One Piece

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Editor's Note: This entry contains major spoilers

About

One Piece (Japanese: ワンピース Wan Pīsu) is a Japanese manga and anime series created by Eiichiro Oda. The manga centers on Monkey D. Luffy, who gains the ability to stretch like rubber after he unintentionally eats a Devil Fruit. Luffy, inspired by his idol "Red-Haired" Shanks, gathers a diverse crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates, and explores the ocean in search of the legendary treasure known as "One Piece" in order to become the Pirate King. Since its debut in 1997, it has gained a substantially large fanbase worldwide, who praise it for its humor, character development, and story.

Premise

One Piece takes place in a parallel universe, and follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates. The captain of the crew is "Straw Hat" Monkey D. Luffy, who has eaten a Devil Fruit called the Gum-Gum Fruit, turning him into a rubber man with the ability to stretch and expand. All Devil Fruits are unique, and the abilities that they give all vary, but they all cause the user to be incapable of swimming. Luffy's dream is to find a great treasure called the "One Piece" left by the executed Pirate King Gold Roger, and in doing so, proclaim himself as the new Pirate King. Each of Luffy's crewmates have their own dreams they wish to achieve by sailing with him. As they travel in the strange world covered mostly by sea, they encounter many enemies and allies, including rivaling pirates; Marines; the tyrannical World Government; and the Seven Warlords, pirates whom the government have pardoned in exchange for their loyalty.

History

The first versions of One Piece, one-shots titled Romance Dawn (ロマンスドーン Romansu Dōn) and Romance Dawn Ver. 2 were published August 4, 1996 in Shōnen Jump's summer special and September 23, 1996 in Weekly Shōnen Jump, respectively.^[2]^[3] Both one-shots featured Luffy and his stretching abilities; other than that, the two stories are decidedly different, although the final manga took most of its elements from the former one-shot. Oda started writing One Piece for Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in July 1997. Originally the series was supposed to last five years, but the story became longer than Oda expected, and continues to this day.^[1]

Reception

One Piece is one of the most successful manga series of all time, being the highest selling manga series in Japan^[1] and being extremely popular worldwide, among all age- and gender groups. In 1998, an OVA, Defeat Him! The Pirate Ganzack! premiered during the Jump Super Anime Tour;^[14] an anime series produced by Toei Animation premiered on October 20, 1999, ^[4] airing over 700 episodes since then. Additionally, Toei has produced 12 movies, 8 TV specials and two OVAs.

Fandom

During the years, One Piece has garnered an international following. As March 23, 2015, the Japanese illustrator social network Pixiv^[5] contains over 90,000 images tagged “ワンピース,” the online artist community DeviantArt^[6] has over 1,300,000 submissions submitted under the keywords “One Piece,” and the /r/OnePiece sub-Reddit^[8] has over 40,000 subscribers. Fanpop's One Piece club has over 4,500 fans,^[10] and Fanfiction's page for One Piece has over 23,000 stories.^[11] The fandom’s presence can also be found on Tumblr^[7]; 4chan's /a/ board,^[13] TV Tropes^[12]; Arlong Park Forums, a One Piece-centered discussion board with nearly 3000 active users^[15]; and the One Piece Wiki, with over 4,000 pages.^[9]

No One Dies in One Piece

"No One Dies in One Piece" is an statement used to criticise the very low death toll of the series outside of flashbacks, with almost no named characters dying at all and often miraculously surviving from the most fatal situations. One of the most notable examples is Pell in the Alabasta arc, who survived an explosion that was supposed to wipe out the entire kingdom. This started a series of jokes about how explosions or lightning were absolutely harmless in One Piece's world, whereas guns were deadly weapons, as they are the most used weapon in death scenes. This also includes stairs, as Zoro's friend Kuina died when she fell from a flight of stairs after losing her footing; this particular circumstance is often seen as ridiculous compared to other situations.

Will of the D.

The Will of the D. is the name given to the middle initial "D." that some characters have in the series,^[16] often associated with important characters, such as Luffy and his older brother, Portgas. D. Ace. Its overuse in fanfictions and OCs started the joke of modifying the names of characters names to include the initial; notable examples include "Buggy D. Clown" or "Donquixote D. Oflamingo", which are often featured on series circle jerks.^[17]

Nakama Discussions

Nakama Discussions (the word nakama translates to "comrade", although it is used to greater extent within the series^[18]) refers to the debates about the next member joining the Straw Hat crew. This discussions have often been criticized for being based on minor facts and being biased, being often parodied.

Enel Face

Enel Face is the name given to the memorable reaction of the antagonist Enel, who ate a Devil Fruit giving him power over lightning, when he discovers Luffy is immune to his attacks due to the latter's rubber abilities. It has been parodied in some manga situations and used as a snowclone (shown bellow, right).

4Kids Era

The One Piece TV anime was originally licensed by 4Kids Entertainment in the United States. This dub was heavily censored, omitting or editing references to elements such as smoking, blood or cleavage; edits were also made pertaining to violence, religion, and references to death. This led to 4Kids becoming a pariah, with criticism being leveled towards these edits, as well as horrible voice acting, butchered and insulting scripts, removal of episodes (most of which turned out to be important later on), and a rap number that was used as the opening theme. Nowadays, the 4Kids dub is often used to troll One Piece fans, and the lyrics from the opening have often been used as spam practice. Videos exist on YouTube which highlight the extent of 4Kids' censorship.

Sabo

Sabo is a character introduced in Chapter 583 (manga) and Episode 494 (anime) as one of Luffy's adopted brothers. Sabo was believed to have been killed when he was hit by a cannonball after setting sail, but it was later revealed in Chapter 731 that he survived and joined the Revolutionary Army. His near-death experience caused some fans to think that Sabo could be alive, starting a series of theories as when could he return to the series. As a joke, people would say that every new character introduced on the story could be Sabo.

Yamato's Gender

Yamato is a character introduced in chapter 971 and episode 972. Even tough she had been introduced as a man, she was revealed to be female sex in chapter 984, having adopted a male identity in order to imitate her idol, Kozuki Oden. This reveal led to many debates among fanbase about whether or not she should be considered a transgender man. In Autumn 2021, the supplementary material confirmed her to be female.