Leung Oda 36

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece

Reviewed by Anson Leung

Oda’s One Piece is about a young boy, Monkey D Luffy, who dreams of becoming the “king of the pirates” across all the oceans in order to obtain his concept of freedom. He does not care too much about monetary wealth in general, or even the monetary value of the titular “One Piece”, which is a treasure supposedly containing an unimaginable amount of wealth. For reference, the “One Piece” is a treasure left behind by the former King of the Pirates Gol D. Roger, and a treasure most people don’t know the actual contents of. The myth behind the “One Piece” is enough to draw people across the world to find it. And yet, Luffy doesn’t care too much about it, when it comes down to it.

Luffy does seek the “One Piece”, but only because his role models also desire the “One Piece” in order to be able to call themselves “King of the Pirates”. Ultimately though, he only wants to become King of the Pirates in order to obtain total freedom, a concept which is almost as baffling as the mysterious contents behind the “One Piece” treasure (why he’d think being a pirate is associated with freedom is questionable at best). It should be noted that he is not burdened by any constraints that take away his freedom, and as the story goes on, we find he actually comes from a somewhat prestigious background. But he still desires freedom, even as a concept to be chased as much as it is to be obtained. For him, even if the “One Piece” didn’t exist, he would still be chasing some form of freedom, even if that was as simple as hanging out with friends and enjoying life to the fullest. As it stands though, he is very much after the “One Piece”. In the pirate world, the people fighting to get the “One Piece” have either their own inherent and trained powers, or the powers obtained through devil fruits. The main character, after accidentally eating a devil fruit as a child, can stretch his body like rubber, and use momentum similar to a rubber band to launch many strong punches at his opponents. His power is only considered low- to mid-tier, as villains and other heroes have even stronger powers than he does. His creativity allows him to fight on par with them, though.

The start of his journey has the teenaged Luffy meeting up and saving Coby, a boy who is not very physically strong, from slavery to his captor, Captain Alvida. Coby, to the surprise of the audience, does not end up joining Luffy’s crew. However, he is still a semi-important character, and his dream is to become the head of the Navy.

Skipping ahead into the current stage of the story, Coby has a very clear and probable path to becoming head of the Navy. Contrast this to Luffy; at this point in the story, he is among the top 4 contenders in the world to become King of the Pirates. The Navy opposes all pirates, including Luffy, so this may be a conflict down the road. Surprisingly, this conflict isn’t even an ongoing one in the background. But it may come to a head one day, so readers should look forward to it.

After saving Coby, his journey truly begins. He and the rest of his eventual crew, all of whom are in their late teens, come together through a series of adventures and the saving of every one of them.

First, he meets up, saves, and recruits Zoro, a noted pirate hunter, from a “kangaroo court” execution. Next, he meets and recruits Usopp, after saving him from Captain Kuro, a pirate masquerading as a butler to his dear friend Kaya. Nami, a thief in the background up to this point, also joins the crew. Luffy later saves her and her town from Arlong, who is a merman pirate that was forcing Nami to become a thief while holding her town hostage. As a thank-you gift for saving her from Captain Kuro, Kaya uses her wealth to give the 4 friends, now known as the “straw hat pirates” a much more suitable ship. Finally, Zanji, a cook infatuated with any woman he can find, joins up with the crew after Luffy and his gang save his boss’ restaurant from Don Krieg, the first truly formidable pirate the gang encounters who operates on a massive scale. With this, the core 5 characters are assembled. The gathering of the 5 main characters is merely the first few arcs of many, though. Secondary characters, such as Brook, a skeleton swordsman, and Tony Chopper, a reindeer doctor, are introduced. Allies and enemies come into the story, disappear for hundreds of chapters, then re-emerge later on. The power-ups the main characters get are spaced apart at different intervals for all of them and can happen at any time in the story. Currently, the story is near its conclusion, but the final arc, which is ongoing right now, is going to be the longest and most rewarding this series has to offer.

One Piece is not like other manga. It is very long, detailed, in-depth, and is almost suffocating in terms of the amount of reading one must do to not miss out on key details down the road. If a person is not a fan of serious reading, this manga is not for them. Nothing is improvised without a detailed plan backing up the outline. The story feels truly organic, with no plot holes or unnecessary fanservice pandering. The characters have a unique design, and it feels like a very immersive world that few other manga, even world-class ones, can rival. The reader feels like they could live a life inside the One Piece world. However, the manga is excellent only through the first part of the manga (more specifically, before the time skip when they try to get strong enough to cross the Grand Line in order to truly start trying to obtain the “One Piece” treasure). From there, the story starts to pander to wider, mainstream audiences, and the characters feel more generic. For some reason, the female characters have their bust sizes increased dramatically, and the darker-skinned characters seem lighter. This may leave a bad taste in some readers’ mouths. But the story is still engaging enough to keep readers from leaving, and to find a conclusion to a story that once held so much promise.

The world of One Piece is not a joyful one. There are moments of bliss, but everyone is corrupt, more or less. Most pirates who aren’t their allies are enemies. The Navy itself is corrupt regarding its executive leadership, and will kill innocent people if it means maintaining its reputation. A noticeable instance is when they ordered the death of a pirate crew for trying to stop the execution of one of their own members. This is reasonable in itself. And yet, they kept trying to order their men into a pointless battle/ their deaths even after the person about to become executed already died, at which point fighting the pirate crew became pointless.

An even more egregious example is the “World Nobles”, a legally-designated higher power in the story. Reflecting a truly despotic rule, they will capture humans off the street for fun if they desire. Literal slavery exists in broad daylight in front of policemen, and the common citizens are powerless to do anything about it. For that matter, this violation of human rights extends to local and less powerful royalty, who are spread across different islands. The reasoning behind their power: Their word is law and they will go unchallenged in this regard and that’s just the way it is. Granted, we do get more backstory on how they came to power, but for the most part, yes, they were born into this power that nobody can oppose for whatever reason. Even the Navy is not able to touch them.

The real heroes are the main characters, despite being pirates and deemed a threat by the world government. As much as there are moments of slapstick comedy, there are just as many dramatic and plot-important moments, too. There are too many arcs and locations to begin to keep track of, which is why getting to where the 5 main characters are formed into their own crew can be considered a good and safe starting point before immersing into the true meat of the story. Spanning over 1000 chapters, there is probably something for everybody if they look hard enough.

Fight scenes will range from characters launching gigantic energy waves at each other and decimating the landscape around them, to intelligence-based fights on a smaller scale. Mihawk, the world’s greatest swordsman, has a fierce “black blade” that can launch green energy waves and destroy parts of icebergs with no effort. One devil fruit is rumored to be able to “shake the world”. Contrast this to Usopp using a mallet to beat up a merman in very comedic fashion. Or Luffy knocking out Arlong’s teeth and using them as dentures in an attempt to injure Arlong, because his normal punches and even knivs cannot pierce his tough skin. Swinging back to the other side of the spectrum, a Navy admiral goes at supposedly the speed of light and knocks out 3 people before they can even hope to fight back. This is the wide range of possible battles in this vast universe.

Two of my favorite developed characters are Usopp and Zoro. Usopp is a chronic liar. He tells stories to make himself look big because he knows he’s weak and has an inferiority complex. He is relatable as an underdog. Despite his shortcomings, he will never abandon his friends, no matter the odds and the inherent cowardice he has. Keep in mind that he is a mostly normal human character fighting against opponents who have actual super powers. These powers that come from eating devil fruits range from turning their body into fire, to being able to cut through anything. The main character’s own powers eventually give him the ability to alter reality, despite initially only giving him the power of rubber.

Zoro, despite his dream of becoming the world’s greatest swordsman, is not solely after power. He is doing this both for his own desire, and to honor a promise to a long dead childhood friend, Kuina. Kuina had always been the better swordsman, and never once lost to Zoro in all the times they fought. In an intense sparring match between them, Zoro, who had been steadily improving but still unable to beat her, breaks down into tears. He wonders why he can never win. Bitterly, she replies that “it’s only a matter of time”. She could never become the best swordsman in the world because she is not a man. She cannot do so biologically. This is a poignant argument made by her in the story, and one she never gets the chance to develop. She tragically dies shortly after “falling down the stairs” and landing on a nearby cutting stone. Enraged that she’ll never have her dream come true, he decides to fulfill her dreams for her. Even in the present day, he wields her family’s prized sword, gifted to her by her father because he announced he would make her dreams come true when he became the world’s greatest swordsman, vicariously speaking. And so, when he first encounters the world’s greatest swordsman and loses to him easily, he refuses to run away, and would rather die than to give up on his dream. Because, right or wrong, he thinks it would be an insult to her and her memory if he does. This wins the admiration of world’s greatest swordsman, Mihawk, who later agrees to train him to get stronger. These stories blend both slightly unrealistic and melodramatic “shonen” fantasy with elements of real struggles people go through, and make them two of the best characters in this series.

One Piece focuses on emotional payoff involving the main characters helping strangers or their own friends. It also has strong action scenes, great world building, and a sense of an immersive world readers will want to get themselves into. It is a great story whose promise was never quite fulfilled to its fullest, but nevertheless became excellent.

Anson Leung is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s Bachelor of Commerce program. He is an Alberta-based writer who loves all forms of writing, including poetry and article writing. In his spare time, he loves playing tennis and board games.