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Every One Piece Fight Ever 007

Posted on by animesavedmylifeblog

Fight #007 Zolo vs. Cabaji the Acrobat (Buggy’s Second Mate)

Set and Setting: Mohji’s defeat at the hands of Luffy inspires the town mayor, Boodle to try and take matters into his own hands and challenge Buggy. Right about that time another Buggy Ball explodes into the mayor’s home, pissing Boodle off even more and awakening Zolo. Boodle takes off to find Buggy, and Luffy, Zolo, and Nami devise a plan to go and retake their sea chart of the Grand Line.

New Characters: Cabaji the acrobat makes his appearence.

New Techniques: Luffy inflates his body to use Gum Gum Balloon. Zolo uses his mighty “Oni Giri” on Cabaji to finish the fight.

Boodle confronts Buggy and his second mate, Cabaji the Acrobat. Buggy will not come down to face the mayor, and instead launches his hand with the Chop Chop fruit power and begins to strangle Boodle. Boodle continues to demand that Buggy come down and face him, he almost is killed from asphyxiation, when Luffy shows up and wrenches Buggy’s hand free, “I’m back, I told you I would clobber you!”, he exclaims. Boodle tries to stand and return to fighting and Luffy delivers a quick blow that knocks him out.

“Kill Him!”, Buggy yells and his crew fires another Buggy Ball straight at Luffy. Luffy inhales and expands GUM GUM BALLOON! The canon ball bounces off of Luffy’s rubber body and heads straight for Buggy and his crew, destroying the house they were standing on. After the smoke clears, Buggy, Mohji, and Cabaji (holding Mohji’s lion as a shield) stand ready to fight. Mohji warns Buggy of Luffy’s power and Buggy, pissed that he waited so long to tell him, throws Cabaji at the Straw Hats. Luffy delivers a wicked kick to Cabaji in mid air!

Cabaji rushes forward on his unicycle with sword in hand and is met by a a determined block from Zolo. Zolo is still weak from his previous injuries, but he decides to fight. Cabaji opens his mouth and spits fire at Zolo, his “Breath of Death”. Cabaji hits Zolo in the torso with a powerful kick and begins his second attack “Murder at the Steam Bath.” Dust is kicked up around the fighters making it hard to see. Cabaji strikes with an overhead sword slash and Zolo meets it with a three sword block, only to receive another powerful kick.

Had to use an anime picture here, but this is Cabaji’s powerful kick.

Zolo tries to stand, his injuries are holding him back. Cabaji taunts him and takes another strike, but this time Zolo strikes back with a punch, knocking Cabaji from his unicycle. Zolo stands and declares, “My goal is to be the world’s greatest swordsman.” He cuts a nice gash into his own torso, “Is that enough of a handicap?”, he asks,

Zolo cuts himself as a handicap to Cabaji

The two stand and exchange some talk with swords drawn. Cabaji throws spinning tops at Zolo and begins releasing a string of special attacks. “Dance of A Hundred Kamikaze Tops”, “A Hike In The Mountains”, “Fireworks In The Cool Summer Breeze”, etc. He jumps high and darts around

then comes down upon Zolo with a mighty sword slash. Buggy, from the sidelines, launches his hand at Zolo to hold him in place, but it is stomped on by Luffy who won’t have Buggy interfering. Zolo dodges the downward strike and a swift kick knocks Cabaji from his unicycle. Zolo assumes his pose and releases a powerful Oni Giri, defeating Cabaji before falling down himself.

And the winner is…? Zolo wins in an epic finish, but it took all the swordsman had, and he too falls to the ground.

BA Rating: 3.5/5 We finally see Zolo in a one on one fight, and even though he is hurt he kicks some ass!

Quest to Finish the Big 3: Bleach Rants Pt.2 (Favorite Characters)

Posted on by animesavedmylifeblog

It’s been a month or two since I finished Bleach and honestly I miss it really bad. It kind of left a hole in my heart the way One Piece did when I finally caught up and had to start watching week to week. I’ve been tempted a couple times to just watch it again, but I think I will hold off for awhile. In the meantime though I think I should devour the manga!

Here’s some cool facts I have found over time about Bleach you may have not known:

  • Rukia was originally the main character: Tite Kubo’s original concept for Bleach was called Snipe, and the first character he drew was Rukia who would be the protagonist. She wielded a scythe also! Later as the concept evolved, Ichigo took the place of protagonist.
  • Why is it called Bleach?: I wondered about this a bunch. Apparently, the original title was supposed to be “Black” but it was deemed unoriginal, so Tito Kubo changed it to “White” but he didn’t like how that sounded either, so finally he came to the word “Bleach” and it stuck!
  • Each character has a theme song…sort of: I love this one. Tite Kubo is a big music fan, and he has sort of assigned each character a song that kinda flavors and fits the character. For example, Ichigo’s is “News From the Front” by Bad Religion. My Favorite? Ishida’s theme song is “Idioteque” by my all time favorite band Radiohead! (It fits him)
  • One more here that I really dig: Tite Kubo was an aspiring clothes designer, and he designs new outfits for his characters in Bleach throughout the show. I also read for awhile there were stores in Japan where you could buy copies of the shirts, not sure if they are still around though….

I have a lot of characters I like in Bleach, so it’s really hard to make a list of my favorites. So I’ll just choose a couple off the top of my head that I really like. I’m omitting Ichigo but yeah, he’s my boy…

Yasutora Sado: I loved Sado (Chad haha) from the first time I saw him. He’s got so much power and so much heart. At first I was afraid he wouldn’t be relevant at all, but my fears were alleviated.

Kenpachi Zaraki: Kenpachi is just an absolute badass. His fight with Ichigo blew me away and when he took his eye patch off I freaked out even more. It’s kinda scary how much he loves fighting.

Shunsui Kyoraku: Captain of the first division and also a badass (when he wants to be). I love his laid back, lazy nature and how he tries to be a ladies man. I also think his Bankai is so cool the way it plays games, I feel it fits him pretty well. His battle vs. Stark was awesome!

Pesche Guatiche: Okay, this guy man… I don’t remember all he did when he was hanging with Ishida, but I know he cracked me up over and over in one episode. He’s such a weirdo.

Ulquiorra Cifer: Ulquiorra is probably my favorite character besides Ichigo. He was so chill and powerful and when he broke a freaking hole in the sky and released, it was so cool. He’s pretty handsome too…

So there you have some of my favorites! As far as my quest is going to finish the Big 3, I’ve been idling a good bit on Shippuden. I believe I’m around episode 60, it’s just hard to watch sometimes because I keep getting distracted by other shows, recently it’s been Fairy Tail, which while I’m thinking about it, why don’t we include Fairy Tail and say the Big 4. Or hell, throw Hunter X Hunter in there and make it a good BIG 5?

Thanks for reading! Next week I’m going to have some articles on our favorite get togethers- Anime Conventions!

EVERY ONE PIECE FIGHT EVER 006

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Fight #006 Luffy (+ Chou Chou) vs. Mohji The Lion Tamer (Captain Buggy’s First Mate)

Set and Setting: Luffy (still in a cage), Nami, and Zolo barely made it away from Buggy and his crew. They search for a hiding spot but Zolo’s injuries take a toll on him and he collapses from too much blood. Meanwhile, Buggy takes the attack as a declaration of war and sends his first mate, Mohji The Lion Tamer to dispose of the three.

New Characters: We meet a local town dog, Chou Chou, and Boodle the mayor or Port Town. Buggy’s First Mate Mohji also makes his first appearance.

New Techniques:

Luffy, Zolo, and Nami have escaped Captain Buggy for the moment, and Zolo promptly passes out from blood loss. Boodle the Mayor comes along and introduces himself and takes Zolo to his house to rest. Boodle introduces Luffy and Nami to a local dog named Chou Chou, who’s owner passed away so Chou Chou stands guard of his owners old pet food store.

Soon, Mohji and his lion Richie arrive…

Mohji and his Lion, Richie…

Mohji claims to be able to tame any animal and tries to get Chou Chou to shake, Chou Chou instead bites his arm causing Luffy to laugh and further provoke Mohji about his weird hair. Mohji asks for the whereabouts of Roronoa Zolo and Luffy refuses to tell. Mohji becomes enraged and sics Richie on Luffy. Richie bites the cage in two, freeing Luffy to fight!

“Hooray, I’m Free!” Luffy yells before Richie delivers a huge blow that knocks Luffy through a house.

While Luffy recovers, Richie turns and sees the pet food store, guarded by Chou Chou. Chou Chou stands his guard as Richie approaches, and then a quick paw lash sends Chou Chou flying as well. Chou Chou jumps back up, barks, and then lunges for Mohji and latches onto his arm. The pet food store is Chou Chou’s treasure, his last bit of his owner he has left, and he guards it with his life.

Mohji is pissed and sets fire to the pet food store, and Chou Chou stands outside barking. Luffy finally finds Mohji and Richie in the commotion. “You should be dead!”, Mohji exclaims. “It takes more than a kick to kill me!”, Luffy exclaims, “I’m a rubber man!” HE then twists his arms around each other and extends them, grabbing Richie, and lifts and slams him down with a powerful Gum Gum Gavel!

Mohji has a change of heart and Richie is out of commission. HE tries to offer Luffy gold to spare him, but Luffy says it’s too late for apologies. He reaches out and grabs Mohji with his left arm and with his right, he delivers a freaking strong ass punch and Mohji is done for. BAM!

Luffy hands some dog food to Chou Chou that he saved from the burning building and comments on his good fighting..

And the winner is…? Luffy and Chou Chou by a long shot. Now it’s time to finish off Buggy!

BA Rating: I’d say a 2.5/5. It was cool seeing Chou Chou stand up and fight a lion, and Luffy’s epic punch at the end just grounded Mohji.

Video Games For Weebs: One Piece: World Seeker

Posted on by animesavedmylifeblog

Welcome to the first edition of a new article I’m going to put out every so often “Video Games For Weebs”. Many of us anime folk also like to play video games, I like to play some although my time to play is very limited. I thought I would share a game here and there that I have personally enjoyed, perhaps an anime related game, maybe an RPG or a Japanese game (You might see a lot of Nintendo, I’m a huge fan). It won’t always be new games, sometimes I play old games and I might write about them, sometimes I play phone games even.

I was super hyped when I first heard about One Piece World Seeker, the only other OP game I have played was Burning Blood which was pretty cool but not the greatest. I was excited more than anything that I would get to be Luffy, my hero, flying through the air, whomping people on the heads, etc.

I’m going to start by being very straight with you:

  1. This game has some weird gameplay flaws and
  2. I enjoyed the hell out of it!

I think that’s only because of how much I love One Piece that I can start off by saying those two things.

In all honesty though, this game has a ton of great ideas in it, I just feel like none of it was implemented to the fullest. I still enjoyed the game a ton, it took me about 40 hours to play through the main story but I also did every side quest that came along and gathered materials, gum gum rocketed around, etc. Now I’m going back, completing some Karma and challenge missions and finding all the treasure chests. Then I hear we are getting DLC!

Ughh it sounds so cool when I talk about it like this but I gotta be real about the different aspects here:

The Island is huge and full of places to explore…
  • The World: The world in World Seeker is actually one of it’s best aspects. It’s a huge, beautiful Island with plenty of places to explore. There’s a mountain, a mine, a huge city with skyscrapers, plus some towns and villages scattered throughout, and a hefty amount of other places to explore. It’s so nice to rocket around as Luffy, Gum Gum UFO up to a ledge and just look out over the vast landscape. There are missions to obtain, treasure chests to open, and rare materials to gather. It sometimes feels a little isolated and not very alive, but I really enjoyed the setting.
  • The Story: Another place that World Seeker shines is its story, which was penned by Ei-san himself! I enjoyed it all the way through, the new characters were fleshed out and great additions to the cast of One Piece. This game could easily fit into the One Piece story as a non canon arc or movie.
  • Gameplay: Here’s where we start to get a little scrappy. World Seeker is an action-adventure RPG. Most of the game will have you going on missions, doing different things like finding people, gathering materials, beating enemies, etc. There are Story missions and Side Missions, and even Challenge Missions for after you beat the game. Some quests are really fun, but there are a couple (Like find Zolo or find Buggy) that really got on my nerves because of the vague mission details. The game also has a karma system which allows you to fulfill objectives for different NPCs to raise karma with them, which was pretty neat, but there isn’t much point to it.
  • Skill Trees and RPG Aspects: Yes, World Seeker has a pretty large skill tree. You gain Skill Points from completing missions or defeating enemies and can use them on your skill tree. Pretty much, Luffy has 2 main fighting styles: Observation Haki focuses on swift movements and attacks and Armament Haki focuses on slow, strong and huge hits. I tried messing around with armament haki, but with the combat system being so rough around the edges, it really just wasn’t useful and I put my points mainly into Observation Haki. There are also sets of the skill tree that improve parameters like Health and Focus and that make transportation easier by extending your Gum Gum UFO or Rocket. They did a decent job here, but I think it could have been fleshed out better.
The combat system offers some choices, but has many flaws…
  • Combat System: As I said above, the combat system basically allows you to take one of two stances and fight that way. The swap between stances is too combo breaking, so you can’t really swap between them successfully, so I stuck with Observation Haki. You do have a set of special attacks you can use, but honestly most battles defer to running up to an enemy and pressing square over and over. There’s no real way to cancel an attack so if you get hit by a bullet, you have to sit there and take every bullet until the enemy reloads. That got extremely annoying but I dealt with it.
  • Materials and Crafting: Another system that I was excited to mess with but felt as if it was left halfway done. You can pick up all kinds of materials throughout the island and use them later in the game to craft equipment and outfits. It’s definitely worth doing, the bonuses are nice and some of the outfits are really cool, especially for One Piece fans. But I still got the feeling like there should be more to it. I crafted pretty much 3 or 4 main items that I used for the entire game..
  • Stealth Mode?: A really annoying hindrance of the game is that the ability to sneak up on enemies does allow you to execute a sneak attack instant kill. The problem is that Luffy has no means to stealth (no crouch or anything), and some missions even require you to be stealthy. That only happened a handful of times, but I wish we could have at least gotten a crouch button.

So even for all of that, I really, really liked the game. I dealt with the vague missions, and the sometimes wonky combat, and had a pretty fun experience in World Seeker. If anything it left me wanting more, and gives me hopes that maybe Namco Bandai will learn what was missing to complete this game and maybe give us a sequel that really delivers.

EVERY ONE PIECE FIGHT EVER 005

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Fight #005 Nami and Zolo (Luffy Stuck in a Cage) vs. Captain Buggy the Clown and his Crew

*Just as a side note: We are finally entering East Blue Vol. 2! Things will start to heat up as Luffy, Zolo, and Nami take on Buggy and his first mates.

Set and Setting: Luffy and Zolo said their goodbyes to Coby (who joined the Navy and began to pursue his dreams) and sailed away. But without a navigator, or any knowledge of maps or sailing, the Straw Hat duo ends up drifting at sea until they come upon Orange Island. There they meet the infamous thief Nami who steals only from pirates and learn that Captain Buggy the Clown is causing chaos in town. Luffy and Zolo are separated, and Nami tricks Luffy, tying him up and delivering him to Buggy.

New Characters: Nami the thief ❤ and Buggy the Clown both make introductions in this fight, as well as some members of Buggy’s Crew

New Techniques: Nothing really in this fight, we do get to see Nami fight a little with her staff and we witness the power of Buggy’s Chop Chop Fruit.

Buggy the Clown and his crew ravage Orange Town

Nami has tricked Luffy, stolen his Grand Line map, and delivered him to Buggy the Clown. Buggy accepts this as a petition from Nami to join his crew and locks Luffy in a cage. Zolo is nowhere to be found.

Buggy and his crew begin an extravagant party; drinking and firing “Buggy Balls” (super explosive cannon balls) into the town. Buggy turns to Nami and asks her to use a Buggy Ball on Luffy as a show of her dedication to him and the crew. Nami tries to talk her way out of it but the crew continues to press her. Eventually, a crewmate steps up to light the Buggy Ball himself and Nami retaliates with an overhead strike from her staff.

Buggy and his crew charge at Nami, and all the while the fuse is slowly burning on the cannon aimed directly at Luffy! Nami gets a couple more nice hits, but the pirates are slowly surrounding her. Then a slash lights up the air as Zolo appears.

Zolo and Buggy exchange a few words before Zolo lunges with a powerful 3 sword strike. Buggy is cut into several different pieces and the battle seems over, but while Zolo and Luffy argue over how to break the cage Zolo is stabbed from behind. He turns to see Buggy’s disembodied hand holding a dagger and floating in mid air. This is the power of the Chop-Chop fruit, it allows Buggy to separate and replace his body parts and to control them while they are detached.

Zolo takes a pretty bad stab to the side by Buggy’s Chop-Chop Power

Luffy yells to Buggy, calling him “Big Nose” which infuriates the Clown. His floating hand and dagger fly towards Luffy in the cage… But Luffy catches it all badass like between his teeth. Luffy then yells for Zolo to run. As Zolo takes off, Buggy launches two more dagger wielding hands at him, but Zolo easily deflects both. Zolo runs to a cannon (loaded with a Buggy Ball) and lifts it backwards to point it at Buggy and his crew. Nami lights the fuse and the cannon blasts a huge hole in the wall and scatters Buggy’s crew.

Zolo wastes no time, he uses his incredible strength to grab the cage Luffy is locked in and hoists it on his back. Buggy emerges from the smoke and debris and yells, “You’re not going anywhere!” but its a little too late. Zolo, Luffy, and Nami are gone and the key to the cage is missing as well.

And the winner is…? Zolo and Nami saved Luffy and got away, but barely. Now they will have to contend with Buggy and his first mates. Zolo also took some pretty bad injuries.

BA Rating: 1.5 of 5. Zolo and Nami were mainly running away plus Luffy was stuck in a damn cage.

Quest to Finish the Big 3: Bleach Rant Pt.1

Posted on by animesavedmylifeblog

Bleach has taken up a very special place in my heart now that I have finished it. I thought about trying to sit down and wrap my head around how I fully feel about it and then putting it all down in an entry. But for some reason I don’t think it would work like that. Bleach is a little haphazard sometimes, you’ll slip from boring to intense fights, new characters will appear and change everything you knew, the dialogue might go a little stupid for a minute and get on your nerves, but that’s Bleach to me and I loved watching it, so I’ll rant about it for awhile just jumping from topic to topic as I feel like- I think that will let me get my thoughts out and keep within its own style.

Ulquiorra Cifer doesn’t appear until the later half of the series, but he quickly became one of my favorites…

My Previous Experience With Bleach Before This: Was hardly anything really. I have a friend or two who was into Bleach and really liked it. I previously had seen a couple episodes on Toonami, and I have tried to sit down and watch the show twice before- both times i didn’t make it past the second episode, for some reason it always bored me. And I didn’t like Ichigo. But it continued to bother me when I would hear fans talking about the battle in Bleach and how insane they were. I would hear words like “zanpakuto’ and “bankai” and not understand any of it, it was like they were seeing a different show then what I had seen.

What Was Different This Time? I just forced myself to keep watching. I think I was a little bored through the first 5 or 6 episodes. Once I started meeting new characters like Inoue and Sado, I started to dig it a little more. Honestly, the first arc is really padded more like a westernized cartoon. Each episode there is some problem with a hollow and Ichigo and his friends must overcome it. As I watched I started to really like Bleach’s sense of humor and above anything it has a certain style to itself. Oh and I started to like Ichigo, A LOT!

Bleach Has A Style Similar To Older Anime: Something I noticed very fast was how much Bleach reminded me of older anime that I watched on Adult Swim as a kid like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Yu Yu Hakusho. The art style was one factor in this nostalgia, but it was a feeling that pervades the entire show including its opening and ending themes, title cards and font usage, and the way it shows what will happen in the upcoming episode. It was all very nice and one of my favorite things about the series. While One Piece and Naruto lean that way in the beginning, they eventually evolve into a more modern day look and feel. While Bleach does towards the end evolve its art style, it still always holds that old time feeling well.

Bleach 1st Opening Theme is very catchy!

Speaking of Openings and Endings: Bleach has got some amazing ones. I don’t think I ever heard one I didn’t like, and there are a ton of them! I remember some beautiful piano ones, some that would get stuck in my head they were so catchy, and even some heavy ones that screamed that were so damn cool.

Alright so I’ll End this Part with What I Think the Greatest Thing About Bleach is… Bleach has a lot of awesome things going for it, but it also has its share of problems, I guess that’s what makes it Bleach though. The overall story the anime encompasses with Aizen I think is a really great story. Bleach has an abundance of unique characters to get to know and love/hate, not all the way One Piece level, but still it has a bunch. But no, I think the greatest thing about Bleach is the lore and the world that Tite Kubo has created. For one, it is a sprawling, very complex world that could easily be returned to and new stories created in. Tite Kubo has a special way in his writing of showing you just the tip of the iceberg about his world, you have to dig deeper to find out more-like how Kido really works, or for specifics about Zanpakuto- and its a neat way of introducing his world that really perks up your curiosity.

So I think I will conclude Part 1 right here, I know these are just some rants and ramblings but it’s the only way I can get my thoughts down about Bleach. Keep coming back for Parts 2 and maybe 3, and eventually updates on my Big 3 Quest. Please leave me comments below and thanks for reading!

Quest to Finish the Big 3: Prologue + I Finished Bleach

Posted on by animesavedmylifeblog

“The Big 3” are Anime’s biggest, longest, most popular monsters. All three are amazing, rich in lore, hold huge worlds, ideas, and followings. Most fans have a favorite of the three, some fans hold an active hate for one or more of them, then there are fans that shrug off the big 3 entirely as “mainstream anime”. Whatever your feelings on them are, there is a reason they have became so big and well known, and it’s because they are each unique and wonderful in their own way.

The Big 3 consists of:

  • One Piece by Eiichiro Oda [ anime is ongoing currently at episode 885, manga is ongoing currently at chapter 942 ]
  • Naruto and Naruto Shippuden by Masashi Kishimoto [ anime ended airing in 2017. Naruto has 220 episodes while Shippuden has 500 episodes, manga, which covers the story of Naruto and Shippuden together had 700 chapters ]
  • Bleach by Tite Kubo [ anime ended airing in 2012 at episode 366, but the manga continues on for a total of 698 chapters ]

Now somewhere along the line of my anime fanaticism, I decided to go ahead and try to watch all of the big 3. Not a super human feat accomplishment, but it would take some time and determination. My reason for doing this though, was quite selfish. I had finished One Piece and it had changed my life. I wanted to watch all of Bleach and all of Naruto so I could say that One Piece was the greatest of the Big 3 and that I had watched them all so I could back up my claim…

So my quest didn’t really start until after I caught up on One Piece, at the time watching One Piece was all I cared about. But after OP I had a curious little hole in my life that One Piece filled, and I needed another long, in depth anime to help nurse that wound.

When I was in 10th and 11th grade, Naruto became really popular here. Around that time I watched the whole original Naruto series (On youtube, in 10 minute-3 part- videos I might add) and I was pretty obsessed with Naruto and so were a lot of my friends. When Shippuden came out, I wasn’t interested in anime at all, so my only knowledge of it was from playing a couple of the Shippuden games, and some things my best friend (a Naruto nut) had told me plus some videos of fights he had got me to watch.

About Bleach I knew pretty much nothing, so I decided to start here from scratch. It worked out because my wife wanted to watch all of Naruto and Shippuden, so she could catch up on original Naruto (I actually ended up watching it too though) and then we would be ready for Shippuden after I finished Bleach.

Anyways, the point of all this is that today I finally finished Bleach. It has been 13 months since I sat down and let One Piece change my life, so in those 13 months I have taken down 2 of the Big 3.

I’ll have some more articles coming this week in my “Quest for the Big 3” special. Mainly, I’m going to rant for awhile about all the good and bad things I found in Bleach (I loved it by the way) so make sure you check back this week for more!