Anime & Manga “If you don’t like GEAR 5, you’re an EDGELORD pseudo-nihilist teenager!”
- Thread starter EmperorKinyagi
- Start date
There are lots of compeling aspects of Gear 5th, even if you do prefer as little comedy as possible in your manga.
For one, it might be goofy, but it's basic design doesn't look inherently goofy, unlike rubber ball Gear 4th, and arguably Gear 3rd. In a way, it's akin to a super saiyan transformation. And that's kind of cool on the outset.
For two, the stuff Luffy can do with it is visually very impressive. Gigant in particular. But Luffy's new ability to survive even while his head is massively contorted is pretty cool as well. There might be potential there beyond comedy in the future.
And for 3, Luffy doesn't really appear to be genuine in his laugher and cheer while in this form. It's kind of like while he was in the forest of Amazon Lily with those mushrooms. It seems to be a drug-like effect, almost akin to the SMILE fruits. And that is kind of edgy in a way as well.
For one, it might be goofy, but it's basic design doesn't look inherently goofy, unlike rubber ball Gear 4th, and arguably Gear 3rd. In a way, it's akin to a super saiyan transformation. And that's kind of cool on the outset.
For two, the stuff Luffy can do with it is visually very impressive. Gigant in particular. But Luffy's new ability to survive even while his head is massively contorted is pretty cool as well. There might be potential there beyond comedy in the future.
And for 3, Luffy doesn't really appear to be genuine in his laugher and cheer while in this form. It's kind of like while he was in the forest of Amazon Lily with those mushrooms. It seems to be a drug-like effect, almost akin to the SMILE fruits. And that is kind of edgy in a way as well.
Since the title refers to a post of mine, I will first address that I wasn't talking about every critic out there but those who were pushing things like exchanging non-contact waves of black sparks as peak fighting quality (which is what I was answering to).
Secondly, as I already addressed, you can dislike this Gear as much as you want, but not only fits both Luffy and the core tone of the story perfectly but, and this is more important, it's what the narrative behind this fight asked for. Kaido is a depressed, angry man who noticed Luffy would grow stronger the more he smiled, was expected to be Joy Boy by King and mumbled about his rival not being it either. Focusing on the tone of the fight is narrow-minded because the actual clash here is between Joy Boy and that who failed to be him, between joyness and depression, between wanting to live and wanting to die; and, in this particular context, what we're seeing is great.
So of course not everybody disliking Gear Fifth is an edgelord, but let's not pretend that many people in here even like what One Piece is about instead of the most generic version of it in terms of shonen tropes; the same kind of people who truly believe, without feeling embarrassed, stuff like "Zoro should be the main character". Other than that, there's a lot of fear for the whole fight (and incoming conflicts) to lack seriousness, but not only isn't this the case (last chapter feels way more balanced with the actual interactions, from addressing those important for Luffy's journey till Kaido, understanding that the emperor will kill everybody if he isn't defeated there, Kaido cutting Luffy's crap by either biting or blasting him...), but I personally doubt Oda will be dumb enough to reduce fights to cartoon action. Luffy is experiencing his new powers and Oda needs to stress the joyness in Nika's ability, let that sink and I'm sure everything will work out in interesting ways (just think about it: Blackbeard can nullify the fruit and he himself represents darkness; Sakazuki can erase joy out of Luffy just by the fact he traumatized him by killing Ace; and Im, if they end up being the final villain, shall be Joy Boy's antithesis).
Finally, goofiness has always been there; in this case it feels like there's more of it because Oda needs to emphasize the feeling of "liberation" (as I explained in the spoiler thread, you guys must understand Luffy as a rubber ball bouncing crazily) the character is experiencing right now, but it can't stay like that forever because, in Luffy's own perception, it's pretty much killing him. But I'm thankful Oda ran away from haki, which is arguably one of his worst additions (at least in terms of handling) and in this particular case was killing everything Luffy's style was about (how do you even like a rubber man focusing on not touching? He's rubber!). But Gear Fifth? It's pure rubber hose animation that takes full advantage of Oda's own personality as an author (since he's clearly influenced by old animation from Disney to Fleischer and works like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Terry Gilliam's movies more than anything).
In other words, try to not be like this for once:
Secondly, as I already addressed, you can dislike this Gear as much as you want, but not only fits both Luffy and the core tone of the story perfectly but, and this is more important, it's what the narrative behind this fight asked for. Kaido is a depressed, angry man who noticed Luffy would grow stronger the more he smiled, was expected to be Joy Boy by King and mumbled about his rival not being it either. Focusing on the tone of the fight is narrow-minded because the actual clash here is between Joy Boy and that who failed to be him, between joyness and depression, between wanting to live and wanting to die; and, in this particular context, what we're seeing is great.
So of course not everybody disliking Gear Fifth is an edgelord, but let's not pretend that many people in here even like what One Piece is about instead of the most generic version of it in terms of shonen tropes; the same kind of people who truly believe, without feeling embarrassed, stuff like "Zoro should be the main character". Other than that, there's a lot of fear for the whole fight (and incoming conflicts) to lack seriousness, but not only isn't this the case (last chapter feels way more balanced with the actual interactions, from addressing those important for Luffy's journey till Kaido, understanding that the emperor will kill everybody if he isn't defeated there, Kaido cutting Luffy's crap by either biting or blasting him...), but I personally doubt Oda will be dumb enough to reduce fights to cartoon action. Luffy is experiencing his new powers and Oda needs to stress the joyness in Nika's ability, let that sink and I'm sure everything will work out in interesting ways (just think about it: Blackbeard can nullify the fruit and he himself represents darkness; Sakazuki can erase joy out of Luffy just by the fact he traumatized him by killing Ace; and Im, if they end up being the final villain, shall be Joy Boy's antithesis).
Finally, goofiness has always been there; in this case it feels like there's more of it because Oda needs to emphasize the feeling of "liberation" (as I explained in the spoiler thread, you guys must understand Luffy as a rubber ball bouncing crazily) the character is experiencing right now, but it can't stay like that forever because, in Luffy's own perception, it's pretty much killing him. But I'm thankful Oda ran away from haki, which is arguably one of his worst additions (at least in terms of handling) and in this particular case was killing everything Luffy's style was about (how do you even like a rubber man focusing on not touching? He's rubber!). But Gear Fifth? It's pure rubber hose animation that takes full advantage of Oda's own personality as an author (since he's clearly influenced by old animation from Disney to Fleischer and works like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Terry Gilliam's movies more than anything).
In other words, try to not be like this for once:
I agree, people are bitching like it was the final form already, relax dude its just the begining, think of G4, it's first form looks corni af, he was bloated like it was design from Fat Bu of DBZ, but snakeman looks more serious than default g4, its slimmer, then you have to consider that luffy will always be goofy, oda wanted him that way, that's what he said when he was ask why he gave luffy rubber powers insted of other DF.
SBS Vol 65 I have picked the most ridiculous ability. If the protagonist were the typical strong guy, I doubt I could continue on with this for long. No matter how serious the story gets, Luffy is there to stretch and inflate. He always give me a chance to fool around. That's the kind of manga I wanted to write.
SBS Vol 65 I have picked the most ridiculous ability. If the protagonist were the typical strong guy, I doubt I could continue on with this for long. No matter how serious the story gets, Luffy is there to stretch and inflate. He always give me a chance to fool around. That's the kind of manga I wanted to write.
I don't know how Luffy fans like it. I don't, but at least Luffy's not my favourite character so I don't really care about it.
Luffy fights always had slight funny moments in them and that's good but this is taking it to an entirely new level where the whole fight is basically one big joke nobody can take seriously.
Luffy fights always had slight funny moments in them and that's good but this is taking it to an entirely new level where the whole fight is basically one big joke nobody can take seriously.
