Posts Tagged ‘one piece’
While I often complain that the Philippines does not have a rich localized manga industry like Singapore and Indonesia, we do have a very rich history in animation.
Some of you may have heard of members of Pixar coming from our shores, but for all the local otaku out there, did you know that Toei animation has been in Manila for 25 years?
Last Nov. 16, Toei celebrated their 25th anniversary in the Philippines, sharing the works that they’ve done all these years as well as some goodies (in fact, A LOT OF AWESOME merchandise!). Currently, Toei Manila is working on Precure, Toriko, and One Piece. Their animation history extends as far as Dragon Ball, Sailormoon, Kinnikuman, Hokuto no Ken, and Voltes V (The Philippine Fan favorite). Almost all of these titles have had their chances in being shown in local television.
Seeing the event reminded me of all the anime that was generously shown in local TV. I suppose, it’s not much of a surprise that Filipinos immediately associate Japan with anime rather than manga because most Filipinos encountered Japan through television… and World War II… but we’ll get to that later.
How do you like your Shounen Jump heroine?
Do you love her dressed in a pristine school uniform, where her smiling face (and possibly panties or if your lucky, cleavage) grace every panel? Do you like her making bentou for the hero, sharing laughs right before he enters the greatest of his greatest battles? Or do you love her strong, the type who would smack the hero when he is wrong and is generally unforgiving to anyone who insults her short skirt but is soft to the hero who basically ignores her D-size bra? If she has one.
For years, legions of Jump readers, particularly women from the Western frame of thought1, would write a post or two complaining why women in a particular Shounen Jump manga is often misrepresented. An interesting rant came by my timeline today, a disheartened Katekyo Hitman Reborn! fan who cannot forgive Akira Amano for making cooks out her heroines. In her blog, she pines about why the female characters in Reborn have been ill-presented, nothing but dolls whose only purpose in the story was to make the boys look better.
Yeah. Right.
- Oh yes! Orientalism plays a key part here! [↩]
One Piece by Oda Eiichiro
Published by Shueisha
Serialized in Shounen Jump
Translated by Viz
When friends ask me about a shounen story I'd recommend, the first title that comes to mind is One Piece. After hearing the title, most of them groan saying "it's too long" or "there's no bishounen in there" or "the art is butt ugly." Although I'd honestly like to immediately contest and defend this rag tag crew to them, I always just throw at them the line "For your nakama ((Comrade)), just give it a shot." Happily so, after I lend them 20 volumes to read, they'd come back screaming "Nakama!!" with great gusto!
One Piece is more than just a shounen story with a pirate touch. Oda Eiichiro has turned Luffy's quest for One Piece into your adventure as well. This is the reason why it has lasted a decade with fans and why it'll be probably go on for a couple more years. This is a manga where the characters become your nakama.
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