In today’s article, I’m going to tell you about a story I really love, while trying not to get into spoilers:
One Piece is a Japanese manga/anime series by Eiichiro Oda. As a person who has seen approximately three anime series in my life, I am totally qualified to say One Piece is incredibly amazing and brilliant storytelling.
The story follows Monkey D. Luffy, who plans to become the king of the pirates. On his adventures, he collects an ever-growing, loyal crew of swordfighters, navigators, chefs, etc., each chasing their own dreams.
As of writing this article, I haven’t finished the story yet. I’m currently in the Dressrosa Arc, which I believe is a little over halfway through?
If you didn’t know, there’s over 1000 episodes (I’m just going off the anime aka the tv show, not the manga books). I’m on episode 500 or 600 something, I’ve honestly stopped paying attention to what number I’m on. But yeah, there’s a lot of story.
That’s the first thing that impresses me: as someone who writes stories, I don’t understand how Oda can keep adding on to Luffy’s adventures, while never making it feel like “The story’s past it’s prime and is just pumping out episodes to be a cash-grab.”
Nope, there’s constant depth, clues pointing to a government-erased past, new and intriguing characters, and meaningful growth for existing characters.
Like, I consider myself a decent worldbuilder, but I’m just in awe that there’s always more to the world of One Piece to explore.
The second thing that impresses me, is just: episode 37. This is an early episode (“early” for this series), and showcases the serious emotional whiplash the writing wields. It’s honestly what hooked me into continuing with the whole story.
A third thing that I love about this story, is the entire Water 7 saga. This is what brought me around to liking Usopp’s character. Plus, Robin’s backstory devastated me, and the conflict felt like a major escalation to what these pirates are fighting for and why.
That said, I didn’t enjoy the Long Ring Long Land arc in the Water 7 saga
(side note: One Piece consists of sagas, which are large story segments. Each saga contains a few arcs–smaller story segments–within it, usually contained to a single island in the world).
The stakes on Long Ring Long Land were so low, that it actually stressed me out knowing something (minorly) bad could happen at any moment.
But the rest of Water 7, *chef’s kiss.*
And I do have one consistent gripe with One Piece: the female characters are almost always drawn to look basically the same, while a few male characters are weirdly, overly obsessed with their “panties,” and I just…don’t know why this aspect exists. The story would be better off without it, quite frankly.
But I guess, no story is totally perfect, and maybe later in the series, it gets better…. I hope. Regardless, One Piece is super awesome storytelling, and I’m not going to tell you that you have to read/watch it, but if you’re going to read/watch anything, One Piece is totally worth investing your time into.
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Ps, my book Graveyard of Lullabies is on sale until the end of July at this link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1612128
Jordyn Saelor 