#opbackgrounds | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

opbackgrounds · 2 days

Text

I'm sorry, their designs are so silly, I can't. I love that in a scene between two of the strongest people in the world, one has little paw prints on his shirt and a bucket hat with bear ears, and the other is a goth shallot

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch474 #Character Design #kuma #moriah #why do Kuma and law have the same spotted pants?

209 notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 2 days

Text

I enjoy how Oda shows the maturation of the crew during the fight with Oars. It's fitting that it starts off with Usopp insisting that Luffy will save the day, since he was the one who showed the most doubt during Water 7. He's overcome that and reinstated his utmost faith in his captain's ability, but as always Zoro is the down to earth realist of the crew. He's not doubting Luffy's strength, but taking into account his very real weakness to trickery and deception. It helps that Oda starts the chapter by showing Luffy being tricked by Moriah's shadow into running back out to the woods, far away from where he should be. It's the narrative going out if its way to prove that Zoro's right, and this is very much something they should be worried about.

And instead of arguing about it or getting freaked out, the rest of the crew agree that Zoro's got a point and they can't sit around twiddling their thumbs waiting to be saved. The speech ends with Zoro once again affirming is faith in Luffy's abilty to defeat Moriah. It all feels very appropriate for a good number two, but that kind of stability and practicality isn't unusual for Zoro. It's the fact that the rest of the crew rallies behind him is what really solidifies the crew's growth as a group. This isn't a bunch of individuals who happen to be fighting for a common goal; they are the Straw Hat Pirates.

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch474 #roronoa zoro #straw hat pirates #they've come so far #teamwork makes the dream work

210 notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 3 days

Text

I'd have to go back and check to be sure, but I think this is the only scene where Kuma uses his powers where we don't see the paw prints on his hands or the little lines around the person that's been poofed. Though those visual details wouldn't give away how Kuma's power works, I do think it was appropriate to hide them for a more dramatically opportune moment

#opbackgrounds #one piece #powers and abilities #kuma #it's more shocking for perona just to disappear you can save the other stuff for later #ch473

89 notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 20 hours

Text

This is a perfect little hype nugget dropped in during a conversation that ultimately has very little to do with Blackbeard

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch474 #hello foreshadowing my old friend

97 notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 14 hours

Text

It is incredible how well Kuma is able to play Moriah by preying on what he has to know is his greatest insecurity. The real coup de grace is that little inconspicuous offer to help at the end, added almost as an afterthought. If Moriah agrees, then Kuma can poof the Straw Hats wherever he wants to like he did on Sabaody. And if he refuses, well, we see how angry it makes him, and how his injured pride causes him to make stupid mistakes. Hell, Kuma has seen how badly the Straw Hats have wrecked Thriller Bark already. It could be that he genuinely believes Luffy could defeat Moriah unaided. The little push just helped get things started in the right direction.

The whole conversation is another one of those moments that takes on so much more meaning in retrospect, but even without that retrospect it's still impactful. I don't have to know Moriah's entire backstory to understand exactly why he's reacting the way he is, and that alone makes it one of my favorite bits of writing in the entire arc. So often the big personalities of One Piece can cause characters to feel more like caricatures, but this moment feels very human.

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch474 #moriah #kuma #it's just good writing

104 notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 2 days

Text

And Zoro was never shown struggling to control Shusui ever again

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch474 #roronoa zoro #it's mostly a nitpick but Oda did the same thing with his cursed sword #making a big deal of how it was hard to control and then never shown actually struggling against its curse

103 notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 3 days

Text

Another curious aspect about Kuma being so damn big is that sometimes he's literally too tall to fit into the frame of a panel so it looks like his head's been cut off

Throughout this scene Kuma's face has often been framed in deep shadow or seen from far away so you can't make out the details. This adds to his air of menace, but going so far as to not show his head at all is strange and offputting. I can't recall Oda ever doing the same with any of his other large characters, and I'd go so far as to call it symbolic, especially in that second panel where there was definitely room to fit his whole body if Oda wanted

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch473 #kuma #paneling and layouts #~symbolism~

98 notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 8 hours

Text

I love when Oda lets his characters have emotions so big that they distort the very world around them, Loony Tunes-style.

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch474 #Environments

78 notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 1 day

Text

Ayy, we've got another decapitated Kuma panel!

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch474 #paneling and layouts #kuma #The leg to torso ratio on this man is insane

56 notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 2 months

Text

I'd forgotten they tried to beat the boys awake

Usopp is low-key the MVP of Thriller Bark

In an arc full of great gags, this is perhaps the greatest. I'm not sure I could choose between this and Luffy pushing a zombie into its own grave

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch458 #I lol'd #the devil's in the details #usopp #straw hat pirates #not shown: Franky wanting to use his bazooka to wake them up #someone should do a poll tournament for greatest OP gags #I think something from thriller bark would win

1K notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 2 months

Text

This idea is so, so important to the series in general, and Brook in particular. There are times in One Piece where people die for noble causes, and others where people act knowing that there's a good chance that they could die, but knowingly choosing death over life is never portrayed in a positive light.

As someone who views One Piece through the lens of Romantic literature, this is really important because historically the Romantics, er, well, romanticized suicide and death and the historic last stand. It's doubly interesting to me as a Japanese story, with Japan having its own long, complicated history with the concept of honorable death.

One Piece directly challenges both of these ideas, with life and living being romanticized instead, even if that means you have to get on your knees and beg for it like Brook does with Ryuma later on.

And it's a tightrope that story has to balance. Nami willingly lived under to boot of the man who killed her mother for years, but there came a time when enough was enough, and both she and the village had to stand up and fight for her freedom. She carried that lesson to her fight with Enel, even though she was hopelessly outmatched and would have been reduced to a greasy smear if Luffy hadn't shown up to save her. Within the context of the story both instances were portrayed positively, with Oda indicating through his writing that she had made the correct decision.

But that's not what's happening here. This is Luffy being willing to run away at Sabaody because he knew the Pacificas were too strong. This is Usopp lambasting the samurai at Wano for rushing toward their deaths rather than living to fight another day.

It's Brook knowing he made a promise to a friend, and doing everything in his power to keep it, even if it meant looking like a sniveling coward groveling at the feet of his own shadow.

#opbackgrounds #one piece #ch456 #themes threads and throughlines #romanticism #brook #I love him so much #character analysis

2K notes · View notes

opbackgrounds · 4 months

Text