One Piece
a review by LiasDumpshit
a review by LiasDumpshit
after catching up with the One Piece Manga about 5 months ago, I finally decided to write a full review of it, to give it the appreciation it deserves. and also if I'm being honest I wrote this because today -the day I wrote this- was the day I discovered the "write a review" bottom on this website, fair enough, no?
and yes, you're gonna find another somewhat similar review under the anime section since they are the same media.
now enough with this and lets get the actual part.
this manga is currently the best selling manga of all times in Japan and is ridiculously popular outside of it, that once you get into the manga field you would immediately know of it, along with another popular mangas such as Naruto, Dragon Ball and Bleach. this is coming from a non-japanese fan.
so the easiest way to describe this by saying that its a cinematic masterpiece which is an understatement, however it does have flaws, which are minimal by the way. but I'm not gonna be biased and will run over them throughly.
this passage will contain the following:
oh well well this gonna be interesting.
so im here to seriously erase the concept that One Piece is about a teenager that set to the sea to go on a treasure hunt, find friends and nothing more. well truth to be told its mainly about that but we cannot ignore the fact that it holds a way deeper meaning and seriousness. I mean sure it has its goofy moments but it's far than just that. simple as that.
the plot goes into depth to talk more about politics, anti-capitalist, anti-police and anti-military themes, racism, the importance of freedom, strength of will, slavery issues, fighting for acceptance, evil-ruling, tyranny, absolute injustice, and different definitions of justice from multiple characters’ points of view, Ridiculous God and superiority complexes and extremely high and low self esteems. it also brings to light topics such as ancient history and culture. advanced inventions/developments, searching for self-worth and adapting to new colors of life.
It also explores basic thematic topics such as friendship, adventure, camaraderie, dreams and immense effort.
easily a 9.5/10 plot.
Monkey D. Luffy, the main protagonist of One Piece, or rather the guy who's story is being told. also known as "Straw Hat Luffy"
now I won't go in so formally that you think this is a wikipedia because its not.
luffy is a great protagonist, although hes quite a typical shounen MC and at the same time he’s so different.
I mean hes kinda dumb, has a dream that he needs to achieve, seeks relationships, and is obsessed with a specific food. these are quite the typical if you ask me personally.
But at the same time, Luffy is the Anti-hero.
Pirates are the bad guys in the One Piece world, and the marines are supposed to be the justice and the honorable savers.
however the fact still stands that Luffy isn't a bad guy and that he's not a good one either.
__"Heros are cool and all, but I dont want to be one." -Luffy.
__
Luffy is selfish, he would save countries just for one person, and also wouldn't give a damn if a country was falling apart if he didn't have a connection with it. he would go through a lot of fights and/or make decisions for his own sake without looking at the consequences or without giving a single thought what his companions might want. He doesn't care most of the time, no backstories would interest him, no reason of war or tyranny would make him look over his shoulder and hell with it, not even his own father would interest him. well honestly as long as the topic isn't Shanks-related or isn't related to his crewmates/brothers well-being then he doesn't give a damn. but then again these traits are what makes him so special and so different. it’s just who he is and these aren't bad qualities. obviously.
we stan our careless king.
However, looking at the other side. he would go through crazy lengths for his friends, he would help others blindly for the most trivial reasons; such as buying him a bento. he also has great dignity and wouldn't brag about his achievements no matter how amazing they are. he doesnt thrive to be the strongest, he just wants to the person with the most freedom out there. he has morals and ideals of his own that he actually doesn't share and sometimes are weird and that makes him cool. he encourages people to be who they want to be and helps them too; biggest example Momonuske. he also forgives quickly, so quickly if you ask me. He is so crazily confident,
I’m sure you noticed, but he also has nack for making friends so fast. Race? hell with it. Must be a human? no bruh. A talking skeleton? please join my crew. An extremely weird looking tree? best friends. A cyborg? thats the coolest thing out there. That’s all with me ignoring the fact that he also he has his serious moments and his goofy moments.
not to mention that the guy is a fighting genius.
you get the main idea. Luffy is an easily 9/10 MC.
personally he is my second favorite character in the entire show. after Sanji that is.
want to hate characters to the bone? you got it.
want to love characters to death? absolutely.
want to pity characters? sure thing.
want to relate to some? hell yeah.
want to cry over a few? sadly, you very much can.
want to seriously bond with the characters? absolutely
One Piece is one of those Mangas that have a very wide variety of characters as you can tell.
of course, naturally, it would have many characters since its long, its a given thing.
but the thing is, the characters as long as they're relative to the story they are very greatly good and likeable.
the main cast for example: the crew, each one of them gets there own little arc or major one to enforce their character with a heart wrenching backstory. oh and let me add that the character development is insane.
One Piece offers you all of the following: Baddass moments, heroic ones, a great show of emotions, determination, dignity, deliberate trash as shit personalities and heart breaking moments is all available for each of the mildly relative characters whether they're a villain or a good character.
and by the way the villains later on are literally chef's kiss.
And oh lord the characters design, truthfully there a lot that are REALLY exceptional and amazing and a few that look like shit. Cannot be considered an issue though.
well moreover, there are few characters that are juts thrown in for absolutely no reason and has no relevance, quite a drawback if you ask me.
side cast is arguably a 8.7/10
the world building in OP is the greatest ive ever seen in any work fiction including fantasy books {and for the record I read a lot and a lot of these}
its truly unrivalled. its not like our world or any other fictional world in the slightest, its more complex, and more adventurous.
Although fun fact, few islands are based of actual locations/cities in our world but better. Most obvious ones are Alabasta that is based off Egypt. Water Seven that’s based off Venice, Italy. And Dressrosa that was inspired by Spain.
Moving on, it also contains different races of creatures that isn't only human and this, for a fact enforces the world building in a way. before going down into the different races im going to list down all the outstanding and the highlighted features that makes the One Piece world different than others. we have:
now going into the different races category:
this sums it up I believe, world building is 11/10 and I don't make the rules.
what makes the One Piece power system special is its simplicity and effectiveness. It gives us good explanations that we can actually easily understand (I’m looking at you Hunter x Hunter) moreover it also offers us great fights that we really do be on our seat edges the entire time.
it consists of the following:
a. observation haki; also advanced observation Haki
b. armament haki; also advanced armament Haki.
c. conqueror's haki. only one in a several million has this power.
-these are the major ones but there are other things as swords play, kicking, science way of fighting.
-the fights are amazing I’m telling you.
note: attaining the powers of the Devil Fruits does not come for free, the user is bound to sacrifice their ability to swim to gain the new powers. actually this shows that we should sacrifice something to get a greater thing. deep. right?
pretty decent huh? 8/10
the art in the manga has always been great, keep in mind it's a weekly manga that has been running for about 24 years now, the quality we have been getting is amazing, I can never understand the criticism Oda receives because of his art style. if colored it becomes even better.
art: 8.5/10
look here, I wont go over the basic complaints people have over One Piece, such as the pacing or all the breaks (that Oda definitely deserves) or the fucking unnecessary fan service thats ridiculously exaggerated especially in the anime, what I mean here is problems within the plot itself. (theres not much, theres a few that I feel the need to speak of)
well, starting with the worst thing One Piece handles is: The deaths.
from my point of view, deaths are what enhance a story and make it much better, even if I liked the character, I believe deaths are such necessary element in any piece of fiction thats falls within the fantasy and supernatural genres. but in over than ONE THOUSANDS episodes we had a SINGLE major death, like cmon give me a break, even though I was immensely sad over that death, I like that it happened, otherwise its arc wouldn't have been legit the best in the story. again, deaths give more meaning to a story, it touches more deep topics especially if it was handled well, but we got two in one piece that were handled greatly.
so if I were to count all the deaths of minor characters that ultimately nobody cared about, they would make about 5 deaths. thats a very big draw back. Oda cannot kill a pig for God's sake.
okay another drawback thats also related to the deaths category: The fake out deaths.
the legit worst thing in One Piece, like don't give me hope and then tell me the character is alive after getting literally bombed up or was struck with over 10000 volts of electricity and yet somehow is alive?! what's worse that the said characters aren't really that interesting and merely side characters that nobody would be sad over their deaths. we need high stakes, we need thrill, we need tension.
I give up man.
I wont rate this category since its not really an element but rather its an opinion, it will just affect my overall rating.
well thats pretty much it, and if you actually reached here, woah! you're amazing. thank you for reading, it feels good to know that the seven hours I spent on this weren’t just a waste. ;)
overall rating: 9.5/10 One Piece is the very first and only manga ive given this rating, and it will remain this way. Because, I know for a thing that I'll never experience such greatness again.
ps. not wanting to read OP because of its length is a valid reason although it wouldn't be as enjoyable if it wasn't this long!! us One Piece fans want more lmao.
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