This is gonna get really sappy and I'm sorry for what you're about to read. But One Piece has genuinely changed my life. I grew up with the attention span of a shallot and I thought that One Piece was for stupid idiots who liked to torture themselves, but as soon as I started watching, I was obsessed. This show literally drives me to my lowest and my highest at points and I couldn't have asked for anything better to hyperfixate on. My friends call me insane for liking something so mainstream and long like One Piece, but everyone needs to understand that watching One Piece is an experience that can never happen for the first time ever again. This show hits like 12 lbs of bricks and leaves you wanting more. This show literally changes your life as you progress, and I know I sound crazy, I get it, "Really Dazed, you're obsessed over a show that started 30 years ago and still isn't finished?" Yes, I am. And One Piece definitely has their flaws, oh it has a lot, but that won't stop me from loving it the way I do. My love for One Piece will always be eternal, I will always love this franchise. Thank you Eiichiro Oda for creating something beautiful. We love you!
One Piece starts off in the setting of East Blue, where Luffy is first introduced raiding a pirate ship. His inital character was "just some rubber boy who was insanely strong", but as the show slowly continued, he obtained traits that were unlike anyone that was seen previously. He had friends that fleshed him out, his wits grew stronger, he himself grew stronger, and by the time the time skip had hit, he was already a beautifully articulated and crafted character who had even more growing to do, but he wasn't the same as he was a couple hundred episodes ago.
"Of course I don't know anything about swords, you dumbass! I don't know how to navigate, either. I can't cook, I can't even lie! I know that I need others to help me if I want to keep on living!
- Monkey D. Luffy
This show has an amazing protagonist. Luffy grows, Luffy expands his horizons every episode and grows just a little bit with every episode. He starts with being blunt and stubborn, but in the end, he's.. still a bit blunt and stubborn, but he learns from his friends, from his nakama, from everything around him. The nakama he's gathered along the way as well, they're unique in their own ways. They aren't tossed aside as side characters only to appear for comedic relief, they have their own moments, they have their own flesh, they are their own people, you can practically imagine them in real life. These aren't just characters on a screen, they're people and they are lively and they are wonderfully written.
"...I don’t know. I’m not sure why myself. But if I were to take even one step back, I believe that all those important oaths, promises and many other deals ’til now, will all go to waste and I’ll never be able to return before you, ever again."
- Roronoa Zoro
"Just one more time and everything will be the same. Everything will come back to me. And I will be free from Arlong. Bellemere-san. Finally, I can laugh with all my heart."
- Nami
"Then stand up right away! And don't act like you're about to die! It's not like you! Even if there are billows of smoke, we can still see the sky. We can still see the ocean! It ain't like it's hell here! So don't act like you're about to die!"
- Usopp
"I'll do what you can't, and you'll do what I can't."
- [LAST NAME] Sanji
"I always run away... Everyone's always bailing me out. That's why... no one relies on me!! It's time I stepped up and raised the pirate's flag!!"
- Tony Tony Chopper
"There is no such thing as being born into the world to be alone."
- Nico Robin
"The government says your existence is a crime, but no matter what kind of weapons you may hold, just being alive isn’t a sin! There’s no crime in living!"
- Franky
"We gave our word as men that we would return!"
- Brook
"It may be hard right now... But you must silence those thoughts! Stop counting only those things that you have lost! What is gone, is gone! So ask yourself this: What is there... that still remains to you?!"
- Jinbei
I know the quotes are very stupid and cheesy, but I need everyone who's reading this to understand that these characters have life in them, they're written with love and they will always be written with love. They are their own people who are fleshed out exponentially, what more could you ask from a beautiful series like this? It has wonderful characters and wonderful art with a wonderful soundtrack and a beautiful storyline.
One Piece, is, and will always be, one of the best shows I've ever watched.
