Within its quirky and joyful nature resides other more mature themes than one might expect. Throughout this world of pirates, and the governmental authority known as the marines, persecution of people, racial prejudice, and censorship of countries are commonplace. The crew of the Straw Hats are no exception to this, each battling past and present challenges in their unique way. But from the beginning of the story, Luffy has always stood out from the world around him. His carefree and ambitious personality shines. He does not allow himself to be shaped by the hardships he encounters. More often than not, the world conforms around him. This contagious attitude spreads to the friends he meets, the family-like crew he builds, and the viewers themselves. He desires true freedom, and that dream continues to push him forward. This charming straight-forward approach to character writing is greatly appreciated and is only one of the many wonderful facets found here. The story continues to expand to incredible heights with careful world-building, memorable lessons, and lovable characters. There is no shortage of positive topics to write about. However, while there is a lot of praise to be given, there are some aspects that we cannot ignore.
The production has been, and will continue to be, what holds this back from being truly great in anime form. The release schedule, which continued practically without letup, has almost exclusively contributed to the largest flaw of them all: the pacing. Moreover, this problem breaches into many other aspects of the creative process, often causing inconsistent episode results, even spanning into entire arcs. While this is primarily regarded as a problem that plagues most long-running anime, particularly Shōnen, the effects are seen here to an egregious extent. Viewers can go from watching one of the best episodes in the series to experiencing what feels like lengthy spans of filler quality production value. What should be a relatively short section can be dragged on for weeks, making some key moments suffer. On the other hand, periods of animation can increase in standard dramatically, though almost immediately followed by grating flashbacks of information just recently seen, up to several times. This fluctuation in quality creates obstacles between the viewer and truly engaging with the story. We can only hope that the problem with production schedules will be fixed in future iterations.
While transparency about the core problems present is important, this is by no means an attempt to persuade you to not delve into the world of One Piece. There is truly a lot to love here, with so many valuable lessons and morals. While Luffy is but one example, when you truly immerse yourself in this world, you will find that you grow along with both him and the story. This might not be one of the best anime out there from a production standpoint, but you will likely find that this one will pop into your head from time to time long after you watch sections of it. This is a story that will only continue to get more relatable as time goes on.
