.
Character: 3/5 I like wacky, but his role didn't have a big impact on the plot. The cooking battle was well worth a point on it's own however. Design: 3.5/5 Wanze's design is a pretty unique look, and in nearly any other manga this would probably land him a perfect score from me, but with other unique designs that actually gel considerably better aesthetically such as Gecko Moria or Jinbei kicking about, Wanze falls a little short. His design may be a little TOO off beat to actually work quite right and he ends up looking a little wonky as a result.
Arlong LoveFrom the very moment you meet Arlong you can feel the tremendous force of his character. His attempt on Genzo's life for simply owning a sword, the destruction he's caused on one of the island's villages, the way everyone cowers before him, and the way his crew brutally and cruelly kill off the villagers last hope in Commodore Purin Purin.
Whilst Crocodile, Big Mom and more obviously Bege, have all since had gangster themes, Arlong feels like the original mafia boss. Supressing, subjugating, cutting shady deals, and killing off those who can no longer pay his protection money or pose any kind of potential threat or influence, every single thing about Arlong feels calculated and cruel, easily matching and surpassing the rest of the East Blue villains(at least to that point; Buggy's return was glorious). When he snaps though he quickly becomes one of the most ferocious opponents Luffy has ever met.
However, Arlong isn't JUST a brute who can't be reasoned with. Unlike Krieg, Arlong is (to an extent) semi reasonable. Unlike the previous East Blue antagonists(again at that point; Buggy got better) he cares about his crew and treats them well. It's clear he cares about the lives of all of his crew as seen when he becomes enraged each time one of his crewmates is felled by those damn inferior humans.
One thing I personally liked about Arlong was how he wasn't redeemed. Seems odd, but whilst Hachi was retroactively referred to as a nice guy in his crew, Arlong's actions, whilst revealed to have some understandable root to them in Tiger's death and Fishman racism from humans in general, Arlong is still not portrayed neccesarily in a positive light. It's worth noting that due to Tiger's death Arlong DID become MORE cold hearted, as previously he was the one to be the voice of reason to now nice guy Jinbei when he was going too far.
The fight vs. Arlong is still one I feel holds up well today, and as Luffy finishes him off and brings Arlong Park down, Nami's tears and relief still have as much impact on me now as they did back then. It feels good.
Whilst many consider Chopper and Robin's backstories some of the best, Nami's one thanks to Arlong stands up strongly still, and Arlong's brutal murder of Bell-Mere puts him above and beyond as an antagonist for me.
Loathe Whilst Arlong recieved many a mention during Fishman Island, and even appeared in a Flashback, he himself has yet to return to the story in the present time. Personally I feel him not being carted off to Impel Down after reportedly being jailed was a missed opportunity, as seeing Arlong interact with Jinbei and Luffy again had some serious potential, and half the fun of that arc was seeing previous arc villains interact with one another. Would Arlong even want to ally himself with those inferior humans and his ex-sworn brother Jinbei?
Hell if I know, but it would have been good to find out.
A rather small complaint; Due to the short time we spend with Arlong, it would have been nice to see his strong bonds with Kuroobi, Chew and Hachi further delved into. I'm not sure if I want to totally commit to this as a Loathe though as it could have quite easily have pushed Arlong from irredeemable villain to sympathetic villain status.
Character: 4/5 Arlong's character type isn't the most complex, but he set the standard for villains in One Piece. Whilst many considered Crocodile or Eneru to be villains that raised the bar, I still feel like Arlong did an incredible job as an antagonist for the comparitively short time he was with us.
Design: 4/5 Like a muscular villainous fishman Usopp design wise. That shark nose, the bizarre style mix of hawaiian shirts and winter wear hats, that damn weapon which I still think is one of the coolest looking weapons in the series.
–--------------------------------
IVANKOV COMING SOON. I WILL CATCH UP!
Oh, so that was you! Then it got counted :)
Redone Evaluation
Love So first of all, his comedy. While his gags get a bit repetitive, he was still a joy to follow. He offered some good comedy while also being a powerhouse. The road into Impel Down was serious, but then on the way out we got this up-beat guy fighting strong guards with little problem - it helped sell the feeling of "everything's going to hell for Impel Down". And then seeing him run for his life from Magellan it once again proves how dangerous Magellan is (but not after giving him a fight!). My favorite funny moment would be in Marineford, when he winked the boat into the middle. And all those group shots and then there's his gigantic face in the background.
His powers are interesting. Of course in reality it's not so easy to just take hormones and grow big or change gender, but for being a shonen I think it's okay to simplify it a bit.
And this guy is a revolutionary? I expected them to be a bit more brooding like Dragon, but here we have the complete opposite. Iva was a great, unexpected proper introduction to the Revolutionaries.
And he's got a connection with Crocodile. I want to know more!
Loathe
Iva has all the ingredients for a great character, yet he's forgettable. With all other characters I at least had some initial opinions, but with Iva I had to sit down a while and really think, what did this guy do and what did I feel about it? A major reason for this is that ultimately, Iva was a plot-driven character and like Tanuki said below, he's constantly up-staged. Throughout both Impel Down and Marineford he was basically Luffy's life support system. There to save him and to keep him going, and nothing else. And while these should be huge things, Bon's friendship and sacrifice outclassed him in Impel Down, and during Marineford Jinbei took the mantle of being Luffy's protector and sacrificing himself to save Luffy from Akainu. Iva really doesn't get as much credit as he should. Without him, Luffy would be dead.
And despite introducing the revolutionaries, not even that feels very deep. I blame this on the revolutionaries simply not being important for Paradise, so you don't get the weight of who Ivankov is. Also he felt too weak to be the second-in-command.
I'm not fond of how big of a coincidence he is. What would you know, there just so happens to be an escapee with the exact powers to heal Luffy and a minor army to get them out and with powers to keep Luffy going oh and he also knows Luffy's dad. It led to some great scenes but even for One Piece it felt a little forced.
Despite having hormone powers his fighting arsenal is very, very small. Most of the time it was just variations of "Death Wink" which had nothing to do with his powers. Dude you can grow to twice your size, do something with that. Nope. Wink
The fact that his female form and male form differs so much was disappointing.
Character: 3.5 - He was very entertaining but was bound to the plot.
Design: 3.5 - Ridiculous but it works well with his personality.
**Ivankov
Love:** He's pretty wacky. I did enjoy his gag of overacting and then revealing he's actually totally fine.
His relationship with Inazuma, and his friendship with his fellow revolutionaries is nice and fun.
His speech about not being the fabled Miracle Worker Bon boy thinks he is, is quite nice. He can't help those who don't have the will to live.
Finally his interaction with Sanji made for some very entertaining moments just pretimeskip.
Loathe
Okay, now…I hate to say this, but of all the Impel Down gang, a gang who I adore btw, Ivankov was the only one who never struck a chord with me...I'll see if I can explain why.
Turning that guy into a girl against his will was pretty damn creepy, and probably one of the more unforgivable things a protagonist character has done on screen.
His power is unique, yes, but 'hormones' as a power is pretty abstract for One Piece. At times Ivankov feels like a Bleach character with his abilities being as ill defined as they are yet somehow still feeling comically overpowered. The ability to change boys to girls and vice versa is also sadly not used to help Luffy avoid further detection from Magellan and gang via rule 63, which is a bit of a missed opportunity. Honestly of all the wacky abilities shown in One Piece, Ivankov is one of the few I can't seem to wrap my head around no matter how hard I try.
What does a Death Wink have to do with hormones-is it related to his devil fruit or just a combat choice? Why did he turn into a woman to fight Sadi? Are there any benefits for each for using his female form? Does his head increasing increase his Death Wink power or is it a side effect from using too many hormone powers? It's one of the few fruits I feel need a LOT of explaination, and it's also one of the few we didn't get much information on.
Ivankov is somehow upstaged wherever he goes. He's by far one of Luffy's biggest and most useful allies during Impel Down and Marineford, but doesn't really get much spotlight outside of giving Luffy a quick hormone boost to keep him going or death winking him out of the way of a dangerous attack. Jinbei, Bon-Chan, Crocodile and even Mr. 3 get moments where they truly shine that I felt overshadowed Ivankov. Heck, SABO outshines him by suddenly revealing that HE is actually the second in command of the Revolutionaries and not Ivankov during Dressrosa. Honestly it's a shame.
His surviving seemingly fatal attacks with the gag excuse of "I wore thick makeup" is something I also couldn't get through. One Piece characters as a whole are pretty indestuctable, and I could easily believe the healing hormone queen would survive through the use of his power without such a lampshaded gag. Fell flat for me, but that's more personal taste.
Character: 3/5 - Fun, but heavily flawed to me. Powers are a little too abstract for me to get behind.
Design: 4/5 - Wacky. Similar to Wanze, I'm not sure it blends well into a character design but he's one of the more unique and instantly recognisable characters.
Sometimes I wish we could have Ivankov as the Straw Hat crew's doctor instead of Chopper these days.
@Count:
Sometimes I wish we could have Ivankov as the Straw Hat crew's doctor instead of Chopper these days.
He can fit Wacky and she can also fit sexy.
Poor Ivankov. And I thought Wanze killed the thread… I'll give him an extension until tomorrow. Also:
Two things are going on. One, we're coming up on our 20th character! Two, I'm having one of my exams next week.
So for the next character we're doing a week long special. But I don't know what character you would prefer having extra time to analyze, so I'm giving you three choices!
!
Voting is open until Ivankov's evaluation goes up. If there's a tie the winner will be decided with a dice roll.
One vote per person.
I vote Doflamingo.
I vote Rebecca. And it's not because I want to trash her.
I'll hopefully write something for Ivankov later tonight.
I vote Doflamingo.