Far too many of my peers balk at the idea of watching, or even reading Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, the posterboy of Shonen manga, and, in my humble opinion, a masterclass in worldbuilding, characterization and lore.
It’s such an unusual situation for a fan of series to be in. I mean, it did obtain a world record for the most printed comic series by a single author. It’s a phenomenon across the world, by any yardstick you can use. And yet I barely have anyone to discuss the manga irl, apart from the enthusiastic folks at r/OnePiece. I think I’m writing this piece to convince those who’ll read it to join the OP community, while also trying to put into words how one stretchy, goofy idiot’s ambition has enraptured me for more than 8 years at the time of writing.
Think of it this way: choosing to embark on this journey will save you literal months of decision fatigue, all the while keeping you enthralled with Luffy’s journey to become the Pirate King.
The artstyle comes up quite often in casual conversation with people right on the cusp of taking the plunge. “The characters are so ugly!” “How can anyone take this seriously?” “Naruto looks so much better”. Oof. That last one is enough to make long term fans of OP gnash their teeth.
The goofy artstyle is a deterrent to curious eyes, while the ever-increasing length makes even those possessing the most time on their hands sweat. You’d have to take my word for it, but the artstyle grows on you after watching/reading a mere fraction of what the story has to offer. Quite a few people call One Piece an absurdist manga, and it’s not hard to see why. Some of the character designs are wildly out there, featuring designs that would’ve passed off as hideously funny, were it not for the fairly serious stakes of One Piece. It is an action-adventure manga, after all. They tend to have world-dominating endgames. It is a testament to Eiichiro Oda’s setting and universe that all sorts of characters, from top-knotted samurai, to mermen, to literal dinosaurs, feel like they belong. An interesting, wacky new design is just how things are on another island on our main character’s journey. Oda also isn’t afraid to poke fun at his own art in-universe too, with characters frequently commenting on particularly unusual looking characters. The length of the series has also contributed to a changing artstyle over the years, with characters looking remarkably more cartoonish earlier on.
Speaking of characters…
The series has been undergoing serialization for more than 2 decades now. If you’re above 20 years of age right now, you probably weren’t even capable of speaking, let alone reading when Oda published his first chapter, Romance Dawn.
It is the year 2021 now. There have been hundreds of named characters making appearances in the story, present in minor to major roles. Some of them are solely present for gags. Despite this, despite the absolute scale of the roster on display, a roster that is ever-increasing with each new adventure, readers remember these characters. Doesn’t matter if they showed up a year back or ten. The characters in the OP-verse tend to remain in memory, be it via design, or plot, or even via dialogue. The characters seem like they matter. Of course, this is the story of Luffy at the end of the day, but time and again Oda shows his readers that the story might as well have been from any other character’s perspective. For goodness’ sake, each of the Straw Hats are capable of being main characters in their own stories. The characters are routinely shown to have their own grandiose motives, motives they’re working on even when our protagonists are wreaking havoc on an island towards the other end of the Grand Line.
This last bit that I spoke about, about characters working on their own, is where One Piece truly shines. The world is shown to be a breathing, organic place, with events having repercussions elsewhere. Some of the hypest moments in the story occur after a particular saga is over, simply because we’re shown what other characters have been up to all this while. We’re shown glimpses of how the world is changing. This dynamism is what sets One Piece apart from other shonen manga. The world doesn’t sit tight waiting for our protagonists to finish their current adventure.
The story is like a machine, and the perspective readers are shown is but a cog.
The cartoonish look of the manga belies the themes depicted over the course of the story. One of the earliest conflicts depicted in the story is an allegory to racism and slavery. Through the eyes of our characters, we’re shown social phenomena like authoritatian oppression, policy-induced famines, wanton torture, hedonism and even government bodies hellbent on rewriting history in their favour. Not to forget, this story revolves around pirates. Our protagonists aside, the majority of the pirates depicted indulge quite frequently in, well, pirate stuff. Looting and killing and their ilk.
If not for the vibrant art and the characterization displayed, why, the Grand Line is a very scary place to be in.
Like all Shonen manga, fights are a key element of plot progression. Fights against draconian overlords, powerful lynchpins, and governments (both local and global) are peppered aplenty throughout the story. While choreography is not necessarily the highlight of each fight, readers would be hard-pressed to deny the sheer creativity that goes into writing some of them, and the development that follows. Fights in One Piece are gnarly, brutal affairs; you can practically feel the impact of every blow. It doesn’t matter whether a fight is to save the life of a dog or an entire country, each fight feels so utterly important to the story. The conviction displayed by the Straw Hat crew when taking fights to stick up for their ideals serves to really drive home this point. The portrayal of ideologies, and how characters stick to them no matter the cost is integral to the story, and the fights here are a highly effective medium to show this.
The interactions between the Straw Hat pirates, both on and off the battlefield are far and away my favourite in any media I’ve interacted with.
One Piece is massive. Two decades on, and perhaps the story is more than two-thirds of the way through. With the anime reaching new highs in 2021, and one of the best arcs in the manga drawing to a climax, now is a great time to embark on this journey.
Happy reading, fellow nakama!
And of course, thank you, Eiichiro Oda.
Side note: The actual episode? Episode 1000? All I can say is that I’m so lucky I decided to watch One Piece way back in 2013.
