Book reviews

Nicolas Ferrer
Apr 25, 2021
El mejor manga de fantasia
Normalmente, cuando se habla de mangas de fantasía, se tiene a pensar en cosas como Berserk, adaptaciones de novelas ligeras o algunas historias más clásicas, por lo que para muchos, llamar a One piece un manga de fantasía puede sonar muy extraño. 
Pero, si algo hace que una historia de fantasía sea maravillosa, entrañable y nos haga saltar de nuestros asientos, es el mundo en el que la historia se desarrolla y creo que, ningún manga puede llegarle a los talones a One piece en términos de creación de mundo.
Es simplemente maravillosa la forma en la que todos los acontecimientos del mundo están interconectados, como esta estructurado el mundo para que algo como una historia de piratas pueda llevar más de 1000 capítulos y no sentirse que se esté extendiendo. Es realmente increíble lo vivo que se siente el mundo de One piece, los coloridos y alucinantes diseños de personajes, lo único de cada uno de ellos, de cada una de las islas donde viven, todo el que haya leído el manga, puede contar como con expectación esperaba como los Mugiwara trataban de llegar a Skypia y descubrir su secreto, como por años esperamos con ansias la isla de Wano Kuni, la forma en la que villanos y peronajes son introducidos en la historia y que al principio, pueden parecer un personaje más y al final, terminan convirtiéndose en pilares fundamentales, como Doflamingo o el propio Shanks. 
One piece logra como ninguno otro, hacerte sentir que estás realmente viendo un mundo vivo, un mundo con historias, con personas reales, con problemas y sentimientos. Creo que en todos mis años leyendo manga, nunca había visto uno que me hiciera sentir lo mismo que One piece a echo. 
Si realmente te gustan las historias de fantasía o el manga en general, One piece es un manga obligatorio, a algunos les puede asustaros más de mil capítulos, pero una vez que comienzas, esos mil parecen apenas cien. 
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greenroses8
Apr 17, 2021
One Piece review
First of all, this review will be written in spanish so, if you don't speak spanish, you can leave.

One Piece es un manga que claramente depende del lector para ser calificado. Para comenzar, voy a decir que One Piece fue el primer manga que leí, y que gracias a él estoy en el mundo de los mangas y animes. Tengan eso en cuenta dentro de mi review.

A mi me encanta One Piece. Ya desde el principio nos muestra la magia del mangaka, Eiichiro Oda, dentro de todos los aspectos. La historia es increíble, no por lo que sucede, que también está muy bien pensado, sino por cómo se cuenta. Eiichiro Oda tiene una gran manera de contar la historia. Entrelaza todo lo que sucede, y puede ser que algo que no pareciera tan importante, termina siendo algo que no deberíamos haber dejado pasar. Eso sucede mucho en One Piece, puesto que Oda hace que algo suceda, y luego, cuando ya nos olvidamos de ello, lo vuelve a sacar mostrándonos todo lo que eso significa.

También, la forma que tiene él de entender e identificarnos con los personajes es impresionante. Cómo nos muestra y enseña la historia de ellos, sus poderes, y hasta cómo los consiguieron, todo, tiene un significado en One Piece. Hasta los personajes secundarios tienen una historia impresionante que hace que nos identifiquemos con ellos.

Estas son las mejores dos partes de One Piece en mi opinión, la historia y los persones. Pero One Piece tiene tanto para darnos que no creo que sea suficiente, con solo contarles esto.

Voy a hablarles de un punto que en cierto punto es negativo, y esto es la longitud de One Piece.

Mucha gente dice que no quiere comenzar a leer el manga o a ver el anime de One Piece por su longitud, me ha pasado con muchos amigos. Pero, ¿Es que Oda alarga One Piece por gusto, o por necesidad?

Son muchas las personas que dicen que Oda sigue alargando One Piece solo por el dinero, pero esto a mí me parece totalmente estúpido y no, no es porque sea fan de One Piece, sino porque las personas envidiosas no pensaron antes de decirlo.
Oda podría retirarse ahora, sin haber terminado One Piece, y podría vivir con lo que tiene por el resto de su vida. Y no se si lo saben, pero el ya ha tenido muchos problemas de salud, y aún así, duerme solo 3 horas para hacer el manga de One Piece. Está adelantado 3 capitulos del manga, y aunque hace todo esto, el manga de One Piece suele subirse todas las semanas menos una, en la que Oda me imagino que descansará, espero.

¿A ustedes les parece que Oda lo hace solo por el dinero?
Puede ser que el dinero sea necesario, todos lo necesitamos, pero con todo el sacrificio que Oda hace día a día, me parece más claro que el agua que Oda ama lo que hace, y también lo hace por nosotros, sus fans.

Por eso, otro punto que me parece increíble de One Piece, es su creador.

One Piece es una maravilla de manga, por eso, a todo el que esté dudando de leerlo se lo digo fuerte y claro, ¡LEELO!

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Lolzipop99715
Apr 17, 2021
One Piece review
Eichiro Oda is a genius.
Quick Summary; One Piece is a story about a pirate named Monkey D. Luffy who travels the world in search of the legendary treasure, One Piece. Such a simple premise, but Oda is able to keep it interesting in every chapter, every volume, and every arc.

The world building of One Piece is just peerless. There is no manga bigger than One Piece in terms of scale and lore running right now. Oda somehow made it possible for islands floating in the sky, islands made of cakes and candy, and an island on top of a gigantic elephant to coexist in the same world seamlessly without making them feel out of place. Despite the sheer size of this world, it is without any empty space; complex politics, centuries worth of history, diverse imaginative creatures, and diverse cultures are sprinkled generously all over this world.

The characters are just so full of personality and well written. They are not just fictional characters, long time readers like myself consider them like real people we share a deep connection with. This might sound cheesy but I truly feel like grew up "with" them, not just grew up reading them.

Do not overlook the art just because it looks cartoonish. The visuals storytelling and paneling are clear. The fights are truly moving and nail-biting. All of Luffy's punches, Zoro's sword swings, Sanji's kicks, and Usopp's bullet shots are drawn in the flashiest way. The comedic moments are enhanced by the expressions and visual cues. The background and geography are beautiful and comprehensive.

You most certainly can binge read the whole series, almost 900 chapters, effortlessly. My second and third times rereading this manga is better than the last. I kept finding new details that Oda prepared beforehand and seeing the iconic memorable moments in a new light. When seeing Coby from chapter 2, I feel so much anticipation and hype for his upcoming growth- His reunion with Luffy after Water7 Arc and his speech from Marineford war are just too good - and this is only a side character from chapter 2. My feelings when seeing Ace, Mihawk, and Robin in their first appearance are all the more overwhelming.

10/10, wish I can give it a higher score.
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TheFutureIsAni18
Apr 17, 2021
One Piece review
First of all, I started One Piece in 2014 after finishing Naruto which was the first Manga/Anime I got into. One Piece for me at first cartoonish as if I was watching a cartoon on a Saturday morning when I was a kid. It didn't have the serious Story line Naruto had at first or any cool aspects about it. The only thing that kept me watching/reading One Piece was out of curiosity of what randomness was gonna happen next. I took it as a comedy series more than anything. But the more and more you read/watch it starts getting more serious and an actual story line sets in over time that lasts multiple arcs and possibly is the final story line of what One Piece is. A lot of people got hooked on One Piece during the first 40 episodes but for me it took me a long while, more like 400 episodes...and people always ask me why I still continued reading/watching after it took so long to get hooked...most people would of given up I assume. For me though I just continued out of being bored mixed with the funny stuff happening in the story.

*****************SPOILERS BELOW***********************

What really finally got me hooked to One Piece was the moment after Thriller Bark when Kuma appears and Zoro takes all of Luffy's pain, I thought this was for sure the most intense moment so far for me watching/reading the series....and after that I really loved One Piece and started considering it better than Naruto, at that time I thought Naruto was amazing. But after I watched many other series I started seeing Naruto as pretty average. Anyway, now One Piece is my favorite manga and I'm caught up reading weekly and occasionally I re read a lot of arcs and a few chapters. I really enjoyed the Summit War saga which was the Sabaody, Amazon Lily, Impel Down, Marineford and the post War arcs... This stretch of Arcs are probably the climax of One Piece so far.

Now the World Building in One Piece is the best in any manga and possibly any fictional work. There are so many Islands they have been to and so much World Building so often that it feels like One Piece is a real world. I love how Oda does the cover stories to show what a few other characters are up to and it makes it feel even more real cause it shows how other characters are doing their own thing while we follow the main cast too.
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YesterdaysJoe9
Apr 17, 2021
One Piece review
Have you ever wondered why this series is so popular? Why the manga is rated so highly on so many websites that give ratings? How is this series still so popular even though it is already 20 years old? Have you ever wondered why the anime isn't rated as highly as the manga, apart from its sub-par animation? Why is One Piece so huge? If you ever wanted the answers to these questions, continue to read.

I have been a fan of the series since 2005. Back then I was just 12 years old when I was first exposed to the anime of One Piece. My first thoughts were: "What the fuck is this shit? A guy who can extend his body limbs? What is this is silly artstyle? What the hell?"

I was only exposed to shows like Dragonball Z, Digimon and Pokemon, among some others before. Then I discovered One Piece and as I had nothing better to do I watched the anime on the TV canal where it ran on. And I still follow the series today.

Now, 12 years later, I have finished so many things in my life. I'm an adult. I earned my first money and I'm soon attending a University to study. I finished school a long while back. And in all this time I have read the manga as I transitioned from the anime to the manga at one point. Why am I still reading it?

Because and this is also the reason why One Piece is held so highly throughout the fans and manga community in general:

One Piece is one of these rare series that actually got better the longer they went on. You won't realize this by just "reading" it. You won't realize it by just reading the first 300 chapters. And you will never realize it if you decide to burst through pages at some points just because they feel rather boring to you. Oda's story-telling is simply masterful. There is no other way to describe it. He manages a consistent form of foreshadowing that you will not witness in any other manga or work of fiction in a very long time. Clocking up at 851 chapters at the moment, he has been carefully planting hints and foreshadowed events throughout the entire series. There are still so many people who don't realize this because they simply don't bother with it. In the beginning, it's not that clear, as the manga was relatively "small" in its start, back in 1997. The anime fails to adapt it correctly as it buries many things under annoying repetitions and fillers. It sometimes even contradicts with the content of the manga, pacing is horrible, it borrows sound design from DBZ and Toei doesn't even get the proportions of characters right. The manga however doesn't have these issues. Oda offers the best kind of writing in this regard. It can be compared to a movie that gives the audience the normal stuff like action, dialogue and other scenes in the foreground. But when you, as a viewer, decide to dig a bit deeper into it, examining dialogue a bit more or looking for hidden imagery in the background, you will be rewarded. It gives the whole movie a deeper meaning and it leads to a bigger picture. This is what Eichiro Oda does with One Piece. One Piece becomes this bigger picture, if you decide to look beyond the stuff in the foreground. What happens in general is, of course, important too and very good. But you will only realize the actual amount of depth of One Piece if you ever decide to create links between situations and scenes. Of course, the manga itself is huge even without that background stuff. But the additional planning and careful placement of hints and evidence adds an additional layer to everything that happens in One Piece. Things and events are foreshadowed, sometimes even hundreds of chapters before they occur while the main stuff happens in the front. And he has been doing it consistently in the past 20 years as the series has been made. Just search for "One Piece foreshadowing" online and you will be flooded with confirmed theories, evidence and massive throwbacks in terms of hidden background details, imagery and hidden dialogue meanings in thousands of forums. This is One Piece. Things like Ace's tattoo that seemed to be a misspelling by the tattoo artist got a whole new meaning when we saw Sabo's pirate flag. Usopp's funny lies that he tells and the made up stories that he told Kaya actually became real as they happened in the story. Back then they were played for laughs but then, if you remember it or re-read the manga, it simply makes click. This is the foreshadowing that I'm talking about. And this is just the tip of the iceberg that One Piece offers. The world and depth it has is just humongous. This may sound very pretentious what I'm writing here but it's simply the truth. You don't have to look everything up online to make a connection but it does help. Of course you can make all these links by yourself, even if it takes a bit time. While other artists simply fill out background just for the sake of filling them out, Oda plans it.

And don't imagine Oda being like: "Oh, I will just put this thing here and then I will come back to it 600 chapters later". This isn't what he does. What he actually does is, he creates characters and scenes in the way, that he can use them as a link point for a future reference or connection and then later he simply picks it up as he feels it as most appropriately. This is what he has been doing with characters, items, scenes, story moments and more throughout this entire time. Everything feels connected. Character re-appearances never feel forced, they all become logical. They actually feel like actual characters in an actual functioning world and they don’t just behave the way the plot demands them to like in many other manga. This is what sets One Piece apart from so many other shonen manga and this is one of the main reasons why it's held so high by fans. Some say: "It's the humour", other say: "it's the action". But these are subjective. The foreshadowing is an objective strength of One Piece and there isn't a single manga that can keep up with One Piece. And I love this aspect of it. And back then I didn’t even realize it. I just paid attention to the stuff in the foreground. And when I re-read everything back then and followed some discussions on online forums I was blown away about how much I have simply missed by not paying entirely attention. How is he (Oda) able to do it? Well, he simply devoted his entire life to the creation of the manga and he simply loves writing for it. Yes. He simply loves One Piece. It's that easy. One could argue: "Oh, he is just after the money, it's the most successful manga series of all time after all". Ask again: This is a man who has been working 90 hours (125 when he works on a movie) every week since 1997. Working conditions of mangakas are among the worst in the world but he takes the lead. His breaks only serve for further story writing and are never used for vacation and he only sleeps 3-4 hours a day. Since 1997. He doesn't have any time or room to spend his money on anything. I read every interview about him as I find him simply fascinating. This guy breathes the manga and the level of dedication to the manga is reflected by the quality of the manga. Even at its weakest moments, One Piece still stands higher than many other manga at their weakest times in terms. Oda's dedication is reflected in his art as well. Just look and compare the amount of detail that is put into panels and pages of One Piece with other manga. I adore his style and I know many think his style feels childish, silly and I used to think this too but the amount of work that he puts into his creatively made pages is impressive and I have great respect for him. Look up "One Piece colorspreads" to have an idea about it. And even in black and white it's just beautiful whenever he showcases his islands. And even the smallest panels are filled with rich background details. It's the embodiment of the joy in adventuring a mysterious world.

The series is unpredictable while retaining a basic formula but also offers a lot of variety. And the sense of awe. (Some spoilers here)

From character design, to abilities and motivations. Every manga and artist behind it has a formula. Even writers like Stephen King have found their formula how to make their stories. Oda has a formula too. While being very focused and rather small compared to what happens currently, the beginning of One Piece already had these kinds of aspects of story that Oda would continuously improve upon and further flesh out. The great idea of Devil Fruits that offers an endless set of interesting villains and interesting abilities is just one of the great aspects of the series.

The formula boils down to this: The strawhats appear on an island, they are in awe as they don’t understand what is going on on this weird island. They find out the population has problems or is oppressed. They try to help them while maintaining their actual goals. They beat the arc antagonist in the end. Quite simple, isn’t it? One could say that Dressrosa is a re-skinned Alabasta formula and they are kind of right but Oda switches things up a lot throughout the series. While this formula is Oda‘s basic formula on how to create arcs, he divides it often to offer more variety. Sometimes the strawhats have to interfere in a civil war that is under control of a Warlord (Alabasta). Sometimes they have to do a rescue-mission as they suffer a betrayal (Enies Lobby), sometimes they have to fight a giant on a huge island-ship before the morning sun burns them alive (Thriller Bark), sometimes they have to take action when a racist person shoots down one of the Strawhats friends and their actions lead to the call of an Admiral and a force too big for them to handle. And even taking part in an All Out War where one of the characters suffers a major loss is in. Oda has his core formula but he switches things up so often that it barely feels stale. One of the aspects on why the series is unpredictable in its core content is that Oda doesn’t write for the next cliffhanger but always has the bigger picture in mind. He takes risks. And he pulls them through. One of these risks was the death of Portgas D. Ace, Luffy’s brother and a favorite among fans, despite not being a core character of the series. Until that point it was an unspoken rule that no characters actually die in the series. And then it happened and it was a shock but also brilliant writing as nobody expected it, with amazing build up. Oda pulls his risks through, opposed to many others who make big cliffhangers and then go back to what they have always been doing. And if anybody who has read the series ever wondered why Peru (the falcon guy from Alabasta) survived his sacrifice where he flew the bomb into the sky: Back then 9/11 happened in the USA and out of respect for the people that died that day, Oda let him live. Originally he was supposed to die. Additionally to all of this, the story of the series is written like a path from A to B. It always moves forward. There are many shows and manga where everything just happens in the same place but in One Piece the characters always move forward, giving the entire series a feeling of progress.

Another aspect for the unpredictability and Oda’s knowledge of his own series and his understanding for the characters is the understandable power level system in One Piece. There isn’t a character that can literally destroy planets. There isn‘t one that seems to be the strongest in the entire galaxy. Every character has their limit. And while the main characters, the strawhats, win the majority of their fights (they are the main characters after all), they still lose some fights. In the beginning we get introduced to Zoro, a skilled swordsman who seems to be almost on par with Luffy. Then later we meet Hawkeye, the man that Zoro wants to beat to become the best swordsman in the world. And he doesn’t stand a single chance. Hawkeye beats him with ease. We learn that the strawhats are not the strongest. Later we get to meet Aokiji, one of the Admirals and he singlehandedly beats the entire crew. Oda understands his characters and he knows it’s boring if the main characters win every single fight. It also takes away the excitement if it’s done like that. Not in One Piece. Luffy must have lost about 6 fights so far. The power level system is well done in terms that it offers unpredictability in guessing how strong a character is but also enough evidence to kind of know and learn about the strength of a character and their limits. And one of the main aspects why the series still feels fresh is the amount of creativity that Oda has in terms of world and ability creation. There is a sense of awe as you read One Piece that is also reflected by the main characters reactions as they stumble upon creatively created islands with their own unique eco systems. My best comparison I can make is that this is a world that you want to fall into. Live in it. The best kind of fantasy worlds. Similar worlds that I have experienced in this level are the Harry Potter books and Lord of the Rings. Next point: the story and the world of One Piece.

Oda understands his characters, his series and his writing. And he looks upon our world as well.

From the very first chapter, Oda has made the goal of the series clear. Finding One Piece. This is the ultimate goal and it still is, after 850 chapters. The world of One Piece is a huge, functional world, filled with so many diverse mysteries, islands, characters, all with different motivations and it could actually work in real life too. Oda understands them all. He has created over 800 characters that populate the series and they all feel distinct enough to not be mistaken for others and remarkable enough to at least remind you that you have seen the character before if they re-appear. While some people think that his artstyle is kind of silly, because characters look so vastly different, it helps with this aspect of creating so many characters and making them look very distinguished from each other in the long run.

Apart from the ultimate goal, he gives each of his main characters an ultimate goal as well. Luffy wants to become the pirate king, Zoro the best swordsman, Sanji wants to find the All-Blue (an ocean in which all kinds of sea creatures live) and the others have their „dreams“ as well. While character development is not the main focus of the series (Luffy still behaves a lot like he did in chapter 1) it is not completely absent and some characters like Zoro or Robin behave different than they did back then. Characterization is done well, you understand their motivations, their flashbacks are tragic while not feeling completely forced and they are well done and well implemented. Where One Piece also shines is the depiction of various themes and subjects that exist in our world as well. It deals with racism, slavery, drug-tests, oppression and even depression at one point. It does these themes so flawlessly and barely they feel out of place or forced. Like I said, the world in One Piece feels like an actual functioning world with all its problems that plague our world as well. Tyrannical warlords exist, children get used for drug tests, racism happens between humans and fishmen and vice versa, slavery is used upon those that are deemed as the lower race by those who think that they stand higher (Celestial Dragons). The thing is, Oda inserts these subjects into the series without making a huge fuss about it. He doesn’t necessarily write them in for us to hate those characters for the sake of hating them but he takes neutral points. Characters like the Celestial Dragons have actual reasons why they behave like that and you can actually understand them up to a certain point. This is something that many mangaka don’t understand when they create characters like that. We want to understand them at least slightly. In the end it’s a shonen manga and is aimed at 13-17 year old boys but the amount of subject tackling, depth it offers is simply impressive. And all of these things is part of something bigger. The bigger picture. At its core, The Dark Knight by Nolan is just an adaption of a comic book series that is created to the appeal of young people, as comics were very huge back then. But it offers entertainment and depth for both, young and adult people. The best kind of writing. Entertainment in the front. Depth in the background.

The Will of D., the ancient weapons, One Piece, the revolutionaries, the poneglyphs, the final island Raftel. There are many mysteries that still have to be answered and Oda has given many answers throughout the series while never doing it in a painful, obscure way as done with the sci-fi series Lost where, if you get the answer to something, five new questions pop up. Oda gives us the answers where it feels most appropriately. Because he doesn’t write a series for the next cliffhanger. He writes a story that feels connected and builds upon itself since chapter 1 and while I know that Oda’s original plan in 1997 was to work on it for 5 years, he has found the right ways to make the world bigger and create more interesting mysteries and turned One Piece rightfully in the best selling series in the world. And it deserves it. I hope my „essay“ here gave you the answers on why so many people rate it so highly. For the most part I gave objective answers in terms of planning, foreshadowing and world building that Oda has consistently created throughout the series. I never talked about the negative aspects of the series and to not make it even longer, I’ll keep it short as I only intended this review to be the answer to the question why One Piece is still so popular even after such a long time.

The negatives:

- Not enough pirate ship battles in a series about pirates
- Pacing can be an issue at times but barely gets a problem. Biggest pacing problem was the overly long Dressrosa arc but even then OP still held a good level of entertainment
- Some characters like Zoro behave different than back then and while it’s entirely understandable, I still prefer the old Zoro
- A few hiccups in terms story telling in the first half
- Some of the villains motivations are a bit lackluster
- Not enough female villains
- Some of the later female characters suffer from same-face shape syndrome but he has noticed it as well and offers now more variety.

I hope you enjoyed my review. Thanks for reading. If you want additional thoughtful analysis of One Piece, look up SupereyepatchWolfs video "The Appeal of One Piece". It's a good watch.



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Faisa_Dragon1
Apr 17, 2021
One Piece review
Usually, I don’t review anything that is still ongoing and that I haven’t dropped after a considerable number of episodes/chapters. After 857 chapters of One Piece however, I feel like I have formed a viable opinion. Also, I don’t know if I’m gonna live long enough to see the end.

Story:
One Piece follows the story of Monkey D. Luffy on his way to become the pirate king (whatever that title implies), making friends and foes along the way as his crew grows in numbers, strength and notoriety. There is one thing that sets this manga apart from most other shounen titles however, and that’s the creativity of Eiichiro Oda. He knows exactly whether the story needs more drama right now or more comedy and the plot unfolds bit by bit, but only as much as necessary to keep interest. I mean, after 20 years we still have no idea what One Piece, the will of D or the lost history are, but we learned about other things along the way. But still, that would not be enough for most people, so why does One Piece not get boring? Well, one major factor is that “Oda never forgets”. Remember that little comment from a character 12 years ago? That’s an important plot point now. That new character? First mentioned in 2000. Hey, isn’t that the one guy they beat up in chapter 319? He happens to be an important person on the island they just arrived on. A heavy continuity in a long running series usually alienates potential new readers, but here the lore is never too deep for newcomers so that they would feel left out. Another big plus is the setting. The crew travels from one island to the next, not knowing a thing about the different locations of the world (except maybe for Robin). Therefore, we get to see all kinds of different themes on the visited islands. From prehistoric settings to Egyptian deserts to islands in the sky or underwater, there is always something fresh, a new climate and a new culture, a friendly or hostile environment, you never know. Sure, you will hear people say “One Piece jumped the shark with the XYZ arc”, but that’s normal for a manga this long. People either complain about how it changed or that it’s repetitive, you’ll never make everybody happy.
Except for the Simpsons, I think we can all agree that they have sucked for at least 10 years now.
10/10

Art:
Back in 1997, One Piece looked unique. To some, it looked ugly, so it had a bit of trouble picking up readers. But all it took was a little time to get used to it. Still, Oda’s artstyle isn’t the best around, neither 20 years ago nor today. That’s not saying it looks like shit, not at all, but it seems as if he has trouble drawing a normal human being. He makes up for that with crazy character designs that only got more crazy as time went on. A big point of criticism in recent years have been the female bodies. Realistic females have never been a staple of anime or manga, but in One Piece they not only look unhealthy, but rather impossible. Their breasts are twice the size of their heads while their waists are merely as wide as a thumb. That goes beyond sexy and into uncanny valley territory. In total, Oda has good ideas but occasionally trouble to put it on paper.
6/10

Characters:
At this point I would take a look at all characters that are somewhat important or worth mentioning individually, but if I did that for One Piece, I would need to write a goddamn book. With a series this long that tells a tale of traveling, naturally the character count will be in the multiple hundreds. And here’s the thing: Almost all of them are memorable and unique. While the story in itself may not be all that special for many, you will have a hard time arguing against the fact that the cast of One Piece is simply amazing. Not only do they all have their own distinct design (though females are starting to look more and more the same, sadly) but they also all get a different personality. After all, the fun thing about travelling is meeting many interesting people and that is what the Straw Hats are doing. Characters that are a bit more important to the story usually get plausible motivations, and even though their backstories aren’t all deep stuff, it’s more than enough for a story of this kind. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Oda never forgets. Sometimes, you meet people more than once and the same happens in One Piece. Sometimes they used to be important but aren’t anymore, at times unimportant side characters get a major role, other times they are just as dangerous or useless as they’ve been the last time. In total, the characters embody the fun the story wants to spread among its readers and they stand as one of the best casts of a shounen manga that ever existed.
10/10

Enjoyment:
What can I say that I haven’t already? One Piece is fun. It’s exciting at times, but always hilarious and it owns the shounen genre like no other work managed to do since. In terms of quality (and length) it has surpassed its spiritual predecessor Dragonball, so if you are a fan of that and somehow haven’t checked out One Piece yet, you totally should. While some weaker phases are inevitable, the weak parts of it are still far superior to those of works like Naruto or Bleach. Long story short, One Piece is a MUST for shounen lovers, but also worth at least checking out for anybody else.
9/10

Overall:
8.75/10
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nick_mitchell6
Apr 17, 2021
One Piece review
(just for the record, this is a slight alteration of my anime review)

One Piece was for many years unnoticed by the majority of the anime community. Many claim that the first arc is boring but I disagree; for a perpetual on-going shonen series One Piece is fine since the very start. But hey, it takes more than that to have a good show and it does deliver elsewhere as well. For example, its characters are quite colourful and likable for shonen material and they are constantly making lots of jokes with their personality quirks. Seeing each one of them individually may seem like very little but seeing all of them together interacting in various ways is just wonderful.

The setting is also quite imaginative as it seems to blend all sorts of themes and eras, with each area having its own unique features and climates, style of life and social standards. It even makes various tributes to fairy tales, real life pirates and actors and historical cities. By the time you get fed up with the same jokes repeating in one area, the cast is sent to another place, where you are again kept interested just to see how they will adjust there. In a way, this hides the fact of the cast being the same since the first arc they were introduced, as it constantly introduces many more, who also have their own quirks.

The show does have its problems of course, the most obvious of which are how the pacing has dropped considerably and how later missions seem like rehashes of the first. All that are explained better when you get to see each arc individually.

- The first arc is called East Blue and it is pretty much the introduction with the main cast. The main hero starts alone and along the way his core crew joins one after another, for various reasons. All that happen in a rather small amount of time and you also get all sorts of villains standing in the way of their journey. It may feel like it is simple at points but the amount of time it offers on each character makes it all worthwhile. Very few parts feel like they were pointless action or aimless strolling; most are about the characters getting to know and trust each other. It is a fine arc as far as shonen shows go. Mark: 9/10
- The second is Baroque Works, where the crew is thrown in the midst of a grand-scaled conspiracy, set in motion by a shady organization that seems to work for the good of the world but in reality it is nothing but a bunch of heartless thugs. This arc drags the plot pointlessly at times (especially during their stroll in the desert; that part is overkill). If you take out those boring parts, this arc is also very good as we are introduced to various political and social notions of the world, and how the journey is not about dealing with random autonomous villains but with organized multinational hidden agendas. Mark: 8/10
- The third is Skypiea, where the crew is now taken on a world above the clouds. This time we are introduced to mostly idealistic notions that are not exactly relevant to the main story. For example, many pirates are now planning to create a new world were the sensation of a journey in order to find treasure and adventure will be obsolete but this part is thrown to the side as the heroes pretty much beat everyone and move along. Then it is about some sort of world in the stars and weapons of mass destruction but again nothing is shown completely, as most are hinted but never shown. Some say they are foreshadow for later arcs but leaving them aside for hundreds of episodes feels kinda weak. Plus this arc did not introduce new crew members or sides of the world. Skypiea is pretty much isolated from the rest of the world and it seems they don’t even care about the land bellow them. What was this entire arc about is kinda blurry. I did like the setting and the broken powers of the main villain but it is otherwise a kinda pointless arc. Mark: 7/10
- The fourth is CP9. The themes are again about a shady organization but it is hardly as interesting as the one in the second arc. They were never mentioned before, never mentioned again, and were just there to flesh out one of the characters in a fashion that felt similar to the last part of the first arc. So in overall it was a just above average part of the show. Mark 6/10
- The fifth is the Whitebeard War. Although it spiced thing up by making the crew get separated, as well as killing important characters for the first time (yeah, it took all these chapters for that) it still felt like a dragged to infinity plot with lots of pointless action. And bringing most of the old secondary characters together while introducing a hundred more only made it look like a poor gathering of cameos. Mark: 5/10
- The sixth is Fishmen Island. A completely pointless arc that exists purely to show off the new powers the characters got after a 2 year time skip. Other than that it had no interesting stories or characters. Mark: 4/10

It is still an overall very above average show but it is not like they couldn’t speed up things. The characters are another point I would like to address. I definitely like them for their weird looks and weirder behaviours; they are very humorous and memorable. That still doesn’t hide the fact they hardly evolved since the beginning. And I am not talking about getting stronger or changing clothes; these don’t count as development of personality. The show doesn’t even bother killing them, no matter how injured they are. And we are talking here about a whole lot of injuries! A few days in bandages while eating meat is all it takes to be completely healed. And sure, I know, many characters die in flashbacks and two major ones died in an arc, all of which happened just because the author felt like building some drama and not because they couldn’t possibly have survived.

This is of course still a shonen series and it still is to its core immature and unrealistic and one should never try to reason it too much. But it also lasted for over a decade and it will last for a lot more, which eventually is more than enough to tire anyone. Especially when it is NOT as interesting or as fast as it began. I am not saying it is now an unreadable show; hardly from it. I could say that for Naruto or Bleach but not One Piece (yet).

I admit that in overall it is still far more enjoyable and well thought of that any other perpetual on-going shonen. Yes, better than Dragonball and Hunter X Hunter too. Its action is full of wacky ideas and interesting choreography and each island is like a world of its own. But I am not going to spam 10s all over the place because it is not perfect and I don’t enjoy it as much as I did. It lost a lot of its magic along the way.
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ZephyrSong8
Apr 17, 2021
One Piece review
Ahhhh One Piece, the most loved and or hated series for being loved.

When I was little, I actually didn't like it compared to various other Shounen manga running at the time. The characters just seemed way too silly and uncool.

Wasn't until I was bored and picked up the 10 volumes of the manga from a local library that I noticed I was turning the pages like crazy. I ended up spending the whole night catching up and before you know it I got hooked.

But why?

The main characters power is literally stretching. It's goofy, it's silly, it's like... how the hell are you going to win m8? Compared to everyone elses advantages, yet it works and flows.

Enjoyment 10/10:
It's just something about the flow of One Piece.
Small spoiler: First chapter, The main character gets sucked into a typhoon, goes into a barrel and wakes up later. You'll see many more of these instances of this later on.
This opens excitement in a sense. Where will the characters land? What's going to happen? What kind of wacky place are we going to end up next?

Overall 10/10:
TL;DR : One Piece is a very silly comedic action and adventurous series that emphasizes on world building and mystery.
It's a very almost near perfect balance of wacky comedic+action that somehow still stays serious. It has a extremely CRAZY world(don't want to list out the things),
literally. It's like if a cooking series were to turn into a full blown mecha and then a steampunk.
Yet it still oddly, it fits right in. I even question it, about how a series can jam so much and still work.
Fight scenes feel more entertaining and unique because most often it's silly how the characters fight.
Most series emphasize on how serious a fight needs to be, how its violence and it shouldn't be fun but One Piece brings out the FUN in violence, similar to the fun and chaos in GTA(Grand Theft Auto).
One of the big tropes of One Piece is that it has quite the "dark/tragic" moments to balance the wackiness and show everyone that there is something going on. This makes it appeal less "edgy" and more balanced, giving you the best of both worlds.

Story 10/10:
The plot is to find the One Piece, a treasure in the Grand Line. Just establishing this alone already raises mystery.
Does it even exist? Where the hell is it? Why hasn't anyone found it?
This sets up a large expansive world alone and braces you for a long wacky adventure.
You'll see the most weirdest creatures, weirdest things yet it still magically fits.

This is all centered around Monkey D. Luffy, an ambitious boy set to find it. What's interesting about this protagonist is that he just defies logic of your expectations.
For example, normally if someone asks you out on a date and you reject, you'd expect that it would be the end of it, but Luffy would defy your logic because screw you, that's why. He'd make you want to eventually want to date him, which is quite funny when you think about it. He just does what he wants and hopes to move forward which adds to the wackiness of the series.

Of course he has the goal of wanting to be the "Pirate king" and finding the treasure "One Piece" but, what the hell is the "Pirate king"? Are all pirates going to listen to him or something? This adds sort of a mysterious deeper vibe into the series because no one knows what the One Piece is , nor what the Pirate king does.

Art 10/10:
During the bloom of the Shounen, a lot of manga followed the whole "big eyes" style(Naruto, Bleach, etc). In fact, it was mentioned that the editors/Jump were worried about Oda drifting towards this style.
One Piece has been heavily criticized for looking terrible but I see it as unique, not following set standards. Its tolerable, some backgrounds even look gorgeous. I really don't know how to rate/critique the annoying and complex topic known as "Art", so I give it a 10 for ever series because I'm if not more entrenched into the story to care about the looks.


Characters 10/10:
You will see the most weirdest characters known to man. I don't want to spoil too much but every character has their flaws, hence why a pirate crew is needed in the first place. It shows itself that no 1 person can be an OP badass and win all alone.

Shounen Powerup argument:

A lot of arguments of why people don't try One Piece is that it seems like a friendship powerup series. Looking through all the battles, only 5-10% of it was. The rest is just pirates running around wanting to push forward to their goals.

Logically speaking though, why is this trope so hated on? If a close friend of yours gets hit, you probably will get angry and upset leading to a power up as blood and adrenaline rushes through your body since you're mentally preparing for a fight or flight scenario.


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LordSithaniel14
Apr 17, 2021
One Piece review
There is a reason that One Piece has managed to captivate and invest the audience for more that 2 decades and over 900 chapters. There are many things amazing with this series. Some of which I will be mentioning here.

-Story: Although the story may seem the same rinse and repeat formula of going to an island, beating up the bad guy and saving the day, the story is probably the best part of the series. There are light-hearted themes of friendship but also darker themes like slavery, discrimination and fascism. It manages to be funny, sad and outright depressing at sometimes which I really like.

-Characters: The characters are mostly amazing. You'll get one or two lazily written characters here and there but most are extremely well written with amazing design and backstory.

-Art: I feel the art in this series is pretty amazing and helps to bring this fantastical story to life.

-World building and mysteries: But at the end, I feel like the reason OP has captivated me all these years is its fantastic world building and mysteries. The world feels alive and we feel and see the world is changing to each and every action of the characters. No island is similar to another and the writer does an amazing job to immerse us to the world. The next thing is mysteries. There are so many mysteries that keep me invested to see how they turn out. The writer is extremely proficient at giving us hints and foreshadowing which makes rereading this series as much enjoyable.

Overall, I feel like it is an amazing series to read if you're new to manga. The only negative aspect to this series is that it is long and can seem intimidating to get into but once you start reading, it starts feeling short.

10/10.
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One Piece
One Piece
Author Oda, Eiichiro
Artist --