One Piece
A popular shounen manga, and commonly seen as the best of the manga currently running in Shounen Jump. One Piece and /a/ once had a good relationship, but over the years the declining quality of the anime, coupled with the massive increase in shitty fans (mostly "disillusioned" Naruto or Bleach fans who haven't outgrown their underaged faggotry) have soured sentiments toward the show, and it is no longer welcome for open discussion outside of the nightshift. However, the shitty fans cannot resist trolling /a/ by posting about how the series is disliked, which leads to the occasional shitstorm on day and night alike. Though not one of the most popular stories on /a/, One Piece has a few small memes credited to its name.
(Series) is awesome
Probably /a/'s first original MS Paint meme, since most of the others were appropriated from /v/. First appearing in early 2007, the comics exaggerated traits of featured anime or manga for comedic effect (though in the case of the first, which was about One Piece, none of it was an exaggeration). A few people consider this a forced meme, but with successive parodies and examples it has passively been accepted as a true meme. The format varies little from comic to comic, and always features:
- A male with a goofy smile and stretched limbs.
- Another male with sharp objects coming from every orifice.
- A female with a thin waist, huge breasts and a wide smile.
- A small, grinning character (sex varies) with hands on his/her hips. Usually smokes.
- The tagline, "(Series) is awesome".
Set fail for One Piece
An obnoxious forced meme originally posted by a single Anonymous in every thread related to the anime series One Piece. Became a widely used response to One Piece topics when One Piece newfags began to intentionally misuse /a/ memes to praise the Enies Lobby arc of the anime (infamous for shitty writing, liberal use of Engrish and QUALITY art/animation). Now used as an excuse to sage One Piece topics in general. Came from the line "Set sail for One Piece" from the shitty hacked-up dub's OP. Annoyed One Piecec newfags are often quick to defend the series by childishly responding with "Set win for win piece", which only serves to egg on trolls and irritate already condescending oldfag fans of the series.
Sogeking
A dead meme from Spring 2006 in /a/. The character of Usopp, commonly portrayed as an incompetent coward on the Straw Hat Pirate Crew, left the group one day but came back as a masked vigilante known as "Sogeking". At first, Sogeking acted so out of character for Usopp that many Anonymous began to joke that they couldn't be the same person, and during "Sogeking Sundays" (image dump threads similar to Caturdays) many Anonymous would have loads of fun trying to convince manga readers who weren't up to speed that Sogeking was a new, awesome character. This was further supported by a "panel" where Sogeking and Usopp were seen in the same scene, but it was actually Sogeking's mask falling off and Usopp dashing to put it back on. Several minor memes related to Sogeking quotes (such as, 'Where is the Sniper Island? It's in your heart') and parodies of other quotes ('KING OF SNIPERS, DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH STARS?') were also thrown around.
To /a/'s annoyance, the popularity of the character lead to the rise of a HERO named "Evan King" with pictures of him posted in One Piece topics, screaming EVANKINGUUU. Evan King was realized as the greatest meme on /a/ following his nomination for SaiGar 2007, which brought down the full ire of the fags of /a/ upon the hero. He left the board, promising to return one day in full glory.
Sogeking's popularity died down very quickly when the character was revealed to be weak and just as cowardly as the Usopp behind the mask, becoming the bitch of a wolf furry, to /a/'s disgust and horror. The character "Sogeking" reappeared after Enies Lobby in Thriller Bark, with less welcoming reception compared with his first introduction, both by manga fans and /a/ssholes.
