How To Get Into One Piece

In August, the One Piece Live Action dropped, quickly becoming the most-viewed show on Netflix at the time. I remember seeing in my YouTube recommended lists a lot of reviews from YouTubers who had never gotten into One Piece, who were watching the Live Action excitedly. I forced my ex-girlfriend to watch it, myself, and in turn she got her parents hooked. (Her dad’s favorite is Buggy. Everyone’s favorite is Buggy. Jeff Ward is a treasure. Jeff, if you’re reading this, I love you.) At around the same time, the YouTube channel “Dudes Talking Manga” started a series where one of the titular dudes read the One Piece manga for the first time in his life, reacting to it as the muse took him. One Piece is my favorite franchise; while I didn’t necessarily grow up with it, I did get into it when I was in my mid-teens, and it’s stuck with me this long.

My point is, there are a million ways (rounding up from 3) to get into One Piece, and each of them have their strengths and weaknesses, and enjoying one avenue more than the others doesn’t preclude you from enjoying the others at least a bit. But I digress. I want to break down these three paths to take, and help you weigh which one might be best for you.

The Manga

This is how I got into One Piece. The manga can be daunting: As of right now, there are over 1100 chapters spanning across over 100 individual manga volumes. Buying each volume brand new at $10/pop (if I remember correctly, though inflation may have happened) brings the price of acquiring every single volume to over $1000. But don’t let this stop you; you can access every chapter online on the Viz website for $2.99/month.

The manga is for the discerning eye, the reader who likes to absorb information carefully. One Piece is a manga with millions upon millions of little details that weave together into an intricate spectrum that not only forms the narrative, but also a greater, living world of the piece. If you read the greater works of J.R.R. Tolkien when you were in high school, you will love this manga. Not every little detail brings the narrative forward, but it does develop the characters, advance the development of the world at large, and is just so charming. Every new revelation contextualizes the events of previous chapters, volumes, arcs, and sagas. This is something for real nerds, people who view One Piece as culture worth in-depth investigation. This is, for example, something for me.

However, if you’re not much of a reader, or if you just want to relax and passively absorb art, perhaps these next two avenues are for you.

The Anime

This is the only one I haven’t watched the entirety of. The anime is, for lack of a better term, a bloated beast to me. With over 1000 episodes, each clocking in at 22-24 minutes long, the One Piece anime provides you over 18 days of content. It’s a Herculean task that I’ve never been up for completing, but it suits a lot of people better than me.

From the clips I’ve seen, what I love most about the anime is the multi-artistic environment of the series. From stunning, colorful visuals, incredible voice acting, and a rousing soundtrack, the One Piece anime provides an escape more spectacular than the manga can achieve through black-and-white pages. While some of these elements can be misplaced (One Piece YouTuber Melontree did an incredible video essay on the “Nothing Happened” scene from Thriller Bark, for example), ultimately Toei knows what it’s doing.

With that being said, one of the most apt critiques of the One Piece anime is that 18 days of content is too much to get caught up on. While some people can binge watch like that, others just don’t have the time. The pacing can be off as well, as the anime’s job is to pad runtime; while outright filler doesn’t plague One Piece like it does shows like Naruto, a lot of scenes are stretched out, a lot of filler is braided into the narrative, and ultimately, it can come off as a bloated beast. Because of this, some arcs, such as Skypiea and Long Ring Long Land, are disliked by the fanbase, not because they're bad arcs, but because the anime does a bad job of adapting them into enjoyable and non-bloated experiences. It’s worth mentioning that Netflix announced a second One Piece anime which more faithfully adapts the events of the manga; this anime will be much shorter than the original One Piece anime. No word yet on a release date. However, if you really don’t want to wait very long for your first steps into the world of One Piece, there’s one more way you can go.

The Live-Action Adaptation

This was such a happy surprise for One Piece fans all over the world. Finally, we received a live-action adaptation of an animated series that didn’t suck, and while it seems like Netflix won’t go two for two on the Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation, it’s nice to see they at least struck gold with this one. The One Piece Live Action has something for everyone, from new to returning fans. Every frame is filled with Easter Eggs alluding to the greater One Piece world, calling forward to arcs and sagas yet to come. Fight scenes are alive and dynamic; I remember the first climactic battle of Luffy, Zoro, and Nami facing off against Axe-Hand Morgan and being at the edge of my seat. This adaptation is gorgeous.

If you’re new to the One Piece world, the weaknesses the fans perceived might not be as noticeable to you. Some entire multi-episode arcs are condensed to one or two episodes in the live-action. A lot of stories are truncated or braided weirdly or cut altogether. It's a little darker and more mature, and the stakes of each arc feel much more pressing. That being said, the series has a lot of charm. The first season was very much a flagship, and I imagine the next seasons will be better-funded, more faithful, and effectively advance the world of One Piece much, much more. There are a lot of choices that were made in the One Piece Live Action that you realize happened due to a limited budget and resources, but overall, I have faith that the next seasons will enjoy more investment from Netflix.

My final note is that the cast seems born to play the roles they were given. The Straw Hats are one thing—Inaki Godoy is literally Luffy, and Emily Rudd is the perfect Nami for this day and age—but Jeff Ward as Buggy the Clown? Steven John Ward as Dracule Mihawk? All of these characters are provided powerful leitmotifs by Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli—composers of a soundtrack that conjures images of the original anime, but also perfectly expands the character of the One Piece world into the very special thing the Live Action has made it into. Priceless. There are so many creative choices in this Live Action that they did well, and that alone makes it the perfect introduction of new fans to this series we all love so dear.

Also, it’s only eight episodes so far! Eight is significantly less than 1,000. Watch it, y’all.

I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions about One Piece, or if you’re a fellow fan who wants to connect, you can comment down below! I have some piping hot takes that I need more friends to listen to.

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As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope to see you on the Grand Line!