Mar 28, 2012
I'm not trying to be at all objective with this review, as I have grown up reading this manga, so it's inevitable that my partiality is going to shine through just a bit. Well, more than a bit. My "review" is, more or less, a praise bonanza.
One Piece has been a part of my life for a long time, now. It was only the second manga I ever caught up to so to speak, and it's been going on for so long that it's damn near impossible for me to write a proper review for for the series. There have been so many arcs that
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I don't even know where to begin, and, truth be told, the storyline has never truly been what drives me to continue looking forward to new chapters week after week, anyway.
What makes One Piece truly special to me is it's light hearted characters, fun sense of adventure, and humour. Few Manga have been able to invoke audible laughter from me, and One Piece is on that list. With the exception of the Impel Down and Marine Ford arcs, the series seldom loses sight of these elements.
Another especially notable aspect of the series is it's characters. There are a wealth of stand-out characters in One Piece. Not only are almost all of them unique and peculiar in their own ways, but each and every one of them is fleshed out over the course of the various arcs. By the time I'd caught up to the weekly releases, Luffy's crew, and even a surprising number of the side characters, had begun to feel like old friends, and that "bond" has only grown stronger over the years.
Furthermore, One Piece's artwork is uniquely stylistic, and aids the overall light hearted feel of the manga brilliantly. The backgrounds are nicely fleshed out. The various islands the crew visits throughout the series are uniquely themed. The characters who inhabit them, almost without fail, have their own quirky traits to coincide with the crazy lands they live in.
Character design is an area in which One Piece both excels and fails. In the early chapters, it is sometimes difficult to tell some of the characters apart. This is a problem many manga seem to have, especially when it comes to female characters. A chief example of this is Vivi, Nami, and Kaya; Without the aide of unique hair colours to tell them apart, they look nearly identical. Later chapters more or less rectify this fault, though, as the new character designs begin to look more fantastic, even as the art style grows more realistic.
One Piece receives a great deal of hate from certain Anime fans, some of it deservedly so. It is most certainly not a series that everyone can enjoy, but, if you're looking for a fun, quirky series, and you don't mind a few Shounen clichés, I would highly recommend that you at least give it a chance.
Overall, reading this series has been an almost entirely positive experience for me. That's not to say that it hasn't had it's low moments, but the highs far outweigh the lows in this grand adventure. I have yet to find another anime or manga that embodies the spirit of kinship and adventure in quite the same way as One Piece. This is a series that, to me, will never grow old.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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