So for the last couple weeks/months I’ve been kinda getting back “into anime” and after seeing the conclusions of 2 of the best animes I had ever seen, I decided to pick it up as a hobby again.
I’m about 60 episodes deep into One Piece and I gotta say so far it is very entertaining. In a nutshell, One Piece is a fabled treasure left behind by the greatest Pirate of all time. It is often considered to be “everything in the world”. Enter Monkey D Luffy a goofy, lanky aspiring young pirate. He’s a one man crew and the only 2 things that set him apart from all the other pirates is his golden heart and his rubber body. In the world if One Piece, there exists many magical items including “devil’s fruit” which, when eaten, will give the “eater” a special power at random. Luffy’ happens to turn him into a man of rubber (more on this later). Luffy wants to be the greatest pirate ever, also known as the pirate king, and get the One Piece.
The anime is actually pretty kiddish in terms that the story lines are simple, the colors are vivid and the characters aren’t exactly multidimensional or complex. However that should not stop anyone from enjoying this lively show. Though often “immature” seeming, the themes are definitely mature, the storylines are engaging, the fight scenes are exciting, and the voice acting is great!
One of my favorite story arcs so far is a short one about Luffy’s voyages where he and his crew (which he picks up as he goes through his adventures) combat the most feared pirate in the entire East Blue (the One piece world is split into 4 “blue” seas) whose crew is 50,000 men strong. What I loved about this storyline was both the heavy foreshadowing that happened for the future of the show in addition to the 3-4 episode fight at the end against the captain of the enemy crew. The anime takes careful care to “set up” the battle field in a very clear way so even though the battle is unfolding before your eyes as you watch you really feel like you are on the sidelines and know who all the spectators and settings are. It’s not at all like Dragon Ball Z’s super bland desert battlefields that seem to stretch on forever no matter what happens in the fight.
In comparison to other similar animes, Naruto in particular, I think this show holds up very well. It does a very similar thing in the way it takes an idea that everyone likes (pirate world) and creates a fantasy world out it and allow the user to experience the whole world one episode and place at a time. I still think Naruto is better in pretty much every way at this point in time but One Piece is almost 2-3 times longer than Naruto in series length so it must be doing something right! Even my Anime Conosieur friend Joshua Yoo has told me on several occasions that he likes One Piece better.
I’m on episode 60 out of the 3xx something episodes out right now. It’s drawn me in really well so far so I’m excited to watch more!!
And here is a fitting song about pirates!
Pirate by The Ethiopians
