One Piece to this day is undoubtedly my favorite anime of all time. Oda does an absolutely fantastic job at delivering this cleverly thought out story, and manages to keep the readers and watchers engaged 20 years in the making and nearly 1000 episodes/chapters in. When most people think about One Piece, they just think, "Oh Luffy wants to be the Pirate King. What a basic shounen story just like the rest of them". However, the story is so much more than that. The hidden mysteries, the predictions and theories by the community, and the underlying themes of racism, government corruption, political power, and a dominating hierarchy, make the story so unique. These ideas allow the One Piece world to build on itself episode after episode and chapter after chapter. It only keeps on expanding, and remains as one of the kings of world building in the anime community. That's not even considering the connections that the main characters (The Straw Hats), have with the rest of the world and the characters within them. Every character in One Piece is important. Oda is a mastermind at bringing back characters into relevance again and again, and it never seems to fail. For example, there could be a character that is either barely mentioned, or just introduced in an arc in the beginning of the One Piece story and then is forgotten. Most writers would forget about these characters and move on, but Oda is not like that. He will bring back the character into literally the most recent ongoing arc, and successfully tie him back into the story and into relevance. The amount of times this has happened is almost endless, and it never seems to not amaze me. As for the characters themselves, that's a whole new topic. The One Piece universe has one of my most favorite set of characters out there, with all of them having their own unique motives, personalities, and backstories. Ah the backstories, the most beautiful (or horrific) part about each character in the series. Their backstories are what shape their personality and make them the way they are, whether it gives them motivation to achieve their dreams, or drives them into despair and anguish. I would go more into depth about the backstories, but that is reaching spoiler territory. Another thing that I love about One Piece is the discussion about righteousness. The feud between the marines and the pirates is pretty well known throughout the series, where the marines are the "bad guys", and the pirates are the "good guys". However, the idea of righteousness all depends on your standpoint. The marines are not bad guys, they are trying to prevent pirates from ravaging around the world causing chaos, so in their minds, they are the good guys. In the pirates minds, the marines are getting in the way of their freedom and messing with their lives, so in their minds, they are the good guys. The philosophy around righteousness becomes very interesting in the One Piece world from that perspective, and creates a ton of tension between the pirates and marines. As through Donquixote Doflamingo, “Pirates are evil? The Marines are righteous? These terms have always changed throughout the course of history! Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values! Those who stand at the top determine what's wrong and what's right! This very place is neutral ground! Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will! Whoever wins this war becomes justice!” To summarize my overall claim. One Piece goated, watch/read it, what are you doing, Jackson, Davis, Will, Jake, you are wrong, goodbye