The Facts:

Title: One Piece

Author and artist: Eiichiro Oda

First published in Japan by Shueisha Tokyo on 22 July 1997

Series: One Piece (103 books and continuing)

Plot summary:

One Piece is a story about Monkey D Luffy and his journey to becoming the Pirate King. Along the way, he makes friends and convinces people to join his crew. His main goal is finding the treasure called the One Piece that belonged to Gol D Roger, the “Pirate King” that was left on an island called Laugh Tale.

Graphics:

At the start of the series, the graphics are a solid 6/10, something any artist could be proud of. The cover art was catchy, and the unique character shapes made them easily recognisable. Fast forward, to when the Straw Hats enter the “New World”, in roughly book 60 post-time-skip, with the introduction of Haki and more terrifying enemies, the cover art stepped up to a 9/10. Making this series even more addictive. Having grown up through the power of time-skip also, the characters also benefited from a redesign, and the new model looks better than before.  

Context in the Manga Universe:

One Piece has a massive role in the Manga Universe being the most popular manga in the world. Due to its popularity like Naruto and Bleach, One Piece is a part of the Big 3 and is Shonen Jump’s number 1 seller. It is a great gateway manga, the best place to start, and for me the easiest to return to.

What I like most:

What I like most about One Piece is that the protagonist Luffy doesn’t care about a person’s history or background. He takes people as he finds them and just wants to be friends.  If someone crosses one of his friends, he will do everything in his power to help. He literally recruited a skeleton then fought a Warlord to get the skeleton’s shadow back so that he could join his crew.  When one of his crewmates was captured he raided a Marine base to save them from execution, showing his trademark loyalty above fear and commitment to friendship that inspires me.

What I like least:

What I like least about One Piece is how the female characters don’t get as much time to demonstrate their skills. Sure at the end of each narrative ark, each crew member gets to have their big fight, but it would be cool to see Nami or Robin destroy a marine ship that got in the way of their boat like Zoro and Usopp get to do or block one of the big bad guy’s attacks like Zoro. I am hoping that future books will take the opportunity to correct this imbalance.

Recommended for age:

Whilst One Piece is light and funny at times, it can dive into some deep stuff like slavery, race, and corrupt governments. It also has a significant issue in the way it portrays women, giving them overly large breasts and tiny waists. The recommendation for One Piece is 11+ but in my opinion children under the age of 12+ shouldn’t be reading it without the opportunity to discuss some of its problematic aspects.

Interesting fact:

One Piece holds a Guinness Book of World Records title for the most copies published in the same comic book series by a single author. Whenever I read this, my next thought is always “and it’s not even finished”.

How to explain it to your parents/teacher:

This series is about an orphan whose father figure Red Haired Shanks, is a pirate and as a result wants to become a pirate. Due to Luffy’s uncontrollable hunger and the careless move of Shanks, Luffy ends up eating a devil fruit and getting Devil fruit powers. Luffy embarks on his adventure to become the Pirate King and along the way he recruits a bunch of misfits that become his crew, defeating villains across regions and inspiring towns as he leaves them.

Film/TV crossover:

One Piece has one tv series that is continuing to be made concurrent with the release of the Manga. The franchise also has 18 films and 56 games including 11 mobile games

In Bibliography:

Oda, E. 2022, ‘One Piece Volume 1’, Viz [image] Available https://www.viz.com/read/manga/one-piece-volume-1/product/139, Accessed 8 October 2022.

Oda, E. 2022, ‘One Piece Volume 100’, Viz [image] Available https://www.viz.com/read/manga/one-piece-volume-100/product/7142, Accessed 8 October 2022.