One Piece

AUTHOR: Oda, Eiichiro

ARTIST: Eiichiro Oda (illustrator)

PUBLISHER: Shueisha (Japanese); VIZ Media (English)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Wan pisu, 1997- (English translation, 2002- )

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1997- (English translation, 2003- )

Publication History

One Piece was first published in Weekly Shonen Jump in August, 1997. The manga was based on one-shots published under the title Romance Dawn the previous year. Because of the series’ popularity, publisher Shueisha began to collect the weekly chapters into tankobon in December, 1997. Creator Eiichiro Oda initially intended to end the series in 2001, but both the popularity of the series and Oda’s enjoyment in writing it have compelled him to continue indefinitely.

The manga has also been sold in collected volumes in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The translations of the manga from Japanese into English preserve the manga panel layout, which reads from right to left, in order to preserve the integrity of the connected scenes. The manga’s humor often revolves around puns and jokes involving misheard statements, so translators often change the phrasing to preserve the humor rather than follow the most literal interpretation.

Plot

As a child, Monkey D. Luffy idolizes a group of pirates resting at his hometown and decides to become a pirate. He accidently eats a cursed fruit and gains rubber powers. At fifteen, he sets out in a small ship to find One Piece, the treasure of the Pirate King. Luffy quickly finds a swordsman, Zolo; a navigator, Nami; a sharpshooter, Usopp; and a chef, Sanji, and establishes the Straw Hat crew. Nami is trapped in a deal with a brutal fishman pirate named Arlong. The Straw Hat crew follows Nami to her hometown and defeats Arlong and his crew. This battle fully unifies the crew and gains Luffy a bounty from the Marines.

The crew travels to Loguetown, and readers learn that Luffy is the son of the Revolutionary Dragon. The crew then heads to the Grand Line, the ocean on which most of the adventures take place, and is immediately attacked by a secret group called Baroque Works. They are enlisted by Princess Vivi to destroy Baroque Works and save the kingdom of Alabasta. Along the way, they meet and recruit the reindeer doctor Tony Tony Chopper. The battle with Baroque Works requires all crew members to fight and forces Luffy to face Crocodile, a member of the Shichibukai. Luffy defeats Crocodile.

The crew then travels to an island in the sky called Skypeia, where the inhabitants use a technology based on special shells called dials. The people there are ruled by Eneru, who uses his powers of advanced hearing and electricity to destroy anyone who speaks against him. Luffy is able to defeat him because his rubber body is insulated against Eneru’s electrical attacks.

The crew leaves Skypiea loaded with treasure; however, their ship, Merry Go, must undergo major repairs in Water Seven, land of the shipbuilders. Nico Robin’s past as a witness of government brutality is revealed, and she is captured by a special government force, CP-9. Luffy declares war on the World Government and attacks the Marine base where Robin is being held. The Straw Hats defeat CP-9, with Luffy using techniques that increase his speed and size but also damage his body in order to defeat CP-9’s top fighter, Rob Lucci, and rescue his crewmate.

The old ship is beyond repair, and it is replaced with Thousand Sunny. The Straw Hats travel into a deep fog, where they find the talking skeleton musician Brook. Brook tells the crew of a ghost island where someone is experimenting on pirates to create powerful undead warriors. The process removes an individual’s shadow and places it in a corpse; however, once a person’s shadow is removed, that person will be destroyed by the light of the sun. Brook asks for Luffy’s help in regaining his shadow, so the Straw Hats head to the ghost island of Thriller Bark. The island is controlled by the Shichibukai pirate Gecko Moria and is covered with hundreds of undead and surgically altered monsters. Moria steals Luffy’s shadow and plants it in the body of a giant monster named Oars. Meanwhile, the crew fights zombie swordsmen, invisible monsters, and a girl with the power to destroy one’s sense of self-worth. These monsters are defeated, and all of the stolen shadows are restored to their owners.

The Straw Hat crew travels to the Sabaody archipelago, which is at the base of the Red Line, a mountain range marking the halfway point of the Grand Line. The crew meets Rayleigh, the Pirate King’s first mate, who explains the nature of the second half of the Grand Line, a place called the New World.

While in Sabaody, Luffy is enraged when he finds out that fishmen are being sold as slaves, and he fights to stop the auction. He attacks a member of the World Nobles, privileged descendents of the founders of the World Government, and provokes a full Marine response. The crew is separated and flung to different islands of the Grand Line. During this period of separation, Luffy learns that his brother, Ace, has been captured and sentenced to be executed. He breaks into Impel Down, an underwater prison, and releases all of its prisoners, only to learn that Ace has already been transferred to the capitol for his execution. Ace’s captain, Whitebeard, gathers a fleet of pirates, who help Luffy and the horde of freed prisoners assault the capitol. The pirates prevent Ace’s execution. However, as they are escaping, Whitebeard is killed by his own son, and Ace sacrifices himself to save Luffy from an admiral’s fatal attack. Luffy is emotionally shattered, and the series spends a volume revealing Luffy’s childhood with Ace. Luffy sends a message to his crew stating that they are to meet again in two years; thus, each member begins a training regime under a different master. Two years later, the crew reassembles at the archipelago and continues its journey.

Volumes

• One Piece: Romance Dawn, Buggy the Clown, Don’t Get Fooled Again, The Black Cat Pirates, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Oath, The Crap-Geezer, and I Won’t Die (2003-2005). Volumes 1-8. Collects issues 1-71. Luffy leaves his hometown and recruits a crew of pirates. He also meets and defeats the pirates Buggy the Clown and Don Krieg.

• One Piece:Tears, “OK, Let’s Stand Up!,” and The Meanest Man in the East (2006). Volumes 9-11. Collects issues 72-99. Luffy must defeat Captain Arlong and the fishmen pirates to rescue Nami. After his victory over Arlong, Luffy heads to the entrance of the Grand Line, the strip of ocean he must travel to find One Piece.

• One Piece:The Legend Begins, It’s All Right!!!!, Instinct,Straight Ahead!!!!, Carrying on His Will, and Hiruluk’s Cherry Blossoms (2006-2008). Volumes 12-17. Collects issues 100-155. The Straw Hat crew makes it to the Grand Line and befriends a giant whale named Laboon. The crew meets secretive agents Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9 from the organization Baroque Works. The Straw Hats defeat King Walpol and recruit the talking, shape-shifting reindeer Tony Tony Chopper as the ship’s doctor.

• One Piece:Ace Arrives, Rebellion, Showdown at Alubarna,Utopia, Hope!!, and Vivi’s Adventure (2008-2009). Volumes 18-23. Collects issues 156-216. Princess Vivi, who was Miss Wednesday, brings the crew to Alabasta, her kingdom, where the members aid her in defeating the rest of Baroque Works. After saving Alabasta, Vivi leaves the crew. Nico Robin joins the crew.

• One Piece:People’s Dreams, The One Hundred Million Berry ManAdventure on Kami’s Island, Overture, Wyper the Berserker, Oratorio, Capriccio, We’ll Be HereLove Song, and Davy Back Fight (2010). Volumes 24-33. Collects issues 217-316. Luffy meets Mont Blanc Cricket and learns about Skypiea. The Straw Hat crew goes to Skypiea, where the members learn about dial technology and confront and defeat Eneru. The people in the sky try to reward the Straw Hat crew, but there is a misunderstanding; thus, the Straw Hat crew flees with whatever treasure the members can grab.

• One Piece:The City of Water, Water Seven; Captain; The Ninth Justice; Tom; Rocketman!!; Scramble; Gear; Declaration of War; Pirates vs. CP9; Legend of a Hero; Let’s Go Back; and You Have My Sympathies (2010). Volumes 34-45. Collects issues 317-440. The Straw Hat crew goes to Water Seven to repair the ship. Nico Robin is captured by the Marines. The Straw Hat crew heads to the judicial island of Enies Lobby, where it attacks and defeats the elite Marine group CP9. Franky joins the Straw Hats, and the crew gets a new ship, Thousand Sunny.

• One Piece:Adventure on Ghost Island; Cloudy, Partly Bony; Adventures of Oars; Nightmare Luffy; and Arriving Again (2010). Volumes 46-50. Collects issues 441-491. The Straw Hat crew meets Brook and goes to the ghost island Thriller Bark. On the island, the warlord Gecko Moria removes the souls of some of the characters to create an army of zombies. The crew defeats the strongest zombies, and Brook joins the crew.

• One Piece:The Eleven Supernovas, Roger and Rayleigh, Natural Born King, Unstoppable, A Ray of Hope, Thank You, Summit Battle, The Name of This Era Is “Whitebeard,”The Death of Portgaz D. Ace, and My Brother (2010-2012). Volumes 51-60. Collects issues 492-594. The Straw Hat crew makes it to Sabaody Park. Luffy assaults a Celestial Dragon. The crew goes to different islands through the teleportation powers of Bartholomew Kuma. Luffy lands on the Isle of Women, where the pirate empress Boa Hancock falls in love with him. He finds out Ace is in prison and tries to free him. He then joins Whitebeard and many others in an attack against Oris Plaza.

• One Piece:Romance Dawn—For the New World, Adventure on Fish-Man Island, Otohime and Tiger and 100,000 vs. 10 (2012). Volumes 61-64. Collects issues 595-631. The crew meets at Sabaody Park and travels to Fishman Island. They fight the fishman pirate captains Vander Decken IX and Hodi Jones.

Characters

• Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist, is a young man who accidently ate the Gomu Gomu devil fruit, which turned his body into rubber. Having idolized pirates since his childhood, he gathers a crew of pirates to try to find the greatest pirate treasure, One Piece.

• Roronoa Zolo is the first member of Luffy’s Straw Hat crew. He is a master swordsman who uses three katana simultaneously.

• Nami is a thief and expert navigator for the Straw Hat pirates. She began her career as a thief to buy back her hometown from Arlong. She initially hated all pirates because of Arlong’s merciless murder of her guardian, Bellmare.

• Usopp is the sniper and gunnery expert of the Straw Hat pirates. He is a chronic liar and substantially weaker than most of the other members of the crew. His goal is simply to become strong enough to be recognized as a great man.

• Sanji is the cook of the Straw Hat pirates and a master of a martial art that uses leg techniques only. He is obsessed with beautiful women and will never fight one. His goal is to find a mythical sea called the All Blue, which contains fish from every ocean of the world.

• Tony Tony Chopper is a reindeer who ate a devil fruit that gave him the intelligence and capabilities of a human as well as shape-shifting abilities. He is the ship’s doctor, and his goal is to find a medicine that can treat any disease or injury.

• Franky is a cyborg and the shipwright. He built the Straw Hat pirates’ second ship and decides to travel with the pirates to discover new technologies.

• Brook is a living skeleton who ate a devil fruit that gave him immortality. He is a swordsman and musician and is capable of controlling the emotions of those who hear him play. His goal is to return to an old friend.

• Nico Robin is the ship’s archaeologist and one of the most levelheaded members of the crew. She has been hunted by the government since her childhood as the sole survivor of a government-sanctioned massacre. She ate a devil fruit that gave her the power to multiply her limbs and cause copies of her limbs to sprout from other surfaces near her. Her goal is to decipher the secrets of an ancient civilization that may be linked to One Piece.

• Portgaz D. Ace is Luffy’s adopted brother. He ate a devil fruit that gave him the power to control fire. He is a far more infamous pirate than Luffy and the first mate to the legendary pirate Whitebeard. He is also the son of the Pirate King.

• The Shichibukai, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, is a group made up of seven powerful pirate captains who work for the Marines and control the influx of new pirates. Members include Crocodile, Hawkeye Mihawk, Donquixote Doflamingo, Gecko Moria, Bartholomew Kuma, and Boa Hancock. The seventh pirate, Jinbe, was removed from his position and was replaced only briefly.

• Gol D. Roger was the Pirate King, a legendary pirate who created the strongest crew and gathered One Piece. His death started the great age of pirates, as people clamored to reach the treasure at the end of the long stretch of ocean known as the Grand Line.

Artistic Style

One Piece’s Artistic style has a certain simplicity characteristic of shonen comics; however, the large mouths and eyes of characters allow the creator to include scenes that convey larger-than-life emotions and reactions. Most characters have slim limbs, but certain large characters possess wide shoulders with pronounced recesses around the collarbones. The style lends itself to the overall lighthearted nature of the series; however, the detail and complexity of action scenes convey the speed and power of individual characters and the tension of the combatants. Certain stylistic elements distinct to manga, such as throbbing veins of anger and swirling lines of confusion, are used to establish atmosphere and indicate emotion. Oda also uses unique framing on body parts under strain to convey, in a suspenseful manner, the effort characters are exerting or the injuries they have received. Another interesting element in the series, given that it is drawn in black and white, is the way in which Oda depicts blood as either droplets or streams depending on the severity and persistence of an injury. Action within the comic often utilizes extreme angles to capture characters’ abilities to distort themselves.

Themes

One Piece is about a group of friends who work together to achieve their dreams. The themes of friendship and the power of teamwork are central to the series. Luffy is rather dim and impulsive; thus, he must be assisted by his crew, otherwise his goals are unattainable. This point is reinforced from the perspectives of the other characters, each of whom is limited in his or her own skills but trusts the crew unwaveringly.

Another major theme is the importance of independent thought and dedication to personal principles, as opposed to unwavering support of the government. While the main characters are pirates, each crew member adheres to personal rules that any heroic figure would follow.

Impact

One Piece has been extremely popular in both Japan and the United States and in 2012 became the best-selling manga of all time. While the characters fall into traditional adventure manga roles, the dynamics between the characters are original in a subgenre often cluttered with cliché story lines and thus appeal to a wide range of readers. Manga has become an increasingly popular literary format among young audiences in the United States, and One Piece continues a tradition of intriguing graphic literature.

Television Series

One Piece. Directed by Konosuke Uda. Toei Animation/FUNimation Entertainment, 1999- . This animated adaptation of the manga is true to the source material, though certain additional episodes have been added to compensate for the delays in the manga production.

Further Reading

Kubo, Tite. Bleach (2001– ).

Matsuena, Syun. Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple (2002- ).

Bibliography

Brenner, Robin E. Understanding Manga and Anime. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2007.

Schodt, Frederik L. Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics. New York: Kodansha International, 1983.

Wong, Wendy Siuyi. “Globalizing Manga: From Japan to Hong Kong and Beyond.” Mechademia 1 (2006): 23-45.