In this new episode of Anime Breakfast we’re going to explore one of the longest-running and most popular series in the history of modern Japanese animation: yes, this week we’re talking about One Piece
His name was Gold Roger, the Pirate King. His dying words drove people to the sea. “My treasures…? If you want them, they are yours… Look for them. I left everything in one place.” And so the era of pirates began all over the world.
One Piece begins
Our adventure with Anime Breakfast doesn’t take a week off even in the summer. Thus, after having navigated through Full Metal Alchemist, Mila and Shiro and Lady Oscar, we finally arrive at one of the most popular, followed and decidedly long-lived “ongoing” series in the entire history of modern Japanese animation. Well yes, the time has come to set sail for the Big Blue, together with a crew that anyone who grew up in the early 2000s has certainly at least known by sight. Welcome to this new episode of Anime Breakfast, on this last Sunday of July we venture into One Piece.
The Very Very Very Very Strongest! | Anime Breakfast: One Piece
If you want to feel really old, read the following words carefully: the first edition of the One Piece manga began its serialization in Japan in 1997. Shivering. Instead, it arrived in Italy in 2001 thanks to Star Comics, while in the Land of the Rising Sun the manga is published by Shueisha on Weekly Shonen Jump. In 1999 the animated series also began in Japan, whose author was always the master Eiichiro Oda (mind, heart and soul behind the One Piece franchise), but whose production had been placed in the skilled hands of Toei Animation. And the One Piece animated series has already broken through the record of 1000 episodes broadcast for a while (we are around 1070, at the time of writing this article) without major popularity problems over time.
If we look at the simple initial plot of One Piece, let’s admit it, it doesn’t even seem all of this much. Monkey D. Luffy is a young man whose body has acquired the properties of rubber due to the ingestion of a devil fruit, which give those who eat them supernatural powers at the cost of not being able to swim anymore. In reality this is an understatement: those who have eaten a devil fruit completely lose their strength if immersed in sea water, a particularly aggressive disadvantage if we consider that Luffy wants to become the Pirate King. A pirate who can’t swim, great basis for an epic adventure.
Ocean’s Dream | Anime Breakfast: One Piece
During his many adventures, Luffy gradually recruits more and more crewmates, exploring the Route Major in search of the legendary treasure One Piece of the legendary pirate Gold Roger, located on the legendary island of Raftel. Each character, co-protagonist or secondary, is overflowing with dreams, ambitions and fears. There will be many enemies of our protagonists, first of all the Navy, but even mysterious organizations like the Shichibukai (the Seven Warlords) or the World Government. Between one battle and another, Luffy becomes stronger and the dream of him closer and closer…
Luffy’s crew is universally known (both in the imaginary world of One Piece and in the real one) as the Straw Hat Pirates and is made up of individuals of extremely varied backgrounds, all with unique abilities, distinct personalities and single but united goals from the great dream of reaching, together with his captain, the island of Raftel and becoming the best pirates in the world. Roronoa Zoro he is the first member to be recruited by Luffy and is an extraordinary swordsman who uses a three-sword fighting style, called Santoryu.
Binks no Sake | Anime Breakfast: One Piece
Nami she is a young, beautiful, attractive and all too intelligent navigator, as well as a very skilled thief, with a turbulent past and with the dream of mapping the whole known world: she could only become part of the crew. Usopp he is one of the best shooters in existence, as well as a great inventor: of incredible machinery, and of amazing lies. Sanji he is an exceptional cook, a skilled Latin lover as well as a great fighter. To take down the enemies of the Straw Hat Pirates, Sanji uses his Black Leg, a style completely focused on kicking techniques.
Nico Robin she is a mysterious woman capable of growing parts of her body on any surface thanks to the Hana Hana Devil Fruit. We don’t reveal her origins to avoid spoilers, but Robin has a decidedly troubled and dark past, and is in search of the true history of the world. Franky instead, he is a skilled carpenter and engineer with a mechanical body, which he transformed thanks to the Pacifist Devil Fruit Model Fruit. In the end, Brook he is a living skeleton and a wonderful musician. However, he did not die before the age of 27, but took on the Devil Fruit Yomi Yomi, which allowed him to come back to life as a skeleton after his death.
Friends | Anime Breakfast: One Piece
You will understand how much and why even the protagonists of One Piece have entered the collective imagination of all animation enthusiasts, but also of those who for simple pleasure saw some episodes broadcast, at the time, on Italia 1. If we then add a varied cast of co-protagonists, antagonists, merely secondary characters (still iconic and unforgettable), distributed in over 1000 different episodes (with a few too many fillers, we admit it), here is that One Piece has easily entered the Olympus of modern animated series, without ifs and buts.
And despite the longevity, which often, when excessive, makes it really difficult for the authors to remain consistent, Eiichiro Oda managed to keep himself perfectly lucid, oriented, never missing a beat even in the twists and turns, both in terms of plot and characters. Furthermore, he has never even remained static, on the contrary: he has always innovated, added original and avant-garde elements, improving over time and adapting to the historical moment that was happening in the real world.
Hurricane Girls | Anime Breakfast: One Piece
Basically, however, in addition to the complex and intricate universal plot and dodging the really memorable characters, One Piece wins all round for the characterization of the world. Islands, seas, routes, cultures, ethnic groups, underwater and aerial worlds: there is everythingreally, anything you can imagine Eiichiro Oda has already designed, created and put into One Piece. A wealth of content that is expressed in a truly pleasant complexity, which never lets you lose a comma and which, in the end, makes anyone who has only followed the story of One Piece feel “expert” due to its simplicity of use .
What we really hope, for this coming August, is to be able to relive even only half of the emotions that the One Piece manga and anime gave us with Netflix’s live action series. Arrived a bit like a bolt from the blue, in a historic moment in which similar productions are as common as they are little appreciated, trailer after trailer has gradually managed to convince us more and more, making us almost really believe that it could be something more than a simple magnet for easy money. We’ll see!
Between the Wind
Here we close this episode of Anime Breakfast dedicated to One Piece. The world detailed by Eiichiro Oda is still today, 26 (twenty-six!) Years after his birth, one of the most unforgettable, iconic and appreciated in the universe of Japanese series enthusiasts. While waiting for Netflix’s Live Action, we look forward to the new episodes in which we will finally be able to see Luffy’s new power in action in an animated version. And to be children again. To next week!
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