Aug 16, 2015
Now the best selling manga of all time, One Piece is the tale of a man named Luffy who is gonna become king of the pirates. In face of this long-running manga, that summary does many injustices; in essence, One Piece is a story of the Strawhat Pirates setting out to follow their dreams. This overview is going to be a bit long, but hang tight with me and I'll give you as much of an comprehensive overview as I can on this monster of a series.
My criticisms of the manga are as follows: as the manga goes on, the skinnier women get less and
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less room to have organs while their breasts seem to increase in mass. It's not as if the author, Oda Eiichiro, is incapable of diversity, either. Oda has shown to take risks when drawing male characters, giving them a wider choice of physical design. There is also the problem with white-washing, which is much more obvious in the anime than the manga, but present nonetheless.
On the other hand of the spectrum, what One Piece does good, it does REALLY GOOD. There are many fine details of plot and characters that are continuously woven into the story; a little "throw-away" character to help start the manga series you don't think you'll ever see again? JUST KIDDING, they're back and they're doing stuff! Oda does not forget his characters, unlike some authors (looking at you, Kubo Tite). Speaking of characters, there are MANY, of many different moralities, aspirations, and identities. I've seen some people complain that there are too many characters in One Piece, but I feel that it is justified as: 1) the characters are traveling from island to island, and it makes sense to meet more people and 2) this large cast is HANDLED WELL. Unlike in other series such as Bleach or Dragon Ball where the notable characters are so large in number that sometimes their own authors forget their names, One Piece is able to establish characters well and balance the ones that will appear again and those that shall not.
One of the best parts of One Piece, however, is its sincerity. One of the reasons I can not bother myself with series like Fairy Tail is because many of its preachings ring hollow, almost out of obligation. Even as it embodies many shounen tropes, One Piece doesn't feel like it is shoving token lessons down my throat. Perhaps it's because the main characters are not totally "goody two-shoes"; they aren't going to save the world because "that's what you should do", they do things because "they want to". Sometimes that means beating up a whole town of bounty hunters and stealing their stuff, sometimes that means saving a group of children from a mad scientist--even if it is disadvantageous to them and they will get nothing out of it.
One Piece, with all it's flaws and perfections, is a lot of fun. Interwoven with a clear sense of adventure and mystery; lessons of strong friendship, love, and following your dreams; as well as very real discussions of politics and corruption, racism and other forms of discrimination, the nature of revenge, and even slavery! This is a big series with many aspects, and though long, it is worth every chapter.
If you like creative and fantastical worlds, elements of whimsy as well as an shounen spark of adventure, One Piece has much to offer you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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