One Piece

Gol D. Roger, a man referred to as the "Pirate King," is set to be executed by the World Government. But just before his demise, he confirms the existence of a great treasure, One Piece, located somewhere within the vast ocean known as the Grand Line. Announcing that One Piece can be claimed by anyone worthy enough to reach it, the Pirate King is executed and the Great Age of Pirates begins.

Twenty-two years later, a young man by the name of Monkey D. Luffy is ready to embark on his own adventure, searching for One Piece and striving to become the new Pirate King. Armed with just a straw hat, a small boat, and an elastic body, he sets out on a fantastic journey to gather his own crew and a worthy ship that will take them across the Grand Line to claim the greatest status on the high seas.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

One Piece is the highest selling manga series of all time, with over 500 million copies in circulation as of 2022. Volume 67 of the series currently holds the record for highest first print run of any manga (including books) of all time in Japan, with 4.05 million in 2012. The series was a finalist for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize three times in a row from 2000 to 2002. In 2012, it won the 41st Japan Cartoonists Association Award Grand Prize, alongside Kimuchi Yokoyama's Neko Darake.

VIZ Media has published One Piece in English under the Shonen Jump imprint since January 2, 2003 and in 3-in-1 omnibus editions since December 1, 2009. VIZ Media released three boxed sets for the manga; the first including the first 23 volumes released on November 5, 2013, the second including volumes 24-46 released on November 4, 2014, and the third including volumes 47-70 released on October 4, 2016. The series has also been published in numerous amounts of languages worldwide including; Korean, Malay, Indonesian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Turkish, and Russian.

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Monkey D., Luffy

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Sanji

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Nico, Robin

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Tony Tony, Chopper

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Nami

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Usopp

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Brook

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Franky

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Feb 15, 2010

CottonCandyLover

Recommended

Preliminary (574/? chp)

Frequently categorized with both Bleach and Naruto as one of the Shonen Big Three, One Piece is a romantic tale of pirates, treasures ...talking reindeer, panties, flying skeletons, Takoyaki selling Octopuses, and oceans roaming with Sea Monsters the size of which can take down fleets of ships. Crazy enough for you? This is the world of One Piece.

Being categorized with Bleach and Naruto, on the surface this might strike an unfamiliar reader as another generic uncreative Shonen series; but truthfully, comparing One Piece to Bleach and Naruto would be like comparing Disney World to an elementary school playground. If these three series are the ...

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Mar 15, 2015

Krystopher

Not Recommended

Preliminary (400/? chp)

One Piece is the most overrated piece of fiction I’ve ever read. It’s mostly about a roaming crew of do-gooder clichés that travel the high seas. Each character has a dream (which they will never achieve because this cash cow will never end) and of course a tragic backstory to go with it. One Piece is somehow popular while having the worst character designs in anime, includes countless scenes of characters sobbing like crybabies, and will drag on to the point no one will care anymore. Honestly, if you want a shonen that doesn’t insult your intelligence and make you feel like you’re reading something ... written by a smarter than average 10 year old, then don’t pick this up.

Story: While there are some decent dramatic moments here and there, they’re almost always forced as much as possible and accompanied by over the top water faucet tears or something else as corny that makes you want to punch a hole in the wall. Not only that, but it’s the same thing each time.

Straw Hat crew arrives at an island, the people are friendly but something is wrong. We then meet the villain who is doing stereotypical villain things. Luffy hotheadedly decides he is gonna save the day and starts yelling. Luffy takes on the boss and his crew mates take on the underlings. They are stronger than expected, but through the power of friendship and encouragement from the people of the island they will themselves to victory with their new attacks they just invented. With everything said and done, celebration is had, and the Straw Hats leave as the citizens thank them and promise to always remember their kindness. Repeat for hundreds of chapters. If that sounds boring to you, then good, it’s very lame.

Let me add that people harp on about how great the world building is, but the world is just a nonsensical LSD theme park with clouds you can stand on and other magical stuff that never gets a good explanation and you’re just expected to eat it up and suspend your disbelief.

Art: Not much needs to be said here, One Piece’s art hardly looks like anime at all, but rather doodles from a 3rd grader’s math textbook.

Character: Characters are terribly developed and never really change. Usopp remains a cowardly person forever, Sanji remains a scrawny Johnny Bravo knock off that is impossible to take seriously, Luffy remains an unlikable annoying man child "who always stands up to the bad guy with no fear" (that's all his character amounts to though, lol and there is no originality), Zoro is your cookie cutter “badass” character, etc the characters are bad, have no actual depth, and are uninteresting.

Enjoyment: Clearly some people enjoy this, but I certainly didn’t. I read it in bursts, people kept trying to drill into my head how great it was so I kept going back, forced myself to read another 200 or so chapters, then got sick and put it back down. Now I write this review to tell you how lousy I think this comic is.

Overall: One Piece is poor. Yes, Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, Attack on Titan, Death Note, and many others are great shonen stories that I encourage people to read and enjoy.

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Mar 6, 2008

VK11

Recommended

Preliminary (534/? chp)

The key of success for many shounen anime is usually how well the anime is adapted from the manga. So when people are disappointed with the results of the anime, they usually resort to simply just reading the manga and follow the storyline through that. One Piece is a result of one of the few rare cases out there where the anime adaptation has followed the manga almost tooth and nail, with pretty much nothing lost within the translation between the two. With the anime receiving high review results here on MAL, I decided to take a closer look at the manga, ... and as far as shounen stories go, see if One Piece lives up to the accepted truth that the manga is better than the anime. This is not going to be your standard review. Because of the popularity of One Piece, where most fans know what it is already about, I will delve into more of the concepts, ideals and symbolism that sets apart One Piece from its counterparts.

We begin with the story. At this point in the game, I'm sure everyone who's reading this review or simply have been a fan of anime, know the general gist of what the plot is behind One Piece. If you don't, I will be the first one to say that you're probably living under a rock. Either that, or you're living at the north or south pole, isolated away from the anime civilization itself. Without straying too much off topic here, One Piece is a story about Monkey D. Luffy and his ragtag group of pirates, all trying to accomplish their respective goals, enduring hardships, heartaches, laughs, sadness, happiness and everything in between. As you read from chapter one and all the way through the latest arcs, you'll be unveiled to so many creative story developments, places, people and idea. That is what makes One Piece so fun, the creativity of it all. Eiichiro Oda (the manga-ka) has created such an amazing and unique world that it is something that you will have a hard time finding in other anime, if at all. Though the story seems simple at heart, as you read deeper into One Piece, you'll be unveiled to secret plots and hidden agendas that will have you shaking your legs in anticipation to see how everything will mesh together in the end.

The big difference in regards with the story of One Piece as compared to other shounen is the fact that the story actually gets better as the series progresses longer, breaking the age-old cliche that shounen titles usually carry, where the story will start to suffer the longer the series goes on. Oda has managed to introduce a plethora of different sub-plots that he flawlessly weaves together with the overarching aim of the story about friendship, the sense of adventure and the joys and heartaches that come with the pursuit of your dream. It takes awhile for the sub-plots to start developing, as Oda will subtlety leave hints and clues early on in his story that will blow you out of the water when you encounter them much later. This clearly shows that Oda knows exactly where he wants to go with the story.

One Piece has fallen under heavy scrutiny from all kinds of anime fans because of the different art style that Oda utilizes in his epic story. Honestly, it is a hit or miss. I have found that you will either love it or hate it and as a result, will either love One Piece or hate the anime. As unfortunate as that sounds, its the simple truth I have discovered about the art style. However, I do urge you to give it a shot because if there is anything that grows on you, it is this art style. As you read more and more and get used to seeing the art drawn "One Piece style," you'll - hopefully - grow to accept and love the style. The art style starts off not so great, but again, as the story develops, you can easily see how Oda and his assistants were able to refine the art to something that works, and looks, beautifully.

Going into other aspects of the drawings, everything is relatively easy to follow, especially the epic fights as compared to other shounen manga out there. It's a nice change of pace where you can actually understand what's going on. Backgrounds are given a nice amount of detail and character designs are original and fresh, with different arcs having characters with different clothes and such.

Arguably, the biggest strength of One Piece, that brings it over the top, is the characters and their developing relationships with one another. Luffy's crew has the most original and different mannerism characters you'll ever see in shounen anime and its a wonder how they all get along in the first place (then again, they all don't get along). Though Luffy is your typical shounen hero who is not bright, a black hole for a stomach (though in One Piece, his huge appetite has an actual reason behind it) and courageous when needed, what sets Luffy apart from other shounen heros is his hilarious personality. His comic relief is so funny that you'll be laughing out loud at some of the things he does. The same can be said about the other crew members, and really, every major character in One Piece itself. All characters have a defining trait or quality that you'll either love to pieces or hate with a passion. Watching as they interact with one another and often times their completely opposite personalities clashing with one another, it only provides great room for developing relationships between the many characters in One Piece.

And it is these great developments between characters in One Piece that leads to the biggest theme the encompasses One Piece - friendship...or as stated a seemingly infinite number of times - nakama. However, the word nakama, though commonly referred to as friend, comrade and such, has a deep-rooted meaning that cannot be described in words. More than friends, bonds running deeper than blood can tie people together, you get the picture. In order to understand the meaning, you really need to immerse yourself into One Piece and until you hear/read Luffy (who, by the way, is the only character who can say I will protect my nakama and look cool in doing so) say exactly that.

When you come right down to it, what sets apart One Piece from other long-running shounen is the plethora of genres that not only exist in One Piece, but really come alive and apparent. To begin with, an essential part of One Piece is it's comedy. While other shounen try to input comedy as much as possible, usually it doesn't live up to expectations or is very scarce within the story. One Piece is filled with comedy that, as I stated up above, will make you laugh out loud. And this is only accentuated by the great drawings of Oda himself.

However, as much as the humor is a big part of One Piece, there are also many stunning events that will draw a lot of passion out of you, whether it be a feeling of sadness, happiness, anger or simply have you staring in the page at awe, Again, I cannot stress this enough that One Piece is a story that has every single plot element you can wish for. Well, with the exception of a true romance, but because of the nature of the characters, it's kind of hard to see a budding romance evolve. And as a result, Oda wisely has left it out to date. You'll see a everything from mystery, suspense, drama, a little dash of horror, etc.

Overall, for roughly every two or three die-hard fans of One Piece, you'll probably find one person who can't stand the series. Which pretty much goes to show you that regardless of what rumors you may hear about how amazing or how ridiculous One Piece is, it is something you must experience for yourself and give it a fair chance. I will play devil's advocate and say that One Piece is slow to start off with, where the story really doesn't pick up until the Arlong Arc. Until Luffy recruits the first four or five crew members, then the hilarious character interactions start coming alive. And coincidentally, that is when the plot starts to hit its stride, with Oda starting to leave his hints of what's to come later. It does take some patience.

If anything, I urge you to read up to there and a little further so you can get a sense of what's to come. If you still can't understand why its so epic, its safe to say you may drop the series. However, when you compare One Piece to other shounen anime of its kind, and really, all anime and manga to date, there is no other story out there as epic, as emotional, as developing, as truly amazing as what Oda is telling in One Piece.

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