Now I, like everyone else who has reviewed the show, am giving it a 10, a rave review, and overall I've lopped off one of my fingers and replaced it with a thumb, solely to gain the ability of giving this show 3 thumbs up. But understand, I've re-watched this series from the beginning 4 times now, and read through the manga twice. I know One Piece inside and out, and I'm not here to simply rave. I'm here to give it a fair review.
Shounen Syndrome is an anime infection with symptoms ranging from over-exposed attack explanations to lengthy conversations where they aren't necessary to horrendous filler arcs and even all the way to episode recaps that take up a good quarter of the time the episode is alloted.
One Piece is not immune to this. No attack can simply go unnamed, or unexplained. Though they'll only explain it once, and it's usually not as horrible as it sounds. Though One Piece is in an interesting position in that they know it's ridiculous. The joking nature of the characters often brings up the "It's not cool if it doesn't have a cool name" mentality. So you could let One Piece off the hook to some extent, as it almost satirizes the rest of shounen by participating.
One Piece also did something I'm not a big fan of. Starting around episode 300, they started using opening themes that lasted a full 2 and a half minutes. Followed by 30 seconds of intro, and then 30 seconds - 3 minutes of recap. Sometimes you'll have to start watching 6 minutes into the episode to actually get to new content. But this is both a blessing and a curse. For you see, One Piece filler tends to be pretty horrible. So, around episode 300, they upped the animation quality for widescreen TV. And to be able to put out this quality animation once a week, a shorter episode time makes the jobs of the animators easier, and production more cost effective. This meant a more quality product, in shorter spurts. The shorter spurts however, contribute to less filler. And for this reason alone, the reduced episode time and long recaps are in fact a blessing for One Piece fans. Though not many would know it.
So what about the actual show? I'll assume if you're on this page, you already know a bit about One Piece. It's a show following the adventures of Monkey D Luffy and his ragtag crew of pirates searching for the great treasure "One Piece," with the ambition of becoming the Pirate King (the one who rules over the greatest seas of the world). The story is solid, and has only been better developed over time. Oda has done something wonderful, in that he had his story planned out long before it got there, and it seems he's having even more fun with One Piece now than at the start of his career. This contributes greatly to the enjoyment factor One Piece provides.
The art style is the biggest complaint I've heard about One Piece. A lot of people have told me they just flat out disliked the art style, and that was one of the biggest reasons they didn't want to watch the show. Though I can't understand this, I guess One Piece's art style is more cartoony than most anime. But that art style reflects the values of the series. It IS cartoony, in spirit. That's kind of the point. That being said, if that's not your thing, I can respect that. The other thing to mention about the animation is that it's been going since the year 2000. As such, earlier episodes definitely aren't up to snuff in terms of animation quality, especially as it's a shounen with a budget. But as the series and time progressed, the animation quality progressed as well and is now very well done.
By far though, the characters in One Piece are what you enjoy the most. Luffy is your typical anime shounen, the kind of guy you can't help but love. He's simplistic and dim-witted, but his heart's in the right place and that's what sticks. Everyone is well written and typed, and the character development throughout the series is rather impressive. New synergies arise that both reflect Oda slipping into a more comfortable mindset whilst writing his character's parts, and the characters themselves becoming more accustomed to each other.
Overall, One Piece has been going 10 years. And in those 10 years, the crew has grown up and developed with it's audience. Even given it's Shounen faults, it still does an absolutely wonderful job of story telling and entertaining. The main point I would bring up is never watch the 4kids dub. It's not One Piece. If there was one example I could provide to convince you of this, they turned a french chef into a brooklyn accented disaster... smoking a lollipop.
That is One Piece. My most timeless anime. It's an experience I would recommend to any and all anime fans, though I know it may not be a good fit for many.
