Boy that was not fun to keep to myself. Remind me never to hold a secret for six years again. Next time 2 max.

Heyo. I'm alive.

I cleared out the hard drive and had to take care of shuttering some archaic accounts which meant clearing cookies and such which logged me out of like....everything ever....and I have been super lazy about logging back in to various accts that I maintain. It's not an excuse, just the reason I've been silent while many of you have very kindly boosted the column and asked questions.

The latest chap is easily may fav of the arc because of how Oda has handled Kuma...handling Bonney.

I am over the moon that she isn't his actual blood daughter which basically makes Kuma my male Belle-mere from here on. While Kuma was THOROUGHLY thought out even at his debut (source: me...and OP Magazine interview w/ OPP's Andou-sensei) there is no way in hell he had every last detail of Bonney set in stone*....

AND YET!!!!!

Somehow!!!! That glorious bastard somehow made every aspect of her down to her design and seemingly throw-away name make absolute perfect sense in her relation to a character he established over 20 years ago. Crazy, crazy man.

This is why we got that ultra-sloppy intro to Kuma's youth, so we could get to this. And no, it will never be golden era OP, but it's a lot better than some of his rushed tales.

Also saving the mystery of God Valley is a masterstroke in blue-balling the entire fanbase. Bravo.

*entirely my conjecture

Hey. Just a reassurance that the man is fine and in good spirits. Sending get well letters to the SBS/Usopp Gallery address would be appreciated I'm sure.

Just quick re: the Kaido FB.

Don't sweat it. Not something to lose sleep over bc it's coming. We'll understand Kaido ＭＵＣＨ ＢＥＴＴＥＲ after we see what happened at God Valley. That will be the true Kaido FB, or at least deliver exactly what everyone wanted.

It's coming.

The rest of the points, yeah, pretty much.

Nope!

If we're going to argue in hindsight about what it should be for accuracy, it should be 'The Five Elder Heavenly Bodies'. That is the most accurate translation.

It's also a mouthful.

In Japanese you have

惑星>wakusei>planet
and
恒星>kousei>star (fixed)

But both of these contain the kanji 星 that we commonly translate as 'star'. Although I can't speak on the origins of the kanji being used in both (as well as other heavenly objects), my bet would be that the overarching theme is that they appear as luminous points in the night sky while the preceding kanji determines what kind of object it actually is.

Certain characters in anime/manga who are attempting to be poetic or dramatic may refer to a planet as a 'hoshi' but it's still wrong according the language and only suggests the image of a bright object in the universe.

If we're to refer to a star as the English star, then 'hoshi' is most commonly used in Japanese however since the term 'hoshi' is used/understood as meaning both, it fits more with the term 'heavenly body' in which case, it's accurate in both English and Japanese.

My bet is that Oda could easily have intended it to be our 'planet' but even so, without 'wakusei' the most accurate representation would be 'Heavenly Body'.

In that sense, when a melancholy character wistfully calls their planet a 'hoshi', what's a translator to do?

Did the author intend the hoshi to make a planet analogous to a star because it represents shining hope to them? Were they being sarcastic and suggesting it's lost it's sheen? Were they just....wrong?

If you have someone being poetic or highfalutin, then utilizing 'star' even though it's 'wrong' is still the best choice.

Funny we were just talking about ambiguity because here it is once again ^o^

I have no allegiance to 'Elder Stars' other than it's what it has been but I mean....so was Raftel ^O^ So who cares!

The Five Elder Stars
It sounds ancient, poetic, and holier-than-thou. If Saturn's naming is a theme, then it's also technically wrong. But so is literally every soppy antagonist speaking woefully about their loss of hope in civilization in every anime.

The Five Elder Planets
Perhaps what Oda intended literally but maybe not poetically. It does carry an eldritch horror theme which is bonus points.

The Five Elder Heavenly Bodies
The most 'correct' term maybe and what it 'should' be but also a disgusting mouthful.

The only other option as close to being 'right' as Heavenly Bodies would be 'The Five Elder Spheres' and that's almost as funny as saying 'Dragon Balls' except even more gross.

Thematically? Stars seems to fit with how Japanese language (incorrectly) refers to planets in a poetic fashion. There are no 'wrong' choices among these, just ones that are better than others for reasons of brevity, flow, and theme.

@FatDogForMidTerms said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

@Greg said in One Piece Live-Adaptation Drama Announced:

Like that.

You do realize that if the show doesn't succeed, your uhhhhh kinda smug answers to people who have negative feelings about the show will also look kinda silly?

They said smugly.

Which is why it's popcorn.

Being unflinchingly negative about the series is no longer about critical analysis, it's about proving someone wrong or proving oneself right.

There was always going to be that subset and for them, succeed or fail, there will always be a bitterness attached to the existence of the series. Either: 'I was right, it was garbage' or 'Everyone else is wrong'.

And it's unfortunate to see bitterness increase in the world over such a thing.

As for everyone else, good to see we're having fun.

@wolfwood
There was a trial on yakuza dealings in the US where they had a voice recording of the JP fellow agreeing to an illegal deal with 'hai' (yes).

The defense successfully argued that saying 'hai' doesn't necessarily mean 'yes' as it does in English. It can mean:

"I'm listening to what you said and confirming that I hear you, but not necessarily agreeing with what you say."

....successfully argued.

Daaaaaaaah ＦＩＮＡＬＬＹ ！！！！

Zoro is only 1/4 Wanoese.

So the 'Zoro has to be pure Wanoese!' BS Express can finally cease operations.

That was the bit of info I had years ago that made it clear how Zoro's lineage played out.

And yes, Oda's astigmatism is pretty nasty which contributes a great deal to artwork from recent years. When I found out I couldn't really critique the art the same way, nor could I just out and say that without him bringing it up. Health is health so, it is what it is. We're lucky we can still enjoy the manga!

I like to post this every once in a while for fans who might not know it exists.

https://www.thegrandline.com/odatocLIVE.htm

Here's a ridiculously detailed and thorough look at every single comment from Oda, his editors, and about Oda from other authors on the authors' comments page of various comic publications from 1993-2013 after which they were regularly made available in English. Enjoy!

So yeah, audio commentary reveals everything I've suggested.
-Uta confirmed in 1055 so her existence is now canon, as expected.
-Her status at the end is still unknown, as expected.
-The director didn't want to make it a multiverse film so they tried to make it non-multiverse (and failed, unless it happens after Egghead) but he overstepped his boundaries by saying it was canon and admits that, that the only person who can decide the movie's canon nature is Oda....as expected.

Uta is canon and can easily show up if/when Oda wants and ignore the events of the film without disavowing them (ie. a text bubble-free panel of a reuniting OR just ignoring talk about the film's events). RED? Probably not canon but if it is, look for it to happen after Egghead.

This is super interesting to read.

Dang I'm good.

Gonna be a while. Maybe late May if I'm lucky. Probably more like June.

Confirmed doing something fun for the 200th column. There will not be any new columns until its release. Please look forward to it.

@FolhaS

There's actually a LOT I'd like to share. Some I can, some I can't but for now, I'll say what I said elsewhere, Oda isn't being 100% serious and he's also not 100% joking.

It will probably be some time before my next column. Working on something special.

@shadyagent said in Greg: Teacher of SUPER " OP " course !:

I would wish someone like in the position of Oda would take an actual break and does not have to do some stupid contractual stuff for the live action series, trading cards or the upcoming anime.

He doesn't.

Some mangaka complain about work. And yes, up-and-coming mangaka are usually pushed beyond limits because they have to work their asses off to reach a level of notoriety simply by virtue of the fact that not every manga drawn by every human at any given moment, is able to take the spotlight without being remarkable. Creating the 'remarkable' takes extraordinary effort and to reach/maintain that, some people have to work very hard and work themselves beyond healthy limits.

Oda works very hard. He worked extremely hard. And...

He loves doing it.

I've never met anyone more satisfied with their job and lifestyle.

There are definitely ppl out there who just want to turn Shueisha into villains but here's the thing, the person who determines Oda's breaks...is Oda. And week to week, if Oda wants to break, he absolutely gets to break for as little or long as he likes.

How do you think HxH was held in hiatus on the pages of JUMP? It's because Togashi works, when he can/wants to work.

I can't speak for Hakusensha -I know literally nothing about them- but at Shueisha, established authors determine their own schedules.

I don't think there's much to take issue with because it could be either or depending on the person.

And from the previous page, yes, Toriyama's death was a complete shock out of left field. I'm still not entirely comfortable going into it at length publicly. It hasn't like...mentally ruined me or anything. It's just very sudden and sad...

@FolhaS said in Greg: Teacher of SUPER " OP " course !:

Since it's now public that you've worked on the show and the season is out, is there any small anecdote you're now free to share?

I have a library of anecdotes (not all of them them happy ones) but out of respect for my contract I can't share any now.

Hollywood proved to be extremely Hollywood and that continues even now. There is no decision about the series that isn't made without a savage battle and the people in the middle (hi) get to bear the brunt of it but with Season 1 being so successful #worthit

What do you think is going on with the latest cover story of Onigashima

Hopefully the justification of the return of Mom for Elbaf along with the mobilization of ppl around the world.

@Shiebs
The demo left me with headaches from the background on Graphics mode and the Performance mode made everyone look like they were smeared with vaseline. That soured me severely in the week heading up to release but I spent about an hour toying with my TV's settings and low and behold, Graphics mode's backgrounds became 'passable'.

So I went in feeling tepid but having set those settings and now having sat down for about 35 hours with it, I'm over the moon. Their ability to adhere to making the open worldness of it feel MEANINGFUL and not just simply checkmarks like Assassin's Creed has become is their greatest strength in this format and it's a dream.

And, as expected, the writing, JP voice acting, drama, action, gameplay, and of course MUSIC are all top-notch. The translation is, unfortunately, mostly subpar and continues to make the characters WAAAY more snarkier than they really are while also removing small nuances/quirks, changing names for what doesn't seem to be any reason (maybe they had names in the original I don't remember, that's entirely possible), and often making explanations far more verbose and complex than they need to be.

You know the 'folios' right? 'Folio' doesn't really mean anything special to a normal English reader, right? There's no reason for it to sound so haughty. And yet the Japanese is simply 'Skill Book'. As in English.

"But Greg, if they say it in English in the JP version, shouldn't it sound exotic in translation?"

Sure....if your average Japanese person doesn't understand the term 'sukiru bukku' means (spoiler: elementary school students know those words). They're not meant to be difficult to understand in JP so why bother calling them something odd in English?

Anyway, sorry, that's just my distaste for fanfic-sounding localization work.

1108 is one of those chapters where I have an anecdote that I can talk about after the series is done. It's not some major earth-shattering theory etc. just as I suggested, an anecdote. If you keep track of that stuff, there it is. Otherwise I'm likely to forget about it entirely someday ^o^ It's related to the VA's.