Why the heck not? Let’s finally talk about this today now, shall we? One Piece is basically a household name like DB at this point. Every ween knows it but, not every weeb has the strength to pick it up. We’ve all heard the praises of this manga and I promise you, it is every bit as good. If you have the strength to pick this manga up and then keep up with it, I promise you will not be disappointed at all.
So welcome back to another edition of our weekly manga recommendation series. This week we are talking about One Piece. We’ve all heard of this manga, it is one of the longest-running mangas and it has been so popular for so long for a reason. So let’s start right away.
Introduction
One Piece is an ongoing shonen manga written and illustrated by Oda Eiichiro. It started its serialization in the Shonen Jump magazine on 22nd July 1997; yes, its 25th anniversary is coming very soon. If I remember correctly, chapter 1053 is the latest release at the time of writing. It will probably go on for another 100 years so yeah, you better come prepared guys.
One Piece to me really stands out because of its signature art style. Of course, it has way more than that going for it but, that is what draws your eyes to it first. On top of that, the story itself is just so, so well done. Oda-sensei is nothing short of genius and I salute him for all the non-stop hard work he has been doing for the last 25 years now.
Plot
Ooh boy… where do I even begin? One Piece is absolutely huge. But like any shonen anime, its basics can be explained rather easily. The manga follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy as he aims to become the pirate king and find the legendary treasure, the one piece. It obviously gets a lot more complicated than that but, I’ll probably need a whole another article if I sit here to even attempt to explain it.
So I’ll go ahead and state the obvious: One Piece is one of the, if not the best written shonen manga, period. If you have read the manga then, you absolutely cannot deny that fact. Sure, it may not be for everyone because of its length but the world-building, pacing and suspense really keep this manga interesting. It has been almost 25 years and 1000+ chapters and Oda-sensei still hasn’t told us about the one-piece and he still manages to keep people interested in the series. That is art.
Characters
Once again, man, I am not sure where to start. Saying that One Piece has a lot of characters is a huge understatement. Starting off with Luffy, he is a very interesting character. His character development is like a typical shonen MC but, he does not lose his uniqueness. Aside from him, my favorites have to be Sanji and Zoro. I mean, both of them are really cool characters and Zoro is basically a meme; I love ’em.
Art
Oda-sensei is well known for his art. One Piece has brilliant art. It takes a bit to get used to the unique art style but once you do, you’ll love it. The shadows and shading are really well done and these make the fights feel really good too. Speaking of, like a typical shonen there are a lot of fights and they all look really really good.
Why should you read One Piece?
Quick pointers on why you should check out this manga:
- Ongoing
- Great plot
- Great pacing
- Awesome characters
- Good fights
- Cool art
Conclusion
Well, that is all for now. I am a really big One Piece fan, I know I wasn’t able to do it justice here but, I have limited time and words here so… Well, let me know what you think in the comments. And yeah, I’ll take my leave here. See ya!
