About a year ago, on Jan. 11, 2024, I started an anime by the name of “One Piece,” an anime famously known for being over a thousand episodes long. On Aug. 18 that same year, I fully caught up with anime. A few days later, on the 21, I would catch up to the manga as well, keeping up with its still ongoing story ever since.
With the anime coming back from its six-month-long hiatus soon on Apr. 6, I thought it would be the perfect time to finally review the show.
Now, where do I even start? Since day one of watching the show, I immediately fell in love with it. The art style was so charming to me and so were the characters. The interactions between each of the characters just felt so real and you could almost connect with them despite how exaggerated their personalities could be at times.
The support that each of the characters have towards each other is another thing that I appreciate about the show. You see how each of them are willing to and have actually put their lives on the line to save one of the crew or just someone who they deeply care about. They would put their own life on the line to help their captain, Monkey D. Luffy, accomplish his dream of becoming the Pirate King.
They don’t put their life on the line for his dream out of obligation either. They each fully believe that Luffy will, without a doubt, accomplish his dream, so much so that they would refuse to say otherwise if threatened to say so. Luffy has helped many of them overcome trauma from their past, or even just inspired them with his actions in general, which is why they chose to join him. To them, saying that he won’t be King of the Pirates is just a flat-out lie.
Despite the relationships between the crewmates serving as a core aspect for my love of this show, it is not the only reason. It would not be my favorite story of all time if that was it.
The music within the show is another core part of my love for it. “One Piece’s” soundtrack is very beautiful and it is also very recognizable. Some of my favorite songs within the show have got to be the lyrical ones sung by some of the characters. A personal favorite of mine has got to be “New World” by Soul King Brook, the musician of the group. Everytime I listen to it, I always just get this feeling of inspiration.
The song is about Brook’s view on Luffy and how the rest of the crew, alongside him, are trying their best to help Luffy accomplish his dream. Brook talks about how when he sees Luffy talk about his dream, he can see it come true. When Luffy says that he will become King of the Pirates, he says not like it’s a possibility but as if it’s a guarantee, and this inspires Brook and the rest of the crew.
The song also goes on to talk about how it’s time to stop waiting and it’s time for action to start making a way for the new world. This part of the song is what inspires me the most.
With the world we live in today, where things just feel so dark and gloomy at times, many of us long for a new world. This isn’t even a political thing, I’m sure many of us can agree that the world is not necessarily the best and there are a lot of horrible things going on within it. A new world is something that we need, and just hearing this song in a way makes me feel like that new world is guaranteed to come.
This brings me to another thing about “One Piece” I love, and by far my favorite part about the entire show, its story. “One Piece’s” story is by far the most intriguing and beautifully written story I have ever watched and read in my entire life. The story covers many real-life topics such as government corruption, human trafficking, racism, death, slavery and even classism.
Despite the beauty of “One Piece’s” world, it is filled to the brim with corruption and government espionage. Pirates under the government ruling countries and basically torturing and manipulating their citizens, and the government wiping out whole races from existence, just because, are only a few of the horrible things that occur within the world of “One Piece.”
The main core of the story dates back to these mysterious stones called poneglyphs that appeared many years ago in the Void Century, a century in history that is completely erased and unknown. The government tries to keep this history hidden and actively attempts to erase anyone who knows anything about it.
All that is known is that the World Government was formed during that period and that the founders of the world government’s descendants basically live like gods and are free to do whatever they please. When I say whatever I do mean whatever. These figures known as the Celestial Dragons, have been shown to just straight up shoot a guy for talking back to them and they couldn’t fight back or they would have the whole government after them.
The whole story spends its time building up to this idea, overcoming and fighting back against corruption like this and liberating the people. Luffy has a very carefree personality so it fits this idea perfectly as he doesn’t fight back because he feels the need to.
From this plot point, though, comes so many beautiful stories and I am very much looking forward to seeing what will become of the series later on, as well as the anime’s return on April sixth! If you have never seen the show I highly recommend checking it out! It truly is an amazing show.