Thoughts on one piece (ch1 - ch83)

Im really liking one piece so far!
Ive found it strikes a pretty nice balance between being a funny gag manga and having some serious and quite emotional scenes. I have to admit that I did almost cry when finding out the story about Namis mom, or seeing Usopp leave his “Pirate Crew” behind. The pacing is way faster than I expected. Im used to webnovels that take their sweet time with stuff, but in one piece theres some major thing happening pretty much every single chapter. The chapters themselves are also really short. Like, 20 comic pages total per chapter, each only having like 4 panels max. I had expected for this to be a test of my patience, but its going by pretty fast.

I like the sort of light-hearted adventure-y vibe of the story. It… well, feels like youre going on an adventure with luffy and his friends. Theres this sense of wonder that I really appreciate, and the setting is just genuinely fun. From what Ive heard it is, in part, a story about freedom, and so far its been really good at conveying that feeling.

The characters have been pretty dang good so far as well, especially the villains. Im kind of mixed on Arlong right now, because while he is very evil and makes me hate him, he does just kind of seem like some random guy. In comparison, I really liked Buggy. His design his awesome, and the idea of a clown pirate works unexpectedly well. Also his cannon balls are so cool, every panel where he fires one and hits like 20 buildings at once looks awesome. Hes not really a villain, but Mihawk so far has to be my favorite character, along with Zorro. He was only there for like, one chapter but hes instantly won me over by just being really dang cool. I love an antagonist who cares about having respectful fights. Having someone who backstabs you at every step can be really cool, and when done well really awesome (Regressors tale of cultivation does this incredibly well), but something about an antagonist who cares about fighting fair and square, gives his opponent every advantage and wins anyways? Thats awesome.

In general, the powers of everyone are quite fun. I like the often sort of comical, looney tunes style nature of everyones powers, and it really lets Oda do a lot of fun stuff with the battles. I love how creative he gets with Luffys attacks sometimes. In general, Luffy is a really fun protagonist. Hes naive and kind-hearted in that typical shonen protag sort of way, but unlike most shonen protagonists he does it in a way that isnt completely obnoxious. When I hear Naruto yelling about wanting to become the Hokage I just sort of roll my eyes, but with Luffy it does genuinely fit. I think the difference here is that I can genuinely see him as the pirate king. Its an ambition for him that makes sense, its an actual ideal to follow. He doesnt want to get the one piece or be the pirate king just because thats a cool title and itll make everyone like him. He does it because its his dream and he wants to prove to the world he can do it, and to be a great pirate like Shanks. Hes also just considerably less obnoxious about it. Naruto often feels like kind of an entitled prick, who demands to become Hokage and that the world bend around him, whereas Luffy just knows that one day, he will be the pirate king. In his mind that isnt a question, he has this ideal and he will follow through on it no matter what, or die trying. And personally i just think thats really beautiful and makes me like him a lot more than your typical shonen protag. That, and the fact the he looks out for others. He has a goal, sure, but hes not a “the ends justify the means” sort of guy. If it means hurting his friends, he wont do it. And maybe thats just because Ive read a ton of cultivation novels with main characters that have the exact opposite attitude to that, but I just find it refreshing.

Anyways, 80-ish chapters in and Im having a lot of fun! Im really looking forward to when gear 5 will show up in like, 1200 chapters or something probably. Yes, i got spoiled on that, but knowing all the transformations ahead of time usually makes me enjoy shounen more, because now I can look forward to seeing Luffy eventually unlock it.

So, uh… yeah. Thanks for reading!