One Hour Toriko/One Piece/DBZ crossover to Air April 7

[SaiyanZ]

Having read the first volume of Toriko, I don't see what's so good about it. The art was ugly, even for a series that had just started serialisation, Toriko himself is boring and his sidekick is annoying, only there to sit around and be amazed at how "amazing" Toriko is. This may change later on but nothing in the first volume interested me enough to get me to keep reading.

It gets better. I mean, I liked the first volume, I thought its was good, imaginative and original, but I got really hooked in the Ice Hell arc, which is around volume 9. And the antagonists only start showing up in volume 2 and after that. But of course, if you didn't like the first volume, I can't guarantee that you will like the next volumes.

I do understand why you might not like the art, its somewhat strange at first. I like it though.

The fight with Tommyrod is easily one of my faves in manga. I really think its that good

[sonikku956]

So... this anime called Toriko was censored?

This reminds me of Fairy Tail and its blood/gore censorship.

[rereboy]

So... this anime called Toriko was censored?

This reminds me of Fairy Tail and its blood/gore censorship.

Yes. Big time. For example, in Toriko one of the important characters lost an arm in a fight and in the anime they censored it in such a way that its hard to tell that that character lost that arm until after the fight.

[Toonami97]

Has this been in production for a while?

[JulieYBM]

Has this been in production for a while?

This special? A typical Japanese animated series episodes takes about three months to produce and is rarely finished very early before it is set to air. Since these episodes are set to air in April they're probably not going to be finished until March 30-ish at the earliest. At the latest somebody will be pulling an all-nighter to get these episodes to Fuji the Sunday morning they are set to air.

[Toonami97]

So what would the cars be like?

[JeffJarrett]

So what would the cars be like?

Nobody said it was a car race. Maybe they'll be running.

[MCDaveG]

Well, I dunno. The Shonen isn't what it was nowadays.... For me, the definite Shonen will be Dragon Ball with Saint Seiya on it's tail and Yu Yu Hakusho.
I wonder, If I should try to watch Toriko. The food theme isn't somewhat that will hook me up. I found even One Piece dumb, but got hooked later only because of it's pure shonen elements,
like getting stronger for stronger enemies and battles. But the pace is boring me to hell and the manga art didn't caught me a bit. It's not that clear and nice as Dragon Ball manga is (and SS and YYH is).
Only modern series that I liked is Naruto, but the Shippuden thrown me off with interest.
I even like older Gundams way more than the modern. I like even ZZ Gundam more than Unicron with it's spoof beginning (and God I fell love with Turn-A Gundam SPOILER as a ''last UC series in the timeline''SPOILER).
God, am I too old for modern manga and anime? I don't know

[Cold Skin]

Some of you guys must have seen the Toriko / One Piece crossover. So let me ask you:
how is it handled when it comes to joining the independant universes of the various series?

Do they act like the characters naturally live in the same world since forever, just for this episode - like they always shared a same world map - and then proceed with the respective shows as if nothing ever happened? (similarly to Naruto's Chikara filler or Dragon Ball movies which could ultimately never happen in the main storyline version)
Or do they come up with some sort of explanation about characters temporarily going to each other's worlds?

[JulieYBM]

Do they act like the characters naturally live in the same world since forever, just for this episode - like they always shared a same world map - and then proceed with the respective shows as if nothing ever happened? (similarly to Naruto's Chikara filler or Dragon Ball movies which could ultimately never happen in the main storyline version)
Or do they come up with some sort of explanation about characters temporarily going to each other's worlds?

Pretty much. They meet up and say "Oh hey, it's Toriko!" and the like.

[SaiyanZ]

For me, the definite Shonen will be Dragon Ball with Saint Seiya on it's tail and Yu Yu Hakusho.

I feel the same way

[Mewzard]

Well, I dunno. The Shonen isn't what it was nowadays.... For me, the definite Shonen will be Dragon Ball with Saint Seiya on it's tail and Yu Yu Hakusho.

You sir, are awesome. Can't agree more (though, I'd also throw in Fist of the North Star and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure to round out a solid top 5 for Shonen *4 of those series ran during 1987, making that the best year of Shonen, lol*).

I wonder, If I should try to watch Toriko. The food theme isn't somewhat that will hook me up. I found even One Piece dumb, but got hooked later only because of it's pure shonen elements,
like getting stronger for stronger enemies and battles. But the pace is boring me to hell and the manga art didn't caught me a bit. It's not that clear and nice as Dragon Ball manga is (and SS and YYH is).
Only modern series that I liked is Naruto, but the Shippuden thrown me off with interest.
I even like older Gundams way more than the modern. I like even ZZ Gundam more than Unicron with it's spoof beginning (and God I fell love with Turn-A Gundam SPOILER as a ''last UC series in the timeline''SPOILER).
God, am I too old for modern manga and anime? I don't know

You're not too old, the quality has gone down, minus a few exceptions (like One Piece, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, and I could see Toriko joining that list, I just haven't read enough to judge it).

The crossover is fine, and expected. Though, with Battle of Gods coming out, I'm still expecting a DBZ/Saint Seiya crossover to happen. Goku's still got a lot to learn when it comes to fighting gods, and I can't think of better teachers than the Bronzes (and, of course, Goku's probably going to notice that several of them sound like his friends, lol).

Though frankly, I'm just glad it's not a crossover with Naruto...talk about a series that deteriorated in quality...

And I think you mean Unicorn, lol. Though Gundam/Transformers would be awesome. I do prefer the old school mech series as well. Been reading the Gundam Novels that the creator wrote. Good stuff.

I always wonder how crossovers will effect series continuity. Are they out of universe? In story but just not brought up much? Toei's been doing a lot of crossovers lately, so I wonder what their take is on this...

Oh well, like I said earlier, so long as Goku, Luffy, and Toriko get into an eating contest, this special will have won me over, lol. Also, some good fights. Though, strength-wise, Toriko passed Buu Saga Base Goku's 40 tons a long time ago (hope I'm not scratching any fresh wounds with that remark >_>).

[JulieYBM]

'Shounen quality going down' is a subjective definition at best. It's certainly changed and begun to pander too hard to the young (One Piece, Toriko), but otherwise plenty of titles with better writing than Dragon Ball have come out of the past two decades (Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Hikaru no Go, Eyeshield 21, Bakuman, Hunter X Hunter).

Just to repeat myself, I wouldn't have high expectations for this special. It'll probably play up to the worst aspects of all three series' and provide little in the way of fanfare or satisfaction.

[Cold Skin]

I would like to see a Dragon Ball / Naruto Shippuden crossover someday, but it likely won't happen since I think I remember the companies making the anime are not the same (it's not Toei on Naruto Shippuden, is it?).

Overtime, Naruto has become the only major manga I'm fond of apart from Dragon Ball, especially since the Shippuden part, and especially since the beyond-epic Great War that's going on.
Finally a manga that knows how to show clear evolution and make you see "wanna know why you've seen those hundreds of characters over the years? Where all those stories were meant to lead? That was for this epic final battle with hundreds of characters all having a detailled background").

Now that young Naruto has learned his equivalent to Kame Hame Ha, thwarted the bad reputation he had to become a recognized hero by saving the entire (destroyed) village, found an equivalent to Super Saiyan, finally become friend with his ultra-powerful inner beast, and thrown himself into a world war including all characters since the beginning of the manga (including all dead ones), it's more fascinating than ever, and a real successor to Dragon Ball, with super special moves, super jumping/flying, super energy balls, super transformations... All characters have now been developped so far from the kids they were when first appearing.

In the end, it's alike: small beginnings that might seem like a simplistic story and didn't interest me at first, yet leads over the years to an ultimately complex world that needs an encyclopedia released and reaches high levels of fascinating epicness with grown-up heroes showing constant big steps of evolution in their lives, personnalities, abilities, motivations and fighting styles.
I never thought I would even like Naruto for years, and yet during the last years, given its fascinating evolution and amazing plot since Shippuden - and above all the final war - started, I have to admit it has become the next greatest manga after Dragon Ball according to me.
Naruto is no big deal, but Naruto Shippuden ought to become legendary hopefully, just like Dragon Ball Z was the big "now we have enough material to make a complex world with epic plots and epic battles" deal compared to little Dragon Ball.

So I would have prefered a Dragon Ball x One Piece x Naruto crossover, but hey, two out of three, it's not too bad!

[rereboy]

Though, strength-wise, Toriko passed Buu Saga Base Goku's 40 tons a long time ago (hope I'm not scratching any fresh wounds with that remark >_>).

Well, at minimum, If Goku can stay airborne at base with 40 tons attached to him, with SSJ3 he should be able to do 16000 tons. And so far Toriko's characters can't destroy planets. Not sure how many tons Toriko should be able to lift currently.

I would like to see a Dragon Ball / Naruto Shippuden crossover someday, but it likely won't happen since I think I remember the companies making the anime are not the same (it's not Toei on Naruto Shippuden, is it?).

Overtime, Naruto has become the only major manga I'm fond of apart from Dragon Ball, especially since the Shippuden part, and especially since the beyond-epic Great War that's going on.
Finally a manga that knows how to show clear evolution and make you see "wanna know why you've seen those hundreds of characters over the years? Where all those stories were meant to lead? That was for this epic final battle with hundreds of characters all having a detailled background").

Now that young Naruto has learned his equivalent to Kame Hame Ha, thwarted the bad reputation he had to become a recognized hero by saving the entire (destroyed) village, found an equivalent to Super Saiyan, finally become friend with his ultra-powerful inner beast, and thrown himself into a world war including all characters since the beginning of the manga (including all dead ones), it's more fascinating than ever, and a real successor to Dragon Ball, with super special moves, super jumping/flying, super energy balls, super transformations... All characters have now been developped so far from the kids they were when first appearing.

In the end, it's alike: small beginnings that might seem like a simplistic story and didn't interest me at first, yet leads over the years to an ultimately complex world that needs an encyclopedia released and reaches high levels of fascinating epicness with grown-up heroes showing constant big steps of evolution in their lives, personnalities, abilities, motivations and fighting styles.
I never thought I would even like Naruto for years, and yet during the last years, given its fascinating evolution and amazing plot since Shippuden - and above all the final war - started, I have to admit it has become the next greatest manga after Dragon Ball according to me.
Naruto is no big deal, but Naruto Shippuden ought to become legendary hopefully, just like Dragon Ball Z was the big "now we have enough material to make a complex world with epic plots and epic battles" deal compared to little Dragon Ball.

So I would have prefered a Dragon Ball x One Piece x Naruto crossover, but hey, two out of three, it's not too bad!

Hmm, actually I thought Naruto was way better than Shippuden. And that seems to be pretty much what I keep hearing all over. The exaggerated focus on Sasuke and his clan's eyes really hurt the story, IMO.

The Naruto world had crazy potential... In the first part we can feel that potential... The sheer amount of characters, techniques, villages, clans, etc, make that potential awesome. Also, no single set of power or techniques is that overpowered in the first part... Even the dead Hokages are not nearly as godlike when they appear as they are portrayed currently... That makes all the fights interesting and challenging and the sheer potential of the world and its characters intriguing and very interesting. But in the second part, that slowly becomes rare... The focus on Sasuke and his clan's eyes is too exaggerated, as is its power... Pretty much everything comes down to him, to his clan's eyes, to the tailed beasts or to the first Hokage's cells... And all the plot points come down to things associated with that. Quite a waste of potential, IMO.

Naruto is a series that actually needed to be planned a lot better than it was. It's not like Dragon Ball that never took itself too seriously and so Toriyama's writing actually perfectly fitted the tone and fun of the story being told. That doesn't happen with Naruto. It needed strong writing and planning that could have made the best of its initial potential.

[Mewzard]

'Shounen quality going down' is a subjective definition at best. It's certainly changed and begun to pander too hard to the young (One Piece, Toriko), but otherwise plenty of titles with better writing than Dragon Ball have come out of the past two decades (Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Hikaru no Go, Eyeshield 21, Bakuman, Hunter X Hunter).

Just to repeat myself, I wouldn't have high expectations for this special. It'll probably play up to the worst aspects of all three series' and provide little in the way of fanfare or satisfaction.

"plenty of titles with better writing than Dragon Ball have come out of the past two decades (Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Hikaru no Go, Eyeshield 21, Bakuman, Hunter X Hunter). "

...What? No, those series are terrible, and this is coming from someone who's followed them both. Bleach is the kind of terrible where you laugh at the trolling of the fanbase and some silly choices, whereas Naruto is the Twilight of mainstream anime: irredeemably terrible, offensive to every sense I have (much akin to being unable to look away from a trainwreck). I blame Sasuke (being one of the worst characters ever, little whiny selfish, self important stain on the series), given he ruins every scene he's in, and almost ruined Naruto himself by nearly turning him into a vomiting, whining, over-emotional child. But, unless I want to lose myself to absolute hatred, I best change the subject.

Death Note and Hunter X Hunter have been good from what I've enjoyed of them (same with Hikaru no Go and Bakuman).

You're probably right, but I want to have some hope that they'll be willing to have fun with the crossover and make it entertaining. That's all I want in a crossover, to be able to enjoy the various series interacting in fun ways.

[Saiga]

So, did you miss the part about subjectivism?

[JulieYBM]

I would like to see a Dragon Ball / Naruto Shippuden crossover someday, but it likely won't happen since I think I remember the companies making the anime are not the same (it's not Toei on Naruto Shippuden, is it?).

The Naruto cartoons are done by Studio Pierrot, so it's not going to be so easy to do a crossover, sadly. It'd be awesome if Toei was cool with a collaboration or letting Studio Pierrot animate it themselves, but that's probably not going to happen.

"plenty of titles with better writing than Dragon Ball have come out of the past two decades (Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Hikaru no Go, Eyeshield 21, Bakuman, Hunter X Hunter). "

...What? No, those series are terrible, and this is coming from someone who's followed them both. Bleach is the kind of terrible where you laugh at the trolling of the fanbase and some silly choices, whereas Naruto is the Twilight of mainstream anime: irredeemably terrible, offensive to every sense I have (much akin to being unable to look away from a trainwreck). I blame Sasuke (being one of the worst characters ever, little whiny selfish, self important stain on the series), given he ruins every scene he's in, and almost ruined Naruto himself by nearly turning him into a vomiting, whining, over-emotional child. But, unless I want to lose myself to absolute hatred, I best change the subject.

Death Note and Hunter X Hunter have been good from what I've enjoyed of them (same with Hikaru no Go and Bakuman).

Kubo (and thus Bleach) remind me a lot of Toriyama if Toriyama had some semblance of artistic integrity and actually loved his job. Kubo works at his own pace, draws what he wants, and doesn't take himself too seriously. You can tell he really loves Bleach, both in his art and his actual interviews. What the online English-speaking fandom thinks of the series is irrelevant, mostly because they're just being silly in how they treat anything as an offense.

Regarding Naruto: the Sasuke stuff was the best thing that could've happened to the series. It was an exciting plot twist I certainly didn't see coming and catapulted the story in an exciting new direction that has been paying off years. Arguments against Sasuke always come off as awful whining that's worse than Sasuke supposedly is. "Oh God, a character with the power seeking revenge decides to indulge in his negative feelings and the story isn't resolved in one arc; how am I going to pretend everything is sunshine and rainbows now?" That the kind of shit that drags other titles down.

Dragon Ball, as much as I love it, is clearly not written with anywhere near the level of effort or interest as Bleach or Naruto.

[rereboy]

Regarding Naruto: the Sasuke stuff was the best thing that could've happened to the series. It was an exciting plot twist I certainly didn't see coming and catapulted the story in an exciting new direction that has been paying off years. Arguments against Sasuke always come off as awful whining that's worse than Sasuke supposedly is. "Oh God, a character with the power seeking revenge decides to indulge in his negative feelings and the story isn't resolved in one arc; how am I going to pretend everything is sunshine and rainbows now?" That the kind of shit that drags other titles down.

The problem was the focus and the amount of focus on Sasuke and his clan's eyes, among other things. After a while, everything that matter in the series was Sasuke, his clan eyes, the tailed beasts, the first Hokage's cells and Naruto.

[JulieYBM]

Regarding Naruto: the Sasuke stuff was the best thing that could've happened to the series. It was an exciting plot twist I certainly didn't see coming and catapulted the story in an exciting new direction that has been paying off years. Arguments against Sasuke always come off as awful whining that's worse than Sasuke supposedly is. "Oh God, a character with the power seeking revenge decides to indulge in his negative feelings and the story isn't resolved in one arc; how am I going to pretend everything is sunshine and rainbows now?" That the kind of shit that drags other titles down.

The problem was the focus and the amount of focus on Sasuke and his clan's eyes, among other things. After a while, everything that matter in the series was Sasuke, his clan eyes, the tailed beasts, the first Hokage's cells and Naruto.

The series was always about those things, though. I sure as hell don't want Kishimoto to spend time on Lee, Neji, Tenten, Ino, Chouji, and any other of Naruto's classmates "just because." It's like complaining about the lack of Tenshinhan and the other Earthlings in later arcs.