Hey, Baki, Was this your game? Or was your project completely different?
Latest posts made by GearSecond
-
RE: Untitled
-
RE: The Officially Official 2014 APCT Nominations Thread
My first five or so choices have already been taken, but I'll go ahead and nominate Jewelry Bonney since nobody's done her yet.
-
RE: Your duration as a One Piece fan
It's hard to tell when I caught up. The anime and manga during Enies Lobby were neck-and-neck. It was after Water 7 but during Enies Lobby. It could be as early as Chapter 380, or as late as 420.
The timeframe is fuzzy. I started watching K-F in 2005. When I ran out of their episodes (they were midway through Skypiea, probably around episode 170) I joined up with them after lurking for some time. Then, looking for more One Piece, I ended up finding my way here… where I also lurked for some time, mostly downloading other subs I found. The I can probably narrow down the timeframe to "after Gear Second was animated" but "before Rob Lucci and Luffy fought, and before Gear Third was a thing". I'm pretty sure I can also recall some other fights being read before I watched them animated, including Franky's. And Zoro's three-headed move thing was new in the Manga at the time, too. That should narrow it down somewhat. If pressed to guess an exact chapter, I'd have to estimate 408, simply because I recall Franky's hair and Monster Chopper being very new at the time. Opening 6 came out shortly after I caught up… which really narrows it down.
Finally signed up for AP a couple months later when Gear Second was animated. Grabbed it as a name. Been active in the community since, although I usually take breaks and then binge these days. I haven't watched an anime episode in years; ever since Thriller Barque, I've exclusively read the manga. In fact, I still haven't seen the ending of Enies Lobby (Merry's Death, Garp, etc) in the anime. Probably won't until K-F catches up and I do a rewatch.
-
RE: Regarding Spoilers, Scanlations and the Official Release of Weekly Shonen Jump.
I'm not sure there's a simple solution to the problem, just because speed scans have always existed, and so have spoiler threads where early pictures and scripts are released. Personally, I think One Piece is good enough that spoilers won't ruin a chapter for me, because the art and the pacing is so critical to the enjoyment and most chapters don't have massive spoilers in them. There are, obviously, some big twists, but even then I question how bad any single spoiler can be. But I feel you: I hate spoilers, too, and would prefer to walk in unspoiled most of the time.
At the same time, I tend to binge One Piece. I go months with deprivation, then I read 30-50 chapters in one go. I manage to avoid most spoilers just fine and still participate in the community. I admit, the spoiler for this latest chapter is a doozy, but a big part of the problem rests on the shoulders of people who aren't being careful about marking their posts.
As far as solutions go, my favorite is to simply stop supporting speed scanners like Mangapanda. Having them speed scanned, hosted online, etc, simply perpetuates the spoilers faster and, in the past, has even led to false rumors being spread about the story due to rushed translations. I don't think this is a big problem anymore, but it once was. Instead, we can go back to supporting proper scans. There's a severe shortage of these since the speed scans have started being hosted on manga hosting sites. This is a big part of the issue: reading your manga on a reader contributes to the issue because they make money on ads by having the first scan up. Don't encourage this. Wait 2-3 days for the regular, downloaded scans to be available. And supporting these groups means there will be more of them. At present, there's only really one source for those right now and that's not okay.
-
RE: Planetary theory
Something everyone might be overlooking: Oda has only demonstrated the existence of a singular moon in the sky. It's entirely possible that the giant model is more of a geocentric solar system than proof of several moons.
-
RE: Chopper's forms
Yeah Sengoku was a legendary zoan type. Hito-Hito no mi Model:Daibatsu I think, which is something along the lines of 'super awesome massive golden buddha' fruit.
So that's what Oda meant when he said a Human who ate the Human fruit would gain "enlightenment".
-
RE: Chapter 673: Vergo and Joker
well wouldn't that be like rain dinners? huge impressive casino/resort located within a desert … run by the boss of an underground criminal organisation ...
can't wait to see what dofla is planning! :D glad that we finally get to know him better. hihi
however I do have to admit that I'm not too fond of all the similarities with the alabasta arc. most of you probably find it nostalgic and great but I find it a bit uninspired. the scene with the cage would have been enough to get that nostalgic feeling.
I'm not finding it nostalgic, really. This hard has been a little less exciting than expected. The island's extreme conditions are more plot-related than inherent to the island. The villain's design is far more like a generic anime character. His power has been done before, kinda. It makes little sense how everyone got defeated by him so easily. He doesn't seem that powerful. I like the secret science lab stuff, but that doesn't seem to be the spotlight. I'm more excited to see where this goes in regards to Law and Doflamingo than anything else.
-
RE: The Viz Media Thread
I hope you're joking. Fansubs and scanlations are NOT the sign of a healthy community. It just means its fanbase is full of free-loaders. Also, FUNimation is a professional company and I'm sure as hell they aren't letting a group of college students with some time on their hands do their shitty subs soley for "competition." It costs well over $100,000 to dub a single episode and the anime industry is shit right now due to piracy. As for Viz, they have every right to "not want competition." They bought the license to One Piece and therefore can do what Shueisha allows them to do, and getting rid of scanlations is one of those things. They ARE trying to support the community and they have shown it in many ways: doing the speed-up, releasing Color Walks, trying to get the manga as close to the weekly serialization as possible, etc. Also, I'm aware Viz's translations aren't perfect, but scanlations are generally worse and usually a mixed bag, full of typos and mistranslations everywhere. If you understand Japanese enough to the point that you can tell which translations are good and bad, then why are you reading any English versions (whether it be Viz or scanlations) at all?
That's simply not how piracy works. Funimation has said before that they won't be shutting down fansubs because they recognize how important groups like KF are to the community. It's not about them letting there be competition, it's about letting someone else be left alone when it doesn't actually affect them. There's an abundance of studies which have demonstrated that decreasing piracy will not lead to an increase in sales. The anime translation industry is built upon fans who got interested via fansubs. There were bootleg subtitled VHS tapes being released in America long before we had a halfway decent translation industry. And they primarily came about to capitalize on that. The anime industry has never been strong or a big part of media because they're paying the same price as other studios to translate and produce and yet they have a smaller market. Piracy is not "lost sales". Of course Viz doesn't want the competition, but the idea simply being that in a traditional capitalistic system you sell licenses and retain the rights to intellectual property. But it's time we rethink that and move beyond that. Piracy has never been theft. You're not removing the property of someone else. You're simply making a copy. They bought the license but, guess what, people are capable of producing a quality translation in a timely manner and that technically creates a system of competition. As has been demonstrated, Netflix reduces piracy. And yet the big media corporations are using licensing to choke them for creating a legal and profitable business. It's about control, not providing a high quality product. In that regard, the fans have a duty to release their version of a product with regards to creating a decent product for the fandom. As far as translation quality, Viz will always be better than speed scans. They have payed translators whose job it is to translate and they release on a delay. The goal of places like MangaStream has always been a fast release. But groups like NULL have provided a quality translation and while they've always been behind they've focused on accuracy. And at the end of the day they were releasing high quality releases you could download and keep. Between the two of them, they produced two products both better than Viz but in different ways. I admit I'm not reading the Japanese version to assess accuracy; my grasp of the language isn't that good. However it's not that hard to check multiple releases from Stephen's to NULL's to speed scans and Viz to get a good idea of how accurate they all are in relation to each other. And that's what's important: their relative accuracy and quality. And at the end of the day, it's rather nice to read something in your native tongue. It's the one thing a dub can do that no fansub can; let you sit back and enjoy the art.
You sound like a spoiled child. "Its wrong because I say so and I want it!"
I mean how dare those licensed legal retailers sell what you can steal for free!?
And there lies the rub. Licenses are about as bad as software patents at this point. Yes, they paid for the legal distribution rights for a certain area. But we have the internet. We have the most powerful tool mankind has ever built. We need to stop thinking like licenses are the end-all-be-all solution to releases. And we can't think of piracy as lost sales. See, you've made it pretty clear you didn't understand a word I said. The entire point being that the legal releases are killing the fandom. It's not about getting stuff for free. It's about the fact that I'd rather pay NULL for releases than Viz, regardless of who purchases the license. It's about them providing something for the fans instead of for profit. It makes no sense to say anyone who supports piracy as a consumer tool is a "spoiled child". Because you're basically saying that whoever has the money to purchase a license has a right to nickel-and-dime the fans just because they bought the license. And sure, traditionally that's true. But now the internet has given consumers a tool to fight back and demand a quality service. Stop thinking like it's 1955 and start thinking about the potential here to provide a quality and yet profitable service for the fans.
I think as long as the scans are leaked someone will translate them and put them online. I don't think there is anything to worry about there. I'm sure One Piece will be available online next week as it always is and people will forget this ever happened.
Who is currently releasing HQ English scans within a week of JUMP's release?
Good God man! Do you realize what you are saying?!
I would love to know how old everyone is who agrees with statements like these. I just want to gauge maturity levels, also finding out what these people do for a living would be nice. Because people like you GearSecond are no contributing zeros and just don't understand how the real world works.
I'm not saying buy VIZ or even like VIZ, i'm just saying those who truly believe in the above statement are as dumb as a sack of of door knobs.
Again, statements about immaturity and being a "spoiled child". Please think for a second what the potential of the internet and groups that make releases for the betterment of the community can do. Stop and reconsider that "the real world" is bound by certain rules that the internet simply doesn't abide by. We're more than capable of having scanlators provide a quality product that can compete with Viz. We're more than capable of translating it ourselves. The internet has given consumers a great tool and we want to shackle it to the limitations of the old world.
-
RE: The Viz Media Thread
While there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to support legal One Piece (and I know for years, back when Viz was just starting out and 4Kids was responsible for the dub, we talked endlessly about being willing to support legal, high quality One Piece translations) I can't help but feel like we're losing our backbone as a community over this. Many scanlations and fansubs are the sign of a healthy community. I'm glad that KF has stuck around and Funimation has been very nice about having competition when it comes to subbing. As a result, I'm far more willing to buy their dub releases. Why? Because they respect our community, they don't issue takedowns, and they are putting out a product that I literally can't get anywhere else: a show with full English voice acting. Viz is a different matter: they don't want competition and their competition is providing the same basic product they are. The big difference is that Viz can bind volumes for traditional reading. As a community, we shouldn't be supporting Viz. If they can truly put out a better product they shouldn't need C&D orders to get sales via a monopoly. It's also time we as a society rethink the application of capitalism to ideas, but I digress; that is a topic for another day.
There's a distinct lack of scanlation and subbing groups compared to a few years ago. Traditionally there've been a handful of subbers/scanlators who rushed out the newest episodes, perhaps one or two that were a couple weeks behind but aimed for a good mix of speed and quality, and at least one major translator that was a couple years behind but aimed for the highest quality. One Piece's foreign community has been lucky to have this so far. It's been a real blessing to have an abundance of choice ranging from speed to quality. But now there's no major English HQ translators. Nor any English scanlators best I can tell. NULL was way behind and I could accept being 2-3 years behind waiting for their release, but now they've quit. There's still quite a few people subbing the anime, though they're all speed subs and the only real alternative is KF. For perspective, KF is on Enies Lobby and when I first joined these forums the Manga was in the same place.
This concerns me. It seems like the translators are dying out. The old-school translators have broken up for a myriad of reasons or they've gotten tired of all the work. They've been generous thus far; many of them have day jobs and do translations in their spare time. I can hardly blame them for shutting down a free service. But at the end of the day, they represent the community's health. In a way, we're stagnating. The posts on this site are all "General Discussion Thread, Part X" and there's few original threads discussing the series here. It wasn't always that way. Now all posts are categorized. Stuff like takedowns should have their own post, not be shoved at the backend of a Viz General Discussion. But more on point, we're losing scanlators and subbers and that's a concern. As fans of the manga, we're dead in the water without NULL and even though I hated their watermarks Binktopia/Mangastream were the only ones releasing in English that I can find. Our "where to find OP manga" thread is 2+ years old and there's been few updates. The scanlation section of the site may as well be for Italian releases only (props to them for keeping up releases, though) and this isn't a good position to be in.
However, the first action I'd recommend taking is to choose to not support Viz if they won't support the community. I have no doubt that they genuinely believe legal manga is the best thing for their communities. But it's really only what's best for them. It's neither what's best for the fans, the health of their community, nor the original author of the series. And as such, we shouldn't support their online releases at cost. Their translations are somewhat shoddy, the quality of image is only high because they have access to the original prints, and so long as the translation is decent and the images are high-res I think the community can put out a superior product. Supporting Viz after they issue takedowns sends them the message that hurting the community is profitable and thus best for them. That's not right. We as a community need to demand/provide downloaded, non-watermarked, HQ English scans. I for one won't give Viz any money unless I can have decent scans on my hard-drive. I won't buy any volumes of their manga that I don't have a satisfactory copy of on my computer and neither should anyone else. Instead, support Funimation. They care about the community. They let fansubs live on without hassling them. And in the end it's for the best of both the community and the series. Free, high quality translations has gained One Piece and other series more fans than any other distribution method. I've dumped hundreds into imported merchandise since getting into this series. And the last thing I want to see is the English-speaking community snuffed out because Viz bullied us into buying their sub-par product and shutting down any competition.
-
RE: The Viz Media Thread
It's actually really sad to see MS dropping those series. One Piece might have been getting some better translations and better quality scans thanks to the larger fanbase; but as for most of the series on that list, MS was the best option out there for their fans.
Are there any major HQ English groups out there at the moment? NULL is gone and they were always behind (with good reason) but it seems like MangaStream was the only English scan site out there doing releases (and they had watermarks). Even our release section contains primarily Italian releases.