One Piece
One Piece is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since July 22, 1997, and has been collected into 96 tankōbon volumes as of 2020. The story follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a boy whose body gained the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating a Devil Fruit. With his crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy explores the Grand Line in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as "One Piece" in order to become the next King of the Pirates.
The manga spawned a media franchise, having been adapted into a festival film produced by Production I.G, and an anime series produced by Toei Animation, which began broadcasting in Japan in 1999. Additionally, Toei has developed fourteen animated feature films, one original video animation and thirteen television specials. Several companies have developed various types of merchandising and media, such as a trading card game and numerous video games. The manga series was licensed for an English language release in North America and the United Kingdom by Viz Media and in Australia by Madman Entertainment. The anime series was licensed by 4Kids Entertainment for an English-language release in North America in 2004, before the license was dropped and subsequently acquired by Funimation in 2007.
One Piece has received praise for its storytelling, art, characterization, and humor. Several volumes of the manga have broken publishing records, including the highest initial print run of any book in Japan. The official website for Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga announced that the manga has set the Guinness World Record for "the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author"., the manga had over 470 million copies in circulation in 43 countries worldwide, making it the best-selling manga series in history. It became the best-selling manga for the eleventh consecutive year in 2018. One Piece is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, estimated to have generated more than in total franchise revenue, from the manga, anime, films, games and merchandise.
Synopsis
Premise
The series focuses on Monkey D. Luffy, a young man who, inspired by his childhood idol and powerful pirate "Red Haired" Shanks, sets off on a journey from the East Blue Sea to find the titular treasure and proclaim himself the King of the Pirates. In an effort to organize his own crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy rescues and befriends a swordsman named Roronoa Zoro, and they head off in search of the One Piece. They are joined in their journey by Nami, a navigator and thief; Usopp, a sniper and a pathological liar; and Vinsmoke Sanji, a womanizing chef. They acquire a ship named the Going Merry and engage in confrontations with notorious pirates of the East Blue. As Luffy and his crew set out on their adventures, others join the crew later in the series, including Tony Tony Chopper, a doctor and anthropomorphized reindeer; Nico Robin, an archaeologist and former assassin; Franky, a cyborg shipwright; Brook, a skeletal musician and swordsman; and Jimbei, a fish-man helmsman and former member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Once the Going Merry becomes damaged beyond repair, the Straw Hat Pirates acquire a new ship named the Thousand Sunny. Together, they encounter other pirates, bounty hunters, criminal organizations, revolutionaries, secret agents and soldiers of the corrupt World Government, and various other friends and foes, as they sail the seas in pursuit of their dreams.Setting
Geography
The world of One Piece is populated by humans and many other races, such as fish-men, dwarves, minks, and giants. It is covered by two vast oceans, which are divided by a massive mountain range called the Red Line, which is also the only continent in the world. The Grand Line, a sea that runs perpendicular to the Red Line, further divides them into four seas: North Blue, East Blue, West Blue, and South Blue. Surrounding the Grand Line are two regions called Calm Belts, similar to horse latitudes, which experience almost no wind or ocean currents and are the breeding ground for huge sea creatures called sea kings. Because of this, the calm belts are very effective barriers for those trying to enter the Grand Line. However, navy ships, members of an intergovernmental organization known as the World Government, are able to use a sea-prism stone to mask their presence from the sea kings and can simply pass through the calm belts. All other ships are forced to take a more dangerous route, going through a mountain at the first intersection of the Grand Line and the Red Line, a canal system known as Reverse Mountain. Sea water from each of the four seas runs up that mountain and merges at the top to flow down a fifth canal and into the first half of the Grand Line. The second half of the Grand Line, beyond the second intersection with the Red Line, is known as the New World.The currents and weather of the Grand Line's open sea are extremely unpredictable, whereas in the vicinity of islands the climate is stable. The magnetic fields within the Grand Line cause normal compasses to malfunction, making it even more difficult to navigate, and instead a special compass called a Log Pose must be used. The Log Pose functions by locking on to one island's magnetic field and then locking on to another island's magnetic field. The time for it to set depends on the island. This process can be bypassed by obtaining an Eternal Pose, a Log Pose variation that is permanently set to a specific island and never changes.
The world of One Piece includes animals that function like devices. Transponder Snails are snail-like animals that act like a rotary phone, fax machine, or camera. Dials, the shells of certain sky-dwelling animals, can be used to store kinetic energy, wind, sound, images, heat, and the like and have various applications.
Devil Fruits
A Devil Fruit is a type of fruit that, when eaten, grants a power to the eater. A person may only eat one Devil Fruit during their lifetime, as eating a second Devil Fruit will swiftly end their life. There are three categories of Devil Fruits;- Paramecia is a category of fruits that gives the user superhuman abilities, such as Luffy's rubber powers.
- Zoan fruits allow the user to fully or partially transform into a specific animal. Certain Zoan fruits allow the user to transform into mythical creatures. Through an unknown technique developed by scientist Dr. Vegapunk, inanimate objects can also "eat" a Devil Fruit, such as Spandam's sword Funkfreed, which can transform into an elephant.
- Logia fruits give control over and allow the user "to change their living body structure into the powers of nature", like Ace's control over fire.
Haki
Haki is a latent ability that every living being in the world of One Piece possesses; very few manage to awaken it, and even fewer master it. There are three varieties of Haki: Color of Observation allows one to sense the presence of other beings and to have a form of limited precognition. Color of Arms allows one to envelop body parts and even inanimate forms with a force akin to an invisible armor that possesses defensive and offensive properties. It also allows one to inflict harm upon Devil Fruit users. The rare Color of the Supreme King is an ability that, unlike the other two Haki, only a few gifted people have. The Color of the Supreme King enables one to overpower the will of the weak-willed. It can be used to force others into submission or even render victims unconscious. Strong-willed people can withstand, or even completely ignore, the effects of this Haki, even if they do not possess the ability themselves. This Haki can also have physical impacts, such as causing shock waves and destruction to the user's surroundings.Production
's interest in pirates began in his childhood, watching the animated series Vicky the Viking, which inspired him to want to draw a manga series about pirates. The reading of pirate biographies influenced Oda to incorporate the characteristics of real-life pirates into many of the characters in One Piece; for example, the character Marshall D. Teach is based on and named after the historical pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach. Apart from the history of piracy, Oda's biggest influence is Akira Toriyama and his series Dragon Ball, which is one of his favorite manga. He was also inspired by The Wizard of Oz, claiming not to endure stories where the reward of adventure is the adventure itself, opting for a story where travel is important, but even more important is the goal. While working as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki, Oda began writing One Piece in 1996. It started as two one-shot stories entitled Romance Dawn—which would later be used as the title for One Pieces first chapter and volume. They both featured the character of Luffy, and included elements that would appear later in the main series. The first of these short stories was published in August 1996 in Akamaru Jump and later in One Piece Red. The second was published in the 41st issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1996, and reprinted in 1998 in Oda's short story collection, Wanted!.When creating a Devil Fruit, Oda thinks of something that would fulfill a human desire; he added that he does not see why he would draw a Devil Fruit unless the fruit's appearance would entice one to eat it. The names of many special attacks, as well as other concepts in the manga, consist of a form of punning in which phrases written in kanji are paired with an idiosyncratic reading. The names of Luffy, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, and Franky's techniques are often mixed with other languages, and the names of several of Zoro's sword techniques are designed as jokes; some of them look fearsome when read by sight but sound like kinds of food when read aloud. For example, Zoro's signature move is Onigiri, which is written as demon cut but is pronounced the same as rice ball in Japanese. Eisaku Inoue, the animation director, has said that the creators did not use these kanji readings in the anime since they "might have cut down the laughs by about half". Nevertheless, Konosuke Uda, the director, said that he believes that the creators "made the anime pretty close to the manga".
Oda was "sensitive" about how his work would be translated. In many instances, the English version of the One Piece manga uses one onomatopoeia for multiple onomatopoeia used in the Japanese version. For instance, "saaa" and "zaaa" are both translated as "fshhhhhhh". Unlike other manga artists, Oda draws everything that moves himself to create a consistent look while leaving his staff to draw the backgrounds based on sketches he has drawn. In this way, he wishes to maintain a uniform representation, leaving only the realization of the backgrounds to his staff, based on his sketches. This workload forces him to keep tight production rates, starting from five in the morning until two in the morning the next day, with short breaks only for meals. Oda's work program includes the first three days of the week dedicated to the writing of the storyboard and the remaining time for the definitive inking of the boards and for the possible coloring. When a reader asked who Nami was in love with, Oda replied that there would hardly be any love affairs within Luffy's crew. The author also explained he deliberately avoids including them in One Piece since the series is a shōnen manga and the boys who read it are not interested in love stories.
Oda revealed that he originally planned One Piece to last five years, and that he had already planned the ending. However, he found it would take longer than he had expected as Oda realized that he liked the story too much to end it in that period of time. In 2016, nineteen years after the start of serialization, the author said that the manga has reached 65% of the story he intends to tell. In July 2018, on the occasion of the twenty-first anniversary of One Piece, Oda said that the manga has reached 80% of the plot, while in January 2019, he said that One Piece is on its way to the conclusion, but that it could exceed the 100th volume. In August 2019, Oda said that, according to his predictions, the manga will end between 2024 and 2025. However, Oda stated that the ending would be what he had decided in the beginning; he is committed to seeing it through. In a television special aired in Japan, Oda said he would be willing to change the ending if the fans were to be able to predict it.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece has been serialized in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump since July 22, 1997. The chapters have been collected into tankōbon volumes by Shueisha since December 24, 1997. In total, there are 979 chapters and 96 tankōbon volumes. Oda teamed up with Akira Toriyama to create a single crossover of One Piece and Toriyama's Dragon Ball. Entitled Cross Epoch, the one-shot was published in the December 25, 2006, issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump and the April 2011 issue of the English Shonen Jump. Oda collaborated with Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, author of Toriko, for a crossover one-shot of their series titled Taste of the Devil Fruit, which ran in the April 4, 2011, issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump. The spinoff series One Piece Party, written by Ei Andō in a super deformed art style, began serialization in the January 2015 issue of Saikyō Jump.The One Piece manga was licensed for an English language release by Viz Media, who published it via chapters in the manga anthology Shonen Jump, since the magazine's launch in November 2002, and in bound volumes since June 30, 2003. In 2009, Viz announced the release of five volumes per month during the first half of 2010 to catch up with the serialization in Japan. Following the discontinuation of the print Shonen Jump, Viz began releasing One Piece chapterwise in its digital successor Weekly Shonen Jump on January 30, 2012. In the United Kingdom, the volumes were published by Gollancz Manga, starting in March 2006, until Viz Media took it over after the fourteenth volume. In Australia and New Zealand, the English volumes have been distributed by Madman Entertainment since November 10, 2008. In Poland, Japonica Polonica Fantastica is publishing the manga, Glénat in France, Panini Comics in Mexico, LARP Editores and later by Ivrea in Argentina, Planeta de Libros in Spain, and Edizioni Star Comics in Italy.
Festival films and original video animation
One Piece: Defeat Him! The Pirate Ganzack! was produced by Production I.G for the 1998 Jump Super Anime Tour and was directed by Gorō Taniguchi. Luffy, Nami, and Zoro are attacked by a sea monster that destroys their boat and separates them. Luffy is found on an island beach, where he saves a little girl, Medaka, from two pirates. All the villagers, including Medaka's father have been abducted by Ganzack and his crew and forced into labor. After hearing that Ganzack also stole all the food, Luffy and Zoro rush out to retrieve it. As they fight the pirates, one of them kidnaps Medaka. A fight starts between Luffy and Ganzack, ending with Luffy's capture. Meanwhile, Zoro is forced to give up after a threat is made to kill all the villagers. They rise up against Ganzack, and while the islanders and pirates fight, Nami unlocks the three captives. Ganzack defeats the rebellion and reveals his armored battleship. The Straw Hat Pirates are forced to fight Ganzack once more to prevent him from destroying the island.A second film, One Piece: Romance Dawn Story, was produced by Toei Animation in July 2008 for the Jump Super Anime Tour. It is 34 minutes in length and based on the first version of Romance Dawn. It includes the Straw Hat Pirates up to Brook and their second ship, the Thousand Sunny. In search for food for his crew, Luffy arrives at a port after defeating a pirate named Crescent Moon Gally on the way. There he meets a girl named Silk, who was abandoned by attacking pirates as a baby and raised by the mayor. Her upbringing causes her to value the town as her "treasure". The villagers mistake Luffy for Gally and capture him just as the real Gally returns. Gally throws Luffy in the water and plans to destroy the town, but Silk saves him and Luffy pursues Gally. His crew arrives to help him, and with their help he recovers the treasure for the town, acquires food, and destroys Gally's ship. The film was later released as a triple feature DVD with and Tegami Bachi: Light and Blue Night, that was available only though a mail-in offer exclusively to Japanese residents.
The One Piece Film Strong World: Episode 0 original video animation adapts the manga's special "Chapter 0", which shows how things were before and after the death of Roger. It received a limited release of three thousand DVDs as a collaboration with the House Foods brand.
Anime series
Toei Animation produces an anime television series based on the One Piece manga. The series, which premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on October 20, 1999, has aired more than 900 episodes, and has been exported to various countries around the world. Two cross-over episodes with the anime adaptation of Toriko were aired. The first of these, which was also the first episode of Toriko, aired on April 3, 2011. A second special, which also crossed over with Dragon Ball Z, aired on April 7, 2013.On June 8, 2004, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the license for distribution of One Piece in North America. 4Kids contracted Viz Media to handle home video distribution. 4Kids' in-house musicians wrote a new background score and theme song nicknamed "Pirate Rap". 4Kids' dub mandated edits for content and length, which reduced the first 143 episodes into 104. Initially, 4Kids originally created an English version of the first opening theme, "We Are!" It premiered in the United States on September 18, 2004, in first-run syndication on the Fox network as part of the weekend programming block FoxBox TV, and later aired on Cartoon Network on their Saturday night action programming block, Toonami in April 2005. It also aired in other blocks and lineups, such as its Monday-Thursday night prime-time lineup and its Miguzi weekday after-school action block in 2006. Production was halted in 2006 after episode 143/104. Viz also ceased its home video release of the series after volume 11. On July 22, 2010, an interview with Anime News Network and Mark Kirk, senior vice-president of digital media for 4Kids Entertainment, revealed that 4Kids acquired One Piece as part of a package deal with other anime, and that the company did not screen the series before licensing it. However, once 4Kids realized One Piece was not appropriate for their intended demographic, the company decided to edit it into a more child-oriented series until they had an opportunity to legally drop the license. Kirk said the experience of producing One Piece "ruined the company's reputation". Since then, 4Kids established a stricter set of guidelines, checks, and balances to determine which anime the company acquires.
On April 13, 2007, Funimation licensed the series and started production on an English-language release of One Piece. In an interview with voice actor Christopher Sabat, he stated that Funimation had been interested in acquiring One Piece from the very beginning, and produced a "test episode," in which Sabat portrayed the character of Helmeppo and Eric Vale played the part of the main character, Monkey D. Luffy. After resuming production of the renewed English dub, which featured less censorship because of fewer restrictions on cable programming, Funimation released its first uncut, bilingual DVD box set containing 13 episodes on May 27, 2008. Similarly sized sets followed with fourteen sets released. The Funimation-dubbed episodes premiered on Cartoon Network on September 29, 2007 and aired until its removal on March 22, 2008. On October 28, 2011, Funimation posted a press release on their official website confirming the acquisition of episodes 206–263, and the aspect ratio, beginning with episode 207, would be changed to the 16:9 widescreen format. On May 18, 2013, the uncut series began airing on Adult Swim's revived Toonami late-night programming block from episode 207 onward. One Piece was removed from the Toonami block after March 18, 2017.
In May 2009, Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha, and Fuji Television announced they would simulcast stream the series within an hour of the weekly Japanese broadcast at no charge. Originally scheduled to begin on May 30, 2009, with episode 403, a lack of security resulted in a leak of the episode, and Funimation delayed the offer until episode 415 on August 29, 2009. On February 12, 2013, it was announced that Manga Entertainment would start releasing the Funimation dub of One Piece in the United Kingdom in a DVD box set format. Crunchyroll began simulcasting the series on November 2, 2013, for the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America.
Theatrical films
Fourteen animated theatrical films based on the One Piece series have been released in Japan. The films are typically released in March in accordance with the spring vacation of Japanese schools. The films feature self-contained, completely original plots, or alternate retellings of story arcs with animation of a higher quality than what the weekly anime allows. The first three films were typically double features paired up with other anime films, and were thus, usually an hour or less in length. The films themselves offer contradictions in both chronology and design that make them incompatible with a single continuity. Funimation has licensed the eighth, tenth, and twelfth films for release in North America, and these films have received in-house dubs by the company.Video games
The One Piece franchise has been adapted into multiple video games published by subsidiaries of Bandai and later as part of Bandai Namco Entertainment. The games have been released on a variety of video game, handheld consoles, and mobile devices. The video games feature role-playing games, and fighting games, such as the titles of the Grand Battle! meta-series. The series debuted in Japan on July 19, 2000, with From TV Animation – One Piece: Become the Pirate King!. Over forty games have been produced based on the franchise. Additionally, One Piece characters and settings have appeared in various Shonen Jump crossover games, such as Battle Stadium D.O.N, Jump Super Stars, Jump Ultimate Stars, J-Stars Victory VS and Jump Force.Music
Music soundtracks have been released that are based on songs that premiered in the series. Kohei Tanaka and Shiro Hamaguchi composed the score for One Piece. Various theme songs and character songs were released on a total of 51 singles. Eight compilation albums and seventeen soundtrack CDs have been released featuring songs and themes that were introduced in the series. On August 11, 2019, it was announced that the musical group Sakuramen is collaborating with Kohei Tanaka to compose music for the anime's "Wano Country" story arc.Light novels
A series of light novels was published based on the first festival film, certain episodes of the anime television series, and all but the first feature film. They feature artwork by Oda and are written by Tatsuya Hamasaki. The first of these novels, One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzak! was released on June 3, 1999. One Piece: Logue Town Chapter followed on July 17, 2000, as an adaptation of the anime television series' Logue Town story arc. The first feature film to be adapted was Clockwork Island Adventure on March 19, 2001. On December 25, 2001, saw the publication of the second, and so far last, light novel adaptation of an anime television series arc in One Piece: Thousand-year Dragon Legend. The adaptation of Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals was released on March 22, 2002, and that of Dead End Adventure on March 10, 2003. Curse of the Sacred Sword followed on March 22, 2004, and Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island on March 14, 2005. The light novel of The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle was released on March 6, 2006, and that of ' on March 7, 2007. The newest novel adapts ' and was released on February 25, 2008.Art and guidebooks
Five art books and five guidebooks for the One Piece series have been released. The first art book, One Piece: Color Walk 1, released June 2001, was also released in English by Viz Media on November 8, 2005. A second art book, One Piece: Color Walk 2, was released on November 4, 2003; and One Piece: Color Walk 3 – Lion the third art book, was released January 5, 2006. The fourth art book, subtitled Eagle, was released on March 4, 2010, and One Piece: Shark, the fifth art book, was released on December 3, 2010.The first guidebook One Piece: Red – Grand Characters was released on March 2, 2002. The second, One Piece: Blue – Grand Data File, followed on August 2, 2002. The third guidebook, One Piece: Yellow – Grand Elements, was released on April 4, 2007, and the fourth, One Piece: Green – Secret Pieces, followed on November 4, 2010. An anime guidebook, One Piece: Rainbow!, was released on May 1, 2007, and covers the first eight years of the TV anime.
Theme park and other establishments
The Baratie restaurant, modeled after the restaurant of the same name in the manga, opened in June 2013 at the Fuji Television headquarters. An indoor theme park located inside the Tokyo Tower called the Tokyo One Piece Tower, which includes the Mugiwara Cafe, opened on March 13, 2015.Live-action series
On July 21, 2017, Weekly Shōnen Jump editor-in-chief Hiroyuki Nakano announced that Tomorrow Studios and Shueisha would commence production of an American live-action television adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga series as part of the series' 20th anniversary celebrations. Eiichiro Oda will serve as executive producer for the series alongside Tomorrow Studios CEO Adelstein and Becky Clements. The series will reportedly begin with the East Blue arc. On January 2020, Oda revealed that Netflix ordered a first season consisting of ten episodes. On May 19, 2020, producer Marty Adelstein revealed during an interview with SyFy Wire, that the series was originally set begin filming in Cape Town sometime around August, but has since been delayed to around September due to COVID-19. He also revealed that, during the same interview, all ten scripts had been written for the series and they were set to begin casting sometime in June.Other media
Other One Piece media include a trading card game by Bandai called One Piece CCG and a drama CD centering on the character of Nefertari Vivi released by Avex Trax on December 26, 2002. A Hello Kitty-inspired Chopper was used for several pieces of merchandise as a collaboration between One Piece and Hello Kitty. A kabuki play inspired by One Piece ran at Tokyo's Shinbashi Enbujō throughout October and November 2015.One Piece is the first-ever manga series to hold a "Dome Tour", in which events were held from March 25 to 27 at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, and from April 27 to May 1 at the Tokyo Dome. In 2014, the first One Piece exhibition in Korea was held at the War Memorial of Korea, and the second exhibition in Hongik Daehango Art Center. In 2015, a One Piece trompe-l'œil exhibition was held at the Hong Kong 3D Museum.
Reception
Manga
One Piece is the best-selling manga series in history with 470 million copies in print worldwide; it sold 100 million collected tankōbon volumes by February 2005, and over 200 million by February 2011. The manga had over 365 million copies in circulation in Japan and 440 million copies worldwide as of May 2018, and 460 million copies in circulation in 43 countries worldwide as of December 2019. According to Oricon, One Piece has been the best-selling manga series every year for eleven consecutive years, since 2008, when the company began its manga chart, until 2018. In 2019, the manga has not topped the chart for the first time in twelve years, ranked 2nd with over 10.1 million copies sold, while ranked 1st with over 12 million copies sold, although One Piece remained being the best selling manga by volume in its twelfth consecutive year. Due to promotions for the Strong World film, all 56 volumes of the manga released at the time charted on Oricon's list of the top 200 manga for the week of December 7–13, 2009. Up until February 2012, One Piece had grossed at least in manga tankōbon sales revenue.Additionally, individual volumes of One Piece have broken publishing and sales records in Japan. In 2009, Volume 56 had the highest initial print run of any manga: 2.85 million copies. Volume 57's print run of 3 million copies in 2010 was the highest first print for any book of any subject in Japan—a record that was broken several times by subsequent volumes and currently held by Volume 67's 4.05 million initial printing in 2012. Volume 60 was the first book to sell over two million copies in its opening week on Oricon book rankings, and later became the first book to sell over three million copies since the chart began in 2008.
One Piece has also sold well in North America, charting on Publishers Weeklys list of best-selling comics for April/May 2007 and numerous times on The New York Times Manga Best Seller list. On ICv2s list of Top 25 Manga Properties Fall 2008 for North America, which is compiled by interviews with retailers and distributors, Nielsen BookScan's Top 20 Lists of graphic novels and ICv2s own analysis of information provided by Diamond Comic Distributors, One Piece came in 15th place. It rose to second place on their Top 25 Manga Properties Q3 2010 list.
Allen Divers of Anime News Network comments in 2003 that the art style One Piece employs "initially seems very cartoonish with much of the character designs showing more North American influence than that from its Japanese origins". Adding that the "artwork and settings come across as timeless in their presentation". He also notes that the influence of Akira Toriyama shines through in Oda's style of writing with its "huge epic battles punctuated by a lot of humor" and that, in One Piece, he "manages to share a rich tale without getting bogged down by overly complicated plots". Rebecca Silverman of the same site stated that one of the series' strengths is to "blend action, humor, and heavy fare together" and praised the art, but stated that the panels could get too crowded for easy reading. The website activeAnime describes the artwork in One Piece as "wonderfully quirky and full of expression". Splashcomics comments that Oda's "pleasantly bright and dynamic" art style suits the story's "funny and exciting" atmosphere.
EX Media lauds Oda's art for its "crispy" monochrome pictures, "great use of subtle shade changes" on color pages, "sometimes exquisite" use of angles, and for its consistency. Shaenon K. Garrity, who at some point edited the series for English Shonen Jump, said that, while doing so, her amazement over Oda's craft grew steadily. She states that "he has a natural, playful mastery of the often restrictive weekly-manga format," notes that "interesting things going on deep in the narrative structure," and recommends "sticking through to the later volumes to see just how crazy and Peter Max-y the art gets". Mania Entertainment writer Jarred Pine comments that "One Piece is a fun adventure story, with an ensemble cast that is continuing to develop, with great action and character drama." He praised Oda's artwork as "imaginative and creative" and comments that "Oda's imagination just oozes all of the panels ". He also notes that "Oda's panel work features a lot of interesting perspectives and direction, especially during the explosive action sequences which are always a blast," though he complains that the panels can sometimes get "a little chaotic".
Anime
The anime adaptations have also been very well-received. The first episode of the anime adaptation earned a viewer ratings percentage of 12.4, behind Pokémon and ahead of Ojamajo Doremi. As of 2017, One Piece is among the top 10 anime in viewer ratings every week in Japan. On several occasions the One Piece anime has topped Japan's DVD sales.In a review of the second DVD release of 4Kids Entertainment's dub, Todd Douglass, Jr. of DVD Talk called its adaptation a "shabby treatment" resulting in an "arguably less enjoyable rendition". Douglass said that the 4Kids original opening was "a crappy rap song" and that the removal of whole scenes leaves a "feeling that something is missing". He later went on to say that "Fans of the 'real' One Piece will want to skip picking up until an uncut release is announced", and also stated that "kids may get into this version because it's what they have seen on TV". Margaret Veira of activeAnime praised the TV series' "great" animation, stating that "It gives life and stays true to the style and characters of the manga." She notes the fight scenes in particular have "a lot of energy to them". Patrick King of Animefringe comments that the art style of One Piece is "very distinctive and fresh".
In a review of the first Funimation DVD release for Mania Entertainment, Bryce Coulter comments that One Piece is "not your typical pirate adventure" and that mixed with "the right amount of random fun along with a shonen style storyline" it becomes "an appealing and fun romp". In a review of Funimation's second DVD release for Mania Entertainment, Bryce Coulter comments that "You can tell that they are giving One Piece the attention that was neglected by 4Kids" and that "One Piece is a great tale of high-seas fun that will leave you wanting more!"
In Indonesia, Global TV was reprimanded by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission for airing the anime television series. Nina Armando, member of the KPI and a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said the show should not be aired at times when children are likely to watch.
In the United States, where it is available on the Hulu streaming platform, One Piece was 2018's most binge-watched television show in the states of Illinois and Wisconsin.