i'm gonna give a shout out to One Piece. Eiichiro Oda, a student of the guy who brought you DragonBalls, FAAAAAR exceeds his sensei with his action/comedy/fantasy anime series.

like most, it was originally manga (comics), but the popularity of it forced it into the animated spotlight. with nearly 40 volumes of the manga and 184+ anime episodes, it's STILL going strong.

The series revolves around a young up and coming boy who, during the Golden Age of Pirates, endeavors to become the King of the Pirates (Kaizoku-ou). The way he plans to do this is by sailing the Grand Line, a fabled sea route, and attain the greatest treasure known to man, the "One Piece". the problem is, he's a simpleton.

One of the devices in the show is the Devil Fruit (Akuma no mi). The Devil Fruit is a mystical fruit, that once eaten, will endow the consumer with special powers (i.e. the ability to stretch like rubber, wield flame, transfigure into animals. it all depends on which fruit you eat). the one drawback is that you lose the ability to swim, the sea basically takes on a kryptonite-like quality. This complicates things seeing that many of the eaters of the fruit are Pirates.

Our Protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, has eaten the Gomu Gomu no mi ("Gum Gum" or Rubber fruit, kinda like Plastic Man). Oda-san sort of follows in his mentor's footstep that, like Goku, the main character is simple-minded yet arguably THE most powerful character in the series, and if he isn't, his luck is such that he NEVER loses a fight. Another character, is the Pirate Hunter turned pirate, Roronoa Zoro (my avatar). He is the atypical macho character, who goes against the androgynous constant of the Ashes, Yu-gi-ohs, and Inu Yashas (the latter of which i actually thought was a woman while i was still living in Tokyo).

The character development is interesting, original, unique, and more thought out than most anime, and is FAR beyond that of almost all of the canon of american animation.

i would LOVE to write more, but i need to go eat. Please PM me if you are interetsed in knowing more. and FEEL FREE to join the clan as whatever character you like!!! as a matter of fact, i will wait to claim my own.

Mata ne.

Fate

One Piece is defiantly one the best out right now.Im loving it and all ive got is Shonen jump mangas and a couple GNs and i cant wait to see everything else inn its near 200 episode run.Luffy is top tier as heroes go imo i just love his attitude and how he manages to be clueless maybe a little dim but not a total moron

i concur!