FACTS

Is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump since July 19, 1997; the individual chapters are being published in tankobon volumes by Shueisa, with the first released as of December 24, 1997, and the 75th volume released as of September 2014. One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a young man whose body gains the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating a Devil Fruit, and his diverse crew of pirates, named The Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy explores the ocean in search of the world’s ultimate treasure known as One Piece in order to become the next Pirate King.

ONE PIECE

OVERVIEW

The world of One Piece is populated by humans and numerous other races, including mermen and mermaids, “fishmen” (a race of fish/human hybrids), giants, and fairies. It is covered by two vast oceans, which are divided by massive mountain range called the Red Line. The Grand Line, a sea that runs perpendicular to the Red Line, further divides them into four seas: North Blue, East Blue, West Blue and South Blue surrounding the Grand Line are two regions called the Calm Belts, which experience almost no wind and ocean currents and are breeding ground for the huge sea creatures called Neptunians. Because of this, the calm belts are very effective barriers for those trying to enter the Grand Line.

SETTING

While marine ships, using sea-prism stone to mask their presence ,can simply pass through, most have to use the canal system of Reverse Mountain, a mountain at the first intersection of the Grand Line and the Red Line. Sea water from each of the four seas runs up that mountain and merges at the top to flow down a fifth canal and into the first half of the Grand Line. The second half of the Grand Line, beyond the second intersection with the Red Line, is also known as the New World.

The currents and weather on the Grand Line’s open sea are extremely unpredictable, whereas in the vicinity of islands the climate is stable. What makes it even harder to navigate is the fact that normal compasses don’t work there. A special compass called a Log Pose must be used. The Log Pose works by locking on to one island’s magnetic field. The time for it to set depends on the island. This process can be bypassed by obtaining an Eternal Pose, a Log Pose variation that is permanently set to a specific island and never changes. The world of One Piece is filled with anachronisms, like the Transponder Snails, a snail-like animals that can be attached to electric equipment and function as rotary phones, fax machines, surveillance cameras, and similar devices. Dials, the shells of the certain sky-dwelling animals, can be used to store kinetic energy, wind, sound, images, heat, and the like and have various applications.

A Devil Fruit is a type of fruit which when eaten confers a power on the eater. There are three categories of Devil Fruit. Zoan fruits allow the user to fully and partially transform into a specific animal (real or otherwise, turn a person into a mythical beast such as phoenix or a dragon.) Logia fruits give control and allow the user “to change their living body structure into the powers of nature.” Paramecia is a catch-all category for fruits that give the user superhuman abilities. They are said to be the reincarnation of Sea Devil himself, and as a result, Devil Fruit users cannot swim in sea water, as “they are hated by the sea”.

The series begin with the execution of Gol D. Roger, a man known as the King of the Pirates. Just before his death, Roger announces that his treasure, the One Piece will be available to anyone who finds it, causing the Great Pirate Era to begin. As a result, countless pirates set out to the Grand Line to look for the treasure.

Twenty-two years have passed since Roger’s execution, and Monkey D. Luffy, a young man inspired by his childhood idol and powerful pirate Red Haired Shanks, sets off on a journey from the East Blue Sea to find the One Piece and become the King of Pirates. In an effort to organize his own crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy befriends a swordsman named Roronoa Zoro and they sail off to find the One Piece. They soon met Nami, a navigator and the thief: Usopp, a sniper and a liar; and Sanji, a womanizing chef; leading to confrontations with Buggy the Clown, Captain Kuro and Don Krieg.

PLOT

Luffy encounter’s Arlong, a fishman and a member of the Sun Pirates. After Luffy defeats Arlong, Nami officially joins Luffy’s crew and the Navy places a bounty on Luffy’s head. They later befriend the doctor and anthromorphized reindeer Tony Tony Chopper while in Drum Island.

Luffy eventually defeats Crocodile and liberates Alabasta. Soon after, Nico Robin, an archeologist and former member of the Baroque Works joins Luffy’s group. Franky joins the group and builds a new ship, the Thousand Sunny, for the Straw Hat Crew. Soon after, the crew helps a musician skeleton named Brook find his shadow in Thriller Bark, which has been stolen by Gekko Moriah. After defeating Moriah, Brook joins the crew.

The crew later prepares to sail off to the New World, the second half of the Grand Line, after arriving at the Sabaody Archipelago. While there, they befriend Silvers Rayleigh, a former member of Roger’s pirate crew. The crew eventually gets seperated during a battle with Bartholomew Kuma, a huge cyborg under the control of the Navy, at the Sabaody , with Luffy being sent to the all-female island, Amazon Lily. Having learned that his older brother, Portgas D. Ace has been detained at the government prison , Impel Down, Luffy soon learns that Ace about to be executed at the Navy Headquarters. In the ensuing chaos, Whitebeard and Ace were killed. At Rayleigh’s request, Luffy has the Straw Hats undergo rigorous training regiments.

Two years later, the crew regroups at Sabaody Archipelago and journeys to Fishman Island to enter the New World. They left the island and finally reached the New World , but not before starting a feud with Big Mom, one of the “FOUR EMPERORS”, the strongest pirates in the New World. Entering the half-burning and half-freezing island, Punk Hazard, the crew encounter’s an old friend and one of the New Warlords, Trafalgar Law , and they formed an alliance to take down the Four Emperors in the New World.

While working as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki, Eiichiro Oda began writing One Piece in 1996. From there it started as two one-shot stories entitled Romance Dawn- which would later be used as the title for One Piece ‘s first chapter and volume. They both featured the character of Luffy , and included elements that would later appear on the main series. The first of these short stories was published in August 1996 in Akamaru Jump and later in One Piece Red. The second was published in the 41st issue of Weekly Shonen Jump in 1996 and reprinted in 1998 in Oda’s short story collection, Wanted!.

Oda originally planned the manga to last five years, and he had already planned the ending , but he found himself enjoying the story too much to end it in that amount of time. He had decided on from the beginning and he is committed to seeing it through the end, no matter how many years it takes.

Production

MEDIA

The One Piece series was licensed for an English language release by Viz Media , who publishes it chapterwise in the manga anthology Shonen Jump, since the magazine’s launch in November 2002, and in bound volumes since June 2003. In 2009, Viz Media announced the release of 5 volumes per month in North America during the first half of 2010, greatly increasing that number. In the United Kingdom, the volumes were published by Gollancz Manga, starting March 2006, until Viz Media replaced it after the fourteenth volume. In Australia and New Zealand, the English volumes have been distributed by Madman Entertainment since November 10,2008. In Poland , Japonica Polonica Fantastica is publishing the manga – as of January 2014, 26 volumes have been released.

MANGA

Toei Animation produced an anime

television series based on the manga

chapters , also entitled One Piece. The series

premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on

October 20, 1999. Since then, the still

continuing series has aired more than 650

episodes and has been exported to various

countries around the world.

Anime Series

Thirteen animated films based on the One Piece series have been released in Japan. The films are traditionally released during the Japanese school spring break since 2000. The films feature self-contained , completely original plots or alternate retellings of story arcs with animation of higher quality than what the weekly anime allows for. Funimation Entertainment has licensed the 8th, 10th, and 12th films for release in America.

Anime Films