Review 1: One Piece

   This first review is for, as you can see, One Piece. It's my favorite of the big three shonen manga, so I'll start with this one. I've read from Chapter 1 to Chapter 587 (the latest chapter in monthly Shonen Jump Magazine). Since this is a fairly long series, I'll try to keep the summary fairly short. And if you think this is long, remember that I'm attempting to summarize around 56 volumes at once here. Also, caution, there will probably be spoilers. So don't say I didn't tell you.

    The story is set in a great pirating age in a fictional universe. This world has 'devil fruits', mysterious fruits that if eaten grant a fabulous power-at the cost of sinking like a sack of bricks when in any significant amount of water. The main character, Luffy D. Monkey (or in the original Japanese version, Monkey D. Luffy) has eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit which pretty much makes him into rubber.

   Luffy sets out on a quest to find a legendary treasure, the 'One Piece' and on his way gathers a crew including a theif, a swordsman, a sharp-shooter, a reindeer-man, a cyborg, a skeleton, and an archeologist. The first few chapters of the story is Luffy gathering the original crew members and having various adventures on different islands, as well as setting up the first 'arc', the Baroque Works arc.

   The Baroque Works arc is about the Straw Hats saving a desert island from a company plotting to start a civil war, blow up the square, and find the blueprint for the most destructive weapon in the world.

   The next arc is the Skypiea arc in which the Straw Hats prove a legend about a cloud island true and, of course, get caught up in a tribal war and a corrupt god who, once again, wants to destroy the entire island. Seeing a theme here?

   The next arc is the Water Seven/Enies Lobby arc in which, in a VERY summarized version, lose their ship, lose a few million berries, lose Usopp, lose Robin, get accused of an assassination attempt on a mayor, find the assassins, chase the assassins (who have Robin), regain Usopp, save Robin, get a new ship, and a new crewmate, and in doing so get on an even worse side of the Navy.

   Next the crew goes to Thriller Bark, a giant zombie infested boat and gain a skeletal crew mate. Enough said.

   The 'Sabaody arc' (if anyone knows how to properly pronounce that then I admire you) is just the crew trying to get to the other side of the Grand Line or some such and then the crew getting in trouble with the world nobles and getting split up across the Grand Line by Kuma.

   The Sabaody arc and the Impel Down and Whitebeard War arc all kind of merge together, even more than the rest, so this is a mushed up summary. In short, Luffy finds out his brother is in prison waiting to be executed and goes to rescue him. His brother, Ace, leaves the prison to go to his execution before Luffy can rescue him, so Luffy and a few pirates who used to be quite famous and know Luffy's father accompany him to the execution to rescue Ace. The execution turns into an all out war between Whitebeard, Luffy, some other pirates, and the Navy. Whitebeard and Ace both die, and Luffy somehow escapes, but his crew is still scattered among the Grand Line, and he is in a state of despair...

   So now on to the reviewing part now that I've done the summary. I really enjoyed reading One Piece (and continue to enjoy it). I liked the happy-go-lucky main character, and the lightness of the story that could have been quite a wangsty one if written differently. I also enjoyed some of the humor, especially all of the puns. Seriously, there was one whole page that every speech bubble contained a bad pun. I also liked the art a lot. It was simple and a bit more on the cartoony side, but everything is drawn very well. The art is clean and there isn't too many dark tones and blacks. Also, Oda seems to be able to draw any type of character, which keeps things interesting when he has that many. The layout of panels also seems very clear to me, and rarely are the panels confusing/too empty/too full unless they are intended to be. The plot line gets a little repetetive, but the always new and fresh characters and scenery (and puns) keep it interesting. Although the series seems to be a ways from over, it does seem as though Oda has an ending in mind, and doesn't plan on dragging it out any longer after he's reached that point unlike some series seem to do (ah hem, Bleach).

   So, if you've already read One Piece, hope you share my views. If not and you're looking for a new shonen to read, I'd recommend it. Let's hope the next review is significantly shorter. Although I seem to have a problem with shutting my trap.

  Also, thanks to http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51b-zKwpWyL._SL500_AA300_.jpg for the picture.