I want to make a point about this up front because, no, absolutely not, One Piece isn’t the best anything. It’s not the best manga, it’s not the best shonen, it’s not the greatest story ever told.
I would go as far as to say that it’s the “American Dad” of shonen, in the sense that it exists in its own weird bubble with its own weirdly enthusiastic fan-base.
I think the reason it’s still so popular is for similar reasons as American Dad, it’s because it scratches an itch that nothing else is able to scratch, rather than it actually being super spectacular.
If you’re anything like me, I think the biggest selling point of reading One Piece is how much fun it is to talk about. A large part of that is because this was not a consistent experience. This is not to say One Piece doesn’t have its moments, but it also has it’s fair share of low points, and I found they often ended up right next to each other.
To give an example, the arc most people seem to claim as their favourite is Marineford, and if it’s not, it will still be consistently revered as one of it’s best arcs. This is soon followed up by Fish-Man Island, which is consistently revered as the complete opposite, as one of the absolute worst arcs.
This doesn’t just apply to the arcs themselves, even within the same arc there can be vast spikes in quality from one chapter to the next. Thriller Bark is probably the most obvious example of this, which is widely agreed upon to have some of the best moments in the entire series, but is simultaneously agreed upon to be one of the worst arcs. How does that make any sense?
The experience was still a positive one overall, don’t get me wrong, but if I hadn’t committed to finishing the entire series, there were multiple points where I would’ve shit myself out of boredom and frustration and dropped it.
This is not to say I’m going to be a blind hater, but don’t expect me to be this hyper-positive cheerleader ether. So, look, when you’re just some guy basically writing one huge story for an extended period of time, every week with only some help here and there from assistants, you’re bound to run into some form of inconsistency.
A bygone era...
I want to start off by attempting to give some context as to what zeitgeist One Piece existed in when it first started out. Shonen Jump, the magazine One Piece would become serialized in, was in a bit of a transformation period in the mid-late 90’s. “Dragon Ball”, after it finally ended, there was no replacement to pick up the torch.
You might say that “Slam Dunk” and “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” were doing very well in their own right, but that doesn’t mean your normie friends at school cared about them, with Slam Dunk being about basketball, and JoJo’s... is punk, to put it one way.
This is where One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach eventually come into the picture, at least as far as English speaking markets are concerned. If you want my opinion, if Naruto peaked early and then dropped off, and Bleach... was bad, then One Piece is a series of ups and downs, which I had just talked about.
Eiichiro Oda, since the age of 4, wanted to be a manga artist. He was hugely influenced by Dragon Ball, of course, but also took an interest in pirates, which was sparked by a German cartoon, named “Vicky the Viking”.
At age 17, he had submitted “Wanted!”, which ultimately opened the door for him to start working at Weekly Shonen Jump... as an assistant manga artist. During his time there, he would assist on “Suizan Police Gang”, “Jungle King Tar-Chan”, and “Kappaman”. The most infamous of this is “Rurouni Kenshin”, so make of that what you will.
He would then go on to create “God’s gift for the future”, “Ikki Yako”, and two one-shots, “Monsters” and “Romance Dawn”. Monsters would focus on Ryuma, a prototype for Zoro, whereas Romance Dawn had Ann, a prototype for Nami. And of course, Monkey D. Luffy.
With these manga being some kind of success, I assume, Eiichiro Oda would be ready to start serialization on One Piece in 1997. This is a story he had been making notes for and planning since he was much, much younger...
East Blue
Chapters: 1-100
East Blue is the definition of humble beginnings and I want to take a moment to really defend that, seeing as it’s a major point of contention when people first try to get into the series. The thing is, if we’re never going to see a series as ambitious as One Piece ever again, it’s because it was simply allowed to take it’s time.
East Blue isn’t actually the “real start” for the series, it’s essentially just a prologue for the rest of One Piece. Right now we’re just wandering around with no real overarching plot, fighting random villains of the week, for 100 chapters straight. We don’t know anything about any sort of broader conflict, or direction of the story, other than we want to enter the Grand Line and search for treasure.
Think about how absurdly slow of a start that would be for a more modern series. Everything today is just, fast, fast, fast. How much hype can the manga build up right away? What plot twists can it hit readers with? What cool characters can capture an audience? A series going that lackadaisical of a pace wouldn’t last a full year today.
It can be a tough pill to swallow, but if the reasons why One Piece became an epic, it’s because it took the time to build, and build, and build. If One Piece became an epic, it's because it started small and simple, and built to grand and complex, this is how you’re supposed to do it. You can only get to grand and complex if you have the freedom to take your time, without raising the stakes too rapidly right off the bat.
To get to the point, I thought East Blue was generally pretty good, but it’s not like it blew my mind or anything. Half the members of the core cast are introduced in these first chapters and every time someone new joins Luffy’s crew, the process usually gets its own dedicated arc.
The first we’re introduced to is Zoro and after giving it a lot of thought, the way Zoro’s backstory is presented actually makes a lot of sense. His backstory is simple and to the point, perhaps like Zoro himself, and it contrasts with the way death is typically presented in shonen with something that feels more real and relatable.
The anime tried to expand his backstory into a full episode and while I don’t think they ruined it, it kind of misses the point, like they didn’t understand the assignment. Kuina not only died, but died in a way he can’t avenge, or surpass anyone who killed them. It also implies that Zoro learned the 3-sword style so he could carry Kuina with him, so it’s clear that there was a lot of thought put into it, that this was all an intentional artistic choice.
Regardless, East Blue generally gets better the deeper into it you get. The only exception is Romance Dawn, I think it’s better than Orange Town and maybe Syrup Village, but then Baratie is better than all three of them, and Arlong Park is even better than that. That means the best portion of East Blue is the end.
All of these arcs use the same general narrative structure, but some just do it better. Arlong Park takes the same template, but adds in a really cool plot twist in addition to plenty of great character moments, especially for Nami.
Probably one of the weaker aspects of East Blue are the villains. Alvida is okay, and I liked Buggy and Arlong for what they were, but Higuma, Morgan, Captain Kuro, and Don Krieg, aren’t very good, especially Don Krieg.
Where One Piece really excels is much more important, and it’s with the protagonists. All of them are likeable and compelling, and the process of watching Luffy convince each of them to open up their hearts and join his crew is spectacular, every single time.
It’s because all the protagonists were so good is the main reason why I was compelled to keep reading, especially after Lougetown. It’s able to establish a lot of forward momentum for the series, introduces some really cool characters and plot threads, and even brings back some characters that I wasn’t expecting to see again.
In short, East Blue has a really solid start, but after that it runs the gambit from being really engaging, to honestly pretty boring and unremarkable, but after Baratie the saga really hits a stride and sticks the landing all the way until the end. And if for whatever reason I felt the series was just slogging along, all of One Piece’s main characters are so fucking good, and so likeable, I felt compelled to keep reading anyways just to find out what happens to them.
Baroque Works
Chapters: 101-217
It’s here where One Piece’s inconsistency problem that I mentioned earlier, starts to become a lot more obvious. This next saga is about as long as East Blue, but it’s also way more inconsistent in terms of quality and pacing. A part of the problem is that it feels like we’re starting back all over again, like we have to sit through yet another prologue before the series finally gets going.
This is a problem that One Piece just as a series has, but frequently it's pacing will just completely fall off a fucking cliff. Eiichiro Oda is for sure capable of pacing the series well, and the reason I know that is because he literally just pulled it off. He’s also really good at establishing a good sense of momentum and convincing me the series is really going somewhere, that is, when he wants to, but for whatever reason, sometimes he’ll just choose to throw it all in the trash and bring everything to a screeching halt.
The reason it’s especially exhausting in this case is because this portion of the story establishes very early that it’s building towards an ultimate climax, but it feels like it’s taking forever to get there. It’s also not the best sign that the best arc out of the initial four has absolutely nothing to do with the overarching Alabasta narrative, like it actually feels refreshing that we’re taking a detour.
A good example of this was Little Garden. Now, to be fair, there are these two giants who live there and I thought they were fucking awesome, I was really interested in learning everything that had to do with them, but right after they get introduced, it just pivots to this horrible, boring, really needlessly long fight that happens with Mr. 3 and his stupid candle wax powers.
To speak of the villains again, I’m actually not a fan of most of the Baroque Works except for the most important ones, those being Miss All Sunday and Mister Zero. Mr. 2 is actually pretty good, to be fair, but I don’t know, if you’re one of the two people who really liked the little girl with the paintbrush for whatever reason, good for you, I’m happy for you.
Once we get introduced to Chopper and they actually make it to Alabasta, I think it gets a lot more interesting... except when it’s not? Now, okay, Alabasta actually ended up ranking pretty high for me, but I was initially very critical of how it places too much focus on side and background characters that I didn’t end up caring about at all, but you’ll see why I’m more forgiving these days.
The reason it ended up so high is because when it’s good, it’s actually really good. Alabasta has some incredible fights, interesting world building, a fantastic main villain, and lots of compelling character moments, it just comes at the expense of some early One Piece jank.
This saga as a whole isn’t horrible or anything, it just has a lot of the same problems as East Blue, while removing the same number of indicators that we as readers are making progress. In the beginning, we were constantly getting introduced to new main characters, foreshadowing, but that doesn’t happen nearly as often in Baroque Works.
In short, Whisky Peak and Drum Island were solid, and when Alabasta is good, it’s higher than anything that were in those two arcs, but overall I don’t think this saga has aged super well as a full package.