The Five Greatest Swordsmen in Fantasy This is a frequently passed around meme on the lists I'm on. Sometimes it's sparked by someone just asking the question of "Who's the best swordsman in all fantasy?", or it's from some website making a list purporting to list said best swordslingers. But it seems, invariably, that not only don't I agree with their top pick, I don't even agree with ANY of their candidates. So I figured I might as well make my own list. Some ground rules: I will nominate only [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: One Piece — the Fourth Piece!
September 8, 2016 By Leave a Comment
I continue my review of the immense and intricate shonen anime One Piece, following the sometimes "Idiot Hero" Monkey D. Luffy and his peculiar crew – swordsman Rorona Zoro, navigator Nami, combat cook Sanji, medic Chopper, sharpshooter Usopp, archaeologist Nico Robin, and musician Brook – in their united yet individual quests across the hazardous sea called the Grand Line. To recap important points about our heroes and the world of One Piece: Some years back, the so-called Pirate King, Gol D. Roger (usually called Gold Roger) was [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: One Piece– The Third Piece!
April 27, 2015 By Leave a Comment
I continue my review of the immense and intricate shonen anime One Piece, following the sometimes "Idiot Hero" Monkey D. Luffy and his peculiar crew – swordsman Rorona Zoro, navigator Nami, combat cook Sanji, medic Chopper, sharpshooter Usopp, archaeologist Nico Robin, and musician Brook – in their united yet individual quests across the hazardous sea called the Grand Line. To recap important points about our heroes and the world of One Piece: Some years back, the so-called Pirate King, Gol D. Roger (usually called Gold Roger) was executed [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: One Piece – The Second Piece!
April 18, 2014 By Leave a Comment
A while back, I reviewed the shonen anime One Piece. That review covered what I had seen to that point, but One Piece is a titanic piece of animation, a series still ongoing after more than 630 episodes. I'm now going to talk about what I've seen of One Piece since – up through around episode 380. When we last left our group of intrepid pirates (who are about as piratical in their normal behavior as Will Turner and Jack Sparrow in his gentler moments), Monkey D. Luffy had just managed to defeat God Enel/Eneru, a Devil [ Continue reading... ]
On My Shelves: One Piece
October 2, 2013 By 1 Comment
Wealth. Fame. Power. The man who had achieved everything in life, like none before him, was the Pirate King, Gold Roger. The few words he spoke at his execution drove people the world over to take to the seas: "My treasure? If you want it, you can have it. Seek it out! I left everything in my life at that place!" The anime and manga One Piece, by Eiichiro Oda, is a shonen (boy's) adventure series which follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his peculiar crew across one of the most bizarre worlds ever [ Continue reading... ]
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