One Piece

[Tom the Fish]

I watched the first One Piece episode yesterday. It looked great, but unfortunatly used a ton of Japanese I didn't know. What is going on? How can he stretch like that? And I couldn't for the life of me understand what was going on with the kid with pink hair.

Does Akira Toriyama have anything to do with it? The character design reminds me of his work.

Tom

[El Banana]

Hilarious story, I don't think Toriyama has anything to do with it.
So the kid (Ruffy, Luffy, whatever) can stretch because he ate that weird Devil's fruit thing. He gained the ability to stretch, but now he is unable to swim.

Since I read part of the manga, I dunno what Pink-Haired kid you're talking about.

[Rozard]

The pink-haired kid is Koby, the cabin boy of Lady Alvida. Two years ago, when he was going to go fishing, he mistakenly got on her pirate ship and has been used and abused. His life goal is to become a Marine, but he doesn't have the guts to stand up to Alvida or try to escape. Monkey D Luffy, the protagonist, gained his rubber powers from one of the Devil's Fruit, the Gum-Gum Fruit to be specific. His body is now composed of rubber, and is impervious to most forms of attacks. Unfortunately, a side-effect of eating the fruit is that he can never swim again. He got the fruit a few years back from his friend, the pirate Red-Haired Shanks. After saving Luffy from drowning (and loosing his left arm) Shanks gave Luffy his prized straw hat, instructing Luffy to return it to him once he (Luffy) becomes a famous pirate. The artwork of One Piece (Well, the manga, that is) is done by Eiichiro Oda. Oda was very influenced by Akira Toriyama's work, and he (Along side Hiroyuki Takei, creator of Shaman King) worked as an apprentice to Nobuhiro Watsuki (creator of Rurouni Kenshin). I hope that helps some