
[Rain...]
I always liked the rain, a serene mood that brings forth a sense of comfort, calmness, and melancholy, feelings I'm familiar with, plaguing my mind constantly, making rain the only time when I'm feeling similar to those around me, edgy as it is, is the only real reason for me to like it.
Maybe Sengoku was right, trying to find the reason to like or love someone is pointless and dismisses the person in question, damn, that was a really good scene.
Still, the rain that I like to be present in my last moments is really fitting since it was like I was really home for the first time. The intermittent flashes of red reflecting from the windows and water puddles formed on the pavement from the sirens of the ambulance.
My ears have long lost their function, I only can see the paramedics trying their hardest to save me while I'm bleeding out, injuries? too many to count, but I'm pretty sure that my stomach and legs are almost glued to the street, plastered with guts and blood on the pavement, making the puddles around me start taking a red tinge.
In a last-ditch effort, my brain starts working at maximum capacity searching for all the memories I have, in order to find something that could save my life, I sit in complete silence seeing my life flash before my eyes.
[How cliché]
I say to myself, memories flooding my mind blending with each other and skipping everything that wasn't interesting, never a complete image, only some details for the things that have become imprinted in my mind for the most important events.
My life at the orphanage was grey, dull, and without excitement or emotion, is hard to compete with other kids when you are introverted. I couldn't get adopted because of my personality, it wasn't my fault, but it isn't also theirs, so who do I blame? I tried to find an answer to that and never came up with one.
Eventually, I decided to try and be independent, it worked, I liked only doing random chores in that poorly maintained orphanage. While growing up I became hooked on trying every hobby I could, cooking, sewing, cartoons, reading, anything that could occupy my mind, at the moment I didn't notice it, but now, I see clearly that I was trying not to think about why I was never really loved, my name is known to a few with no last name since I never had a family.
I pivoted to anime, all anime had a distinct flavor from other media, I couldn't describe it but I guessed it had to do with the culture? I really didn't give it too much thought anyway. I became interested in the mainstream, like many others, I didn't care what others thought about it so I just enjoyed what I could, some of my favorites being My hero Academia and One piece, they really had something that naturally attracted me to them, their themes and characters.
[Pain...]
Only one letter away from my favorite weather phenomenon, and what I'm feeling right now, It was worth it though, In a moment's decision, I traded my own life, something I didn't think highly of, to save some children from an oncoming truck. I swear I could have saved myself If I maneuver myself better, but of course, having 2 seconds to think does not help at all, and my life wasn't good at that moment.
I was long gone into depression and out of society now that I'm 18 years old, I couldn't get a job and because of my fixation on anime, I had become a useless person, even with my above-average knowledge, trying to get a job without proper education certificate is tough.
The pain is spreading through my body as I feel my brain slowing down, my vision is now blurred only generating some moving shapes, I was going into the deep sleep called death, I was finally going to rest.
Or so I thought.
After an unknown amount of time, I finally woke up again, my first thought where checking myself for any injuries, but none were found. Then I started to search my surroundings and find nothing, just a backdrop of complete darkness with stars plastered all over the place, there I began to search around and deduce that I'm in a 'space'.
"Now this is interesting"
I said as I started walking but nothing really moved, I felt like I'm unmistakeably advancing forward, but it was so minuscule compared with the space I was currently in that it doesn't feel like it, after a few minutes I gave up, sat down and began staring into the stars in this confined space.
"They really look like droplets of milk, don't they?" I heard a voice behind me.
"Wha-"
"Maybe that's why they called it the 'Milky way' although I'm not sure"
I turned around and saw nothing, there really was nothing.
"Hello?" I asked precariously while looking around.
"Yes hello, young mortal!!" I look at the source of the voice, is nothing, I began questioning my sanity before shaking those thoughts away.
"I don't see you, where are you ummm..." I really couldn't think properly, my situation was already weird, so I decided to not overthink it and 'go with the flow' and see where that gets me, [Although it did lead to my death so maybe it wasn't a good idea] I say to myself.
"Oh sorry let me just..." a figure suddenly appeared in front of me, a woman with a blonde hairstyle like two drills, she had some white robes that were somewhat transparent, she was quite busty, but most of all, she was tall, a good 7 ft, putting my measly height of 5''7 to shame.
"There, do you see me?" she asked while moving her tall figure in front of my eyes.
"Yes I see you" I say while looking dumbfoundedly at her, she was gorgeous, but it didn't mean that I would stare at her boobs... for more than 5 seconds that is.
"Good, now time for rewards mortal!!! hope you got something in mind"
"What do you mean rewards?"
"Well you see, you died, but because of my pity towards you and your pathetic life, I will give you 2 wishes for your next life!!!"
[Just like those transmigrated/reincarnated novels] I nod in approval of the goddess's way of thinking.
The goddess looks a bit surprised about me agreeing with calling my life pathetic, I could not care less since I didn't really accomplish anything, not even happiness, so there wasn't anything to be prideful of except my last act, which was dying in the first place.
"I see, so you're some kind of god?" I ask, since talking to God is something that could be crossed off my bucket list.
"YES!!! now, don't get too cocky, I will grant you somewhat decent wishes but nothing too powerful since you know, that would be boring and too generous, and everyone would be annoying me with their wishes" the goddess said, seemingly reminiscent of something.
[Well, time to big brain this] the goddess's face flashes a small smile before disappearing, I stare at the space before simply shrugging it off as 'God shenanigans', after a few minutes of thinking I decide to declare my wishes.
"I want to reincarnate in the world of My Hero Academia..." I say, she appears beside me in a chair looking at me, then a small notepad appears in her hands, she then starts shuffling the papers to search for something, I noticed that the amount of papers is never-ending, she continued for a good minute before she stopped at a certain page.
"That will be possible yes, anything more specific?" She says while looking at me with a pen ready to take notes.
"Well, I want all of my memories and be born in the same age range as the protagonist" the goddess moves her pen so fast that it looks like a blur, taking notes about everything that I was saying.
"Okay, what's your second wish?" she asks while turning the page.
"I want the powers of the Gomu Gomu no mi, the same as Luffy's powers" As I said this she raised her eyebrow, but starts writing, this time at a slower pace.
I really like the way Luffy uses his powers since they rely on him being creative with his powers and never really having some dumb powerup, or at least have a plausible explanation, the goddess looks annoyed before looking at me.
"We have a few problems with that specific wish, but I can make up for it and adapt it to this world"
"Adapt it?"
"Yes, you see, you're asking to have the same power as Luffy, but you can't have Haki in this world, so I'll make replace it with some existing concepts" she closes her notebook and looks at me.
"Ready to leave?"
"Wait, can you tell me what are those things you adapted?"
"It will be a surprise, you'll know when you awaken your quirk"
I frown upon hearing this, but anyway, I get 4 years to theorize about this anyway, so I just reluctantly nod, and immediately, I fell through the floor immediately and see the figure of the goddess shrink as I fall.
"Good luck" she smirks at me while saying something I didn't quite catch.
[I don't know if I'm lucky or done for]
The fool forgot to specify the gender, a classic. This sounds intersting and I never even watched One Piece so I shall wait for more!
you what??
you monster!!!
I have. Personally I couldn't get very far. No problem with the world or its unique mechanics. My problem was with Luffy. MHA on the other hand, is still on my to watch list. I just haven't gotten to it.
I watched a good chunk of it but it slowed down a lot after the time skip and I kinda lost interest.
As a fan of one piece I could not get very far into watching one piece. I recommend reading the Manga up until the timeskip at the bare minimum
@smuggles999 Does it fix the issues with Luffy?
I'm not a fan of moronic, overly naive, overly optimistic MCs. Especially those with few redeeming virtues.
It's been so long since I tried to watch I can't really compare since I remember there being a ton of filler, so short answer no, long answer he does have more depth to him, has more backstory and character development explored later. It really depends on what your issues are as well because naive optimism could be seen as a redeeming virtue. I often find the 'cowardly comic relief' characters be be way less annoying in the Manga since their scenes go faster and I don't have to hear their voice.
Though the main appeal of one piece is the massive amount of characters and locations. I would consider it an epic, and everything leading up to entering the grand line as sort of a prologue.
@smuggles999 I see. Personally I see naive optimism as a massive negative in characters. Honestly, I think either Zoro or Nami could have made better main characters. With Nami being the better pick of the two.
Hell she already has an intriguing story right off the bat from when she was introduced. Zoro not so much, but he was a more interesting character than Luffy ever was.
I'm guessing you stopped before the next crewmember which is probably for the best since he is probably the most disliked. I DO like Zoro better than Luffy for sure but the thing is Luffy is just Shonen protagonist, personality wise he's almost interchangeable with Goku, Naruto, Natsu, etc. Way I look at it is most of the other characters are just on Mr. GumGums wild ride. Actually it's kinda funny in hindsight since when plot makes a crewmember wants to leave he does anything and everything to prevent it.
@smuggles999 I don't like Naruto either. Natsu on the other hand is not interchangeable, as he is very different from the other two. Natsu can be a bit of an idiot, but he is actually rather intelligent. He isn't naive either nor does he have boundless unearned optimism.
As for Goku, well I don't have much to say. Never really got started on Dragonball.
I actually hate Naruto with a passion, the main thing is the character is really strong generally acts pretty goofy despite whatever tragedy happened in their past, gets super serious and more powerful with power of friendship. Often get terribly injured, some of them eat comical amounts of food. And I just realized that the demon slay protagonist fits the bill too I just forgot his name. They aren't carbon copies just very vocal about whatever their conviction. It's actually been a long time since I experience the begining of One Piece and even longer since I didn't know the later parts so it's a likely a mix of him getting less annoying and less screen time. If you do end up giving it another try, I would say read the manga up through till he fights Arlong and if then decide whether or not to continue.
@smuggles999 not much of an introduction to stop there. Since that is still part of the prologue really.
And Yep Naruto is a pretty poor character. He feels very out of place, especially after learning his backstory which is rather tragic. With a backstory like that he should have had a much darker personality, and would not have been out of place to have been the villain of the story.
Well if you stopped before ussop before I didn't want to push you to make it though crocodile, arlong is the first enemy I would consider a true villian but by that point there has been a few different adventures, though 1-2 islands after that might be worth adding, if you really aren't enjoying it at all by that point then no need to force yourself. It's sooooo long.
@smuggles999 I stopped after Ussop. Rather useless character that one. I watched as long as I did hoping Luffy would get better, but frankly he got worse as time went on.
@JCountry well Luffy goofyness isn't gonna get fixed ever because it's a plot point in the story.
he is kinda the personification of joy and freedom, this the goofy personality
But he sure did have some serious moment, showing us there's more underneath
@Heartmint I disagree. He is the embodiment of naivety and stupidity. I wouldn't really call him goofy either, just plain brain-dead. I can see the freedom bit, but there is no joy to him.
Heartmint is referring to a recent development that has fans somewhat divided. (His fruit power has some extra stuff going on) I would actually compare him to an alien in a comedy: Doesn't completely understand how the world works, and has different priorities than regular people.
Also we have the live action now which is pretty great.
@smuggles999 Oh? I see. Well I still think the story is hot garbage. Interesting world but Luffy ruins it.