Hey guys what is up welcome back to my blog I’m so thankful that you guys took the time out of your day to read my blog post. Hope you all are safe and healthy. My journey with the Big 3 has been completed now. I have finally caught up to One Piece and before you guys attack me for the title, no, I don’t think that One Piece is bad, I just think that it isn’t “peak fiction” like the toxic One Piece fans claim it to be. Now I won’t spoil a lot here like I’ll just name-drop a few characters but as you already know, MILD SPOILERS AHEAD.
The story begins with the execution of the Pirate King, Gold Roger who tells the world that his entire treasure has been hidden and the world can find it, this treasure is named the One Piece. Roger’s declaration sets off a new age in the world, the Age of Pirates. Elsewhere on a small island a boy named Luffy is talking a pirate who has come to his island named Shanks. Luffy always insists on going along with Shanks to the open sea but Shanks refuses each time. This time however Shanks has brought with him, a devil fruit, fruits that give humans abilities and in return take away their ability to swim. Luffy eats this fruit called the Gomu Gomu fruit and becomes a rubber man with his entire body being able to stretch. Shanks gives Luffy his straw hat and asks him to return that when he is a great pirate. Years later, Luffy who has now mastered his powers sets out to sea with one dream in mind, to be the Pirate King.
One Piece has a lot of characters and rarely forgets them because every single character that you see will somehow affect the story later on. However, One Piece has a lot less character development than most manga out there but that doesn’t make it less fun. There’s the MC Luffy, a carefree and compassionate and sometimes smart kid who wishes to be the King of Pirates. We have the mature and mysterious Shanks who plays a more background role in the story. There’s the loyal swordsman Zoro who is on a quest to fulfill a promise. We have the smart thief, Car Burglar Nami who might just be one of the better written morally grey characters in the series. We have the sharpshooter, liar and proud pirate Ussop. And last but certainly not the least, the strong and honourable chef Sanji. There’s many, many more characters but there’s only so much I can talk about.
The manga has some great art despite the time it comes from. It’s funny with its humor though nothing too great. It can get you emotional at the right moments and it really makes those moments count. The backstories are amazing as well and really show a well crafted world as it should because the strongest point of One Piece is it’s world building. There’s exciting fights and creative battle tactics which more than make up for the lack of fear of a character’s death because this is a manga from the 90s. There’s some really amazing plot twists that will leave you speechless at times but the problem also comes in that it acts like a Shonen and has plenty plot armour moments. The manga is more focused on adventure than the plot and while the plot does move forward due to the adventures, it can at sometimes feel that the adventure is useless when you’re chasing after the deeper plot (like me). The manga does talks about some issues in the latter half but it never is able to go deep into them. It has those issues more as subtext than as themes. It also misses out on character development a lot of times. There’s also the fact that it requires a lot of patience like Higurashi if you’re the type that loves a deep plot full of mysteries and stuff like that.
There’s lots of things that One Piece can teach you, you can learn one thing each arc however, the one I’ll pick out for now is that it makes you reflect on what true treasure is because for some people it’s gold or something of value, for some it’s a thing that may not be of monetary value. This is something that will hit heavy for us because we live in a materialistc world and people that like different things will understand that different things matter to different people.
The manga is currently ongoing at 1049 chapters. The end may just be in sight but I cannot say for sure. There are a lot of plotlines that need to be tied up and I do think that Oda needs to be trusted here because after all his work is the type that connects the dots further down the line. While it may not be “peak fiction” as the toxic One Piece fans claim that it is, One Piece is a really good shonen that while having its faults, is a story that makes up for those faults and provides a very enjoyable experience.
So that is it for this post guys hope you got some value from this. Thank you guys for reading to the end hit me up on Instagram and Twitter with your thoughts and if you have any ideas on what I should write about. Stay safe. Thank you again and I’ll see you all next week.
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