How many years has it been since I first watched the early episodes of One Piece? At least five, maybe six -- during one of the godawful anime club all-nighters at one of my fellow club members' homes. I don't think I even started with the first episode; I think it was in the middle of the very episode I just got done watching.
Heck, it's been long enough since I started reading the manga that I didn't even remember the first story, in which rubber boy Monkey D. Luffy knocks down the first of many tyrannical, power-drunk monsters in his journey to become the King of the Pirates. First on the list is the oh-so-obviously-named Captain Morgan, a power-mad Marine holding the town near his base in his thrall. A few punches from Luffy and a few slashes from Zoro, though, and the town is free; honestly, it doesn't look like they killed him, just proved that he wasn't as big a deal as he seemed. His ego shattered, does he weep? Does he forlornly return to Marine headquarters, a broken mess of a man? I really don't know. Maybe creator Eichiro Oda explained it somewhere, but I don't absorb One Piece errata the way I do Transformers or Robotech. I just enjoy the show and the manga it's based on.
I've been watching the show on the recently released first DVD box from FUNimation; because it's easier for casual, glancing-over-my-shoulder viewing and because the TV I'm watching it on is a little fuzzy, I've been watching the English dub, which is all-in-all pretty solid. I'm digging the English version of the opening theme; the end theme seems a little off to me, but it's OK. Three nights of viewing, three episodes down; Luffy and Zoro still haven't even met Nami, who is still just humming away in a subplot, namelessly laced through the episodes, but clearly on a collision course with the two boys. (And given their straightforward goals and carefree attitudes, the word "boys" fits 'em to a T.)
It's a ball just lazily loping from episode to episode, unwinding with a half hour of mindless shonen fun every evening. Honestly, I can't see myself pulling another marathon of an anime series any time in the near future -- haven't the energy, haven't the drive, haven't the care. One Piece, I know where it's going (more or less) and I'm just enjoying the ride.
Though we'll see how I'm feeling when that set of Gurren Lagann shows up on my doorstep in the next few days. Maybe that will break me from my lackadaisical haze.
