A critical review of some aspects of One Piece

One Piece is a series that has been serializing for a whopping 27 years, and has built up a very large following in the meantime. At the time of writing this One Piece has 1135 chapters. So in other words, it's pretty long and intimidating to the majority of people wanting to get into One Piece. So, should those on the fence take a crack at One Piece? Well, that depends on what you're looking for.

(As a side note I will not be mentioning things regarding the Elbaph arc because it's not finished)

Story/arcs

The story is pretty simple to wrap your head around since it begins and, presumably, ends with Luffy setting sail with the goal of becoming the king of the pirates. Obviously the most important bits of the story are going to be in between him setting sail and him eventually becoming the king of the pirates. Now I'm not too big of a fan of how reductive certain fans are when talking about the overarching themes of One Piece as the typical watered down answer given is "It's about the journey rather than the destination." While I do think that interpretation has its merits, I do think that One Piece is a story of Luffy and his friends rising up and fighting back against the tyrannical power of the world government and for the liberation of all those who are oppressed by them, even if Luffy isn’t actively seeking that out. Be it the Straw hats defeating warlords who are legally allowed to wreak havoc on a populace because they’re allowed to thanks to the world government, defeating nuisances who are terrorizing people, or just fighting for the sake of saving their friends while stepping on the toes of the "founders" of the world.

Each of the arcs in One Piece have their own themes that are explored throughout the arc, duh. Some are great, some are good, but most are bad. Up until Arlong Park, the themes are pretty one note and aren't very interesting. Coincidentally, Arlong Park is exactly where the reader will notice that One Piece actually starts taking itself seriously and starts becoming better. That doesn't mean that every arc that comes after Arlong Park is amazing, but it does means that there's a noticeable difference in quality if you compare an arc like Baratie to something like Alabasta. There are 33 arcs in One Piece and out of the plentiful amount that One Piece has to offer, only 5 of them are good: Enies Lobby, Wano, Whole cake, Arlong park, and Marineford. Enies Lobby being head and shoulders above the rest. I don't really feel like diving into each of the arcs since that'd take forever but just keep in mind that for every Enies Lobby there are 6 Fish-Man Islands. So there's a lot of slog to parse through if you want to get to the good stuff.

Characters

The characters, like in any other story, are the central part of One Piece and are what makes One Piece what it is. Since without the characters there wouldn't be a story. The amount of characters there are in One Piece is exactly what you would imagine for a series that has been running for damn near 30 years. But unfortunately, they can be best described as a mixed bag, as you'll get characters who are genuinely amazing, like Robin, and characters who just suck and don't really play that big of a role in their respective arcs and honestly could've been cut entirely with no consequence because not much would have changed because of it, like Rebecca. Disappointingly, there are a hell of a lot more characters that fall on the Rebecca side than those that fall on the Robin side, be it whether or not they pass the vibe check or whether they're genuinely a good character. What contributes the most to this is the amount and quality of (or current lack of) character development that each of the characters have, namely the straw hat crew since they're the main characters but unfortunately not every crew member is treated equally in this regard.

That is insane because, depending on the member, the only time that each of the characters get development is within the arcs that they join the crew. This problem is especially bad post time skip as the only crew members that get any real development are Sanji, and, to a lesser extent, Jinbe. Luffy isn't mentioned here since he's a flat character. Like instead of wasting time on characters like Rebecca, why don't we get more meaningful moments between the straw hats and create more Robins? Since they all have vastly different personalities there's bound to be some good moments there. To name an example of a nice moment between the crew members, there's a moment after Thriller Bark where Zoro learns about the pain that his captain had to go through in the previous fight. Moments like these are good because they make the cast more likable. Bonney and Kuma are worth mentioning here because of how those two were handled, they single handedly saved Egghead from being a terrible arc to being acceptable because of how amazing their story is.

Speaking of the straw hats, they wouldn't be where they are now without Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy is the protagonist of the series, and one that I personally didn't come around to liking until Enies Lobby, which is like 400 chapters deep by the way. Luffy is pretty easy to understand as his motivations are pretty simple, to become the king of the pirates. He doesn't do what he does for fame, or to be liked. He doesn't want to be a hero, he "wants all of the meat," he wants to be the freest man on the sea. But this lovable goofball can't help but become emotionally invested in others affairs in every arc and to want to help out those who reach out to him and follow through with his actions and becoming a hero to them. And that's what makes his latest transformation such a good form for him, no matter how fucking stupid its inception is. It's perfect for him. Luffy is the perfect protagonist for One Piece.

Outside of Luffy and Robin the rest of the crew are, frankly, not as interesting. However there are Nami and to a lesser extent Sanji and Usopp. but I can't tell you that Zoro and Sanji are on the same level while keeping a straight face. Sanji's the better character in case you're curious. Zoro is a character who is in desperate need of development because he's pretty boring as he’s pretty much just a typical sword guy who does sword guy things, and it was pretty disappointing when Wano wasn't the arc to change things much like how Whole Cake was Sanji's arc. Jinbe did also get some, but not nearly enough, development throughout the time since his introduction in Impel Down, namely in Fishman Island and Whole Cake. Nami has Arlong park, Usopp has some interesting development during Water seven, Chopper's a cute doctor who does doctor stuff, Brook doesn't have any development outside of his introductory arc, and Franky's in the same boat as Zoro and Brook. Hopefully the straw hats get more focus in the upcoming arcs.

What's a shonen without its share of antagonists? And boy does One Piece have its fair share. Unfortunately the majority of them are awful as they're typically one-note about how cartoonishly evil they are, Spandam being the worst offender of this, since his presence in Enies Lobby was genuinely annoying and honestly makes the arc a tiny bit worse than it would’ve been otherwise. Though that doesn't mean that all of the antagonists are bad, since I do think that of the one-note evil antagonists, Oda really nailed it with Doflamingo. Katakuri is also up there for various reasons but I won't go into that now. If you're planning on getting into One Piece it's best to keep your expectations low. But I'd say that the main antagonist of the story, the world government, are actually pretty good for what they are.

Art

Even at the beginning of the series that art isn't that bad, but the art really starts picking up when the story reaches Arlong Park. Ever since Arlong Park Oda's art has been pretty great, especially with how amazing the fight sequences are and how easy they are to follow.

Humor

It’s worth touching upon the humor because a lot of the jokes and situations are actually pretty funny and does help ease things when things get pretty boring.

Despite its faults, the best things about One Piece is not only the worldbuilding but also how coherent and natural the transitions are when going from one arc to another. It's just really unfortunate that the characterizations of the characters are admittedly pretty bad. It is really disappointing when you consider that most of the Straw hats are like this too, but it is also best to keep in mind that the series hasn't ended yet and we could get some good development for the characters. For example, Usopp could get some nice development in the current Elbaph arc. It's also worth mentioning again that One Piece is currently 1135 chapters strong and still going, and it really does look like One Piece is on its final stretch. If there's one other thing that One Piece does well it's that it really does sell the idea that these guys are on an adventure sailing through the sea on their journey for the One Piece. And if you don't want to go on that journey, that’s fine. But if you choose to go on that journey, that’s great too, just don't fall down some stairs along the way.