I thought there was something special about the island Robin landed on, like the inhabitants were of some weird race or had face cancer. Then even Robin, who is freaky looking normally, started to shatter mirrors. Who needs good animation when the art is so bad. Might as well lopside it all the way by making stick figures with awesome CG effects. And it sure didn't look mature to me. That girl's weird, poorly spaced eyes and ginormous forehead just freaked me out when I first saw her in the snow. Is this One Piece? Or maybe Miyazaki when he's low on sugary lifesavers?

If a word has more meaning in the original language or has a specific purpose in the anime, leave it. Maybe a brief TL note here and there, but only when the word is first used, not repeatedly afterwords. Otherwise, translate it. I like having both translated and untranslated attacks right next to each other. Everyone's happy that way and you treat it like karaoke, so you can see the meaning and say the attack too. I like colorful animations, but not too big or convoluted as it can be distracting or hard to read. However, it's not that big of a deal and I rather it not be re-encoded for the purpose of attack names. I also don't like when sub groups place their name all over the opening title. Translating is for the benefit of the fanbase, not so that one feels they are deserving of praise and adulation. You didn't remotely have a hand in making the anime so don't pretend like you have. Group names in the filename as well as at the beginning of the episode or during intermission is fine, but leave it in the text subs.

I started watching the Thriller Bark episodes again from Vegapunk starting at 337+ but am having a hard time getting through each episode as when I read the subtitles, the sentences are kind of distracting since they sound very unnatural to me. I skimmed through some of the earlier vegapunk episodes for the end of the water 7 arc, and they don't seem to sound that awkward, although I didn't watch a whole episode to confirm. It's the same kind of un-natural-sounding-ness that kept me from downloading the old Gerusama subs. I asked about this in their forums, although I tried to sound less specific and more simplistic as to not offend them with any particulars they may be touchy about. It has sadly been locked: http://www.vegapunk.com/forums/index.php?topic=3991.0

My question is, does anyone else notice this? Or am I the only one bothered by it? The one that is really irking me right now is 340, when Chopper and Co. meet Hogback for the first time. Also, if anyone has ever watched Dennou Coil, it's that same strange-sounding-ness that kept me from watching the higher quality Ureshii subs in favor of the speedsubbing Anoni ones, regardless of how accurate the translation ultimately was or how nice the picture quality was in comparison.

Resurrecting old thread to avoid new topic. I have Instantz episodes from 351 to 363. Should I bother downloading vegapunk subs to replace them for permanent archiving, or are the differences minor? I've replaced all my AnimeCrazy ones with various other subs because they are speedsubbers. Instantz is too, but their quality seems to be alright.

I thought this episode was great. The pacing and suspense, as well as animation, beat out the rest of the run-away-from-auction-house fight episodes so far. The all fight sequences like last episode and the episode before that were making me fall asleep.

I also agree that the animation looked like crap, like something for a filler or build up episode. Not talking about whether it is fluid or not. Just look at chopper. He is the most deformed I've ever seen him. His arms are like tentacles and he has a square head. Some of the other characters are terrible as well.

And that punch definitely lacked any bang to it, and snaked too much. I am in the hate it crowd for the punch.

I thought the pacing was great and the moments emotional. A very good episode overall. I ddin't really like the past few. Maybe it has something to do with how VS has switched sources and OP looks so damn colorful and sharp again.

I thought this episode was terrible compared to what I've seen in the past ten or so. I thought it was filler considering how long and drawn it was and how they were just repeating themselves. The whole I will do anything for my nakama thing was already belaboured in the last episode. This one just threw it over the top. There were a lot of time wasters and static images with zooming, and I was about to stop the episode after watching the camera zoom into the bear guy's nose for the umpteenth time. I also didn't like the animation nor the excessive use of the BAM! SFX and you see someone's gritty disfigured face show up for about 30 seconds. There were a lot of BAM moments in the last episode but the usage for the 377 ones are just not credible to me. BAM! I'm looking at you. BAM! I'm looking at you in another angle. BAM! I'm looking back at you. BAM! let me stare back for another 30 seconds. This whole episode would fit in a quarter of an episode but they stretched it out so much it became cheezier than hell.

So how many more episodes will the Kuma fight last? No spoilers please.

Opening: Maybe even worse than Crazy Rainbow. That awful beat and style, it was like three minutes, and near the end it sounded like a broken record and repeated itself 3-4 times.

Actual Episode: Good. Robin doesn't look weird in this episode. Felt a bit rushed though, like cramming a lot of things into one episode, especially how they kind of instantly devised and telepathically communicated with each other to crack Odz' back and how Luffy would suddenly be upright after dying on the ground after each attack.