follow me into the rain

Over on Tumblr, razberryyum wrote a very engaging reaction/meta post on Gintama episode 309 and the corresponding chapter 527 and 528, over here. I reblogged it with some comments and now I want to repost those comments to Dreamwidth, expanded somewhat. Screenshots/panels are taken from that post, from this post by silveranimefan and from one of my own old posts. Let's hope Tumblr will allow these pics to still be visible...

Spoilers for this episode/chapter behind the cut, for the preceding arc and chapters/episodes, plus some foreshadowing of later episodes. Comments extremely welcome - new perspectives are great. (Nitpicks, too!)



( Heroes always arrive fashionably late )

I posted a rambling Plurk about this yesterday, then thought it would be cool to hear my f-list's thoughts about this, too, should anyone be interested in sharing.

I was having some vague thoughts about common fan speculations about the future of One Piece, and that led to thinking about how Oda tends to write child characters, and that led to more general ponderings about how a "true pirate" should act according to Luffy. (And probably also according to Shanks, Gol D. Roger, Whitebeard and perhaps other non-evil pirates in the story.)

( More behind the cut )

Without having intended to I found myself re-reading the first few pages of One Piece, chapter 584 - and damnit, I had forgotten how much page 4 makes my heart ache. for the nth time, damn you Oda.

Which reminds me that I wanted to babble again a little bit about the chapters 583-589, although I daresay I'll likely repeat myself a lot.

( spoilers for said chapters behind the cut )

I've got some disjointed thoughts on the latest three chapters of One Piece.

First, I want to say that while I was very interested and intrigued by chapters 583 and 584, I also had some problems with them. I wholly enjoyed #585, though. I'm dividing them up with under separate cuts so readers who want to avoid negativity (or positivity??;p) can do so more easily.

( Mixed emotions )
( OP 585 )
EDIT: *facepalm* ...way to mix up the chapter numbers with those a hundred chapters back, self. Corrected to 583-585. *>_<*

I have a long-winded theory about what Zoro’s current manga situation might mean for his development as a fighter particularly. Posting it here in case anyone else wants to see it.

( Manga spoilers up through chapter 524 )