One Piece

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Here's the thing, it used to be me writing a single review for each arc, but I think that's too much work. So, I want to wrap it in one and say about this series in the way I think is cool with me the most. One Piece is cinema, or might be the peak of anime. There are always arguments with people saying it's bad, it's mid, some are just extravagant about the anime itself, but for me, One Piece is for everybody and it's amazing in general, despite how people want to think. I honestly have never cared about what exactly people may ... want to talk about One Piece because let's be honest, you can call it good or bad, or even trash, the worst anime of all time—anything you wish to call this anime—but you can't disagree that this piece of art, this work that Oda has so much love for, is something you need to watch before you die, even if you hate it so much. One Piece doesn't matter if it has 1000 episodes for you to catch up on, or if it doesn't need to be compared with anybody. One Piece is One Piece on its own, and if you don't want to watch it, that's okay because every anime always has people that dislike and do not need to watch it. I have always been wanting to watch One Piece because the topic and concept, everything about this anime, has always been interesting for me to discover since I was a kid. And when I got to be part of the community, I'm very grateful that I have the chance to catch up on one of the best (if not the best) pieces of animanga I have ever seen in my whole life. I could say it's my favorite anime because I quite like this more than Evangelion now, but I still don't think it's the greatest anime of all time in general. Joy, emotion, moments, and everything deserves to be called the GOAT, but I'm sure there are still anime out here that are better, and that's why we shouldn't compare One Piece to anything else to ruin its reputation. Let's let One Piece breathe its own legacy, and let's just appreciate the fact that we have One Piece to watch for once in our life. I love One Piece. I love every character (law is my favs), every villain, every resource of the land that the Straw Hat Pirates have visited. I love how the story goes, and I love the foreshadowing that Oda brings to the story itself. I also love the music that has been a part of this series. I even love most of the movies that are One Piece-related. One Piece is all about love for me when it comes to the series itself, and I want to enjoy One Piece without thinking it's better than anything else. One Piece is One Piece; it's just an anime for everybody, and I think we all should just come in peace and enjoy this anime without ruining its reputation and, you know, just have fun with it. That's what One Piece is really all about, just like the main protagonist always embodies.

One Piece is a masterpiece, but as much is it a slow starter.
I didn´t enjoy the first 200 Chapter of this Manga at it all, after this it gets much better with the Water 7 saga starting at Chapter 322(if you skip Long Ring Long Land, what you really should as it is one of the worst arcs in manga history) Water 7 is a masterpiece and for me it was the Saga were I finally thought that not having dropped OP earlier was the right choice,but...
Then comes Thriller Bark, it isn´t nearly as bad as the arc mentioned before, but especially after this ... really good saga thriller bark is a massive slow down in pace and quality and made me pause the manga for half a year.
But what then? What if you really put all that time into OP to get past Thriller Bark? It´s a masterpiece after that point, nearly every chapter is atleast a 9/10 and the story grows at a good pace and quality.

One Piece really is about keeping it up till you like it and that isn´t something for everyone.
It will develop into a 10/10 that I promise, but you might not wanna waste so much time for so long and that is totally fine.

Have you ever wanted to sit down and read 1000+ chapters of a meandering and middling Shonen Battle manga?

No really, do you really want to spend countless hours reading chapters and even more waiting for said chapters?

Because, ONE PIECE by Eiichiro Oda will surely satisfy this desire.

Characters:
More than 1000 chapters in and there isn't really any significant changes to characters in terms of personality or they way they conduct themselves. They remain static or in some cases actually degenerate in quality, just look at Usopp, Chopper, and Nami after the timeskip LMAO

Luffy is still a dumbass and doesn't learn from his past journey or mistakes ... leading to him still acting recklessly, and pointlessly endangering his crew,

Sanji supposedly loves women and wants to protect them yet turns into a sexual predator whenever one is on screen. In the post timeskip Fishman Island arc he nearly dies from a nosebleed after seeing a bunch of mermaids. Oda and his audience really think this gag of sexual perversion is funny when its not. it's just contradicting his character, and even worse perpetuates a culture of sexual assault.

Usopp learns nothing from his timeskip training, constantly sways from being confident and a coward like he has a personality disorder. He was always a nonsensical character considering he was one of the bravest people pre timeskip and had no problem fighting people stronger than him over his beliefs like he did with Luffy in Water 7

Eiichiro Odor is also incapable of giving these characters a backstory and past that isn't blatantly trying its hardest to make you cry, feel sympathetic for them in an organic way or feel anger towards whoever did them wrong, he doesn't understand that the more he does this the less impact these backstories will have overall.

A big example of this being Senor Pink who was part of a crew that took over an entire country, abuse its citizens, and Oda tries to justify this behavior and make us feel sympathetic for him because his son died. What a joke.

This only scrapes the surface of how garbage the characters are on this series.

Story:

One Piece is often praised for its masterful "foreshadowing" when it is literally nothing more than Oda retconning every concept and justifying it through some vague message in a small panel from hundreds of chapters ago when literally no one could have come to that conclusion realistically.

The story arcs are also nothing to write home about, and are extremely formulaic with even dumber antagonists that continuously spare Luffy when they are more than strong enough to kill him. (Crocodile, Lucci, Kaido, who is the worst case of this etc).

The story and its Fanbase try to present itself as complex when every scenario is Black and White in its morality, the strawhats are good and the CP9, Beast Pirates, Baroque Works, etc are evil. There is nothing in this story that ever forces you to think outside of your comfort zone, all the morality is done for you

Setting/Worldbuilding:

The world of One Piece is as wide as an ocean but as deep as a puddle, do not expect it to make any sense when it's full of retcons such Luffy's whole family tree, Shanks, The God Knights, Haki, Saul Being Alive, and the list just goes on.

The worst case of this is the reveal of the Nika Nika fruit which makes the World Government look EVEN MORE INCOMPETENT THAN THEY ALREADY WERE.

They clearly knew who Luffy was, they clearly knew who his family was, they clearly knew he carried the fruit, but for some reason never thought about killing him and just let him grow stronger? If they lose its because of their own incompetence at this point.

1000 chapters, 2 decades in and there ARE STILL silhouette characters in this story. It is nothing more than just questions, vague statements and mystery bait instead of actually answering or building onto concepts.


Themes:
The main theme of the story is liberation and freedom but it runs in contrast to the destinies and prophecies in the story.

The biggest example of this is the retcon that devil fruits have wills of their own, and can possess their user meaning that Luffy isn't actually free, and is just a slave to his devil fruit, and everyone else is just a chess piece in the prophecy

it's also funny because One Piece fans are ironically the most intolerant people. They will shove this series in your face then get mad if you don't like it or don't want to read it.

Have complaints or criticism? They will ask why you even bothered to read it yet will get mad if you don't want to read it.

Art:
The artwork is also nothing to write home about, as it starts off mediocre and by the timeskip it devolves into messy lineart, and crowded panels everywhere making it a chore to read, and figure out what's going on.

Case in point being Wano which was crowded with characters and constantly jumped between their perspectives and events going on without any sense of flow.

Conclusion:

for a story that spans over 1000 episodes, over 1000 chapters,over several decades, One Piece is extremely subpar in quality, and the fact that this is highly rated just goes to show that the readers of this series and website have extremely low standards, and have poor media literacy.

If you want something better with a similar scope of adventure read something like HxH, Magi, The Odyssey, Lord of the Rings or just anything else really.

Absolute garbage. 0/100