(the straw hat pirates)
By: Robert Murphy
So since recently I posted a AMV that was cut to scenes of
one of my favorite animes, “One Piece”,
I figured I would give you all review to go along with it, for those of
you who haven’t seen the show and had no idea what the hell was going on in the
video. “One Piece” starts around the tale of Gol D. Roger King of the Pirates,
who is finally caught by the Marine forces in “One Piece” and publicly executed. But before they ended his life
he imparted a final word to any pirates or would be pirates who may have been
watching, his final words were that he has hidden all of his massive wealth
away and anyone may take it as their own, he has hidden it all in one piece.
This sets in motion a new golden age of piracy, where everyone and anyone is
out to claim the one piece and be the new king of the pirates and this includes
or main character Monkey D. Luffy who we follow throughout the series as he
makes his crew and sets out on his pirate adventure.
Gol D Roger at his execution
So to begin with, some of you may be thinking this seems to
be a pretty normal show right? Well what I neglected to mention in the previous
chapter is that some of these pirates have some pretty incredible powers. In
the show there are fruit known as the Devil Fruit, these give whoever eats one
of them a super natural ability but at the cost of losing the ability to swim,
which can be a problem for a pirate looking to sail the high seas. So
essentially we have 17th century pirates with super powers all
sailing around which makes for quiet an interesting story to follow along with,
for example our main protagonist, Luffy has eaten one of these fruits the Gum
Gum Fruit, this has given his body a rubber quality that allows him to do
things like deflect bullets and throw punches a mile away. This leads to some
crazy and out of this world fights especially since there are millions of
different Devil Fruit out there and plenty of pirates that Luffy and his crew
come across in their journey. These fruit can allow you to do anything, some
being quite silly and others can be devastating, it’s pretty much a grab bag of
insanity.
Now let’s move on to some of the characters that will be
joining our rubber man of a leader on his quest to be King of the Pirates. Zolo, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, and Chomper are the core members of the initial Straw Hat
Pirates and they all bring their own unique characteristics to the show. Sanji is the cook who loves the ladies, Nami
is the domineering navigator who loves money, Zoro is the samurai swordsman who
wields three blades and sleeps all the time, Usopp is the sniper who tells
outrageous lies- but that doesn't quite do them justice and Chomper is our
residential reindeer doctor who is shy but quite a thrill for some of the
attractive female characters. They all initially have their own interests as
you can see but over the time they spend sailing together they develop and grow
close to each other and become close friends which is a central theme
throughout the show. And of course you can’t forget the enemies throughout the
show, while some are a little silly (which silly/goofy is something you need to
get use to in this show) others are more serious and quite frankly are a bunch
of assholes who deserve to get their faces smashed in by one of Luffy’s gum gum
punches.
“One Piece” is a very open ended show that has a story that
makes for a good anime in the fact that there is so much that can be done while
these characters search for the one piece and it shows through the entire series
span. While the story may be winding down to its end, there are have been over
four hundred fifty five episodes so that tells you what you are in for if you
start watching the show, with just about five story arcs filled with pirate
action. If a complaint could be made it would be that some of the
worlds/islands that are visted are an idea out of Star Wars where there are
areas made of one topographical element like snow or sand but this in itself is
a minor flaw with the show. And I’m only
speculating on the end of the series here, it could go on for much much longer
and I honestly hope it does, there is so much that the show has to enjoy with
things like islands controlled by evil mermen, pirates with out of this world
abilities and the incredible cast of characters to choose from, “One Piece”
makes for a great anime.
Good:
-A great cast of characters
-Unique pirate/super power idea
-Vastly open story to follow and get into
Bad:
-The fact that some lands visited by the pirate crew feature
only one topographical element
Scully rating: 9.5 out of 10