Fighting Friday 08-27-2010 (Now with One Piece!)

11:59 PM on 08.27.2010   |   Josh Tolentino

Welcome to another installment of Fighting Friday, the Japanator weekly feature that trained and trained and trained, and managed hundreds of episodes and chapters...in just seven days!

Now Fighting Friday has a new, more powerful technique to show you. It's acquired...One Piece! That's right, folks. The saga of Monkey D Luffy and the Straw Hats has joined the cast of Fighting Friday, to add its considerable power to Friday's own. Happy Friday, people. You've got One Piece with you now.

"But how?!" you might ask. How did you accomplish fourteen years worth of viewing and reading...in seven days?!

The answer is that, like any good fight show protagonist, we used a shortcut. Combined with sheer will and determination to succeed, Fighting Friday obtained the power that not even those old fogies in the establishment could think of. 

To go into detail, I got someone else to help cover One Piece.

So, pirate fans, direct your gratitude and salutations to our own Pedro Cortes, who has been following One Piece himself. Rejoice, for he is a saint, sent to please you, our dear readers.

So read on to get fightin', and don't forget to tune in to Annotated Anime this Tuesday for our regular seasonal coverage.

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Anime

[You can catch both Naruto and Bleach simulcasting on Crunchyroll, and Bleach is set to air on Adult Swim starting August 28th, with episodes available on iTunes starting on August 29th. DVD volumes are available at major retailers, published by VIZ media. One Piece episodes (as well as DVD volumes) are available via FUNimation.] 

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Josh Tolentino

Naruto Shippuden episode 175

As expected, Studio Pierrot and Naruto have gone into stretch mode, using their powers of embellishment and elaboration to their full extent.This is a thing I support, as stretching the show out increases the chance that the show will be able to cover a new story arc before having to put on the brakes and breaking out the filler content. If we're truly fortunate, viewers may be treated to some coverage of the Five-Kage Summit, though that is, frankly speaking, quite unlucky.

So what happened, then? In this episode we find out something we knew already: that Nagato/Pain's final jutsu revives everyone killed during the invasion, killing Nagato in the process (though pausing just long enough for him to deliver some final words to Naruto, of course). 

Konan presents Naruto with some fun papercraft flowers, which didn't touch me so much as make me wonder who would win in a fight: Yomiko Readman (aka "ZA PEHPAA"), or Konan (aka The Major).

Naruto arrives back at the village to see everyone acknowledging him as a hero, and Iruka reflects, in soundbyte-over-clip-montage format, how everyone's attitude towards the gutsy young ninja changed over time. DAWWWWWW!

If you'll permit me the guilty pleasure of 'shipping, I'll have you know that I support a Naruto x Sakura ending. Tsundere romances are more fun than one-sided romances (I'm lookin' at you, Hinata). Not to say that the latter can't be made to work, but the fact of the matter is a satisfying tale of unrequited love demands a more mature, adult-targeted show than Naruto. K.I.S.S. = "Keep It Simple, Shounen".

Next week we'll be flashing back to when Iruka first met Naruto. This one's been somewhat needed, as it's hard to buy Iruka's designated role as a father figure when he has so little meaningful airtime.

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Bleach episode 285

This week's episode of Bleach contains some new fighting between combatants we haven't seen in about a month and a half, namely Wonderweiss versus Kensei and Mashiro, and, back in Hueco Mundo, Renji, Rukia, Chad, versus Godzilla Yammy.

The fight between Wonderweiss and the two Visored made me feel uncomfortable, mildly disappointed, and amused. Uncomfortable, because the fight seemed like two jerks were beating up on a special-needs kid. Even the fact that Wonderweiss gets in a nasty punch after Mashiro's mask breaks (oh, hubris!) doesn't quite make up for all that bullying. Second, I was mildly disappointed, because the show squandered an opportunity to expand on Kensei's abilities, especially after he pulls off his pretty cool-looking "Tekken Tachikaze" bankai. Seriously, look at those knuckle-blades! They totally make up for his cargo pants and cheesy "69" abs tattoo.

Thirdly, I was amused by Tomokazu Sugita, who does his level best to project a super-badass voice. Unfortunately, I first encountered him as Kyon in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It is now impossible to think of him as a person capable of behaving seriously in any form of physical combat. But really, that's my fault, not his. Maybe I'll watch Gintama and see if that helps any.

Back in Las Noches, Renji and Chad are used as foils to be beaten down by King Ghidora Yammy. I feel sorry for those two. They've joined poor Komamura in the "We-Get-Slaughtered-To-Prove-The-Villain's-Power" circle.

Chad's demotion is especially tragic, considering that his power set is pretty cool, and actually quite mysterious, since they only evolved after getting to Hueco Mundo (obviously because his gear is named in Spanish). Are his powers related to Hollows? Will he ever win another fight? I will be disappointed if they fail to expand upon this trivia in the future, but given that they've already wasted Kensei's chance to impress, I wouldn't be surprised if they waste Chad's too.

Also, is it just me or does Yammy look a little bit like Totoro Cat Bus? Except, y'know, gross and evil.

Oh! I failed to mention the key event of this episode! Hiyori recites a speech, and rushes Aizen, only to get intercepted by Gin. Intercepted in the gut. With a sword. Unfortunately, the censors were at work with this episode, as here she was just stabbed. In the manga Hiyori done got her damn self cut in half. Oh well. They covered up Halibel's (admittedly hilarious) underboob, so it's not as if this was unexpected.

Next week, we see the results of Renji and Chad's getting clobbered, and Ichigo takes a magic marker to his mask.

[Now, on to what you've been demanding and pleading for! On to One Piece! You can thank Pedro Cortes for being a bad enough dude to save the president cover One Piece!]

Pedro Cortes

One Piece Episode 463

With Mihawk's swing sending a wave of force toward Whitebeard, a man quickly runs in front of it and redirects the blast to the sky. We're introduced to Diamond Jozu, who, as you may have guessed, can turn into diamond. The Marines and the Whitebeard pirates continue their fights, with the occasional interference by an admiral. When Kizaru decides to try and take out Whitebeard, Marco jumps in front of the beams of light. Instead of being sliced to bits, Marco is instead enveloped in blue flame. Kizaru explains to the other Marines that he ate a rare Zoan fruit, gaining the power of the phoenix. Marco turns into the mythical bird and flies over to Kizaru, kicking him back across the lines.

When the Marine giants get lined up to attack, Jozu grabs a huge chunk of ice and tosses it at the front line. At this point Akainu steps up and reveals his Magma powers by incinerating the block of ice and raining magma rocks from the sky, destroying one of Whitebeard's ships. Elsewhere on the battlefield, Coby and Helmeppo freeze while looking around them. Helmeppo offers to escape with Coby, but Coby refuses to back down from his promise with Luffy. Before the two of them can continue the argument, a great rumbling shakes the battlefield. In the background, a familiar looking ginormous figure lumbers toward the front lines. While the Marines try and stop it, the massive pirate decimates the artillery batteries. Turns out it's Oars Jr., the son of the zombified Oars that the Strawhats fought back in Thrillerbark. The episode ends as Oars Jr. declares his intent to save Ace.

I like, many villains, underestimated the Hidden Leaf's Sublime Beast. I had not considered Guy's absolute mastery of taijutsu. It seems that the Afternoon Tiger was not a ninjitsu attack, and contained no chakra for Kisame's shark to absorb! It was just such an awesome punch. A Falcon Punch, even.

Plus, a side effect of opening the 7th gate is apparently boiling glowing sweat. I can't wait to see that in color. Surely Guy's sweaty body could fuel SWEET RAVE PARTIES.

Needless to say, Kisame gets his fin cooked, which is the perfect opportunity to explore his past via mind jutsu. Seems he was some sort of internal-affairs sort of agent within the Hidden Mist, killing fellow ninja to protect the village's codes. He went along with Madara Uchiha's big plan because he didn't want to live in a world of lies.

Eh. I'm quite aware that this whole affair was to cast Kisame as some kind of sympathetic character, but the truth of the matter is that he's just a shark-faced asshole. As with Gin's flashback last week, the reader was never given a single glimpse of potential redemption in Kisame's actions or behavior. There's even less reason to care about him than Gin, who at least had a friend in Rangiku.

It seems Kisame's not quite dead yet. I imagine next week could pose an opportunity for Naruto to show off his new Electric Superman powers. On the far end, there could be a chance for Guy to fight again, but after that one-hit KO, it would feel anti-climactic to resume the battle along the same lines.

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Bleach chapter 417

Rather than a flashback to Ichigo's latest round of training, we're treated this week to a closeup of our no. 1 dude's new duds. As observed earlier, he's got that arm-chain, but now his Tensa Zangetsu has an even bigger, more awkward-looking swastika handguard (don't worry, the swastika's also a Buddhist symbol), and a glove.

Also, according to his friends, he's gotten taller, and his hair's grown out. Which brings me to this week's ridiculousness. But first, a tale

Once upon a time, many, many chapters ago, Ichigo and his dad were running through a Precipice World, on their way to fight Aizen. Then Dad stops, and notices the lack of a certain train. With the train gone, he realizes, this gives father and son the perfect opportunity to train.

And train they did! For three months! But, thanks to the power of time dilation, it all took but an hour.

Three months of training...in one hour.

They've finally managed to match Ichigo's now-iconic bankai shortcut, which, way back in the Soul Society arc, accomplished ten years of training...in three days.

When I was done chewing on my desk thanks to the preciousness of it all, I found I could appreciate that. Bleach's powerup progression, or at least Ichigo's, has always been about shortcuts. He shortcuts into Reaper powers thanks to Rukia's sword, shortcuts into bankai power thanks to that big cave-thing, and shortcuts into swastika power thanks to time travel.

It makes for some interesting contrasts to the power progression of, say, Naruto. Take, for example, Naruto's shadow-clone EXP-multipliers, how he forms the Rasengan, and even how he maintains Sage Mode. Ichigo finds ways to grind harder, while Naruto uses alternative solutions to cover for deficiencies. Both methods have their own pros and cons, and are part of what makes watching these shows fun. No wonder fans are always so enthusiastic about keeping those fan wikis up-to-date.

But enough about the good stuff, let's get to plot holes. Last week I noted that the only plausible way Ichigo could overpower Aizen at this point was to employ the Power of Friendship and Cooperation. It seems that I had not accounted for Kubo ex Machina, which called for writing in new rules.

Bleach has, in essence, pulled a Naruto, finding an alternative solution, while still maintaining the traditional emphasis on power-leveling.

Somehow, Ichigo's power-leveled beyond Spirit Pressure. As far as we can tell, he's switched systems, jumped genres, or simply employed mad hax, apparently enabling him to take on Aizen solo. As it should be. In the world of Bleach, cooperative battle is for chumps and dudes who get slashed.

This, of course, opens up a nest of plot holes, or at least questions to be answered. Since day one, Bleach has consistently implied that Ichigo is special, different from all the other Reapers and Hollows and even his human buddies. Aizen himself said as much some chapters ago, before Dad crashed the party.

Now that we're on the verge of possibly finding out about all that, why is Aizen surprised? When he arrived in the city he made a big deal out of expecting Ichigo to show up "with a new power", which seemed to imply that said power was somehow different from simply raising his reiatsu-count. 

Ideally, we'll know soon enough.

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[Editor's Note: It seems that the One Piece manga will be going on a four-week break. Thus, this is likely the last installment of One Piece manga coverage for a while.]

Pedro Cortes

One Piece Issue 597

This week starts off with Zoro begging Mihawk to become his teacher. Mihawk is initially disinterested and disgusted, but has a change of heart when Zoro tells him that he's defeated the battle gorillas on the island. Mihawk deduces that Zoro is swallowing his pride for the sake of another, so he tells Perona to fix Zoro up. Perona reveals the new tattoo on Luffy's arm to be a crossed out 3D followed by 2Y. Zoro tells Perona that means Luffy is telling the Strawhats to reconvene at the Shabaody Archipelago not in three days, but in two years so that the crew can become stronger and survive the New World.

Cut back to Luffy, who's with Rayleigh. The two get dropped off by Hancock and the Amazons on Rusukaina Island, a place that changes seasons every week. Rayleigh goes into detail about Haki. It can be divided into two categories: the color of observation and the color of armaments. The color of observation allows the user to predict enemy movements while the color of armaments allows users to circumvent Devil Fruit powers. There's also a third category, the color of the conqueror, that differs from person to person and cannot be trained. Naturally, Luffy can use the color of the conqueror, but Rayleigh tells Luffy to lay off using it until he can control it better. The two go off to train, but before they do Luffy leaves his beloved straw hat at safe area along with the Shabaody Vivre card.

Here is where we find out that One Piece is going on a four week break, presumably so Oda can take a well-deserved break and get to designing events post-time skip. This was a great way to wrap up (presumably) the first part of One Piece and move on to the Strawhats adulthood. I can't wait to see what everybody will look like, especially the delicious Robin-chwan. It's going to be a long month.