Log 5: A Beautifully Built World

The first page of the series, still leaves us unanswered questions.

Despite its cartoony look, One Piece has a sense of mystery and wonder surrounding its world, even starting from the first page of the first chapter, we become intrigued by what exciting Gold Roger left behind, with new mysteries and questions being given as the series moves forward, that are still unanswered to this day. 

Each arc differs from the last, as it starts out with Luffy having major one on one battles with rival pirates starting out. After that it goes from taking down a large criminal syndicate, to wondrous adventure in the sky, battling a secret Gov’t agency, fighting zombies on a nightmare island., then a prison break and eventually all out war. Each new arc gives off a new type of feeling and atmosphere, that keeps the series exciting and new, as you learn not to know what to expect in the future. 

And while the arcs are all different and not related to one another, you feel a connection from all of them as the world begins to come together across several locations. One unique thing Oda does is show different story arcs through the cover art of each chapters propelling as some characters from different arcs begin to meet, showing the vastness and ever changing world of One Piece, and also showing the after effect Luffy and his crew have on the world. 

Even in arcs, that feel unimportant to the main story, There is always something, the crew picks up from it that makes them stronger and only propels their character development, whether it be, a new crew member, a new weapon, a new ship, or a new lesson in life and self correctness. As One piece is a battle style manga it has a collection of great fight scenes throughout which is only brought to life, by Oda’s unique and creative style of drawing. One Piece’s artwork is beautiful with great character and land design, and while ode’s style isn’t specifically aimed to be visually realistic, giving off a more cartoony look and feel, you cannot fail to admire how he makes even the most two dimensional of images pop out, with great detail and skill. 

The art style also works very well in this type of creative idiom, many of the actions and fights in the series work and pop out best as a comic book, which I believe gives the manga a leg up over the animation. And while most things in the world of One Piece are vastly, unrealistic and unbelievable the series gives a sense of logic regarding the rules and laws, explaining the reasoning for it, even when it feels sometimes, that these things are introduced only for the purpose of being so.