Zoro’s Grit, Looney Tunes Flare, and Why One Piece Still Wins

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening Reflections & Gratitude
• 2:40 Setting The Anime Agenda
• 4:41 One Piece Gear Five Hype
• 8:30 Zoro’s Journey and Loyalty
• 13:45 Getting Into One Piece as a New Viewer
• 15:45 Undead Murder Farce Overview
• 19:10 Seven Spellblades Early Impressions
• 22:20 Mashle: Magic And Muscles Shoutout
• 25:00 Rurouni Kenshin Remake Reactions
• 30:00 Gear Five as Looney Tunes Crossover
• 34:00 Joy Boy Theories and The Treasure
• 36:40 Future Arcs: Shanks, Blackbeard, Family
• 39:20 Why Luffy’s Story Hits Hard

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hey yo, welcome back, guys. And you tuning in to another episode.

unknown: 0:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 0:16

What if my tellin' is wasted? Put them tap in the place, bitch.

SPEAKER_02: 0:23

That's just greatness. I'm kidding now, with pedal to the metal. I would never settle. But to the game, I'm pulling strings like a pedal on we in the same game with them on a different level of the past. Gotta keep grinding till I'm nigga pinnacles. But then it's straight check. What is the test of my patience? You gonna lose your quick test.

SPEAKER_01: 0:49

Don't let me lose my mind. Don't make me my lose my mind, because you need to make blessing test.

SPEAKER_00: 0:56

Yo, yo, yo. This is your boy, Ken the Wiz. And let me tell you guys, what a week. Oh my goodness. Um, I'm just gonna say this. Whatever you guys believe in and everything, but God is good. Let me tell you that. Let me just put that out there. God is good, and uh I wanna just take a little moment here and uh man, just reflect on just us being alive. Okay, uh, we've been hearing so much that's been going on in this world um with the forest fires and Maui. Uh a couple of uh incidents where individuals just you know lost their life through to you know gang violence or misunderstandings or bar fights or you know things that don't get to the news, basically. You know, I just want to you know feel for the families of the loss and uh and just be thankful. Just be thankful the fact that we are here, we're able to see another day. Uh whatever the type of week that we have had, let's just be thankful we got through it. Okay. Uh so without further ado, we're gonna jump right into this, man. I got a few things to talk about specifically in the anime world. What a what a week for some of these anime companies. I mean, I'm talking about they're putting their awe into what they feel is their best work, and you know, like I said in my earlier episodes, like I want to give some shine, man, to these artists, slash illustrators, you know, I don't really know the terminology of how everybody wants to be called, you know, the writers slash authors, you know, and and the final the final guys who's putting their stamp on approval because the animes I will be talking about today, we can all revel in the fact that it's been amazing. It's been it's been awesome. But for the highlight point of this episode, I want to just shout out if you've been following, if if you actually been watching, kudos, all right, kudos, for sure, my guy, my gal, because you made it. Alright, you you you actually made it. Um, obviously, it's not the finish line, but boy, has it been a marathon. Alright, let's give a shout out to One Piece, finally getting to gear five, guys. I mean, come on, we gotta give a round of applause for that because let me tell you, last week's episode was the highlight of Luffy. Uh spoiler spoiler alert, by the way. So, anybody who hasn't watched this episode, before you listen to this episode, go back and watch it if you're current. If you're current now, okay. But it's exciting, it's exciting, and let me tell you why it's exciting. Well, the last few episodes actually has been awesome. Last, I'll say by like I want to say a couple, I'll probably say five episodes. It's been crazy, it's been crazy, and let me tell you why it's been crazy. It's because now we're kind of diving into uh some historical aspects of certain characters, specifically Zorro. Yeah, now I've been saying this for years, uh, that Zorro has been my guy. Luffy's obviously gonna be my number one. So let's let's just throw him out with Luffy. But Zorro is that dude, and let me and and and let me just say for all simple fact of one, he's a samurai, so samurais are excuse my French, badass, badass, and the little blip that we actually got, right? When they did uh like a little flash, like a little flashback on the one guy that kind of had, you know, that that kind of got Zoro started and you know headed in the dire on the road that he was heading in his direction. Um, you know, obviously to meet Luffy and him being uh the notorious pirate, you know, Roar Noah Zoa. We can say that he's the best first mate. The loyalty, the skill set. I mean, even people have argued to say that even without Luffy, he can be the captain of the ship. Right? Again, another argument. But I don't know. Because let me take a little sip of this because this is exciting. Hold on one second. Yeah, with the sound effects and everything. So what you guys understand is this is better be good. Zorro is probably the best swordsman in anime. Ooh. Yeah, I said it. And I say that because now, granted, there's some picks up there, uh, but we we can't say that uh most of the swordsmen throughout the time in history of anime, obviously, there are some real badasses out there. Again, excuse my French trying to make this a clean episode here, but I'm just so excited that the amount of mountains that this boy had to climb, right? And I mean, you you gotta lose, you gotta lose, right? You have to lose fights to know where you stand. So can we just say that throughout the obstacles of this series, throughout the obstacle of the story of One Piece, he has triumphed. I mean, the the the grit and the determination to make sure that he is not belittling what Luffy is trying to accomplish. Like he has between him and Luffy, like they're brothers, right? And so his whole pretense of most of his fights is I'm about to be the first mate to the king of the pirates. So I am not going to settle for anything less than that. Luffy already sent the the pretense of what this, you know, what it is uh that it is gonna take to follow him. So you gotta be uh a mother fudger to withstand the type of uh backlash that you're gonna get for either the world government or you know the people that they will meet, or you know, because I mean for them being there's also too, you know, Zoro is also part of the worst generation, so let's just put that out there. So, and he has been one of the worst guys out there. You know, we're not we're not gonna talk about all the other guys, because I mean, let's face it, some of them had to team up to take down a few individuals. We're not gonna name names, but anyway, between Zorro, you know, kind of coming into who he is as you know, as a character, and and and really striving for the greatest, his sore skill is top-notch. Uh the fact that he's able to still be Zorro, not to change through the course of time, but to be himself, to be the misdirectional person of getting lost, but still wind up in the right place at the right time. It's phenomenal. It's phenomenal, man. I mean, the writing, the animation, it's awesome, and you can see the progression on how things kind of turn out for him because one there's not there's a non-stop, like what where is his limit, right? Like, you you see so much potential on this guy. So I just want to just want to give a huge shout out uh to Oda for coming up with such a phenomenal anime, man. Because yo, I mean, and obviously, too, you know, it shows my age a little bit, but you know, I grew up with One Piece, you know, from episode one. Now, I will say this too. It took me a couple times, it could be a couple tries to finally like really dive into uh well the beginning of the anime because the beginning of that anime kind of just sucked. I'm not gonna lie to you. Rubber guy, he's punching everybody, but where's the action? Where where are we getting to the meat of this show? It took about 60 episodes, guys. Legit. It took about 60 episodes. But oh, what a time. What a time. What a time to be alive in the anime realm. I love it. Um so let's back up. Let's back up. I'm gonna I'm gonna put one piece to the side for a second because I'm not finished with that. The other two I wanted to highlight too. Um is one has already been stamped. Okay, one of them has already been stamped. Uh, so we're not we don't need to go into that. I'm just gonna really highlight the fact that no, it is what it is. But the first one I want to do, uh, let me pull it up real quick. Because I want to make sure I am saying this absolutely correctly, and and also I want to highlight the fact too that um the imagination has been going wild with most of these shows. So definitely good respect on you know the good respect on the on some of these anime companies, man, because they are they're really exceeding expectations on your typical anime. Uh so kudos to them for allowing themselves to you know be a kid to be a kid. Now, I like to give people different perspectives, give people different um how can I say uh genres, right? That was my whole pretense of you know my podcast. I don't want to just strictly stick on one thing, you know. So I try to pride my fact, uh pride be oh my gosh, wow, I can't even talk. I try to be on point when it comes to actually giving people a list of different types. Uh, this one still kind of falls in the line of the action, obviously, but it gives you a little of a of a different um flavor to it as well. Uh, anime called The Undead Murder Farce. Undead Murder Farce, which is basically in the time of uh Sherlock Holmes, you know, the whole Sherlock Holmes trilogy. Anybody who's ever watched Sherlock Holmes, I love mystery, I like horror mystery. Um I love the stories of Edgar Allan Poe type of things, you know, the murder mysteries and things, because it is to get to the meat of a case, right?

unknown: 14:55

Wow, well, wow.

SPEAKER_00: 14:57

And it intrigues me to the fact that uh a person can really dive into the darkness and have the mental fortitude to to dive into something that's just so gory and and and and hard to stomach. Um now the undead murder farce is basically an anime that has Sherlock Holmes in it, but the the other side is there's a headless detective by the name of Lady Aya with the entourage of an Only Killer, okay, which is basically a badass bodyguard who kills monsters, and with a man, eccentric combat made. Yeah, crazy. Nice little, nice little entourage where you got Sherlock Holmes and my boy Watson, who, by the way, is a great homeboy. Alright, anybody who's ever followed Sherlock Holmes, man, you ain't going, you're not going to not give Dr. Watson his respect, bro. Because let me tell you something. Watson, if it if it ain't anything else, he gonna have Holmes' back, bro. Okay, so if you never watch that, or obviously you heard about it. I mean, it's it's uh he's that guy. But I digress. Um, but basically it's it's about uh, you know, you got the Phantom on the opera, and you got a master thief, and things like that, you know, they just trying to solve cases, and the intricacy of it is like, you know, you got the Sherlock Holmes side of him being human, then you got the other side of this monster hunter slash you know headless detective with the eccentric maid who kicks ass. Um, and and really it's a good uh mesh in action and mystery and you know, suspense. You don't really know what you're gonna get. So obviously, they're up to about six episodes now. Um, they're gonna have 13 episodes max. But yo, if you haven't checked this out, this is definitely a nice piece to watch. If you want to just break up a little bit of what you've been watching lately, gives you a different element, you know. Um, so that's cool. It's real good, it's real good. Uh obviously the next one, which is another current one that that they just came out that I want to say uh in the spring, because I guess now we're in the summertime. So, oh, and by the way, uh this heat is ridiculous. Okay, this little heat wave that's going on. I don't know what parts of the world you guys are at. If you're in the cold, effy right now because we're dying in the southern hemisphere. We are absolutely baking outside. If you're working outside, God bless you. Um, I'm partially in and out, you know, for my work, so I'm kind of feeling both sides, but yo, it's whatever. Um, the next one would be um it is called get to hear rain re-e-i-g-n rain of the seven spell blades. Don't that sound menacing? It doesn't give us like a cutoff of when it would end yet. Um, so I guess it's probably gonna be like an ongoing thing. But yo, the latest episode that I just watched of it, I definitely give it an 8.5 out of 10 for sure, for sure, because it it it was dry in the first couple, but it I mean it still gave you, you know, some snippets of what you're gonna get. But this last one, man, that was that wasn't too bad of an episode. So now it really has me hooked. Um, but basically, you know, it's still giving us our normal anime settings, the you know, slice alive with the school life with a little bit of spell, a little bit of action. But it's basically um a prestigious school of students of different mages that come from different parts of the family that are specialized in certain stuff and known for certain stuff, and they all come together, but the school itself is like a multi-dimensional type of playing field because you can go down the hall and you can be in a whole nother situation, so it's like the upperclassman has his like own uh territories. Yeah, it's crazy. And so, you know, you got certain students. Obviously, it's like the first six students that we're meeting, you know, we're kind of growing with them and we're learning a little bit more about each character, each episode. Um, it kind of dives in when they kind of go face to face with some of the upperclassmen in their different territories, too. So it's so it's pretty cool. Um, and it still gives you, you know, our regular, but the animation is pretty decent. Um, and I see it kind of evolving a little bit. So I'm I'm interested to see how this is gonna go for sure. Um, the anime has finished, but I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right, but it's basically MASH, magic, and muscles. That was probably right behind One Punch Man in terms of funniness, uh, very uh dry humor, but it is funny, it is funny. Um again, another school setting. Um, but Mash is the main character, and he has no magical powers. He goes to the school that is all about magic, so it's cool to kind of see how he dives into this world and he has his you know mental fortitude, but it's so elementary school level, like it's it's fun, but a definite must-watch for sure. Must-watch. Um, but they already finished it. I think that they already up to like nine episodes in the dub. So if you're not really cool on watching it in sub, definitely watching in dub. Um, but they only up to nine episodes, but they only had 12 episodes, so it's three more episodes they are still trying to uh convert. Um but just to try to you know break up whatever, you know. Um another classic where I was talking about earlier. Excuse me, I'm a little thirsty today, guys. It's this heat wave, I'm telling you. Um Ruinori Kenshin. It's back, guys. It's the same story, obviously. But they are back. And I am extremely excited. Now, still the same story, obviously. Better animation. I don't know. One, if you haven't seen it, I'm sorry, another spoiler. Alert. So again, do not listen to this podcast if you haven't seen the actual old school anime. I think it's like in the 90s, early 90s, early 80s, shoot, I don't know. I forgot. I think yeah, I think it's like the early 90s, early 2000s, actually. So it's it's pretty old. And I think they have like over shoot. Maybe 100 episodes or so. I think it's like a oh yeah, I think it was 100 episodes. Let me see. It was the 94 episodes. I'm sorry. They had 94 episodes in the old one. Don't care because it's so, but I love what they have done. They kept Kinshin the same with his little quirks and his little you know, annual you know, mannerisms and things. I love it, man. I love it. They finally just introduced Sunosuke, you know, um, and they kind of got the gang together now. So we're already at the gang, and they already starting to pull Kenshin and certain elements to try to fight certain other swordsmen and stuff like that. Now, let me just say this. When they get to the niggrit of this show, I'm gonna be pasted to the screen because one, I want to see uh what's my boy, the fire dude. I always forget his name, but yo, he was that. I mean, it it really gave Kenshin that you know who he really is as a Batosai. You know what I'm saying? So I cannot wait. I cannot wait. Um Kenshin's still a phenomenal swordsman. Hence what I said earlier about Zorro being the best is only be I'm not discounting Kenshin, I'm not gonna discount um Samurai Chapoo. Um uh Zorro's just that guy. The the the makeup and how everything is, you know, each guy is different in his own element, right? So, and you know, Zoro gives us a little bit more to go off of as well, too. So not trying to do it like that, but yeah, I'm I'm I'm really glad that they actually bring it out. Uh, they was bringing out a few other ones too. I think they did like a spin-off, I think it was from the kids of the inu Yasha. Now, I am sad to say, I haven't fully watched everything. I'm gonna have to go back and watch in the old Inu Yasha because I do remember certain stuff, but it's like not the old time. But I heard pretty good things about the new about the the the next gen of inu Yasha, basically the kids and everything. So I heard it was pretty good, pretty decent. Now, to dive into the most current one. Now, only reason why I want to speak a little bit more about One Piece because I haven't given One Piece in shine, and that's that's definitely my anime. Um, there's gonna be a couple of other ones that I'm going to do a whole episode, maybe two, about, but for right now, I want to give One Piece in Sean because let me tell you, yo, to bring in and I and I want to specify this specifically too, because to do crossovers is hard, um, to a point of like uh you want to get it right, so you want to make sure that what you're trying the story that you're actually trying to portray is correct, right? So gear five is the culmination of Looney Tombs and One Piece, it being already a funny type of animation, anyway. But when you throw in Looney Tombs, bro, like Warner Brothers, uh Acme Studios, all that, into a fighting sequence, and not only was it attention grabbing, but like the animation was still there in terms of the the fight between Luffy and Kaido, and to make it funny, to make it uh enjoyable, man, it was a treat. Uh, I cannot wait for tomorrow's episode um for it to come out because now they're gonna kind of dive in a little bit more, and that's gonna be a whole nother episode. I'll probably have to talk about that too on the next one because you know it. I'm excited. I'm excited. I don't know. I'm still I don't know. Okay. Um but it is awesome to see, you know, Japanese style animators giving Looney Tunes, you know, Warner Brothers, our people who are my age or you know, older, the shine and what it used to, you know, what it what what type of joy it used to give to us. Two, on another fact, to put a more historical mode, you remember in the arc where they had well it's same arc, but you remember when they was talking about um Olden, and you know, he was with uh Whitebeard, and then all of a sudden he went uh to the king of the pirates, you know what I'm saying, to as as an actual shipmate, but when they found one piece, was one piece the gum gum fruit, or was one piece uh Joy Boy? Because you remember they were laughing and they I mean it was an uncontrollable laughter. So I'm I was just kind of just thinking about that because I'm like, was that the actual treasure? So One Piece might not even be there. Maybe Luffy himself is one piece. Food for thought. I don't know, food for thought. Maybe people already came to that consensus, but listen, it's hard for me to kind of like sit here and think about certain stuff when your head is in spin mode because it's like, oh shoot, uh that that could be a you know a possibility, you know. So whatever. I don't even care to be honest, because anybody who has been following One Piece, what have we all been waiting for? For Luffy to fight Shanks man and Blackbeard is he gonna fight Pops too? Another food, no food for thoughts. Is he even gonna meet Pops? Who knows? I don't know. I wanna just I just wanna be excited because now it I mean they they can I mean that's at least three more arcs right there. So that's that's gonna be another 600 episodes. I don't know. I don't know, man. It's I mean it's ongoing at this point. I mean, we are past the Thousand episodes, so yo, let's just revel in the fact that man, let's give these people their flowers, bro. When this show actually ends, it's gonna be a sad day in the anime world. Whoever has been a follower of One Piece for sure, for sure. It's gonna it's it's it's gonna it's gonna hurt my heart. Shoot. I'm I don't know. I might I might shed a thug tear here and there whenever the thought crosses, you know, but then we'll be able to go back, man, and uh, you know, watch the history unfold on how this pirate grew from a little kid by losing everything to gaining everything. So the culmination of life, man, to work hard and to achieve greatness. That's what we want. We all want to win, we all want to be able to look back and say, we actually did what we set out to do, and that is the main reason why I personally like One Piece, because it it's a it's a way of saying, like, oh, I'm not giving up. You know, that's what made uh Naruto so nice. That's what made Ichigo so nice, you know. And by the way, that's gonna be a whole nother episode. We definitely gonna talk about Bleach, but I wanted to to kind of further into it because you know it's kind of dry stuff that's going on right now. It's great fights now. I'm not I'm not downplaying this now. I'm not downplaying Bleach. Dang it. It's great fights that's going on right now. Obviously, the animations is ridiculous. Movie every time. But it's great. I love the way they care they characterize Luffy, man. For him just being a rubber boy and you know, uh losing his brothers and setting out on a journey that will take heart, grits, and determination to fulfill and to meet friends along the way that is able to believe in his dream. Can we all say that if we were excuse me, to go out in the world as maybe 16, 17 year olds and find people, find like-minded people to follow your dream in the pursuit of their own, but is in likeness and is all in one accord. Like, can we say, wouldn't that be a beautiful thing? I think we can all as a group can get far because the one person is this is you can make it happen, but you can only go but so far without you know dropping dead, man. You know, it takes it's it does take other people to help you to keep moving forward, and and because you do need something to kind of play off of somebody that you have respect for and and you know, persevering through these troubled times, you know, and and you're gonna hit these walls where you feel like you cannot get up or you cannot get through this. And I mean the time in Luffy where you know after you know the great uh after that great battle where he lost Ace. And you know, at that time where the team got split up, I mean the Navy was on their butts, everybody was after them. You know that that sense of loss. We all been there, we all lost that once that one person that we feel that if we lose them, that our world is going to crumble. My man's persevered through that, and not only did he persevere, he got stronger. And when he got stronger, his team got stronger because the team saw their leader not folding under the pressure, even though nobody will blame him for have doing so. It's a beautiful story, man. And people who talk down on Luffy, come talk to me, man. I'll see you in these streets. We'll shoot the five all day. Dang it. Don't do that. My man's coming with the hands, too. Now we ain't talking about Luffy in terms of him weapons, because he barely used weapons, but he coming with the with the five, ten finger death punches. Okay. Pistols, man. He got pistols for for fists, man. They're coming at you like bullets, man. Sanji, his old sorry ass with his little slingshot with kind of fado. You know, he he he got his little moments there with his little slingshot, his little plant base, or whatever. Nami kind of came out of nowhere. Robin has always been that man, whatever. She got the brains, but she's doing her thing right now. And you know, now they just did a new addition. Um, what's my man's? Uh fish man. Uh dang it. I just went, yeah, I just went completely bad. But you you know who I'm talking about. He he actually used to be a big dog. So come on, man. Frankie, we come on, man. That's a whole good team, man. Chop, man. Come on, man. Sanji, we can't forget Sanji. Now, Sanji, he he groaned on me. He growing on me. So I can't I can't really say that he's he's definitely not used to it. He's definitely the top three, obviously. But I when he got rid of that body suit, I mean I didn't I don't really know what we're doing. Saiyan Man is going. I I didn't know what we was doing. And then I didn't I didn't know what we was gonna do with that. Um, but he he gave us that that blue flame, man. His durable body, man. So so he's basically a sideboard like Frankie. But Frankie worked on himself, which is crazy. Hey, have y'all super side note, have y'all thought about Frankie literally did surgical alterations to his own body. What type of mental fortitude that you gotta do to cut up yourself to put on medical mechanical parts, dude? Who are whatever. I digress. Um, but it is it is awesome to um just to revel in the fact that this story has come a long way, and I'm I'm extremely excited to see how it's gonna end. So alright. I don't want to keep going because I'll be going for hours. I want you guys to know I appreciate you. I appreciate you guys listening. Um, I'm seeing the listeners are starting to grow now. Uh I I can't, I'm trying to again, I know I said in the left, but I am trying to be more consistent again because of the a little differences that's going on. Things have been changing, but I should be coming back to normal in the next couple of weeks. Uh you know, so I have a little bit more time to kind of you know do the do this podcast, to put my passion of anime out there so you guys can really enjoy it and to give more uh friction to this world uh of anime because it's so many genres now and in so many different perspectives. So even if you don't like what I like, you at least have some type of knowledge to know that you're not just watching one type of thing, you know, it's it's a broad spectrum. So I love that. I never like being in the same boat as everybody, anyway. So the fact that other people can give me different types of recommendations is a beautiful thing, man. And it also grows too because you don't you you you can kind of figure out a person who they are by what type of shows that they actually watch too. So that's awesome, that's awesome to know about. Um but I think you guys, like I said, I'll be doing a little bit more soon. Um you know, as more listeners come to peer in into Ken's world, I would have to do more because I I want to know what you guys think, and you know, the type of shows that you guys watch, and what has anime has done for you. So definitely uh continue listening. I appreciate you guys, I love you guys. Um, I'm going definitely subscribe, share. Um, I'm on Spotify, I'm on Apple Podcast. Obviously, you can peer into my own uh website, buzzsprout.com slash kin's world, and um, so you can kind of see the episodes a little bit faster if you feel like you know Apple Podcasts and Spotify is too slow, which they can be sometimes. But thank you guys. I love you, but it's your boy, Ken the whiz, if you let me and I am signing out, peace.

SPEAKER_01: 39:33

You got me going insane, got me waiting in vegan, yeah. Yeah, I've been fighting for your heart, you know. They told me if you ever take a long