Around...five years ago now, my brother began to try to convince
me to read a certain series about pirates. I was already into some manga, and
in particular it was around the height of my enjoyment of Bleach, so it wasn't
that big a leap, but I will admit, I just couldn't get into it. While it was
sort of fun at the beginning, the pacing of the arcs was pretty slapshod, the
art style was pretty dull and all the fights ended with the main character
Luffy curbstomping the villain. After about thirty chapters, I gave up on it
and didn't read it again for about six months.
Something I've Read: One Piece
S.I.R will, hopefully be my contribution to the blog. Each week,
usually on a Friday although this week is a bit later due to illness,
I'll try to do a review of a manga I've read. It's a pretty simple concept and
I don't have that much else to say about it.
If you've never heard of it before, One Piece is a pretty big
thing in Japan. In the first half of this year alone, it sold nearly fourteen
million copies, ten million more than it's closest competitor Naruto. Volume 61
of it holds the record for the largest initial print run of any book in Japan,
breaking the previous record held by volume 60, and it is currently by far the
best selling manga of all time, topping out at around two hundred and thirty
million volumes. It was initially written while the author, Eiichiro
Oda, was working as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki on the manga Rurouni
Kenshin, and was first published in a series of chapters called Romance Dawn,
which became the name of the first chapter and manga volume.
This was in 1997, and the manga has been running since then. As
you may expect, this means that One Piece is long. Very long. At the time of
writing, it has just hit chapter number 683, so this is, of course, something
that may put off new readers, particularly if you don't have that much free
time.
However, I'd say at the very least, give it a shot. One Piece is a
simple, action based story that hides a lot of strange and wonderful secrets.
At it's heart, One Piece is a quest story. The main character,
Luffy, is on a quest to discover the treasure known as One Piece, left behind
by Gol D. Roger, the King of the Pirates, as the start of the anime opening
theme indicates. That really is the focus of the story, a
young, impulsive guy going forward to find adventure, and the companions
he meets, and sometimes takes with him, along the way. The entire world is
silly, with massively overblown character expressions, buckets of tears shed by
everyone, shouted attack names that generally double as puns and
absolutely bizarre character designs and powers.
The powers mainly come from items known as Devil Fruits, items
that give you superpowers like a body made of rubber (Luffy’s particular power)
, or allowing you to turn into an elephant, or lava. Unfortunately, they also
rob you of the ability to swim….or be half submerged in water without losing
your powers and your ability to move. Oda has fun with these…a lot of fun with
them, along with all the others, more physical based powers, such as the
swordsman who uses three swords at once, or the guy who winks cannonballs back
at people. Like I said. Silly.
And yet...beneath it all, beneath the characters' goofyness,
beneath the over the top actions scenes and the pirate clowns who split their
bodies into pieces...One Piece has a serious centre. The world, it is made
quite clear to us, is horrific, ruled by a totalitarian World Government, and
if you're not being oppressed by them, you're probably being oppressed by the
many pirate crews running around in the Grand Era of Piracy. This attitude
applies to the character's situations as well. The villains in One Piece look
at atrocities and vow to go one step further than them. Most of the main cast
have at least one loved one dead in their backstory, and usually in horrific
circumstances at that.
This weird juxtaposition doesn't usually work, but in One Piece,
it does. It's not silly or serious, but rather both at the same time. Moves
that really should be a joke are deadly. Deep, heart wrenching moments of
character drama take place while the characters are pulling cartoonish faces.
The other thing about One Piece is progression. As stated above,
One Piece has been going a long time, and honestly, I still don't know if it
has hit its peak yet. Starting from around the Arlong Arc, each arc, as a
general rule is an improvement on what came before it, and it really is a joy
to read. The art style, as well, changes a lot in the run, staying cartoony but
is now a lot more busy than before, with just the background images in the
larger scenes a joy to look at. The story telling is pretty tight throughout.
Oda thrives on bringing back characters and concepts mentioned years ago in our
time, making the world seem consistent, and really showing just how well
planned it is.
That said, it isn't perfect. The pacing of stories can be a bit
off, and it probably isn't everyone's taste, but I'd advise at the very least
to keep reading at least until the end of the East Blue saga, when the crew
enters the ocean known as the grand line. For me, despite dismissing it when I
first read it, One Piece is now one of my favourite mangas, and I look forward
to the new chapters each week.
One Piece is currently being translated by Viz Media, who are doing a pretty good job both in the translation and how up to date they are to the Japanese releases. However, at 60+ volumes, unless you find other ways to read it (most of the manga reading sites online care it), chances are it will take a bite out of your budget. Copies of the volumes can be found in most bookstores that sell manga, including both of the Waterstones in the City Centre, Nostalgia Comics and Forbidden Planet, usually at around £7-8 each.
There is also an anime version, which is actually a pretty good adaptation, if a little inconstant in animation quality. It's been dubbed twice, once, infamously, by 4Kids, and currently by Funimation. Both the Japanese version (with subtitles) and the Funi dubbed version are very good in terms of voice acting, though due to various issues the funi dub is pretty far behind, and the soundtrack is really fun to listen to, particularly some of the opening songs such as "We Are" and "We Go". If you prefer watching anime to reading manga, you'll probably want to check that out. There are a number of streaming sites around, so it isn't that hard to find.
+ Very good writing, strong characters, great action scenes
- Very long, might not be to everyone's taste.
Next Week: Bunny Drop.
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