One Piece: The Greatest Story Ever Told

initially when writing the script I was going to talk about how I felt one piece had ruined anime for me but as I've spent time writing this script I've had the chance to watch a few anime that I hadn't had the chance to watch previously and I think that my feelings are actually the complete inverse from what I initially thought they were like I said I initially thought that one piece's quality would wind up spoiling me and that I would never be able to enjoy anime again because there would never be a show like one piece and I still 100 believe that there won't be a show like one piece ever again but it hasn't negatively impacted how I view anime rather I think it's actually helped me enjoy anime more you see at the time of writing this script it has been almost exactly one month since I caught up to the one piece anime and it was not long after that that I caught up to the manga that Journey took me a little over a year and Upon finishing it I can say that without a doubt this series will go down in history as one of the greatest stories ever written but before I get into my thoughts on one piece and how it impacted my opinion on anime and how I think it'll impact the Shonen genre as a whole let me just provide a quick synopsis for the uninitiated well as quick as I can get with this many episodes in this many books one piece is about a boy named Monkey D Luffy who wants to become the king of the Pirates by finding the titular treasure the one piece except he's made out of rubber that's all you're getting in terms of a summary because there is way too much to explain otherwise all you have to know is that this guy is going on an adventure and he'll face adversity with his friends but he'll overcome all of it and he'll do what he says and become the king of the Pirates now I do want to make a video where both those who are caught up and those who aren't can enjoy what I have to say but there's just no way to discuss anything about the story without spoiling something for somebody I have several sections in this video where I discuss story elements and themes in detail but I will provide a spoiler warning before each of those sections with the episodes slash chapters that I talk about specifically one piece's world has been built with so much love and care that I would argue no other fictional world comes even close to matching it now that might sound a little bit insane but I'll take the risk of sounding even Crazier by saying the story it tells within that world is one of the best ever told care for the story he's writing and the discipline he has applied can be seen clearly and has paid off tremendously and I'm not alone in thinking that the numbers that one piece produces speak for themselves one piece of success is maybe harder to see in the west considering that out of the record-setting 516 million manga volumes sold over 420 million were in Japan this number might be hard to wrap your head around but that means that every person in Japan would have to own at least three volumes this isn't including manga pirating sites which are tragically the most visited sites in Japan nor is it including Shonen Jump's physical serializations which I'll get into shortly nor is it including people who read the chapters from official means like Shonen jumps app and all of that is only for the manga one piece's anime has a similarly stacked achievement list one piece's film red is the sixth highest grossing Japanese film of all time beating out Howl's Moving Castle by almost 10 million dollars and beating out Ponyo by more than 40. one piece has also completely dominated Times Square during promotion for film Red Demon Slayer was the only other anime to do this and even then it didn't have even close to the amount of coverage that one piece had Beyond its movies the one-piece anime beat out shows like stranger things Game of Thrones and the office and took the spot for the most watched television show of 2022. one piece is so pervasive in Japanese culture in fact that posters will show up in subways depicting title cards for fights in the show as if they were real fights since recording this last section of the video One Piece has released its live action adaptation on Netflix and it has jumped to the number one most watched show in 84 different countries meaning this live-action adaptation of a Japanese anime beat out a record that was previously held by Wednesday and stranger things now I swear the history lesson is going to be ending shortly and we can begin discussing some more of the impact that one piece has had on me and the industry but in order to talk about that I need you to understand the reach that one piece has and why exactly it has it for my fellow westerners slash non-japanese viewers the popularity of One Piece may be fairly shocking see my previous section but I can assure you that this series did not come out of nowhere weekly Shonen Jump is a magazine in Japan that serializes manga aimed at teenage boys usually having an emphasis on action friendship and overcoming adversity all the things that teenage boys like this magazine has been around since 1968 and is responsible for the serialization and popularity of series like Dragon Ball and Fist of the North Star Dragon Ball specifically was actually one of Shonen Jump's heaviest hitters since its debut in 1984. Dragon Ball is widely responsible for the popularization of anime and manga in the west and for quite a while it put Shonen jump at the top of the totem pole for Shonen magazines in Japan or at least it was until it ended in the mid 90s at the start of the 90s Shonen Jump began to plateau in circulation and win its biggest Money Maker ended in 1995 it began to drop off significantly after two years of struggling in July of 1997 an aspiring and promising manga author would release the first chapter in his first series he had other one shots or self-contained stories that showed up in the magazine previously but this was the first of what would be a continuing series that author was Ichiro Oda and that series was one piece after this Shonen Jump began gaining traction again and then after a few years in 1999 another manga began serialization Naruto and finally in 2001 was the first serialization of bleach these mangas saved the magazine and the anime adaptations that followed took the spark that Dragon Ball lit in the west and dumped gasoline on it these series would come to be known as The Big Three and they've achieved legendary status among the anime community and all three series are still popular to this day now I don't want to get too far into the weeds of manga sales history although I think it would be fun to do a video on the big three if you'd like to see that let me know by hitting that like button and commenting and uh if you are interested you're gonna have to wait for me to catch up on all of them so go ahead and hit that subscribe button the reason I bring Shonen jump up in the first place is because the CEO of the magazine has attributed its success and life after Dragon Ball two one piece as non-japanese viewers the understanding of how important that actually is maybe lost on us that's like saying that one model or designer is responsible for the survival and life of Vogue magazine but I don't even think that gets my point across because the numbers that Vogue magazine is currently putting up per month Shonen Jump was putting up in a week I promise the history lesson is now over but hopefully that's given you some perspective on the cultural impact that this Series has had for over 25 years now I had mentioned earlier that I think one piece is one of the greatest stories ever told and I would like to now back that up there are two primary reasons I believe this and one other reason I'll get into later the first reason is the writing and the second is the experience I've left both of these reasons intentionally vague but they both play into each other and the unique elements of both play an important role in making one piece as special and Timeless as it is so let's talk about one piece's writing there's obviously the story and world that I've referenced and along with those comes the characters that operate within that story and world but there's a few other things I'd like to discuss these being the symbolism subtext and foreshadowing alongside the general literary competency of the story and how the events of the plot affect the characters I'm trying to separate all of these things because sure the symbolism is a part of the writing but the characters do more than symbolize the themes of the show rather their powers and personalities seem to turn them into personifications of these themes Luffy for example is our protagonist and he clearly embodies freedom without him and subsequently his worldview and beliefs the story wouldn't be happening nor would its themes be as noteworthy as they wouldn't have anything to be contrasted with Luffy's lighthearted joyful nature and desire for Freedom are contrasted by the dark and oppressive World he's been born into the government wants to control everything and everybody and Pirates are more concerned about their own personal wealth and power the entire world is against Luffy's ideals and he's not afraid to fight against it even Luffy's devil fruit Powers complement his personality by giving him the ability to fight freely something that only becomes more and more powerful as he learns how to use it however despite Desiring freedom and Adventure Luffy makes it clear that he's not a hero Heroes share their meat with others Luffy wants to meet for himself but this surface level selfishness is not really indicative of Luffy's beliefs because if for example someone was starving instead of giving him his meat he'd rather have a quick discussion with whoever is making the food inaccessible one of Luffy's stated goals being that the world becomes one or his friends can eat as much as they want Luffy's World Views and ideals are often put on display Luffy takes every battle seriously no matter how big or small Luffy is incredibly trusting almost to a fault sometimes he doesn't care about people's past and he'll often fall asleep when listening to people's backstories because these things don't matter to Luffy he wants to see the best in people and he doesn't care where they come from or what they've done all he cares about is that they're his friends now Luffy is such a great character because he's so joyful and happy and you can tell that this is how he wants to be but when the darkness of the World shows its fangs and sinks them into Luffy or his friends some times it's not possible to smile or laugh through it and when Luffy realizes this and locks in you see the side of Luffy that is in stark contrast to the normal Luffy because when Luffy is not happy he's really not happy honestly Luffy's serious face if you will is probably one of the most intimidating main characters I've ever seen it gives us as the audience a cue that Luffy is taking this fight seriously and we should too at its core one piece is an adventure but it's an adventure that we as the audience are a part of this adventure literally takes you around the circumference of this incredibly detailed and thought out world and the characters that you accompany on that Adventure grow closer together as you grow closer to them and on this adventure with these characters you experience the joy the laughter the tears the tension the failures the pain and the triumphs in order to show you how these small moments of emotional connection impact the Continuing Story of One Piece I'm going to take you on a quick Journey Through the emotional context of one of my favorite moments in all of anime quick spoiler warning for this upcoming section I'm going to be discussing the events of Thriller bark all the way up to right after the time skip so if you would like to avoid spoilers for this section please go ahead and skip to the time on screen so first I'm going to show you a scene and if you've seen one piece then you know where I'm going with this [Music] what's up laughs [Music] it's a pretty cool scene but imagine how Luffy sees this interaction so this scene takes place after a two-year time skip this time skip happens right after Luffy's brother dies in front of him and Luffy is left all alone why is Luffy all alone you might ask well the last time Luffy saw his crew members was when this guy mollywapped all of them and made them disappear right in front of Luffy's eyes so the straw Hat's lost is that it well no Zorro Luffy's right hand man wasn't able to fight the reason he wasn't able to fight is because after the Last Arc Zorro interacted with this guy by himself and took all the pain of his captain and has not had the chance to recover from it yet I won't get into how that happened but if you'd watch One Piece from the beginning Zoro made it very clear that he wasn't going to let Luffy get in the way of his dream except after an early loss in the show Zoro promises Luffy that he would never lose again later in Alabaster Zora remembers a lesson during a battle where his teacher said that good Swordsmen can protect that which they want to protect Zorro realizes that his view of teamwork was actually Incorrect and that he's actually willing to die for Luffy and his crew that's why he offers Kuma his life back in thrillerbark and because of that world view when he is unable to fight back he views himself as a failed swordsman because he wasn't able to protect what he wanted keep in mind that that's only one of the straw hats and every person in the crew has a similar story so when they all lose each other it leaves Luffy broken hahaha Luffy says that it's because he wasn't strong enough to protect them and later we find out that he wasn't strong enough to save his brother so the straw hats decide to stay separated and train for the next two years Luffy knows how everyone else felt during the loss in sebawdy so when the person who caused him and his crew so much pain shows up well let's just say that it makes this punch a little more impactful and this isn't a rare occurrence either every important moment is the product of the ones before it and it builds up to the next when writing this part of the script I actually had a hard time figuring out which moment I would use for my illustration and it's this follow through that makes one piece well one piece every element that makes one piece as good as it is plays off of every other element to make one piece better the world of one piece is something that I haven't begun discussing yet and that's because I wanted you to have a good idea of how well thought out the characters and story are because the world of One Piece while certainly it is a tool and device by which the story is told it's also much more than simply a setting within the anime Community it is common to refer to sections of shows by the name of an arc as opposed to the season this is particularly common with longer shows usually 100 plus episodes and one piece's arcs are exclusively defined by their location there is no doppelmingo Arc there's no Luffy training Arc this is because the locations the characters arrive at are markers that indicate their progress and when we look back and refer to these locations we're reminded of how far along in the adventure we were at at that time I'd like to point out that it's very common to refer to arcs by the location that they take place in but rarely do the locations play such a major role in how the ark is remembered take for example the York New City Arc from Hunter Hunter this Arc is remembered for plenty of totally valid reasons it was a fantastic Arc and we remember this Arc because of Kurapika in his fight with uvokin we remember crowlo's speech and his fight with the zoldx and the rest of the Phantom troop but we don't particularly care about the setting sure the auction took place within that City but the city didn't really feel like a character within the story rather I think a better way of putting it would be that it simply felt like a location where our protagonist and antagonist met now let's take Fishman Island for example I'll be honest I didn't like this Arc or rather I didn't like what happened in this Arc horty Jones felt like a villain of the week sanjiom was dying from a nosebleed was infuriating and I absolutely hate this guy but Fishman island is memorable for me because of the progress it indicated it's literally a halfway point for the adventure it was a location we've been itching to see since episode 25 and 500 episodes later were finally able to we learned the history about the racial divide and tension between the fish man and the humans we hear our first reference to Joy boy we get to see the divide and hatred between the two groups closed as we see fishmen get invited to the reverie each Arc expands our understanding of the world of One Piece there's also a diversity in one piece's settings that is pretty much impossible to achieve anywhere else Punk Hazard is an island that is half lava and half ice because of a battle between two Navy Admirals sky island is well a sky island and little garden is an island where giant creatures dwell in a giant forest and we go there right before going to drum Island a winter Island which is immediately followed by reaching alabasta a desert middle eastern inspired Island whole cake island is literally an island that is entirely a cake and is surrounded by Islands made up of sweets and candies and it rains liquid candy so how are all of these insane locations able to take place in the same world well all of these locations take place in the grand line in the grand line we're told that nothing makes sense your compass doesn't work each island has its own magnetic pole each island has its own weather patterns and ecosystems its wackiness would usually be a turn off for me but it's done so well and the world feels so alive that by the time you've seen a few Islands it doesn't even feel strange anymore you're just curious to know what you'll see next this leads me to my next point which is the experience of watching one piece and I'm not just referring to the experience of sitting there and literally watching the show rather one piece's length and odyssian nature imparts a larger more impactful experience upon the audience that would be impossible if it was a shorter story what I mean is part of the experience of one piece is the length but I would argue that the majority of its value comes from the fact that it hasn't ended yet it's a Monumental epic that has been growing for decades I mean it's literally older than I am and we still don't know how it's going to end one piece is an adventure and its length helps you connect more with the characters but more than that the fleeting nature of the mystery is what makes the adventure so memorable we are currently living in a time where we don't know what the one piece is and we don't know how the show is going to end but that will obviously not always be the case and when it finally does end pretty much every person on the planet will know about it part of the magic of the adventure is the communal experience it's watching Luffy's gear fifth transformation with your friends it's discussing the latest chapters and their implications with people online as an audience member you feel like you're more than just a spectator you're one of the straw hats there's a reason that scenes like the departure from alabasta the sinking of the going Mary Luffy vs Usopp the moist cigarette scene and the loss that say body archipelago had such a huge emotional impact and Beyond some excellent writing and performances it's the time spent with the characters saying goodbye to Vivi hurts so much because by that point we'd spent more time with her than without her it's a unique feeling that is literally impossible to invoke through any other means Ace's death to me was not that tragic because we hadn't had that much time with the character rather it was Luffy's response that broke me this was because I knew Luffy I had spent 500 episodes with him I know he's happy-go-lucky he's strong but Goofy he cares about people and to hear the most blood curdling bone-chilling scream from this character that I love it hurt I think by now you're beginning to understand that I really love one piece and the story and world that Oda has created but there was something else that I would like to address that I mentioned earlier which is how I think one piece will impact the Shonen genre as a whole but I think it'll be more helpful if I explain how one piece has affected the way that I personally look at anime so I had referenced in the intro that I thought one piece had ruined anime for me and funny enough that was the original title for this video it was supposed to be one piece ruined anime for me however while you definitely see a clickable title there I don't think it accurately represents my feelings you see during my time with one piece I watched a few anime most notably Love is War Jiu Jitsu Kaizen and Tokyo Avengers but those were all during the beginning half of my one-piece watch and as I continued watching the show I found myself drifting away from watching anything else now one piece is a bit of a Titan so part of the reason I didn't watch much else was to focus all my anime watching time towards chipping away at those 1000 plus episodes and I did watch a few new shows but there was something about them that I didn't find very interesting and I realized as I entered dress Rosa that it may not be that these shows are uninteresting but it's just that they're not one piece now that I've caught up with one piece I've been able to start catching up on other shows that I missed out on when I I was focused on just watching one piece that has really helped me formulate my opinions on the anime I enjoy a little bit better I had been worried previously because after watching One Piece Demon Slayer and Jiu Jitsu kaizen's main characters became frustratingly boring I've had some problems with my hero Academia for quite a while now and when I began watching One Piece I had also started watching Naruto and I stopped in favor of One Piece because Luffy was a much more tolerable character than Naruto it began to look like I just didn't like these shows because they weren't as good as one piece and honestly I'm relieved to say that that's not the case I had a whole paragraph here where I continued to compare certain anime to one piece talking about how I didn't find some of the relationships and tropes to be done as well but I realized that this video is about one piece and it's not exactly helpful or even beneficial to the video to compare it to other shows but I do want to talk about however is how I think one piece will influence the Shonen genre as a whole moving forward it's very common for anime genres to develop tropes and stereotypes and this is not a bad thing manga like Dragon Ball and Fist of the North Star are responsible for how a lot of the Shonen genre has been formulated and each generation after has made slight adjustments and tried new things thus developing the Shonen genre even further and understanding this helped me appreciate one piece a little differently because not only could I appreciate when one piece put its one piece flavored spin on some of my favorite tropes but more importantly when it decided to operate without such tropes or invert the tropes entirely and it's this inversion of tropes a Breaking of the mold if you will that I think will have a much bigger effect on the Shonen genre that we won't be able to see for quite a long time I mentioned earlier that there was another reason that I think one piece is the greatest story of all time but I think that reason would better be described as a reason that I think one piece is going to be one of the most influential manga slash anime of Our Generation I'm going to have to issue a spoiler warning here as I will be discussing some of the recent events in the anime and as their fairly large spoilers that have huge implications for the story I recommend skipping to this time here to avoid them if you have not caught up throughout the entire show from the very beginning it has been told to us that Luffy has eaten the gum gum fruit turning his body into rubber but during the climactic fight of the wano arc we learned that we were misled and that Luffy has actually eaten the human human fruit the model sun god Nica giving him the capabilities of sun god Nika a deity whose body had the properties of rubber and was a symbol of Freedom his heartbeat literally being called the drums of Liberation the government admits that it allows the user to fight freely calling it the world's most ridiculous power and giving Luffy the ability to turn his imagination into reality a super cool ability that has led to some pretty awesome fights but it's the essence and tone of these fights that make it so special Luffy is a funny character and now that he's awakened his ability he's able to fight however he wants and it's provided a unique tone for an anime fight that I've not seen before Oda has had quite a bit to say about this ability and its inspiration as well as why exactly he designed the ability this way and it's this ability that I think will change the Shonen genre as a whole the direct inspiration for the style and Flair that makes gear 5 so obviously unique is clearly Tom and Jerry and other similar rubber hose animation cartoons Oda admits this is the visual inspiration but what made him decide to go this direction well he said that ever since he was an assistant he's begun to notice the Expressions that are Staples of manga have slowly been lost over time things like putting a light bulb next to a character's head when they have an idea or having their legs turn into blurry Wheels when they're running really fast Otis said I loved those types of Expressions but it's ceasing to be drawn no one is drawing it even though our predecessor is created and left several formulas battle manga have to keep getting more and more serious in order to meet the fans expectations and I've always hated that that's why I definitely don't want to become a serious manga in the end I just want to be playful and I'm finally able to do that that's why I drew this I had super fun Shonen manga of generations past have created a formula that works and audiences enjoy but the problem with that is that the tropes and stereotypes almost become requirements at least in the minds of the manga authors because while Dragon Ball did it and then Naruto did it and then my hero did it so my manga has to too and the Trope of raising stakes and serious tonal shifts are Staples of the Shonen genre without a doubt even one piece very clearly follows these tropes and they even happen several times throughout the show and that's not a bad thing the story has to progress and Stakes have to be raised and a lot of stories benefit from the tone becoming more serious but Oda has refused to let that bottleneck his creativity and I think aspiring manga authors are going to look at one piece one of the best-selling manga of all time and realize they too can have a little bit of Freedom with the tone of their story Luffy represents freedom but not just through his personality but through his powers too and not just to the characters within the story story but to Oda himself and an entire industry and generation I do hope we get to see the effects of one piece's inspiration soon meaning that more manga authors would be willing to break the mold of the Shonen genre every now and then and create a story that they truly want to tell and are passionate about one piece truly is a once in a lifetime kind of story we are witnessing the greatest story of our time unfold in front of us and we get the privilege of having the opportunity to be a part of it oda's ability to write such a fun and enticing Adventure while having such grounded and emotional characters and moments is truly a master class in creative writing and storytelling it is a benchmark for relatable characters in how to have the audience feel connected to them no show has made me laugh cry or scream as much as one piece has and with a successful live-action adaptation having just released on Netflix I hope that this story can be told to more people in the west because it truly is unlike any other fictional media out there and I genuinely think it would be such a shame for anyone to miss out on it that being said before I conclude this video I very briefly wanted to talk about the animation for the one piece anime this was a hard subject to fit into the video considering it doesn't have much effect on the story but that's not to say that there isn't any toei animation has clearly wanted to have some Freedom or creative Liberties when it comes to adapting the one-piece story Luffy punching the Celestial Dragon comes to mind but it was quite rare to see such creative uses of Animation to enhance the emotional impact of the scene the show usually relied on performances from the actors for this but as we entered the wano arc toei started using animation in tandem with the performances to create some genuine spectacles in the four years since the beginning of the wano arc one piece has cemented itself as one of the best looking anime of all time while also having clearly figured out a style that exemplifies the themes that Oda is trying to get across gear 5 being inspired by old Tom and Jerry cartoons as previously mentioned brings a unique opportunity to stand out but beyond that it seems clear that the animators of One Piece are just having fun the last thing that one piece's animation can be described as is lifeless in recent months one piece has taken over the Internet because of its use of impact frames impact frames are an animation technique used to accentuate the impact of whatever is happening on screen usually through black and white or high contrast line art it's a very common technique and has been used for a very long time however nobody has ever used these impact frames as a medium for storytelling but toei has found a style for one piece that uses these frames to provide emotional impact as well is physical one piece is not a show that I would have associated with top of the line animation the manga's art that storytelling the characters all world class but there was nothing about the animation that made it feel particularly special but assuming you have eyes and you're using them to watch this video you can see that's not the case anymore one piece is competing with some of the best Animation Studios in the industry except it's the only one doing it weekly now for the sake of clarity not every episode looks as good as these but the moments that need to look good look absolutely stunning I could Fanboy over one piece's animation for a very long time if I'm being honest I'm only making this part of the script as long as it is to give this video time to show some of my favorite animated moments ever honestly because of this new animation style it feels like even the animation is a part of the Journey of One Piece over the course of the last year and a half or so I followed Luffy Zorro Sanji usap Nami Chopper Robin Frankie Brooke and jimbei since they're four by three 480p start and as the characters grow in depth and quality so does the animation there won't ever be a story like one piece ever again I've come to terms with that but the Legacy that it leaves behind will inspire many for years to come this was not intended to be merely a review of one piece so I hope I showed you why I and so many others love this show and why one piece will go down in history as The Greatest Story Ever Told thank you so much for watching this video If you enjoyed it please leave a like let me know what you thought about it down in the comments below it really does help the video more than you would think and if you would like to see more anime analysis just like this go ahead and hit that subscribe button while you're down there all of my social media links will be down in the description as well or if you want to look it up on your phone you can find me at yuki.wave on pretty much everything with all that out of the way thank you once again for watching this video and I hope to see you in the next one

Channel: Yuki

Views: 210,374

Keywords: Anime Video Essay, Anime Essay, Video Essay, Anime, Yukidotwav, Yuki, Inspiring, Inspiration, Motivation, Motivating, One Piece, Gear 5, Luffy

Id: uM0p-hx2oPo

Length: 32min 53sec (1973 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 16 2023