One piece manga ch

There are 975 issues of One Piece, as of the time of this article’s publication. But it’s not just the manga series—which Oda Eiichiro has written and drawn since 1997—One Piece is also a 20 season anime series, 14 animated movies, novels, a theme park and restaurants, a CCG trading card game and an upcoming live-action Netflix series.

While we’re only at the very beginning of a long saga, there’s a lot in the first issue of One Piece, “The Dawn of Adventure,” that’s likely to animate the manga series moving forward. I haven’t read ahead, but the first issue contains clear, appealing goals and a character with obvious and enduring attributes. Luffy D. Monkey is enthusiastic, determined, unflagging and unembarrassed about declaring exactly what he wants and his determination to get it.

We’re not breaking new ground here—this is classic swashbuckling, distilled to manga form—but it’s obvious from the start that One Piece is conscious of these specific appeals, rather than just picking them up incidentally in the process of telling an adventure story. It will be interesting to see if piracy ever becomes more than symbolically liberating. Specifically, whether or not One Piece will ever address how much piracy depends upon victimizing other people. In “The Dawn of Adventure,” the pirates even pay their bar tab—the proprietor, Makino, is happy to serve them and lug up fresh barrels of beer.

One Piece sets up a lot in its first issue, but what’s most immediately clear is Oda’s talent for creating characters, with cartoonish appearances that immediately reveal just about everything you might need to know. Mr. First Mate is wry and capable, but also reserved, backing up his captain with the minimum effective effort. “Red-Haired” Shanks is life-loving and adored by his crew, but already, in his confident composure, there’s evidence of a tragic past we may learn about in future issues. Those well-versed in manga and anime likely see a lot in One Piece that’s familiar, but even the dilettante will probably recognize Cowboy Bebop‘s Spike Spiegel (introduced the same year) and other effortlessly cool, but deeply troubled, characters.

Read ‘One Piece’ Manga From The Beginning With Chapter 1 and Revisit Monkey D. Luffy’s Origins