Growing up in the Westworld...having our childhood shaped by shows like Topgear, Takeishi's castle, Power Rangers, and waiting for weekly and monthly episodes and issues of our now silver screen heroes. But over time we kind of drift out of this life and get pushed into "adult life" or saying "you're too old for this" or the hobby just became less interesting. But what if I were to say, in japan a comic (manga to be precise) is still being celebrated, and even today's adults who started reading it 20 years ago (..gasp...) are still following it through and as a silver lining, unlike western comics, the story hasn't changed, the author changed, the story hasn't branched out into dimensions, alter egos, so on and so forth, furthermore the story hasn't ended yet.
Regardless of its current predicament several authors and several stories altogether. How did a streamlined single-author comic that hasn't been made in the west beat the batman comics entirely in terms of sales. Now let's dive into the world of Marvel and DC's new competitor.
How much is it ahead ?:
Before we skydive into the so-called one-piece, I would like to provide some vague data on how much this series has pushed down the Dark Knight back into his dark alleys
The entirety of Batman has sold 484 million copies worldwide as of 2021, however, in the same 2021, the worldwide sales of one-piece were 490 million copies, which leaves one-piece second to Superman (600 million copies worldwide).
Introduction to One Piece:
One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew in order to find the greatest treasure ever left by the legendary Pirate, Gold Roger. The famous mystery treasure is named "One Piece".
This is probably the simplest way to summarise One Piece, (by imdb). However, this story is more than just your typical anime/cartoon and will completely break your stereotypical views about anime. But this will only happen when you get through the staggering 1019 chapters and 960+ episodes, wooooaah... I know right? longer than Simpsons and The Tonight show So the following text will follow some of the aspects that make this story a 'once in a generation story'.
A unique way of storytelling:
Written by Eichiro Oda, One Piece has a unique method of storytelling, which cannot be found in any other movies or TV series. Not even Scorcese or Hitchcock has adapted this method of storytelling i.e instead of using main characters to move the story, the author uses the main characters to travel through the story...
For better understanding normally in a movie, the main character would be introduced and we follow his adventures and just show the main character's story and any other element introduced would start when the main character gets to that element and moves the story forward. But in one piece the story doesn't need moving, the author has established a world where the story is already happening and actively moving with or without the main characters, and the main characters are just used to travel through this pre-established storyline.
A Multilayered Storyline :
Next, one-piece follows a multilayered story line which means the main characters aren't the only focus of the story. They are just one of the layers. So in One Piece there are three layers,
The Strawhats layer (Main Character & viewers perspective)
World Government layer (Emperors, Marines & Celestial Dragons movements)
The Void Century Layer (A layer which has been foreshadowed, hinted - one of the greatest mysteries in one piece)
The God Layer ((Unexplored but heavily hinted)
These layers have been loosely connected but it is one of the things that keeps viewers to continue watching the series even after 20 years. These layers are full of mysteries and is only loosely connected which will be connected completely by the end of the series. But the series hasn't ended yet, so it keeps the viewers guessing, formulating theories, etc. Furthermore, the author apparently has watched all these theories on social media and has said not any of these theories are remotely correct to the ending he has planned for the series.
Incredible World-building :
Like I said, the story moves actively without the main characters, so there was a necessity to pre-build the world without building as the main characters progress. So dare I say, the world-building is only second to Spielberg? Yes, I do.
Without spoilers, the world is divided into 4 simple regions with 1 central stream of islands that flow through the middle of the world. This line in the middle of the world is divided into 2 regions.
Characters with actual story depth :
Now I don't mean Batman doesn't have character depth. Batman is one of the characters with the most character depth, however, I mean characters with story depth. How each character are established in the story and the story just travels according to our perspective i.e the author makes us choose which is right and wrong because in the story every character are doing things from their very own perspective
The sense of Adventure :
As mentioned above, the characters travel through the story, since the main characters themselves are new to the pre-existing story. So we the viewer/readers are also a looooong adventure with the main characters.
No Romance :
Now one piece is a pure, downright adventure story. The author was really keen on keeping the story this way, that he even confirmed that the series will never have romance. This is an incredible feat considering even Superman needed a romance side plot to keep the story going, so in summary, One Piece has been going on for 20 years and readers/viewers are still hooked without romance sideplot
Mystery upon Mysteries:
As much as one piece contains adventure, it has an equal amount of mysteries. All of the mysteries have been carefully set up from episode 1 through episode 900+. And these mysteries have only been set up slowly by foreshadowing and dialogues, but haven't been actually revealed. But these mysteries when revealed will blow up the internet and fans probably can't handle it. So until that moment all of us should just keep waiting (Halfwaythrough 2021 still no Shanks)
Conclusion :
These paragraphs are only a brief context of one of the greatest series ever made, as it is nearing its 1000th episode, I personally would recommend you wonderful readers to check it out. I know and can understand when I say 1000 episodes it seems a bit daunting, however, I can assure you that after you finish the series, you will complain there aren't enough episodes.
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