One Piece - Reviews

man, the characters, they're just too perfect

[There will be big spoilers of One Piece on this review if it wasn't obvious enough.]

This could very well be the hardest review for me to put the right words for.

Back in the mid 2000s, I discovered One Piece thanks to the dreadful 4Kids Dub. I did find out of funny moments from certain arcs that were never dubbed by 4Kids, but I wouldn't properly get into this series until 2018, due to me growing interest in checking out thanks to a former friend. And I do not regret making that decision one bit.

One Piece is my favorite Shonen of all time. I adore it so much. In the span of 5 months, I caught up back when there were only nearly 900 episodes, and I was incredibly invested in it. I even read through the manga in its entirety and watched the majority of movies and TV Specials. However, I wanna focus primarily on the anime adaptation because it was what I experienced first before reading the manga. Note that this review only tackles what has been adapted up to Episode 1037, so no manga only stuff.

To kinda start off with the negatives, I'm not really a fan of filler content in One Piece. Outside of the G8 filler arc, every other one either feels like a waste of time, or like to contradict later events. Take for example, Warship Island. It's the first anime original filler arc, and it brings in the idea of Zoro being able to cut steel chains, and then in Alabasta, an actual canon arc, they establish that he doesn't know how to cut steel yet until his fight with Mr. 1. Things like this happen way too much with these filler arcs. But then there's filler within canon events. Not just introducing filler characters, but also dragging out with the overuse of flashbacks or reaction shots. Dressrosa is filled to the brim with this, where a flashback that came from the manga is shown 48 times throughout the arc's 118 episodes. It makes it painfully obvious that they are stalling for time so that they don't catch up with the manga and to pad out the run time of each episode. Funnily enough, this wasn't an issue in the anime until Enies Lobby.

Another problem has to do with the animation quality throughout the series. There are plenty of standout animated movements that do the manga justice, the comedy is given life, the locations look beautiful, and in the Wano Country arc, they bring a whole new visual style that was for the better. However, after the Skypiea arc, the animation tended to go back and forth with characters being on model and not, with some instances where the female characters look like they have a tiny lower torso; certain parts of the manga were not interpreted so faithfully (like the King Kong Gun in Dressrosa); and some parts of the animation don't look finished at points, which is weird given it's a big company like Toei working on one of the biggest mangas in Japan.

The only other unfortunate thing I can mention is that aside from a few, the Cover Stories of the manga don't get adapted, which leaves certain story details omitted from the anime, with one example being that in the manga, a character called Django from the Syrup Village arc is shown in his Cover Story the whole journey on how he went from a pirate to a marine. With the anime, he is just inexplicably a marine the next time you see him.

But to talk about what I do enjoy, it is the stuff that is brought in from the manga by Eiichiro Oda. Much like the manga, it has amazing world building, with many characters from previous arcs coming back and showing just how big the One Piece world is, along with a worldwide amount of species, races, cultures and how the works in its entirety; the characters are very memorable, funny and likeable, whether they be one of the protagonists or even antagonists; the comedy is genuinely very funny and is the one Shonen where I laugh consistently at the jokes, even if I heard them so many times before, and the story is rich with cool action set pieces, heavy emotional moments, big topics like slavery and racism, and new crazy revelations that continue to make it interesting.

The voice cast is generally great too, in both Japanese and English (only Funimation). Each seiyuu and English voice actors do their job splendidly, giving their characters a new spin thanks to direction and the personality they give. The soundtrack is very reliant on the same type of songs heard a lot, but I don't mind it. They work well for each scene they're in. The OPs are fantastic. I routinely listen to them because of how catchy and fun they are, even if the later ones do spoil certain upcoming moments in each arc. The sound effects are taken from Dragon Ball, with a few being original to One Piece, and they do the job with making hits sound meaty and have impact.

Is the anime perfect? No, not at all. The manga is a better overall experience and easier to get into. However, if you simply want to watch an animated version of One Piece, then I say go for it. Just keep in mind that if you wanna catch up, there's over a 1000 episodes to go through and it's a big commitment. Regardless, I still greatly enjoy the anime version of One Piece, even if it has some notable rough spots.

one piece is perfect, that is all.

THIS ANIME IS PEAK IT'S THE BEST ANIME EVER IT HAS 1000+EPS BUT IT'S WORTH IT U JUST HAVE TO WATCH IT

This show is without a doubt the greatest anime ive ever watched, and after watching over 1500 episodes of both subbed and dubbed, as well as the movies, i can say that if you arnt hardcore into anime, and if you have anything else to invest weeks of your time into, dont waste your time on this show.

but, if you really are committed, or if you need some motivation to keep watching, then i can say that this show has some of the best storytelling ever, it has awesome character developement and amazing world building, every character is important, every character has a story to tell, and a goal to reach, and thats what makes this show special.

there was never an arc that got boring, because every one of them was unique. One piece is one of the few shows that isnt straight lined plot based, it makes sure to give every character a personallity and a story to tell, every island has lore, and that gives this show emotion, its what keeps someone wanting to know what happens next even after 980 episodes.

but with the good there is the bad, this show is very involved, there is almost no filler, its just an incredibly slow crawl, its a show that you binge on a weekend, then wait a few months, and catch back up again. And since this show takes no breaks, there are some stillframes, reused sound effects, etc.