Anime: One Piece
View Status: Incomplete
Number of Episodes: 356 Currently
Main Character: Monkey D Luffy, Roronoa(I like Loreno better) Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Tony Tony Chopper, Nico Robin, Franky and Probably Brook
The Story: Gold D Roger was the most feared and famous pirate the world ever saw. He accumulated the largest treasure which includes items from many parts of the Grand Line, large cubes of solid stone(maybe marble) with historic texts and weapon instructions inscribed into them. He was eventually captured by the world government and sent to be executed. Before he was executed, he shouted into the crowd, “You want my treasure? Search for it! Somewhere out there I have hidden the greatest treasure there is!” This treasure is called, the One Piece, and every pirate in the world is now looking for it. It is said that the treasure is hidden somewhere on the Grand Line, and the person who finds this treasure will be crowned the Pirate King. The world is currently in the golden age of the pirates.
That was the background to the main story, which is that Monkey D Luffy has set out to become the Pirate King. Along his journey he encounters many foes, and gains members to his crew. Each member of his crew has their own personal reason/s for joining him but he must prove to all of them that he is worthy of being their captain at some point in time. Their individual quests as well as the final goal take them to the most amazing and dangerous places in the world and the sky. With each Arc the characters are further developed and their resolve is challenged. The strength of the opponents increase and the past is revealed.
Oh… I almost forgot an important detail about this world. There are these rare strange looking fruits called ‘Devil’s Fruit’. A person that eats one of these will gain a power. Now this power depends on the type of fruit that was consumed. Monkey D Luffy ate the Gum Gum Fruit, and he can now stretch any part of his body, also bullets no longer affect him as he can just launch them back. There are two side effect that comes with eating one of these fruits. You lose the ability to swim and you become weak when you come in contact with a special type of sea stone, which negates the ‘Devil’s Fruit’ powers.
The Review: I would like to start off by saying that this review will be bias. That is all.
I love this anime for many different reasons. The first is that it’s about pirates and there aren’t very many animes out there that have pirates as a main theme(well I have yet to find any others). The main message of this anime is friendship and trust in your friends is the most important thing there is. This is shown in every arc of the series, and ,yes, it does get old occasionally, but that is when you start to tune it out and watch it for the fights. As they travel the characters must adapt themselves and their techniques to the environment and their opponents, who seem to have the upper hand in this environment. I like this anime because it not only shows the history of the characters but also of the world. Each arc brings something new and exciting to the table and develops all the characters along with the show. Since I am a such for new technologies I found it weird to be sucked-in to this anime as I was. I have seen every episode that has come out so far, most of them in German, everything after the Water Seven episodes I have watched in Japanese. This is one of the few Infinite animes that I do recommend, although it is quite childish at times, that is one of the reasons I like it. It reconnects me with my inner child and has me cheering on the main character in every fight. For me this is a Higher Plane material, but I guess from a neutral perspective it would be a Fun to Watch.
The Style: The drawings and animation have evolved throughout the 350-something episodes that have been released so far. The drawings have become smoother and the animation more fluid. The colors used are vibrant which brings everything to life. The fight scenes move quite quickly and the same scenes are sometimes used twice. I think that occasionally the artist just go crazy on a character because many of them just look ridiculous, but that one side of the show that makes it so interesting to watch as you never know what you’re going to see next. On a slightly style related note the songs used in this anime do not only fit well but have also gotten be to download them and listen whenever I need cheering up. Cause even if you can’t understand them they just have this type of cheery quality about them, just like the main character.
Side Note: While it may not seem appealing to start watching this show as it is so far in at the moment, and catching out 356 episodes is not to easy. I can suggest some alternatives, which for me is slightly out of character, watching the show from the Sky Island arc, watching the show from the Thriller Bark arc, starting from where ever the story is on television in your country. Although I seriously recommend watching the show from the start as you will understand much more. Also the movies although funny and not bad are no help to the story line and thus not really important, but if you don’t mind killing some time then go right ahead.
Lex Out
