NUMBER OF VOLUMES: 110 (as of this review)
GENRES: Fantasy, Manga, Fiction
ENGLISH PUBLISHER: Viz Media
ORIGINAL RUN: 22 July 1997 – present
BOOK DESCRIPTION OF VOLUME #1:
Join Monkey D. Luffy and his swashbuckling crew in their search for the ultimate treasure, the One Piece.
As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of the Pirates. But his life changed when he accidentally ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, an enchanted Devil Fruit that gave him the ability to stretch like rubber. Its only drawback? He’ll never be able to swim again—a serious handicap for an aspiring sea dog! Years later, Luffy sets off on his quest to find the “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world…
Get Ready to Set Sail!
My Review
This review has been a long time coming. I’ve been buddy reading One Piece with my spouse for the past year – it’s so long that we take breaks every month or so (also so I can read stuff other than One Piece).
It’s also so long that I decided from the get go that I’d split it into three reviews. The first review: the Pre-Time Skip Arcs (aka: this one). The second review: the New World to Wano. And the third review: the Final Saga (this one I wouldn’t do until after One Piece is complete, which could be a couple more years).
So yeah, my spouse and I started reading it about a year ago. Which, wow, that’s a while. There’s a lot of ground to cover here (because of how freaking long this manga is), but I have surprisingly little to say. Or maybe I have too much to say about it and it’s too much, so my brain decided to automatically process the extraneous stuff out. I don’t really know. Either way, this might be a shorter review than you’d expect for such a long and long-running series as this.
The Characters
The characters are one of the things that keeps me coming back. I love the Straw Hats, they’re such a fun, eclectic crew with all kinds of quirks.
👒 Luffy: Ah, the crazy rubber man. He’s so ridiculous, funny and dumb. I know he’s a cookie-cutter shounen protagonist, but I love him. He’s so extra.
🗡️ Zoro: Zoro and Luffy are two peas in a pod. They’re both dumb and ridiculous and extra, but different kinds of dumb and ridiculous and extra. He’s the first person to join the crew, and he’s Luffy’s right hand man. I love the running gag about his complete lack of sense of direction.
🍊 Nami: The second one to join the Straw Hats, and the navigator. For so long, Nami held the single brain cell (until Robin). I love her attitude and how she keeps the group on track.
🏹 Usopp: Luffy’s liar – I mean sharpshooter. His arc in Water Seven changed how I saw him as a character – though his exaggerated cowardice alternatively irritates and amuses me.
🍲 Sanji: The ship’s cook. I like Sanji for the most part, but his pervy tendencies annoyed me sometimes. The anime pervert trope needs to go away for a bit, I’m kinda getting tired of it.
🦌 Chopper: The reindeer doctor. He’s so CUTE. 😍
📚 Robin: The sixth member to join the Straw Hats and an archeologist. I really enjoyed her – she’s got a great character arc and I like her dark humor.
🛠️ Franky: The Straw Hats’ shipwright. Also, a blue haired cyborg engineer powered by cola (yes, really). I didn’t expect to like him as much as I did, but I think he’s in my tip five Straw Hats.
💀 Brook: A skeleton and musician. He was the Straw Hat I was most excited to meet, partially because it took a bit to get to him (and also because he’s a singing skeleton who makes bad puns). He didn’t disappoint.
I loved a lot of the supporting characters that appeared in each arc as well, but there’s waayyy yo many to even mention here. My favorite characters that weren’t Straw Hats, though, were: Vivi, Buggy, Dr. Kureha, Chouchou the dog, Iceberg, Kokoro, and Ace.
The Plot
There’s. So. Much. Plot. Like, so much. This story just keeps going on and on. And I love it, even if it is incredibly long. Every arc in One Piece has something to love, even if I enjoy some a little bit more than others.
The setting itself is also really cool. I love the idea of a world that’s basically a giant ocean. It reminds me a lot of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. (And yes, I know One Piece predates this game by about five years and that Oda was working on it for years before it started being serialized. I just played this Zelda game first, many years before I started reading OP, in fact.) I love all the unique islands and biomes and how like sixteen different seasons technically exist. It’s also really interesting how even this early on, there’s some foreshadowing and implications that not everything about the way the world is currently is as it seems.
Impressively, nearly all the arcs have some relevancy to most of the major plot points that have come up as well. Even the ones that don’t really seem to affect it as much still have stuff to contribute to the world building. I’m also impressed with the consistency, despite the length and how long this series has been running.
But now for a brief review of all the arcs I’ve read so far:
🏴☠️ East Blue: Though some people have said that this is the weakest and one of the worst arcs compared to the rest of the story, the East Blue Arc is actually one of my favorites. I think it’s even in the Top Three. I found it to be a fast-paced, engaging and solid start. Most of the Straw Hats are introduced in this arc, and I loved reading them join the crew, and all the hijinks that occurred along the way.
🧭 Baroque Works: My favorite arc in the series so far. There’s just something about it that I really love. I gave nearly every part of it five stars. The crew finally venture out to the Grand Line here, and I loved seeing the crazy adventures turn up to eleven.
☁️ Skypiea: As much as I ended up loving the later parts of this arc, Skypiea definitely wasn’t my favorite. Let me be clear, I enjoyed this arc as I did all of the rest of One Piece. But… it’s probably my least favorite. It just doesn’t feel as connected to the rest of the story, and I think that’s part of what bothered me. (That, and the build up at the beginning felt a bit slow.) Here, the crew sail to an island in the sky.
🌊 Water Seven: I really liked this arc. Top Three (or Four) definitely. We get to learn a lot about some of the crew, and stuff really starts to build up for the stuff that leads to the time skip. There’s also a lot of world building that goes on here. In this arc, the Straw Hats seek a shipwright to help repair their shop, the Going Merry.
👻 Thriller Bark: Probably my second least favorite arc, actually. I love it to bits still, like Skypiea, but it isn’t quite up to par with the rest of the story for me. I really enjoyed the idea of a Halloween themed island (or ship I guess, technically), but parts of it just weren’t as interesting as other arcs. The crew are waylaid and sucked into the Florian Triangle in this arc.
🏝️ Sabaody / 🔐 Impel Down / 🔥 Marineford: I know, I know, these are technically three separate arcs. But they’re all so short and the events that occur throughout all three are highly related and really build off each other before culminating in the event that causes the time skip. So I’m grouping them together here. Anyway, this was another Top Three Arc for me; everything is all just so crazy and intense and it’s one event right after another. During these arcs the Straw Hats are separated and Luffy sets off to rescue someone close to him.
The Art
It would be remiss of me to review a manga without mentioning the art. Though I was initially put off by the art style – this was several years ago now when during my one and only attempt to watch the One Piece anime – I ended up liking it. It’s pretty goofy and unique.
The only thing kind of negative I gotta say about it is that there aren’t really unique female character designs. A lot of the women generally look the same. But other than that, I don’t really have anything unfavorable to say regarding the artwork.
Final Thoughts
I really, really enjoyed what I’ve read of One Piece so far, and am definitely looking forward to what is to come. I can’t wait to see what happens next! And the characters and story and world building and art are all just so good. I really do love almost everything about this magnum opus of Oda’s.
Unfortunately, as much as I adore this manga, I don’t really feel comfortable recommending it. Because of how insanely long it is. One Piece is definitely a commitment, and despite what OP manga superfans claim about this being the greatest manga ever (which I don’t think, just to be clear), probably not for everyone. If you are interested, however, this series is very accessible – there are a lot of different options to read and/or watch it. As of now, I rate what I’ve read as a whole:
But yeah, I’m possibly going to continue with this perhaps at the end of this month, but if not then hopefully next month in December. I wanna read what happens next, but I also want to read other books, too. So I have to manage my OP reading!
Anyway, as always, thank you so much to everyone for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic day/night!
See ya ~Mar
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