The History Of The Great Manga, One Piece

Monday, June 30, 2014



One Piece is a story of a young man named Monkey D. Luffy who was inspired by the pirate, Red-Haired Shanks. Early on in the series, 22 years before the present timeline, a pirate named Gold Roger, generally known as the Pirate King had been executed. However, before his death, Gold Roger told the crowd about his treasure, "One Piece". His death sparked what might become the Golden Era of Pirates as countless pirates set out to look for his treasure. The main character, Luffy becomes a pirate, who dreams of becoming the next Pirate King and sets out to recruit crewmates and begin his adventures. This tells the plot of One Piece. Nonetheless, this anime didn't become great over night. One Piece has a great history that would allow it to become what everyone considers to be the greatest manga ever created.




 One Piece all began with the creator, Eiichiro Oda. Eiichiro Oda was inspired by Akira Toriyama's Dragonball and Dr. Slump at a young age. Since childhood, he took a liking to Vikings and he aspired to turn into a manga artist. Afterwards, Oda created Pandaman for Yudetamago's Kinnikuman. During 1992, Oda at age 17, posted the manga called Required. This got him noticed, enough to be able to join the staff in the Weekly Shonen Jump paper. There, he became an assistant under several established manga freelance writers including Shinobu Kaitani, Masaya Tokuhiro, and last but not least, Nobuhiro Watsuki. Oda had desired to make a pirate manga from his obsession with vikings during his youth, and he was also inspired through various pirate events like the discovery of the pirate vessel of Edward Teach, also known as Bleackbeard. He wrote two separate one-shots during the mid-1990s, both of which were called "Romance Dawn".

The stories introduced Monkey D. Luffy, the straw-hat wearing boy who attempts to sail the sea to become a legendary pirate. Several concepts on the eventual serialization appeared within these stories, including Luffy's inspiration for being a pirate and the mysterious power he gained from eating a special fruit that turned his body into rubber. Some may recognize this idea as it relates to One Piece's concept regarding Devil Fruits.

Around August 1997, Oda took the majority of his "Romance Dawn" ideas and started using them inside a weekly serial under the particular title "One Piece". It had been first serialized in Shonen Jump, the weekly shonen magazine owned and operated by Shueisha. The actual series quickly caught on and became popular during the initial chapters and onwords, establishing itself as one of the premiere manga series inside the magazine. At first, Oda wanted his series running for 5 years, meaning One Piece would have ended in 2002, yet he went longer than expected. Right now, everyone has no idea how many more years his story will probably take. Oda had already planned the ending from the start of One Piece. Despite just how long it will take him in order to complete it, he said he'll end One Piece the way he planned from the start.

One Piece has since spanned across the borders of Japan becoming something greater than a simple pirating tale. As time passes from its serialization, One Piece has taken different directions in its storyline at times wavering from the initial focus of the pursuit to become Pirate King. One Piece has even been noted to include many themes such as what treasure is, the meaning of justice along with the concept of chasing dreams.