Exactly! The unique tone and art style really made it stand out, the anime had such a unique mood/vibe in regards to this too pre TS!
Oh man yeah, I used to watch it on TV blocks like that, those were the days! 4Kids/Jetix/Toonami and such? At leat for us in the UK and US? Exactly, it had that same vibe like classic comedians like Robin Williams and Jim Carrey had, where they could make you laugh so much, be so goofy, energetic, silly, wild and such but mask a deep sadness, nuance, complexity, seriousness and such!
Oh yeah Naruto was hardcore from the start, especially the Zabuza and Chuunin exam arcs! Student being violently/brutally killed was such an eye opener and game changer! I remember Sasuke breaking that one Sound ninja student's arms too! Like WTF?! Zabuza was hardcore too, along with Naruto stabbing his hand and releasing a lot of blood to remove poison and such. A STARK contrast from the 4Kids dubbed shows that were heavily censored to ofc! And much cheesier in voice acting, tone and such!
Yeah I definitely agree, post TS has been hugely inferior to pre TS. A thread someone posted on here recently about Oda abusing the "making us chase a carrot on a stick" was very profound in describing the exact issue with post TS OP. Especially this silhouette nonsense and stuff being left out like bounties, race (King's) and DF names to be revealed in SBS and Vivre Cards, that we were seeing in the manga from the beginning until recently.
I do agree it will be more satisfying on a re-read though and Toei is doing WONDERS for the arc in the anime too ofc! Idk how Wano is going to end but I really hope the ending is surprising as the editors claimed it would be. I'd love Wano to have a really unexpected end, similarly to how WCI wasn't a victory overall, more almost outright dying/being destroyed, complete despair and having to escape with their lives and having Jinbei and his crew hold off Big Mom and her family and crew to let the SHs escape too. How the fuck did Jinbei even get away from her without any major injuries/sacrifices too? Why is that being ignored especially with both Jinbei Big Mom in this arc as well?
Ranma is a goofy, slice of life, hilarious, heavily romance focused, gender swapping and even "species" swapping battle Shonen. It's written by Rumiko Takahashi the creator of Inuyasha and thus a Shonen from a female perspective/shonen with plenty of the best kind of fanservice too! But it also has a lot of heart, as well as sillness and pervertdness! It doesn't take itself very seriously, it's very nonsensical like Gintama but it does get a lot more serious in the final arc of the manga though! I found it to be a really fun, funny and heartfelt series though, which made me cry by the end of the manga though.
I really found the characters to be likeable, lovable even and it's definitely a character focused series above anything else.
I gotta say there are some really endearing character moments in it especially for Ranma and Akane naturally. The characters are so bizarre and Oda-like too. There's also some dark implications/storylines here and there like why the cursed springs have their powers and the fact that Ranma and his father are setup for ritual/honour based suicide (seppuku or so) due to a mistake Genma (Ranma's father) and Ranma made with Ranm's mother or something? I can't remember the actual reasoning though....
Gintama is funnily enough like Rurouni Kenshin. I only saw 61 episodes, stopping right when the 1st serious arc begins ironically. Its mostly slice of life, nonsensical, satire, comedy and such BUT it has some really serious, emotional, heartfelt and massive character moments and arcs. I've heard a LOT of great things about it once you get far enough into it and it will make you cry here and there apparently. It's one of those shows that defines being much more tragic, serious, darker than it first appears, the wholy jolly facade hiding great tragedy and such.
Gintama does constantly reference other series, pop culture in general and other things and also breaks the 4th wall a LOT, its a lot like "Deadpool the Anime" in a way. I also described it to Rurouni Kenshin because both have former samurai trying to live a peaceful life and becoming pacifistic. Gintoki only fights with a wooden sword and Kenshin only used the back of his blade I believe? To avoid harming others?
It's hard to describe Gintama but it is very weird, unique, crazy and fun! It's kinda like Pop Team Epic if you know of it? Absurdist, humourous type series basically ! Very surreal! But it does tackle some heavy and serious themes from very early on, even in the "slice of life/filler episodes" and it has a gentle pacing except for the serious arcs as far as I know.
I need to continue the series one day, maybe rewatch the previous episodes too. I keep watching random clips from time to time and lamenting on what i'm missing out on. It has an immense amount of heart to it like One Piece and god knows I wish Sorachi and Oda would do an official crossover of Gintama and One Piece, the Wano arc is the PERFECT timing for it too!
Gintama does have some similar vibes to Rurouni Kenshin anyway, it does feel like its a parody of it even. I loved Rurouni Kenshin so Gintama really took what I loved about it and turned it on it's head but also gave me some familiar ground of what I love about RK too.
(Aw jeez, I was trying to avoid writing an essay ironically! It looked less when I was typing out! LMAO!)
:cantseeme::saden:
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Yeah that's it too thanks! Shanks is very diplomatic indeed!
:cheers:
Blackbeard is a massive opportunist who will truly stop at nothing to get anything he wants, the ultimate and most fearsone ambition, most indiscriminate even? Yeah Blackbeard is very sadistic, it's no wonder he has a crew like that and recruit such bloodthirsty, savage, sadistic people from Impel Down too! I still can't believe he made the level 6 prisoners have a battle royale and picked out the winners from all the opponents they slayed!
Blackbeard is like the ultimate "survival of the fittest/most cunning" pragmatist too! Completely true about Moria and Absalom, I am still shocked and upset about that and I truly fear for Perona since she's going after Moria, Moria might get killed and maybe her too, especially since they might want her DF and or Catarina will try to kill her for being so beautiful too?
Yeah, Shanks seems much more like a power balancer, peacekeeper or something? I really can't wait until Oda finally focuses on him and we truly learn his psyche, ambitions and motivations!
Absolutely! I've really been lamenting the lack of emotional intelligence in our society these days, i've been getting really frustrated with people IRL and online in this regard too. It feels like it's getting worse as people get more addicted to technology and social media especially.
I hadn't heard about physical intelligence before to be honest but I looked it up and it's very true that a lot of people are ignoring that too these days! Letting their bodies and minds get ruined so much!
(Although ironically King was disarmed by Izo shooting his sword away easily LOL)
