Why I Fell In Love With One Piece

I began watching anime some time between the ages of 7 and 8 years old in 2005. Like most 90s baby, Naruto was the first anime I was introduced to, but what truly made me an anime enthusiast was Bleach, which I started following around the same time as Naruto. Bleach stood out for a very specific reason, its character design was dark and its content matter was quite serious for a Shonen manga of the early 2000s. Unlike American cartoons, anime never shied away from darker more serious subject matter, however towards the end of the 1990s, with the rise of Shojo mangas, Shonens began appealing to more cute/Shojo character design. The Shonen that would champion this art style was Rurouni Kenshin, one of the most acclaimed mangas of the 1990s, and it just so happened that a certain man named Eiichiro Oda worked as an apprentice for the Rurouni Kenshin mangaka.

More famous than all now in 2021, Oda's art style was greatly influenced by Rurouni Kenshin's mangaka, whom he still praises to this day but won't be named due to his history with minors. Nevertheless, being a clear mix between a kawaii Shojo look and a Dragon Ball Akira Toriyama style, the character design for One Piece characters stood at the complete opposite from Bleach's character design. And so, I spent the larger part of my childhood ignoring One Piece for what I believed was childish character design, and boy do I regret it.

It was in 2013 when my friends Ajith and Naïm finally convinced me to at least check out One Piece. I began reading the manga, and when I say I could not stop reading it, I mean it in the most literal sense where even as I was eating breakfast, lunch or dinner my eyes were glued to my phone's screen; but what exactly captivated my attention?

I have experienced this sort of phenomenon only with two other literary works: the first was Malcolm X's autobiography, and the second was Goethe's Faust. You see, I fell in love with One Piece because I started reading it at the right time, at a point of my life where I could grapple with its serious themes. What seems like a kiddish gag-heavy anime is actually an extremely serious historio-political commentary about geo-politics and class-struggle. Once you begin reading or watching the show, you realize that the gags only make up something like 10% of the content and you bear witness to a chaotic world with strict power structures and overt oppressive norms.

The story begins with a 5-saga epilogue where a 17 year-old Luffy exclaims his dream of roaming the seas to find the ultimate treasure called the "One Piece"; a simple common manga trope if we're being honest. The One Piece world at that point is totally unknown, and each saga of the epilogue serves as a way for the reader to learn about the One Piece world. However, early-on in the chapters, as we meet ex-pirates and other dwellers of the sea, you begin to learn of the harshness of the world where people's dreams, (and lives), are abruptly halted for various, and sometimes arbitrary reasons; much like in our own world. Subtly, Luffy's narrative changes, his goal of finding the One Piece transforms into the wish of being "the freest person in the world," i.e. he dreams of setting out to sea without the interference of the oppressive structures that we are slowly becoming aware of. This hope gets amplified in the last arc of the epilogue, "Arlong Park", where a violent fishman, a sub-human race that is globally enslaved and segregated, has held his navigator's town hostage for decades. Demonized by his victims as well as by the navy, the ruling military force of the world government, Arlong and the "Arlong Park" arc forces you to feel contradicting emotions: you know Arlong is evil, you feel sorry for the town who's been laid captive by him and whom he regularly kills, and yet you're aware that these same captives look down on Arlong's kin. This anti-fishmen sentiment is exemplified when we are introduced to a marine lieutenant who accepts a cut from Arlong's plunder, in exchange for giving him free reign over the area. The reader instantly despises the lieutenant for allowing the plunder and murder of the island's citizens. What's more is that even though the lieutenant willingly deals with Arlong, he consistently dehumanizes the fishmen he's dealing with. In "Arlong Park", you can't really decide who's the villain and who's the hero, Luffy and his friends are pirates and so are Arlong and his crew, but the Navy are seemingly not heroes either. The victims are definitely the civilians, but you're aware that there's something wrong with the way the One Piece world views the fishmen.

Although the arc was written and published over 23 years ago, it is still considered one of the series' best. The arc becomes the moment where a childish protagonist is forced to deal with larger enemies who's connections far surpass our current understanding of the world. Before their journey even begins, Luffy and his friends are forced to appreciate the power structures that exist in the world and Oda successfully translates the most important message of all: no matter how many villains you defeat, whomever they are and whatever position they hold, it is all for naught if the power structures of the world are not eradicated; the message is that no matter what, resist, always resist.

I love One Piece because Oda created such unique characters, I love One Piece because Oda is perhaps the best at world-building, creating inter-connecting aspects of plural diverse islands and continents that stretch four oceans, I love One Piece because of its ability to give you in depth backstories to regular side characters, whom you totally fall in love with every time, (which worsens their tragic climax). But more than anything, I love One Piece because it is a story about a young man who's ambition goes from the pursuit of happiness to total anarchic anti-government ambitions; Luffy's individual dream evolves when he realizes that his personal freedom depends on the mental, physical and spiritual liberty of all, and I can't help but relate to that.