One Piece (Anime Review)

So, now we get into, what I imagine will be the longest with these anime reviews of mine, One Piece. I know I've spoken about One Piece a ton of times on this already, but I think this is the perfect chance for me to talk about all my thoughts more in-depth. So, I don't think I need to explain just how popular the whole series of One Piece actually is. Ever since the manga started back in 1997, it's been one of the most popular manga series of all time. Eiichiro Oda has been doing this story for over twenty years and his art is even better than when it began. I myself got into the series two years ago. I had heard about how popular it was for so long and I really wanted to check it out. So, in January of 2018, I got the first DVD for it and I immediately became interested. And as I got more DVDs and watched the rest, I began to understand exactly why the series was so popular and I became a fan of it really quickly. I even began to pick up the manga volumes as well. And so, let's go over a quick synopsis of the story. So, the series is set in a fictionalised version of Earth where pirate crews are basically everywhere and with a super corrupt government. There's also these things called Devil Fruits that can give a person some power if they eat them but at the cost losing their ability to swim for the rest of their lives. And, on an island in East Blue, there's a boy named Monkey D. Luffy who dreams to become the King Of The Pirates. He then begins to set off on a journey to find a crew and do that. The only way anyone can become the King Of The Pirates is by finding the treasure left by the previous King Of The Pirates, Gold Roger, known as the One Piece. So yeah, pretty simple story on first glance, but so much of greatness of the series is how much detail there is in the world the series is set in. The same goes for the characters as well, they're simplistic enough, but so much of their charm comes from how well written they are and their role in the world as well. The world building of the series is probably what this series does better than any other manga series. There's nothing in this that goes to waste to explain how the world functions and Oda has been doing an amazing job with that ever since the beginning. But, before we go any further with that, going back to the characters real quick, a lot of their roles help keep keep the series really interesting as well. Not only with how well detailed their pasts are, but also what they're doing in present times as well. The Straw Hats themselves are a good example of this. Each one has a past that clearly defines them, but their actions in the present helps with keeping them interesting and unique. This is one of, if not the most unique cast in any manga or anime. The Straw Hats themselves, as I was just saying, are all super unique and they're all so interesting and fun to watch that you could spend hours watching them. And then, in terms of the story itself, it opens up really well with introducing us to the world and then it just goes on with great character development. Though, in my opinion, the story really gets off the ground once the Straw Hats enter the Grand Line and we enter the Alabasta arc. As soon as that arc begins, the series becomes truly amazing. It was around this time that I realised how amazing the series is and understood why it was so popular. First off, I like the whole setup behind the Alabasta arc with it introducing Vivi and Igaram and the whole story with them, and Vivi herself may actually be one of my favourite characters in One Piece, I just love her character and I like what Oda did with her. And then the reveal of Crocodile and the Baroque Works being behind everything and the build up with the battle in Alabasta is really amazingly done. Like I said, Oda knows how to do this really well and the whole build up to the Alabasta fight feels really satisfying and feels like it's something that's paid off really well with so many amazing moments. And a lot of funny moments too. Remember how I said before about how I'm not really a big fan of Akira Toriyama's type of humour? Eiichiro Oda's humour is more what I look for in terms of comedy. And he does it really well. And the whole Alabasta story is amazing, maybe one of my favourite story arcs in all of anime. And, like I said, the world of One Piece is so well fleshed out that the whole layout of Alabasta alone is fantastic. You can point to different places in it and remember what's there, the world is just so well defined in that sense. And I love how this arc introduces Ace, he's always been one of my favourite characters and it was handled really well even if we didn't see him that much in this arc. And then the rest of the arcs before the time skip are almost all amazing. With Luffy gathering more crew members and making a name for himself as an infamous pirate. And another thing that Oda is a master of is fleshing out his characters by giving them pasts that're all super traumatic and done so well that we can really sympathise with them all, some of which are more than likely to break your heart. And I haven't even mentioned his amazing work with doing amazing villains. Not only with designing well, but also making so many hateable villains as well. A lot of the villains in this are some of the most hateable and despicable ones you'll ever see in an anime. And a lot of them don't have any any sad backstories or anything, they're just generally terrible people but they're written so well that you can feel the hate intended for them. And the series just keeps going with Luffy and the others travelling from island to island and each one just keeps showing why the series is so well regarded. The best of them all before the time skip is easily Water 7 when we learn of Robin's past and the rest of the Straw Hats along with the Galley-La company and the Franky Family go off to rescue her and take down Enies Lobby. I actually recently rewatched this arc along with the Alabasta arc and doing so helped refresh my mind about why the series is so amazing and I even caught some new details in both arcs that made it all the more enjoyable for me to watch them. And it has some of the best fights in the series, the best of them being the Luffy vs. Lucci fight. And, speaking of fights, Oda also does those really well. There are so many incredible action scenes here and he does really well with know what powers to give to characters and having them be fighting the right character. Luffy is probably the best example, but Zoro is also a good example. Each fight feels really unique and does something different to keep it interesting, even before Luffy uses the different Gears with his Devil Fruit. And with each story and arc before the time skip, almost everything before had been amazing and interesting that it was really surprising when the Straw Hats get separated. Before the time skip though, the one arc that I would say isn't as good as the others is probably the Thriller Bark arc. It's not bad, but I remember thinking it wasn't as good as everything that had come before it. That being said, it's still pretty good and it has some of the best moments in the series like the Nightmare Luffy vs. Oars or all the Straw Hats vs. Gecko Moria and Oars fight. The series also does really well with making even the background characters on the islands super likeable and interesting as well. Like I said, there's Vivi and the Galley-La company workers, but then there's also the other characters on Skypiea and a lot of the characters during the Paramount War like Jinbe or Ivankov. And I like the different setups for some other villains too. The biggest example of that I can think of is Blackbeard who we really haven't seen that much of, but he's been built up so much that it's more than likely that he's gonna be the final villain of the series, and, like I said before, the eventual fight between him and Luffy is the one I'm most excited for in terms of any fight in anime. But, then, with the separation of the Straw Hats, we then follow Luffy as he goes to Amazon Lily, which I think is a pretty underrated part of the story. I don't think a lot of people give it enough credit, I find it a lot of fun and I like the introduction of the Kuja Pirates with Hancock, who I really like as a character. She's really likeable after Luffy befriends her and she's really funny after she falls in love with him. And, unlike some other anime that try to do something like that but it's not really funny and it's kinda weird, this one is really funny and I do like both characters. But I like the backstory with Hancock and her sisters as well. Not to mention Luffy's fight with Sonia and Marigold was pretty cool and it was nice when they become friends afterwards. But, next to the Water 7 arc, the series is at the highest with the Impel Down and Marineford arcs. I will say, the Impel Down arc I feel goes on for tiny bit too long, but we still get a lot of great moments in it. Like Luffy reuniting with Bon Clay, them meeting Ivankov and Luffy telling him about Dragon being his dad and then them meeting up with Crocodile again. And we eventually meet Jinbe, who also might actually be another one of my favourite characters. And almost everything there was great. And the whole idea of Ace being captured and going to be executed is really tense because the whole fight at Marineford goes on and on and there's a lot of craziness happening, but it's all really cool to see. The only part about it I didn't like was Buggy's involvement in the whole thing. He just has a Mr. Satan like role with wanting to be like a hero and getting attention, so he pretends to be a strong character and take the credit of a lot of other characters. And I feel the same as I do with him, it's not really funny in my opinion and it's just annoying. I've never liked that kinda character and it always gets on my nerves. But it's made all the better when we're introduced to Whitebeard. One of the coolest old men in all of anime. Basically everything to do with Whitebeard is awesome. And I like the whole story behind Ace and Whitebeard with him being like a father to Ace. Especially since Ace hates the fact that Gold Roger was his dad to begin with. But then, with all that had happened, it was made all the more tragic when Ace was killed by Akainu. I still stand by that I feel Ace's death is the saddest in all of anime. First off, the eventual death given the fact that Luffy had just rescued Ace from his execution is even more powerful. They were so close to winning but then the rug was pulled out from under them at the last minute. And then Ace's talk with Luffy just before he dies is even more devastating, but the biggest point is Luffy's reaction, not to mention the other character's reactions too which is downright heartbreaking. Given how likeable and awesome Ace was before this happened made it all the more tragic. It's kinda like with Jiraiya in Naruto or Maes Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist, the fact that these characters don't get to continue on with the protagonists and the rest of the characters and don't get to see them become what they want to be or see them win in the end is soul crushing. But then it's not over with Whitebeard attacking Akainu is super brutal fight where it almost looks like Akainu is dead, but then Blackbeard arrives and kills Whitebeard with his crew. And then, somehow, Blackbeard absorbs Whitebeard's Devil Fruit power, the Tremor-Tremor Fruit. And this is the first time in the history of One Piece that a character has ever had two Devil Fruit abilities. If a person eats more than one Devil Fruit, they'll die. But somehow, Blackbeard is the one who's been able to do it. It's more than likely something to do with his Dark-Dark Fruit power. So I'm curious to know what that means. But then Shanks arrives with his crew to stop the war and even Trafalgar Law shows up to help save Luffy after he suffers grave injuries. And the rest after that is showing Luffy's past with Ace and Sabo. And we see everyone else's reaction to Ace's death like the rest of the Straw Hats and everyone from Luffy and Ace's island, especially Dadan. And I like how Jinbe helped snapped Luffy out of his state after being traumatised from the whole experience. And then we're shown Rayleigh again, who I spoke about before and I still think is a cool character with being a master at Haki and being Luffy's mentor in using Haki himself. And the whole two year time skip then begins with all the Straw Hats getting the memo to start training for when they reunite in two years. And, in terms of the anime, that's as far as I've gotten so far. The next 46 episodes will be released on DVD where I am really soon. Plus, there's the matter of the English Dub for the series stopping for a while, but it was revealed last year that they're starting it again this year and I'm pretty sure that's already begun. And, speaking of dubbing, that's something else that the series does amazingly. I've already mentioned before about how amazing and perfect I think Colleen Clinkenbeard is as Luffy, but the rest of the cast is also amazing and I don't think they get enough credit because the voices match a lot of these characters perfectly. And, back to story for a sec, that's also as far as I am with the manga too because I'm not that far into the manga too, but I do know the basics of what happens afterwards, the Straw Hats reunite and go to Fishman Island, then Punk Hazard where they meet up with Law again who has a past with Doflamingo. And then they go to Dressrosa and meet a whole bunch of characters there like meeting Bellamy again and Sabo and then we see Luffy using Gear Fourth there on Doflamingo. Then they go to Zou and then Luffy, Nami, Chopper and Brook go to Wholecake Island to get Sanji back who has a history with being part of the Vinsmoke family and there's the whole thing with Big Mom and then Luffy's fight with Katakuri and then they go to the most recently introduced island, Wano. So I do get the basics of what happens afterwards and I can't wait to experience all of it with reading the manga and hopefully watching the dub as well, which I hope is able to finish. But, honestly, just from everything I've said so far, that should give you a good idea as to why the series is so amazing and why it's so popular. It may be a really long series with it currently having 93 volumes out, and 96 if you count the ones released in Japan. And, really, ever since the beginning, Oda has continuously proven himself to be a storytelling master. He's a genius when it comes to connecting so many storylines and making it feel so satisfying when a lot of them do connect and it's made all the cooler when characters we already met meet other characters we've met. And there's still even more like the different pasts of even more characters I haven't even addressed yet because their backstories are just so well told and you sympathise with so many of them and, like I said, a lot of their pasts will tear your hearts to pieces. And there's a lot of questions that have been answered for stuff that was brought up before but there's still so many others that I can't wait to get answers for like what is the One Piece, how did Blackbeard steal Whitebeard's powers, what's Shanks's powers and so on. And given how huge the series, I can't wait to see how the series ends. It's definitely the manga and anime series I'm most excited to seeing the ending to. But the more time spent with these characters, the better because so many of them are my favourite in anime history. Luffy is still my favourite with how amazing he is, plus Zoro, Ace, Law and so many others are just incredible and interesting characters in their own right. Something else that this series has is something that I know will be weird for me to say, but the point still stands, is that it has some of the best, most epic and most satisfying punches in all of anime like Luffy's punch to Bellamy, his Jet Gatling against Lucci, his punch to the Celestial Dragon or Whitebeard squishing Akainu's head into the ground. Trust me, if you've seen the series, you'll know what I mean. There's just so much I could talk about with the series and so much I haven't touched on yet because this series is just so huge that I could go on for hours about it. Not just with how interesting the story itself is, but also little things like Oda's amazing artwork with his manga or how I still think the covers for One Piece are the best out of any anime or even talk even more about how well detailed and defined the world of One Piece is. There's just no limit to how much a person could discuss how many incredible things there are in this. But, yeah, as I stand now, I'm in love with the series and I always sorta have this weird thing where when I watch specific anime series, I always think it's my absolute favourite, and One Piece is one of them. The other participants are Naruto/Naruto Shippuden and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. And, every time I watch some part of One Piece, it keeps reminding me why I love it so much. In all honesty guys, I obviously do recommend the series, though, like a lot of people, I do have to warn you about the length because the series is insanely long and there is a lot about it that might be confusing, but if you keep with it, especially if you make it to the Alabasta arc, it should be able to convince you to keep going. I've known some people who've said they couldn't get into it because they couldn't get that far, but if you keep going, you should be hooked after that. And so, yeah, everyone, that' my review of One Piece. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.