Hello everyone! Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind. Before getting into this month’s topic I wanted to send out a special thank you for everyone’s support. I mean, 500 reviews. I still can’t believe it. I never thought I would reach 500 let alone 250. This really means a lot to me and I want to thank everyone who supports me and the site. Without you none of this would be possible and I hope to continue to provide more fun and thoughtful reviews in the years to come as well as novels. Please continue to support me and the site moving forward. With that said, let’s get into today’s topic, which is Memories of One Piece. Just like it’s hard to believe I’ve done 500 reviews, it’s hard to believe One Piece has been going for 25 years, and even after all these years, it’s still a great read. For this blog I want to focus on the rise and fall of One Piece. From its humble beginnings to manga powerhouse to legendary manga to a king knocked off the throne but still going. It’s something I’ve been wanting to talk about for some time so let’s get started.
One Piece got started in 1997 by Oda. As the turn of the century was upon us, Shonen Jump was looking for new mangas. Dragonball Z despite being a beloved manga and still a powerhouse series in some respects today was starting to run its course and Jump was looking for new authors to take the helm. Enter Oda, Kishimoto, and Kubo. Three men from different backgrounds of life, but had one thing in common. They were influenced by Akira Toriyama and the Dragon Ball series. While they may not have been his students or worked under him, these three men were obviously followers of Toriyama and put pen to paper in the hopes of creating mangas that would inspire a generation just like he inspired them. These three men would go on to write manga for Jump and create three of the most influential mangas of all time that would be known as the Big 3. They would define a generation and take the manga industry to new heights that haven’t been seen before. Kubo would make Bleach, Kishimoto would make Naruto, and Oda would make One Piece. Together these three mangas made manga a household name worldwide. It got people into anime and manga, sold a lot of merchandise, and for the longest time you couldn’t go to a con without seeing someone dressed up as a character from either of these three mangas. Everyone had their favorite. Some liked Naruto or Bleach the best thanks in large part to the animes, and then there was One Piece. Despite having a terrible dub, I found myself liking One Piece the best of them all as did a lot of other people. I don’t know, maybe it was because I found the story and world interesting and the characters funny and relatable, but One Piece was the one that always drew me in the most out of the three. For many readers in Japan, they have said that out of the Big 3, One Piece was the one that captured the heart and soul of Dragon Ball the most and I have to agree with them.
So when did One Piece start to rise in popularity? Well if I have to say it would be around the time of the Alabasta arc. I’ve talked about this in the past, but this is where One Piece really hooked me, and I think this is where it hooked a lot of people. Before this arc everything else felt like a prologue to the series which was welcomed. The arcs before Alabasta did a good job setting up the world, the story, and most importantly the characters who we’ll be following. They explored the past of the characters and let us see what their childhoods were like, what their goals are, how they see the world, and what they value. Why does Luffy want to become the pirate king? What drives Zoro to be the best swordsman in the world? Why does Nami care for money so much? Why is Usopp such a liar? Why does Sanji value food so much? These are all questions that get answered and helped us build a connection to these characters and what they hope to accomplish on this journey. It made you feel like a part of the crew. When the Alabasta arc finally came it honestly felt like this was the final arc of the series because of how well Oda built up these characters. They didn’t feel like characters we just met; we had been on multiple adventures with them already. We laughed, we cried, and we experienced triumph with them. While it had only been a little over 150 chapters at this point it felt more like a lifetime of traveling with these characters and seeing them preparing for the final arc. When the Alabasta arc ended and the story continued I did a double-take and realize that: oh yeah, they haven’t found One Piece yet. The story goes on and Robin is joining them. I wonder what her backstory is?
After the Alabasta arc One Piece felt like it was going into full gear as each arc felt bigger and better than the previous one. The villains they came across were getting stronger, the stakes were being raised, new characters were introduced and joining the crew, new powers, a good balance between comedy and tragedy and of course world-building. If there’s one thing Oda does great in One Piece it’s world-building. Out of the Big 3 One Piece has the best world in my opinion. It’s constantly expanding and growing. Even now we keep learning new things about the world of One Piece that keeps it fresh and interesting. For example, they use snails as phones and radios. That’s so clever and interesting. There’s an island under the sea and the only way to get your ship there is to encase it in a bubble. That’s so ridiculous but it makes sense in this world. Another thing Oda does well is make each character and moment count. There are a lot of characters in One Piece and no one ever feels out of place or a waste of time. They each have a backstory and just like the Strawhats have dreams, motivations, and values that keep them going. One of my favorite side characters is Senor Pink, a guy who dresses up as a baby. At first you laugh at him, but when you find out the reason why he dresses like this you cry and gain a newfound respect for him. As for moments, Oda does a good job at introducing something and then not returning it chapters later. And I don’t mean like 4 or 5 chapters later, I’m talking 20 or more chapters later when this plot point will return. One of my favorite reveals was finding out about Luffy’s family. We first hear about his grandpa, Garp, from a Marine admiral which Luffy quickly changes the subject, so it makes you wonder just who is grandpa is and what his connection to the Marines are. Two arcs later we meet Garp and find out that he’s a vice admiral of the Marines. As if that wasn’t crazy already, we find out that Luffy’s dad is Dragon, the leader of the Revolutionary Army who wants to topple the world government and the most wanted man in the world. Not only that, but we actually met Dragon many many chapters ago before finding out who he really is. To think that one random character we met so long ago just happened to be Luffy’s father and Oda just introduced him nonchalantly to everyone knowing that he had big plans for this character. It was these kinds of tidbits that made One Piece so rewarding to read. Getting introduced to these plot points and then seeing them return many chapters later and remembering them.
As years went by the Big 3 continued to dominate the manga industry from the late 90s up until the mid-2010s. But as time went on we saw a change in quality. The many years of drawing and writing on a weekly and hardcore schedule were starting to take a toll on the authors and you could see it in their work. Naruto’s drawings became simpler as characters started losing their unique clothes in favor of the standard ninja uniform, the story started to drag on, and the fights started to feel like who was stronger instead of who used their jutsu better. Bleach kept falling in popularity as many characters were introduced but never explored, Ichigo not really having a goal per se, the story lacked direction, and just like Naruto the drawings started to become simpler. Naruto and Bleach would come to an end in 2014 and 2016 while One Piece would continue. Unlike the other Big 3, One Piece never really dipped in the quality department. If anything the quality only got better from my perspective. Oda does a great job using the manga panels to his advantage by showing stuff rather than telling us. He lets you explore each panel to see where the characters are sitting and what’s going on in the background. Even the dialogue boxes do a good job of showing us what order to read them in and transition to the next one without getting lost. Even to this day One Piece continues to be one of the most high-quality mangas I’ve read today. The only other manga I can think of that had higher quality would have to be Berserk. While the chapters came out on an inconsistent basis and had more time, there’s no denying that Miura valued quality in his drawings and made them as detailed as possible. Even with the new wave of manga making their debut, One Piece continued to reign as the king of manga outselling them for years until the 2020s came where things were finally changing.
As a new decade arrives One Piece would finally be dethroned by two mangas. The first was Demon Slayer and the second Jujustu Kaisen who sits on the throne as the new king of manga. So what caused the downfall of One Piece? Honestly, nothing. One Piece still maintains a great story and high quality to this day. If I had to name the downfall it would be the passage of time which is something out of Oda’s control. Keep in mind One Piece has been going on for 25 years now on a consistent basis. While Oda has taken breaks here and there they usually only last for about a week or month at best. Even when the guy was hospitalized he didn’t stop working and drew One Piece from his hospital bed to make sure a chapter was ready on a weekly basis. To do that for 25 years is incredible. Getting back to the passage of time, when you’ve been going this long you unfortunately have a hard time getting new readers and that’s the problem One Piece finds itself in. New and young readers just have a hard time getting into the series because of its absurd length. To put this into perspective, let’s say you read a chapter of One Piece each day to reach the current chapter which is 1057 at the time of writing this blog. It would take about 3 years to read One Piece. During that time you could read Demon Slayer, Dr. Stone, The Promised Neverland, Death Note, and Food Wars from beginning to end and still have 21 days left to spare. That is a very daunting task for young readers and I get where they’re coming from. It’s the main reason why I can’t get into Detective Conan, it’s too long for me. Now to be fair the chapter numbers shouldn’t stop you from checking out One Piece. If you can read more than one chapter a day I say go for it. Because once you start you’re not gonna want to stop because you’ll be so invested in what’s happening. So being a hardcore One Piece fan you would think I be upset at it being dethroned as the king of manga, but no, if anything, I’m happy. One Piece was the gold standard of manga for over 20 years. It was the manga that everyone strived to overtake and inspired a whole new generation of writers including myself. I’m not saying Shadow Eye is going to be the next One Piece, I ain’t that crazy, but it is a series that takes inspiration and ideas from the manga. One Piece set the bar for manga and now it’s time for the next generation to raise that bar and I’m excited for what comes next. Will new manga be as long as One Piece? I highly doubt it, but it’ll be just as fun and exciting to read as One Piece. With Oda announcing One Piece getting ready for its final arc I am going to enjoy reading how he’ll end the series on his terms and wish him nothing but the best.
And that’ll do it for me. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.