The first time I came across this series, it was on a lazy Saturday morning when I was still in college. Out of sheer curiosity, and boredom, I tuned into the Saturday morning cartoons to scope out the kind of quality programming the kids were being fed nowadays. Just by chance, One Piece happened to be coming on. I was immediately repelled by it, as this was the time that the Saturday morning line-up was being inundated with kiddie anime like Yu-Gi-Oh, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Duel Masters (among others). They all struck me as rip-offs of Pokemon, and so I never bothered watching.
One Piece seemed like just another turd shipped over from Japan to feed to our young as mental breakfast. I hated the animation style, and the main character's Tom Sawyer-like appearance, combined with his bizarre stretchy power, made it difficult for my brain to process that early in the morning. Also, the voice acting, not to mention the hip-hop opening, was atrocious. With a curt, "Fuck this", I changed the channel to a rerun of Beakman's World and never looked back...
...until a friend highly recommended I give it another shot. This was a couple years later, while I was working my first ever office job. At the time, I was already immersed in other Shonen Jump inspired anime, such as Bleach and Naruto. I'd watch them while at work, as I had way too much free time for such things. When my friend told me to give One Piece another shot, I figured I had more than enough time, so why not? This time I'd be watching the real show, and not the piece of shit American version.
From the moment I heard the catchy, infectiously upbeat opening music, I was pretty well hooked...
The series, based on the Shonen Jump manga by Eiichiro Oda, is about the adventures of an aspiring Pirate King named Monkey D. Luffy. As a young boy, Luffy once looked up to an older man, and famous pirate, named "Red Hair" Shanks, who saved Luffy from drowning after he accidentally ate something called a "Devil Fruit". A Devil Fruit is a rare object that, once consumed, gives its user an unusual ability, which, in Luffy's case, is the ability to stretch out like rubber. The downside of Devil Fruit? If a Devil Fruit user happens to fall into seawater, they'll sink like a stone. Shanks loses his left arm while saving Luffy, but undeterred by the loss, leaves with his pirate crew, entrusting his straw hat with Luffy with the promise that some day, when they meet again on the high seas, Luffy can return it.
Aside from wanting to eventually reunite with Shanks, Luffy's main objective is to find a famous treasure called the One Piece, and became King of the Pirates. Along the way, he meets and recruits a colorful variety of crew members to help him in this quest. Here's a run down of each member:
"Straw Hat" Monkey D. Luffy - As mentioned before, Luffy is the main character, and Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy is impulsive, loudmouthed, and not fairly bright. However, he compensates for this failings with a heart of gold and a tenacious spirit to overcome insurmountable odds. It also helps that he possesses the ability to stretch his body like rubber, granting him impressive fighting abilities.
"Pirate Hunter" Roronoa Zoro - Luffy's second-in-command, Zoro is a highly skilled swordsman, having mastered the "three kitana" style of sword fighting. Zoro travels the world in search of someone to test his skill, and gained notoriety for hunting pirates for their bounty. After Luffy saves his life, Zoro reluctantly agrees to travel with him, figuring he would continue to find ways to improve his swordsmanship along the way. Zoro is a very stoic individual, who spends most of his time either working out, or taking naps. Even though he is a fiercely strong warrior, he has an almost uncannily terrible sense of direction and, if left to explore on his own, often gets lost until the Straw Hat crew either find him or serendipitously run into him.
"Cat Burglar" Nami is the navigator and treasurer/expert thief for the Straw Hat crew. She is strong-willed, feisty, and can be overcome with greed on occasion, although never so much so that she is inconsiderate of her fellow crew-members' needs. Nami is not only a skilled thief, but a highly skilled navigator and cartographer. She joins the crew after Luffy helps liberate her home island from a vicious gang of fish men. Her goal is to eventually draw a map of the entire world.
"Sogeking" Usopp is the sniper for the Straw Hat crew. Usopp is a skilled marksman, a serviceable weapons developer, and a talented liar. He joins the Straw Hat crew to follow in his father's footsteps, who serves as a sniper for "Red Hair" Shanks' crew, and overcome his natural propensity for cowardice. Usopp later develops a masked alter ego, named "Sogeking" (which means "King of Snipers"), after he dramatically quits the Straw Hats over an argument with Luffy. He eventually discards the Sogeking persona and rejoins the crew as Usopp (the whole time Luffy and Chopper are the only ones unaware that Usopp and Sogeking were the same person). Usopp is armed with a slingshot and a variety of different bullets that have different effects.
"Black Leg" Sanji is the ship's cook and a formidable kick-boxer. He joins the crew with the hopes of discovering an area of the world called the "All Blue", where it is said some of the most delicious sea life in the world reside. Sanji tries to project a cool, charismatic image, but it is often shattered the moment he meets an attractive woman, causing him to lose his composure and become rather embarrassingly subservient. Sanji can be rather vain, especially when it comes to his appearance, and becomes incredibly depressed whenever the subject of his poorly drawn "wanted" poster is brought up.
"Cotten Candy Lover" Tony Tony Chopper is the ship's medic. Chopper is a reindeer who ate a Devil Fruit that granted him the ability to transform into a human/reindeer hybrid. Chopper also has the ability to transform into a variety of human/reindeer forms by using medicinal drugs called "Rumble Balls" (hehehehe). Each form has a special ability, but can be maintained only temporary and with the cost of extreme exhaustion to Chopper's stamina. He learned medicinal arts from a crackpot doctor who sheltered Chopper when he had no place else to go. Chopper is naive, childlike, and is prone to panic almost as much, if not more, than Usopp. For some reason, he can't understand the concept of hiding, and will often hide in plain sight, not knowing how exposed he is. His nickname comes from the only picture of him that exists, which is an unflattering photo of him eating cotton candy. Chopper gets about as depressed as Sanji when he realizes that his bounty is a puny 50 Beli.
"Devil Child" Nico Robin is an archeologist and historian, devoted to discovering the true origin of the world, even though her quest into such forbidden information makes her into the World Government's enemy. Robin's Devil Fruit gift is she can make various parts of her body sprout from any surface she can see, making her a fairly deadly foe. When Luffy and company first encounter her, she is working for a man named Crocodile, who is a vicious crime lord intent on taking over the Alabasta Kingdom. After he is defeated by Luffy, she decides to travel with Straw Hats, but only after she confronts her own tragic past with the World Government (which, as it turns out, is one of the most epic story arcs in the entire series). Robin is very calm and cunning individual, often spending her time nose deep in books. She doesn't really serve an official function on the ship, besides being a font of knowledge about the various places they travel too.
"Cyborg" Franky is an extremely gifted engineer and serves as Luffy's shipwright. He joins the crew when Luffy's first ship, The Going Merry, becomes far too damaged to continue traveling the sea. Franky builds an even bigger, better ship the Straw Hats, called The Thousand Sunny. Franky is a cyborg, having had to replace most of his body parts with machines after a tragic childhood accident. Franky's cyborg body, and most of the tech he develops, is powered by soda. Franky is a brash loudmouth, who likes to awkwardly pepper his sentences with the word "super", but he has a good heart.
"Dead Bones" Brook is the ship's musician and entertainer. Brook used to be a member of the Rumbar Pirate crew, but was the only one left alive after their encounter with Thriller Bark... although "alive" may be a relative term. Brook died as well, but was revived due to a Devil Fruit he had eaten while alive. His unusual power is life after death, although in the form of a skeleton. Despite his rather tragic past, and somewhat frightening appearance, Brook is very jovial and about as happy-go-lucky as Luffy, although this can be a source of annoyance to the Straw Hat crew as it is a source of entertainment. Brook has a tendency to constantly make reference to the fact that he is a skeleton with jokes like, "My heart is pumping so fast... although, being a skeleton, I have no heart!" He's a skilled fencer, though not as skilled with a sword as Zoro. He also has the ability play songs that have effects on people, such as putting them to sleep. Brook joins the crew after Luffy helps him reclaim his shadow from the evil shadow-stealing captain of Thriller Bark, Gecko Moria.Phew! Finally finished listing the protagonists of the series! Now for the villains...
Just kidding. The reason I so exhaustively went over the main characters of the show is to detail the variety of colorful characters that travel with Luffy on his quest. Trust me when I say that, as strange as these characters may seem, they are nothing compared to some of the characters the Straw Hats encounter throughout the series.
The show presents us with a very odd, yet intricate fantasy world, where the possibilities of the kind of adventures awaiting Luffy seem endless. Whenever I start a new season, I cannot fathom what kind of story the series will present to me next. One Piece is, by far, the most imaginative television series, animated or otherwise, I have seen in a long, long while. The show has a tone that can only be described as "fearlessly joyful", but is capable of becoming dramatic and serious at the drop of a hat (or straw hat, as it were). Do not be fooled by the kiddy look of the show - shit gets real on a regular basis. People die in this show, although not in glorified, gory ways. My point is, unlike in most shows for children, this show has stakes, and does not attempt to soften it up for a kid's sensibilities. All the main characters have a fairly tragic past that motivates them, involving loved ones dying brutal, violent deaths. The show is also full of epic battles, with most seasons culminating with all the characters facing off against bad guys that test all of their limits. The way that each character overcomes the odds and emerges victorious is usually very cleverly thought out, and battles are paced in such a way that one can't help but clap in adulation when Luffy, or some other character, finally gets the upper hand. All the characters are just so goddamn likeable you want to see them win!
Just as much as the show is capable of compelling drama, it is also capable of truly hilarious comedy. I have found myself laughing until there were tears in my eyes at some of the shenanigans of the Straw Hats. All of the characters' personalities, with their various quirks, make for some really funny dynamics. Zoro and Sanji constantly bicker and compete with each other, sometimes even in the face of mortal danger. Just the concept of Luffy, an aspiring pirate captain with a childlike, somewhat stupid tendency for rushing headlong into dangerous situations, is a constant source of comedy itself.
The show has been ongoing for quite a long time, so newbies will have a fairly substantial amount of episodes to get through before they can even hope to catch up. In which case, I would recommend watching the show a little bit at a time - take it season by season; watch a season here, take a break, and then watch another season later. Each season usually consists of about 24-26 episodes, although season one is a hefty 60(!) episodes long. I would also INSIST on watching the original Japanese version with subtitles, as the English dub is truly shit. I'm not just saying this as a snotty, anime purist - I'd be the first to recommend an English dub if I thought it was any good. However, much of the charm of this show is lost in the English, kiddy version. The English version edits out a lot of the more violent, bloody scenes and even Sanji's trademark cigarette is replaced with a cinnamon stick. Lame. The voices don't match the characters at all either. Sanji's voice is some kind of Brooklyn brawler voice, which makes no sense whatsoever. Watch the Japanese version, or don't even bother - trust me.
If you're interested in checking out the series, nearly all of the episodes, both dubbed (ugh) and subtitled (yay!) are available on Hulu! You can also find every episode on a site called Watchop.com, although, annoyingly, the intros/outros of some of the episodes are edited out. There is always the option, of course, of watching it on DVD, although I imagine they are probably pretty pricey and hard to come by. At any rate, there are so many options for watching, you have no excuse NOT to check out this charming series!
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