Why I Love: One Piece

   

 

Last year was quite a hard time for me, it was my final year at the university and for what  felt like the first time in my life, I was truly struggling with school. Not the “oh I’m scared I might not do well” but I was genuinely doing bad. This wasn’t because I wasn’t reading or not putting in the work, it was just because I was given a terrible lecturer as a supervisor. I used to think I had a good relationship with him but during the course of the second semester I began to see a shift in his personality and obvious hate towards me. As someone who struggles with insecurities, I was constantly insulted and ridiculed for no real reasons and even though I knew what he said about me wasn’t true,  I was still hurt. Hurt not just because of how he made me feel bad but hurt because the idea of failing and disappointing my parents and family in general was killing me on the inside and I had no means to express how trapped I felt. You’re probably wondering, “Why is this person telling me about his life sad life”? and “How does it relate to loving one piece”? 

  After several rejections of my final project drafts by my lecturer, I stumbled on to Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. This wasn’t my first encounter with the series, I had actually started it during my first year at university in 2016 and stopped due to not having it readily available to me at the time. So, a tired and sad me rekindled his relationship with the series by continuing from where I stopped which was the beginning of water 7. 

I remembered saying how i didn’t enjoy water 7 back then and thought it killed the momentum of the series and, boy, was I so so wrong. I began to watch one piece and (later) read one piece daily. I would use it as an escape from my sadness filled reality. Each time I’d work hard on my project and get long and unhelpful rants from my supervisor, i would find solace in watching the straw hats go from island to island. I saw myself laughing again after months of my laughter dwindling. It came to a point where I’d log off from WhatsApp (the social messaging app I used to communicate with the supervisor) immediately I mailed him a new copy of my work because I knew it would only be responded with insults. I would do this and watch one piece and every moment I did, I felt happy, it was a sad kind of happiness because the thought of the evil man would linger on my mind every time  I smiled and felt joy watching Oda’s creation. Thinking about it now, I find it funny that a self proclaimed academic like my supervisor did not allow me; his project student call him. It’s funnier cause most of the other students would call him and get constructive criticism and notes on each of their submissions. 

One Piece creator; Eiichiro Oda is a man who I consider a god in all honesty. His consistency in carrying the series and creating such a well detailed world spanning over two decades is actually so crazy and while he never likes to get complemented or admit his great brilliance in planning and writing, he truly is a genius level being. 

Like many popular anime/manga, One Piece is a shonen and just like every shonen it has its tropes but what makes this show truly stand out is how he (Oda) manages to create an incredibly believable and diverse world full of depth, foreshadowing while still retaining the digestibility of your average shonen. 

   A lot of people who haven’t watched or read the series use its length as a reason not to try it and honestly, I get that. With over 900 anime episodes and 1000 manga chapters, the series continues to grow and shock audiences. There is no writer on the planet right now that is putting out almost consistent weekly content at the level that Oda is. He has managed to create what is a strong contender for the greatest fictional story ever told. His work is up there with the greats like the hobbit/lord of the rings franchise, game of thrones and many other great works.

 Okay, okay, so I’ve been talking about the many great things about Oda and one piece but now, it’s time to finally explain why I love one piece. They’re a lot of reasons why I love the series and while I could go on and on, I think it boils down to the relatability even though it’s set in an unrealistic world and it’s dedication to adventure. Let me explain.

 

 One Piece is set in a fictional and whacky world where different races, islands, powers, organizations and culture exist. This might arguably be the most fleshed out and diverse manga/anime series there is. So much of what it has to offer is nothing we have in our reality but it feels so familiar because of how Oda writes his characters and world to be relatable. While he is not the first weave relatable themes of friendship, love, hate and so much more into fictional worlds, he does it in such an eloquent way. From his art style alone, his human characters do not look like conventional human beings, he goes out of his way to show his viewers that this isn’t the real world but instead of using that to alienate them from the viewers, he makes them so human and thus relatable.

 Every arc, every story, every major character (and a lot of times, minor  characters)feels important no matter how small their role is. They feel like real people, places feel like real places, everything feels real. Oda intentionally creates the most bizarre settings or characters and then adds so much to them making them feel real and it’s this human element that allows the fans to still talk, speculate and love characters who appeared hundreds of chapters ago. 

 As stated earlier, there’s another reason why I love and adore One Piece so much and it’s the dedication to adventure. You’re probably saying this should be normal as it’s about pirates and that is true but, Oda simply takes it to another level. Oda writes in a way that leaves certain things unanswered and this brings a lot of discussions. With each new thing he answers in the series a hundred other questions could be sprung up. This type of writing works so well for the series because you are literally going on an adventure just like Luffy and his crew and while Luffy’s desire is to find the One Piece, we’re on a journey of discovering everything about everything that leads up to it. As a previously anime only watcher, it took me a while to fully follow the manga and when I did I became shocked because Oda includes these cover stories that show other characters and their dealings in the world. These extra stories are cohesive and very much canon within the series and add more to its dedication to adventure. 

  One Piece is my favorite manga of all time, it saved me when I was practically at rock bottom. I have completely fallen in love with the world and characters as well grown to admire Eiichiro Oda and try to emulate him in my own art. One Piece is a story I feel every human being needs to experience once in a lifetime and I honestly mean it when I say it saved my life and I truly hope whoever reads this gives it a chance.