Deep Cliff #45 One Piece

Anime Review: One Piece

Hello and welcome to yet another Deep Cliff, where I listen to questions and bring you in depth answers. Today I’m doing another anime…and as you all know it’s an anime that I really like. One Piece is by far one of the best anime I’ve seen. So, if I like it so much, why am I going to do a review on it? Well…for a simple reason: It’s very underrated and underappreciated. One Piece is considered one of the “Big 5” anime…the 5 anime that are long lasting series anime with a huge following (the others being Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Bleach, and Full Metal Alchemist). However, many anime fans often say that they don’t like One Piece and for many different reasons. So the reason I’m doing this review is to do three things
1.) I want to talk about the anime and what I think is great about it.
2.) Point out some of the common arguments against it and see if they are solid.
3.) Give a definitive analysis as to if One Piece is really as good or bad as people think.
So let’s get started!

The One Piece story is hard to explain in short, but I’ll do my best. So essentially there was a man named Gold Roger, also known as the King of the Pirates. He obtained all the treasure the world had to offer and hid it all away. This treasure became known as the One Piece. On his execution day, Gold Roger claimed that if anyone wanted his treasure and his title, all they had to do was find it. This started the Great Pirate era, where pirates from all over took to the seas and sailed for the Grand Line to find the One Piece.
Monkey D. Luffy is a young boy who dreams of becoming the next pirate king and goes out to gather a crew to help him. Luffy is a rubber man, having eaten a cursed fruit which turned his body into rubber. With this, along with his impressive fighting skill, Luffy and the crew of misfits that he builds for himself go on their quest to the Grand Line to achieve their goals.

What I love about the story is just the adventure and SIZE to it. Much like Dragon Ball Z, each of the characters feels unique and the world itself just feels so fun and detailed. I love the design of the characters and I love the locations they go to. The creativity really stands out in the art and story. One major problem I have with shows like Naruto is that the characters feel like copy and paste sort of characters. They existed at first with unique attributes and personalities…but eventually they turned into characters who only existed to point out how strong the main character is. In One Piece, each of the characters has purpose and none of them only serve to admire Luffy, the main character. In fact, they ALL feel like main characters. Like each one has their own story and their own goal to achieve.
I think that’s the shows best quality…the comradery. Unlike Naruto or Bleach, where the show seems to primarily focus on just one main hero and tell their story, One Piece is very focused on addressing the skills, growth, and development of ALL the characters. You feel connected to ALL of them and you feel like you want to be a part of them. They suck you in. The adventures of the Straw Hat pirates is one where you can become engrossed and involved. The fun moments, the sad moments, the action packed moments, and even the darker moments have you so invested, you feel like a part of the crew…a part of the show. I love a story that can do that.

Now with all that said, there are plenty of arguments against the show. Allow me to write out the big ones here. I shall put the arguments in bold and I shall respond to them.
The characters and the story are too weird and goofy looking. They aren’t as solid and realistic as something out of Naruto or Bleach. Rather than appear real and serious, they appear strange and too cartoonish. Well yes, I can certainly see where that comes from. One Piece is a lot more goofy in its designs and, sometimes it can even be downright comical. Oda (the creator of One Piece) admitted that he made Luffy have rubber powers because it was a comical power as well as a strong one. However, I think that this is a good thing. If I asked a person to draw me three of the main characters from Naruto, they could draw the same basic anatomy three times and then just draw different outfits and hair for each of them. But if I asked the same person to draw me three One Piece characters, well…that’s more difficult, because each is so vastly different. All of them are unique and all of them are strange, but this sets them apart and makes them fun to follow. I feel that’s part of the fun and uniqueness of One Piece to have such strange and enjoyable characters.
The story is all over the place. They always go on side stories and arcs that don’t connect to the main plot very often. This makes it hard to follow and very annoying. I admit, this is a problem with the show. The One Piece crew always goes to a different island where they embark on a new and crazy adventure which involves them finding a new crew mate or they learn something new and amazing about the world. This can be distracting…but allow me to defend One Piece with this: When they go on a side arc…it ALWAYS connects to the rest of the adventure. Each arc and island they go to serves a purpose and it ties into the rest of the adventure. Characters they meet, powers they encounter, trials they suffer…all of them teach them something new and are usually addressed and brought up again later in the story.
Naruto does the same thing; often getting lost in side stories and arcs…but the difference is that they don’t usually tie into the main story. Most of their arcs are just filler arcs that don’t have anything to do with anything later. Bleach was guilty of this as well, and Dragon Ball Z was as well. Give One Piece credit that, while it did have a lot of side arcs, all of them connected in some way, shape, or form.
The story over all is just stupid. There isn’t enough drama or depth to the characters and nothing ever feels like it’s a big deal, so why bother watching if it’s not going to feel heavy? This is a common complaint of people who stop watching shortly before the Skypea arc. It’s true that, early on in the story, Luffy and the crew were young, foolish, and all around goofy. Most of the villains they encountered weren’t big villains and were easily dealt with. The characters weren’t that fleshed out either, to be honest. With that said, after most of the crew was gathered after the Skypea arc, we began to deal with very major problems…such as the ship being damaged beyond repair, the back story of Nico Robin uncovering a huge conspiracy about the World Government. All leading up to when the Straw Hats declare open war on the World Government itself. Things get heavy REALLY fast.
Even if they didn’t, I think the goofy and lighthearted nature of the show is a good thing. Darkness and drama in shows is a good thing because it sucks you in, but shows like Death Note and Wolfs Rain have so much darkness and graphic quality that it almost feels…unnecessary. Darkness is the absence of light…well if you don’t establish there was any light to begin with, how can the darkness really be appreciated? One Piece has so many lighthearted and fun moments so that, when the darkness and drama hits, it’s that much more powerful, such as when Usopp and Luffy dueled each other. Knowing what close friends they were and how much fun they had together, it was painful to see these two fight each other. I never felt that way when Naruto and Sasuke fought in Naruto because they never really established much of a friendship between the two. This is the stories strength, balancing the light with the dark.
The powers are too inconsistent. It’s hard to establish who is more powerful and who is better over all. It always feels like Luffy will pull a win out of his ass no matter what. Um…and Naruto (from Naruto), Ichigo (from Bleach), and Goku (from Dragon Ball Z) won’t? Sure, the powers can be inconsistent at times, but so can several other anime that you all tend to defend and love! Take Naruto for example! The jutsu in Naruto, which used to simple and easy to understand, are now limitless and almost god like…it’s so inconsistent from what it started out as, it doesn’t even feel like the same show. How often does Goku gain a new level of power that allows him to win again? It really does make me mad how people will accuse One Piece of a crime while overlooking the same crime from other shows that they defend.
The story is just too long. Yes it is. But so are the stories for most of the other big anime that you all love. Naruto needed to end a long time ago, Bleach is STILL going, and Fairy Tail as well as Sailor Moon are currently being rebooted. One Piece currently has more episodes than any other anime right now. But for those who love One Piece and it’s characters and story, this just keeps us invested. Oda speculated that it might be another 5 years before he was finally done with One Piece. Here’s hoping that he can do it.

Those are just a few of the arguments that people often like to throw at One Piece and why they don’t like it. As you can see, quite often simply giving the anime a chance and looking past the sillier and dumber moments, you can see that there is a lot good about it. After all, even the best shows and anime have weird and dumb moments. I believe that One Piece is, by far, one of the best anime I’ve ever seen. It’s dumb moments just add to the charm of the anime and make it even more worth watching. One Piece’s strength comes from its characters, it’s balance of lighthearted and emotional levels, and it’s adventurous feel. Never before have I ever seen an anime that made me want so bad to be a part of it. It does it’s job so well that I’m glad it’s still going and I can keep following it. I love watching the characters grow and become stronger. I hope that this anime can continue for a long while. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. Does it have its problems? Sure, but in the end, it can turn those oddities and stupidities into really great and meaningful moments.

I hope you all enjoyed this review! Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments or in a note!