I’d Rather One Piece| Week 22

By Benjamin on September 10, 2018September 10, 2018

EP 812 – 852

Well, it’s been 22 weeks now. Back on April 9th, 2018 I watched my first episode of One Piece and Now 22 weeks later I’ve finally caught up with current episodes. When I started I thought it was going to take me a year to get through all of these episodes but it One Piece was is so good it took me less than half the time. It’s been a pretty fun binge. I look forward to watching it week to week now, but it will definitely be an adjustment. Oh, I guess I’m jumping the gun a little bit you guys probably want my thoughts on the episodes I watched this week.

To pick where we left all last week Luffy and Nami ended up being captured by the Big Mom Pirates once Luffy finally passes out. They end up getting rescued though by Jimbei. Luffy and Sanji end up meeting at the spot they had previously determined. Sanji agrees to come back to the crew, but he wants to save his family who are about to be eliminated by the Big Mom pirates at the wedding so Big Mom can take control of Germa’s technology. Luffy decides that they are all going to help.

Then, Jimbei suggest that they join forces with Capone “Gang” Bege who is secretly plotting to kill Big Mom. They meet, and the crew gets some cool mobster clothes. Eventually, they decide to work with each other and come up with this Big plan to kill Big Mom.

The assassination attempt fails. None of the poison that Caesar made and put into missiles even made it Big Mom. This put the Straw Hats and Bege in a very bad position. Their escape route also got crushed so, they had no choice but to make a run for it. Through a little luck, they manage to put some distance between themselves and their army of enemies.

When they finally make it back to their ship the fall into an ambush and get put in a pretty tough spot and sadly Pedro sacrifices his life to help everyone else get away. It was pretty sad. Jimbei had some encouraging words though that helped.

Luffy not letting Pedro’s sacrifice go in vain, used it as an opportunity to trap Katakuri one of Big Moms Sweet three generals in the Mirror World. Luffy is currently fighting Katakuri in the Mirror World but he’s having some trouble fighting this man that over a billion-berry bounty.

Katakuri seems to be able to do all Luffy’s moves better than him with his Mochi abilities. He’s also faster than Luffy and he can see up to 1 minute in the future with the power of his Haki. Luffy is going to have to push past his limits if he’s going to beat Katakuri. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with to take out Katakuri. Maybe a new form of Fourth Gear or maybe even 5th gear. Who knows…

Sadly, I couldn’t fit everything I wanted to in this post I ended up leaving out how Brook got a copy of the Ponegliff, the truth about Big Mom’s past, and Pudding showing her true colors and then going on an emotional roller coaster. Leaving things out that I feel are important shouldn’t be a problem in the future though since now I plan on writing up one episode at a time since we’ll be watching it week to week. Now that we are all caught up I plan on catching up with my arc reviews and watching other anime. If you’ve seen One Piece and have suggestions on what we should watch next, please leave a comment down below.

I’d Rather One Piece | Week 21

By Benjamin on September 3, 2018September 5, 2018

EP 793 – 811

Alright, another week down. We are getting pretty close to being caught up with the current episodes of One Piece. We’ve passed the 800 episode mark now. This week we watched episodes 793 – 811. These were mainly full of Luffy fighting. He fought Cracker one of Big Mom’s 3 top officers. Luffy also fought Sanji. Yes, he fought Sanji, I’ll explain later. Luffy also fought against Big Mom’s army. Oh, and by the way, this all happened back to back with Luffy fighting all night facing one opponent after another.

Before we get deep into Luffy’s fights, last week I promised I’d talk a little more about Sanji’s family since I didn’t manage to fit it into my last post. Sanji’s family is basically a bunch of heartless jerks, except for his sister, who pretends to be a heartless jerk when her other family members are around so she doesn’t get bullied. Apparently, all of Sanji’s siblings were genetically modified to be super strong and have no fear. Sanji, who is apparently the third son of a set of quadruplets, for some reason reverted back to being a regular human shortly after birth. Thus, his father considered him to be a failed experiment. He pretended that Sanji died and locked him up in a prison cell until, eventually, his sister helped him escape. His father was glad he was running away because he couldn’t bring himself to kill him and he figured the hard world would do it for him. Needless to say, Sanji’s family is pretty messed up.

The reason why they are forcing Sanji to marry Big Mom’s daughter, Pudding, is so they can use Big Mom’s power for their own selfish reasons. Sanji’s father didn’t want any of his sons to have to marry into Big Mom’s crazy family, but when he saw Sanji’s wanted poster, he remembered he had another son. So, they are making Sanji go through with this crazy marriage. They threatened to kill Sanji’s only real father figure back at the sea restaurant if he refused. On top of that, they put bracelets on his hands that will explode if he tries to run away or take them off and only Big Mom has the key to these bracelets. Sanji is in a pretty rough position.

Meanwhile, Luffy’s group makes it to Whole Cake island where Big Mom lives. They split up as soon as they get there. Brook leaves with Pedro, one of the Minks that came with Luffy from Zou, and they go look for the road ponegliff that is in Big Mom’s possession, to steal a rubbing of it for Robin. The rest of the crew goes with Luffy to rescue Sanji, but of course, they get lost in a forest and get separated. Chopper and Carrot (the other Mink that came with them from Zou) ended up trapped in a mirror world by one of Big Mom’s subordinates.

Luffy ends up fighting Cracker, one Big Mom’s 3 Sweet Generals, and he has an 800 million berry bounty. He’s really strong; Luffy was forced to use fourth gear just to beat him. It turns out though, that he actually just broke his armor.

Cracker has the ability to create biscuits, and he is able to make them super hard and create them in unlimited numbers just by clapping his hands. Luffy was able to defeat them pretty easily in fourth gear but they just kept coming, until Nami came and softened them up by making it rain. Then Luffy just started eating all of Cracker’s biscuits clones. Eventually, though, Luffy became full. Then he turned into a new form of fourth gear called Tank Man. He used this new form to blast Cracker all the way back to Big Mom’s palace.

Luffy and Nami headed over to Big Mom’s palace to rescue Sanji, but they ended up running into him on the way. Sanji treated them harshly in front of his family to try and make it look like he’s cut his ties with them. Of course, Luffy didn’t believe any of Sanji’s words. Sanji proceeded to beat up on Luffy, but Luffy refused to fight back, so Sanji beat him half to death before walking away. Luffy got back up and said he’s going to be waiting in that exact same spot for him to come back. He even goes so far as to say he can’t become King of the Pirates without him and he’s not going to eat until Sanji cooks for him again.

Meanwhile, Big Mom hears that her son Cracker has been defeated and landed unconscious on her doorstep. She does the only logical thing; she sends her army to kill the Straw Hats. When the army arrives, Luffy doesn’t run. He stays in the same spot, waiting for Sanji to come back. Luffy fights the entire army and tells Nami to run away. Nami couldn’t abandon her captain though, so she stayed and fought with him. Luckily, there was a big thunderstorm going on so, Nami was able to use it to strike down a large number of fighters in the opposing army.

I can’t wait to see what happens next. The story is getting more and more interesting. Only 40 episodes left until we catch up with the current weekly episodes. It’s going to be sad when I don’t have tons of One Piece to binge anymore but it has been a great journey and I’m still looking forward to the rest of it.

The Otaku Couple

I’d Rather One Piece | Week 20

By Benjamin on August 27, 2018August 27, 2018

EP 767 – 792

Hard to believe I’m at week 20 already. This week we watched episodes 767-792. We got to see the end of the Zou arc, the formation of a new alliance, the beginning of the Whole Cake island Arc, and learn a little bit more about Sanji’s family.

Let’s start with the End of the Zou arc. First is the craziest shocker. You remember how I told you that the reason why Jack laid waist to the entire country Zou was because he was looking for a samurai ninja named Raizo. It turns out that they were keeping the samurai safe the whole time. He is ally of the two kings of Zou and they refused to sell out their friend no matter what even if it meant the destruction of the their entire country. That’s some loyalty.

We finally meet the ninja name Raizo but his looks where pretty disappointing not just to the crew but also to the rest of us. He did show off a few Naruto style abilities though.

In the secret chamber where the minks were keeping Raizo we find out about the land Wano and its history with the minks along with the truth about who created the ponegliffs. It is here we get our first look at a red ponegliff. We are told that there are 4 red ponegliffs each points to a specific location. At the center of those four locations is Raftel the last island along the Grand Line that nobody can get to. Only Gol D. Roger the King of the pirates along with his crew have made it there. At that place lies the truth about the blank century and the truth about the formation of the world government. We finally have a clue of how the Straw Hats will get to the end of their journey on the Grand Line. They only need to find the missing three red ponegliffs. Our new friends on Zou let them know that the emperor Big Mama has one of these Red Ponegliffs also called Road Ponegliffs. The Beast Emperor Kaido has another one, but they don’t know about the location of the last one.

The Wano kingdom is currently being oppressed by Kaido and a shogun. The Samurai and the minks ask for Luffy for his crews help to take down Kaido. After their leader asks him properly Luffy agrees to join the Alliance. He doesn’t check to see if that’s ok with Law until after he says yes though which I thought was hilarious. Thus the Ninja-Pirate-Minks-Samurai alliance was formed.

The new group splits up into different teams and agree to meet in the Land of Wano to take done Kaido. One group goes to recruit Marco the Phoenix the leader of the first division of the White-beard pirates. Another group goes the Land Wano to prepare for the upcoming battle and gather allies. Finally, Luffy’s group goes to get Sanji back. This leads the to the start of the next arc Whole Cake island.

We watched the first few episodes of the Whole Cake island arc this week but this post is already super long so I’ll talk more about Whole Cake Island, Big Mama, and Sanji’s family next week, and of course when the Whole Cake Island Arc is over I’ll talk about it in my Arc review, but since Whole Cake Island is the current arc at the time of me writing this I don’t know how long it will take to get through it. I can’t wait until next week.

I’d Rather One Piece | Week 19

By Benjamin on August 20, 2018August 20, 2018

EP 747-766

It’s been 19 weeks now since I started watching One Piece and I’m finally less than 100 episodes from catching up to the current episodes. This week we managed to watch episodes 747-766. We started the Zou arc. This arc already has managed to find new ways to intrigue me.

First, the Straw Hats arrive at Zou which isn’t really an island. Zou is actually a giant one thousand-year-old elephant. When I say giant I mean whatever you think is giant multiple that by like a thousand. This elephant walks across the ocean, with an entire country on its back. It was super cool to see.

The people who live on this island are called Mink’s. The Minks basically are human-animal hybrid type creatures. All of them can fight all the way down to the children. When they attack they generate some type of blue electricity. I don’t think this was ever really explained clear but it looked cool.

Just before the Straw Hats arrived on Zou it was attacked by Jack. He’s one the leaders of Kido’s crew. He has the highest bounty we’ve seen so far. One-billion berries!! He a mythical animal type devil fruit which gives him the power to turn into this great mammoth. He’s only a few stories tall though when he transforms. He’s not even remotely as big as Elephant carrying the country. He is really powerful though.

Jack and his mean trampled the country looking for a samurai. The minks had never seen the samurai though so they could bring Jack what he wanted. Jack didn’t care. The minks put up a good fight but in the end, they lost. Jack used some poison gas that Caesar created to slowly kill the minks.

When the first group of the Straw Hats arrive they Jack is already gone. He left to try and save Doflamingo. They see the state of the country and get their hostage Caesar to get rid of the gas. The Straw Hats then proceed to save the people of the entire country. I’m starting to see a trend. Alabasta, Skypea, Fishman Island, and Dressrosa. These pirates are constantly saving people.

Finally, when Luffy’s group arrives we find out Sanji is gone. He received word that he is supposed to marry the emperor Big Mom’s daughter. Apparently, it was arranged by Sanji’s family. We later find out the Sanji comes from a family of assassins. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

I’d Rather One Piece | Week 18

By Benjamin on August 13, 2018August 13, 2018

688-746

Another week has gone by and we’ve managed to watch even more One Piece. This week we watched episodes 688 – 746. We made it to the end of the Dressrosa arc. These last 58 episodes were really awesome and full of both new and exciting things like Luffy going into “Fourth Gear”, defeating Doflamingo, Sabo’s past and the formation of the Straw Hat Fleet.

First up has to be Fourth Gear. Luffy got 2nd and 3rd gear pretty much back to back during the Water 7 arc, so we haven’t seen Luffy get a brand new form in about 400 episodes. The hype for this form was real! Luffy bulked up his body and covered himself in haki. He got these cool marks on his body that were modeled after his devil fruit. Needless to say, Luffy looked super cool.

He also showed off all of his new abilities that came with this new form that he called bounce man. On top of the increase of speed, strength, and pure destructive power, Luffy can fly in this form. He beats up Doflamingo like a rag doll. Until he runs out of Haki.

Luffy gets some rest for 10 minutes, thanks to friends, and once he gets his Haki back, he takes down Doflamingo in one mighty blow just as he told the citizens he would.

After, Doflamingo’s defeat the Navy took him in. Luffy fell asleep and got some much-needed rest. While Luffy was asleep his brother Sabo came to the house where the Straw Hats were staying and he told them what happened to him. We find out that Sabo had a really bad case of memory loss and didn’t remember anything from before Dragon saved his life. When Ace died his memory came back, it was a touching story. We got to see him grow up with the revolutionary army which was pretty cool.

Lastly, after the Straw Hats departed Dressrosa all of their new allies made the decision to become subordinates under Luffy, even though that’s not really what Luffy wanted. Regardless the new Straw Hat Fleet was formed and it has 5,600 members. Luffy is well on his way to becoming king of the pirates. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

The Otaku Couple

IRA 009 | The Second Plate

By Benjamin on August 9, 2018August 9, 2018

IRA 009 | Second Plate

This is the ninth episode of the I’d Rather Anime Podcast! We talk about what anime we’ve seen in the last few weeks like Food Wars, Black Clover, One Piece and many more. Click on the play button above to start the podcast! Or if you prefer, you can find us wherever you listen to podcasts, just click here to add us to your favorite app! You could do other things, but we know you’d rather anime with us!

Don’t forget to leave us a comment, telling us what you think about this episode of our podcast! If you have suggestions on anime that you’d like to hear us talk about next, let us know that too!

If you want to keep up with the anime we have watched and plan to watch, check out the links down below.

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I’d Rather One Piece | Week 17

By Benjamin on August 6, 2018August 6, 2018

EP 660 – 687

It’s been another week and we’ve managed to watch episodes 660 – 687. We got to see the Strawhats continue their struggle to save the country of Dressrosa. We had a surprise reunion, the introduction of God Usopp, and a surprising voice for one of the executives of the Doflamingo family.

First, I have to cover this very special family reunion. Luffy finds out Law has been captured by Doflamingo and he has to leave the Colosseum to rescue him. Before he leaves some very special appears to him to take his spot as Lucy to win the Flare-Flare fruit. It was… Sabo!!! Luffy and Ace’s other brother. The one that they thought had died when they were still young. He is now the number 2 in command of the revolutionary arm. Needless to say he’s really strong and knows how to use Haki. It was really good seeing Sabo again. It was kind of poetic that Sabo inherited Ace’s devil fruit. The power went from one brother to another. It was a really exciting moment.

Meanwhile, Usopp, Robin, and the Tontattas go to the underground port to take out Sugar. Sugar is the devil fruit eater that has been turning people into toys for the last 10 years. It took a while to get around to it but eventually, Usopp knocked her out with a scary face and thousands of people who had become toy slaves were saved. These people started calling Usopp “God Usopp” since he saved them. It was a pretty ridiculous service of events that led up to this but Usopp definitely became the hero to them all.

Lastly, we got to hear Pica’s voice. Pics is one of the top executives of the Doflamingo family he is a really large guy he has the ability to merge his body with Stone and considering how the entire royal place is stone along with most of the town’s he is a pretty strong opponent. However, his voice is super high pitched. It is hilarious. Luffy and Zoro can’t help but laugh at him. I can’t help but crack a smile every time they make fun of him.

One Piece was really entertaining this week I can’t wait to see how the Dressrosa arc ends. There are so many things going on in this arc I just really want to see how it all ends.

I’d Rather One Piece | Week 16

By Benjamin on July 30, 2018July 30, 2018

EP 645-659

This week we watched episodes 645-659. There were a few cool things that we saw from the Colosseum, like another form of fusion and Luffy’s battle with Don Chinjao for the winner of block C. Outside the Colosseum, we learned more about the History of Dressrosa.

First, let’s go over the quick updates on what’s happening in the Colosseum Lucy (horrible fake name for Luffy) is still fighting in the battle royal for block C. In block C there is a pair of brothers fighting. One of them is short and ruthless and the other is big and strong but he refuses to hurt anyone. The smaller brother got angry after being called a shrimp and getting beat up by one of the other contestants. He then reveals that he has devil fruit powers. He has the ability to turn himself into a skin jacket. He orders his brother to put him on and then he completely takes over his brother’s big strong body. Then he becomes a truly powerful and tenacious fighter. He couldn’t hold a candle to Luffy but it was cool to see another form of fusion in One Piece.

Luffy ends up fighting Don Chinjao who has a grudge against his Grandpa that his so deep he’s vowed to take it out on his children’s children which means Luffy. Apparently, Grandpa Garp flattened Don Chinjao’s pointy head which was the key to his special treasure. It’s pretty outlandish but it’s just the way it is sometimes. Don Chinjao’s Haki is really strong though which made for an entertaining fight. Of course, Luffy won in the end. On his final punch of the fight, Luffy restored the point on Don Chinjao’s head.

Meanwhile, outside the Colosseum, we learn a little bit about the history between the country of Dressrosa and the Don Quixote family. Like 900 years ago the Don Quixote family ruled over Dressrosa. When the 20 kings of different countries came together to form World Government (800 years ago) they moved all of their families to “The Holy Land of Mariejois”. Those families eventually became known as the Celestial Dragons. Don Quixote Doflamingo is a decedent of the same family that once ruled over Dressrosa. He came back and took over the country 9 years ago. He deceived the people and made them hate their current king.

The whole story is well thought out and it uses little pieces of information that we’ve been getting over the past 650 episodes. I love how One Piece keeps paying off all of these little details they’ve been dropping over the course of the show. This is one of the strengths of this long-running series. I can’t wait to see where the story goes from here.

IRA 008 | Black Lagoon

By Benjamin on July 24, 2018July 23, 2018

IRA 008 | Black Lagoon

This is the eighth episode of the I’d Rather Anime Podcast! We talk about what anime we’ve seen in the last week and review Black Lagoon. Click on the play button above to start the podcast! Or if you prefer, you can find us wherever you listen to podcasts, just click here to add us to your favorite app! If you haven’t seen the anime yet, but you want to hear what we have to say, click the title of the podcast above to watch it where we did. When you’re done, you can come back and give us a listen. You could do other things, but we know you’d rather anime with us!

Don’t forget to leave us a comment, telling us what you think about this episode of our podcast! If you have suggestions on anime that you’d like to hear us talk about next, let us know that too!

If you want to keep up with the anime we have watched and plan to watch, check out the links down below.

One Piece (629-637)
My Hero Academia
Shokugeki: Food Wars!
Black Lagoon
Gosick
Fate/EXTRA Last Encore (1-4)
Nanbaka
Tsukigakirei
Alice & Zoroku
Problem Children are Coming from Another World, aren’t they?

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I’d Rather One Piece | Week 15

By Benjamin on July 23, 2018July 23, 2018

This week we watched episodes 638-644. We had family visiting so we didn’t get to watch many episodes but the episodes we did get to watch were pretty fun.

First, we got to see who won block B at the Corrida Colosseum. Unsurprisingly the winner was the “number one pirate who should just go away” Bartolomeo. His power was pretty cool though. He’s a barrier human who ate the Barrier-Barrier Fruit! Not a single competitor in Block was able to lay a finger on him. Every time they tried they simply hurt themselves.

Meanwhile, Sanji went and beat up the people Violet asked him too. Of course, it all turned out to be a trap and Violet really is an assassin of the Don Quixote family. She handcuffs Sanji and beats him up. Then she reveals that she ate the Glare-Glare Fruit and became quite an insightful woman. She has the ability to see inside others minds. When she looked in Sanji’s mind she saw umm… Let’s just call it Sanji’s love for women. Violet started to believe what Sanji was saying about how he feels about a woman’s tears after looking into his mind. Apparently Violet didn’t really want to work for Doflamingo. She turned on her comrades and used her impressive “Eye Whale” ability to incapacitate them.

Later, Violet uses her devil fruit power to let Sanji see inside her mind to show him that Doflamingo had fooled them. He never actually quit the Seven Warlords and the newspapers were all false.

Meanwhile, Law, Usopp, and Robin escorted Caesar to the exchange point on Green Bit. For what feels like convenient plot purposes Law sends Usopp and Robin to explore the island. They end up being captured by some strong little people and get taken to their village underground. However, they do end up talking their way out of trouble.

By the time Law get’s a call from Sanji to tell him what’s going on it’s too late. Joker has arrived and so has the new Navy admiral Fujitora. This leads to an epic three-way battle. At least that’s what it looks like it was going to lead to. Instead we just see Fujitora show off his incredible power. He swings his sword towards the sky and a giant meteorite comes down from the Sky. All three of the fighters manage to protect themselves. The Navy soldiers and Caesar just run to avoid the blast. It looks like Law is just trying to buy some time. Instead of fighting he runs away into the Green Bit Forest.

Meanwhile, both Sanji and Franky find out the location of the factory, apparently, it is disguised as a toy house. While they are heading over to the factor the Battle Royal for Block C beings at the Coliseum. Block is Luffy’s Block. It takes him a little while to get used to fighting without showing his Gum-Gum powers, but he gets the hang of it.

Luffy ends up taming a the Brutal Bull and taking down a giant. He quickly becomes a crowd favorite to win. Thanks to his strength speed and haki Luffy is sure to win even if he doesn’t display his Gum-Gum powers. There are so many stories being told this arc I can’t wait to see how everything comes together in the end.