Thriller Bark... occurred - REVIEW

My thoughts on One Piece's follow-up to Water 7, Thriller Bark. The worst arc in the series... so far.
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[DanielGreeneReviews]

I am eagerly awaiting people explaining to me how jokes about sexual harassment are actually great and making Sanji a sex pervert is a excellent step for his character. Yay internet.

[munecabonbon]

The whole comment section is

Daniel: This wasn't one of the best arcs..

Everyone: understandable

Daniel: I didn't really find any of the jokes funny.

Everyone: Wait let me stop you right there, not even the zombie old man joke?

[avdhutjoshi]

You should watch the Brook flashback part in the anime if you haven't.

[CainGarrisonVT]

I think, other than the "Nothing Happened" scene, Usopp telling Perona that he's always negative and looks down on himself. That is too relatable.

[rpimentel]

Daniel: “Hope Brook dies.”
Brook: “Ah! But I am already dead. Yohohoho!!!”

[SlashWest]

It's ok Dan man, your criticisms are appreciated because they show you're being honest, and not just trying to appease fans for clicks. It bolsters your credibility.

A lot of fans consider the sexual stuff in this arc to be Oda at his worst, so can't blame you there. One more thing I'll agree with you on is Brook. I *want* to like Brook, but his personality just feels like a few traits stapled onto a literal skeleton. For the humor, subjective of course, though I'll say that Luffy pushing the zombie back into the grave is one of my favorite moments in the series, lots of people love that one.

As far as the story feeling pointless/disconnected, this one is actually similar to Skypeia in that it sets up some major things in a way that isn't obvious on first glance. I call it "deceptively simple", in that on the surface it all feels like a silly romp, but as you get further into the series this arc makes more and more sense.

Edit: About this arc not "having higher stakes", it's meant to be that way. W7 was stakes to the absolute max, so this serves the dual-purpose of being a romp breather arc, while also doing that subtle background setup.

As for the ending bit feeling "tacked on", I don't personally see it that way, no more than I saw Mihawk showing up in Baratie. The idea there is that this is a living, breathing world with many things occurring at the same time as the main cast's adventure (thus the cover stories), so that's what makes it cool. You think it's a straightforward arc, then a completely unexpected third party shows up to screw up the power balance. You can say it feels tacked on, but if it was foreshadowed it would lose its surprise factor.

About Luffy "inviting everybody", that's not exactly true. He repeatedly invites the really weird/wild characters, which I think is very on-brand for him. He sees a zombie unicorn having tea time with a living tree, or sees a living musician skeleton and immediately thinks "Oh dude coool! Get on my ship right now!" which I don't find annoying, I think it really fits with his impulsive, starry-eyed character.

But don't worry Daniel, this is generally a less-loved arc by many so you're not alone here.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Brook is absolutely not the worst thing to happen to One Piece. Brook is absolutely fantastic even if you dislike the panty jokes.

[animeproblem]

the part of brook i find at least a little funny is how overly polite he is about his perverted jokes he not asking he’s asking in the most polite and respectful way possible that’s the entire joke

[schnozchan]

Funnily enough, Moria's thematic weight in the arc, being the representation of a Pirate King candidate who failed, becomes more salient as the series goes on. I personally love Thriller Bark, save for the Sanji portions, as it becomes a very important arc for the story as a whole, especially thematically. W7/EL was about Luffy becoming a great captain, TB is about the crew becoming a great crew worthy of backing up the future Pirate King, and the importance that that growth has comes full circle once Oda gets deeper into themes of loyalty and comraderie as the series goes on.

[fullesperalchemist]

The problem with Thriller Bark is that it happens between some really great serious arcs and doesn't lives up to that standard.

Edit- Ah fuck you hate Shit.
Although I understand. And I am pretty sure that Brooks cannot die.

[OtakuJuanma]

Wait... Brook asking for panties once as a side gag is enough to make him your least favorite out of the sexual harassment alone (which btw, it is, not denying it) but everything Sanji said during his encounter with Absalom, which is not just harassment but implying a will to nonconsent is just "a disservice"?

[Haxerous]

Personally I would say that I had similar issues the first time. On the second read (after like chapter 1000 or there about) though it's much better.

I think part of the problem is that you go in with certain expectations/mindset, meanwhile Oda is changing the direction and the scope of the story that he is building in the background. And those things are simply hard to connect to or find important/relevant the first time. Like there's bits in the story that only become relevant 10+ years later IRL. Moriah also feels like a weak sauce villain, but we don't truly appreciate the scale of what he has been through/what he is trying to imply until way later in the story and he is not merely a foil for Luffy.

Could it have been done better or more smoothly? May be but, there are limitations to the serialised format itself which aren't inherent to a full novel. He also needed a shorter and more relaxed saga between two huge ones. Plus he loves to play around with chapter numbers and titles. So lengthening it isn't as easy an option compared to a novel. Balancing all those, logistics get super tricky.

[luffski]

Everyone always hates on “the perversion” from sanji but I feel like it’s not typically played up purely on the basis of humor. Sanji, Brook and similar characters are almost always, constantly berated, beaten and that it’s basically not okay to act that way. I don’t know a single time in which the perviness of their characters has ever been made out to be “okay” or reinforced by another as being something that is good. Perviness is as much another character trait in the real world as it is in One Piece and if extra character development isn’t for you then I don’t know what to tell you. If you believe characters like that of Sanji are made definitively worse by a character trait of this sort that’s up to you. But if you’re someone that believes that just because there is a prominent character in a story that the character only deserves development that makes them look better and better then that’s just not what going to get at all times. One piece characters act like real life people. Even when they act like the type of people you don’t like. The same way Absalom shouldn’t sexually harass people neither should sanji. When these types of moments are discussed I just hate that people seem to act as if it’s being written in favor of the sexual harassment concept when in reality it’s something that happens in the real world and therefore can still be used as an effective writing tool and add extra depth. If you think the author is writing it because he just wants to be a perv then that’s just a bad take. I haven’t finished your video yet but I’m going to I just get so tired of the obscene hatred of “perviness” being used as any form of writing element and felt the need to say a lil something if nothing else.

[inspiringer]

It was probably the biggest culture shock I had with One Piece. The sexual harassment jokes are okay in Japan but make me uncomfortable.

[mysterylife]

Daniel Greene to Brook: “God, I hope he dies”
I can say, with certainty, that Brook is dead

[sohailsadaqat]

Nothing in One piece happens for No reason. Everything that happened in Thriller bark had purpose its just going paid off way too late. But Thriller bark is one of the arcs where fans are divided. For me, it suffers because of Water 7 Saga as you are coming from such a high that it makes this arc looks bad even though its the best comedy arc of the series.

[inarticulatevoid]

at this point and the arc after, brook was probably one of my favourite straw hats (this was because he was a musician and had a great backstory). maybe because I saw the anime first and his VA did a great job. but I understand why brook might turn people off, i was a kid when I saw the anime so I just remembered the good parts of his character. After reading through the manga and re reading again I can say that although his panty jokes get really annoying but he's an overall worthy and great addition to strawhat crew but that's obviously coming from all the time I've spent with the character and I don't expect people to love him just because I do at this point of the story.

[yogitapandya]

How can you hate brook just because he has one negative quality you ignore all of his positive qualities which are a lot...
1)his loyalty to his friends and his crew
2)his dedication to live through 50 years of darkness just to keep his promise to a whale
3)his courage to fight against all odds and the pain of living in isolation for 50 years which would make anyone go insane
=>now about you saying that this arc felt disjointed from rest of the story...
1)Gecko Moria is one of the 7 warlords of the sea which were mentioned in literally the first 50 chapters
2)About Ryuma the swordsman who zoro fought is from wano country and that Moria once faced one of the four Emperor kaido in the new world and lost all of his crew
3)kuma is one of the warlord so the government have to make sure by sending him to thriller bark to make sure Moriya is not beaten by straw hats which will harm the reputation of the world government
4)about the ships getting abducted and missing from the Florian triangle even before Moriya had thriller bark
5)all the different general zombies that were mentioned before like captain Johns treasure that buggy was looking for
6)about the brilliant teamwork that straw hats put up against Moriya before arrival of nightmare luffy
7)The connection between Laboon and brook which goes all the way back to twin capes at the start of grand line
=>I know this is not the best arc in one piece and this is also one of my least favorite arcs but it is very enjoyable for the most part
->just saying you didn't like this arc and don't have much to say because of some gag jokes of(brook and sanji) while ignoring all the positive parts of the story is ignorant of you
, I think you didn't like the character designs so you were not paying attention to most of the details and after Brooks panties jokes you just gloss over all the pure comedy that happened in this arc that was genuinely funny(ussop vs Perona), (the first interaction of weak trio to this island and seeing the first interaction of the strong people of the crew to the same things was hilarious)
....just a small critic and my opinion on your awful review of this arc😂👍😎

[exon]

The moment u mentioned the summary I was like "imagine if its the GrandLineReview" because i love Liam and his videos and then it's actually glr

[mikeyod]

I love that the summary link was to the grand line review. Because thats where i go to get one piece content uploaded to my youtube feed