One Piece

One Piece (ワンピース Wan Pīsu, romanized as ONE PIECE) is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 4, 1997; the individual chapters are being published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997, and the 75th volume released as of September 2014. One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year-old boy who gains elastic abilities after inadvertently eating a supernatural fruit, and his diverse crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy explores the ocean in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as the One Piece and to become the next Pirate King. Along his journey, Luffy makes several friends and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom try to capture the Straw Hats.
==Plot==
The series begins with the execution of Gol D. Roger, a man known as the King of the Pirates. Just before his death, Roger announces that his treasure, the One Piece, will be available to anyone who finds it, causing the Great Pirate Era to begin. As a result, countless pirates set out to the Grand Line to look for the treasure.
Twenty-two years have passed since Roger's execution, and Monkey D. Luffy, a young boy inspired by his childhood idol and powerful pirate Red Haired Shanks, sets off on a journey from the East Blue Sea to find the One Piece and become King of the Pirates. In an effort to organize his own crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy befriends a swordsman named Roronoa Zoro and they sail off to find the One Piece. They soon meet Nami, a navigator and thief; Usopp, a sniper and a liar; and Sanji, a womanizing chef; leading to confrontations with Buggy the Clown, Captain Kuro and Don Krieg. Later, Luffy encounters Arlong, a fishman and member of the former Sun Pirates who thinks that fishmen are superior to humans. After Luffy defeats Arlong, Nami officially joins Luffy's crew and the Navy places a bounty on Luffy's head. Luffy then meets Captain Smoker, a navy captain that can turn to smoke. He briefly captures Luffy, but Luffy is saved by his father Monkey D. Dragon After making their way through the Grand Line, the group meets Nefeltari Vivi, a princess who wants to help save her country, the Alabasta Kingdom, from the crime syndicate Baroque Works. They later befriend the doctor and anthropomorphized reindeer Tony Tony Chopper while in Drum Island.
The Straw Hat Pirates make their way to Alabasta, leading to battles with Baroque Works and their leader, Sir Crocodile. Luffy eventually defeats Crocodile and liberates Alabasta. Soon after, Nico Robin, an archaeologist and former member of Baroque Works joins Luffy's crew. They soon meet Blackbeard, whose dream is also to become Pirate King. After going up to the floating island of Skypiea, the crew gets involved in a war between the Skypieans and the Shandorians, leading to a confrontation against the island's ruler Eneru, who has the power of lightning. Luffy defeats Eneru to save Skypiea and end the war. The crew soon meets the navy admiral Aokiji, who reveals that Robin was involved in searching for Poneglyphs, which are stones with markings left by an ancient civilization to reveal the missing 100 years of history that the World Government had erased. The group goes to Water 7, confronting the cyborg shipwright Franky and find that their ship, Going Merry, has sailed for the last time and must be dismantled leading to Usopp's temporary departure from the Straw Hats. However, Cipher Pol No. 9, the World Government's intelligence agency captures Robin and Franky for information regarding the Poneglyphs and the ancient weapons that may come from them. Franky breaks free from the government after burning his blueprints for one of the weapons and teams up with the Straw Hat Pirates to declare war on the government, resulting in battles between CP9 and its minions. The final long battle with CP9 ends when the crew saves Robin, Franky building their new ship, the Thousand Sunny, and joins their crew.
==Characters==
Monkey D. Luffy — The captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and the primary protagonist of the One Piece series. In the beginning of the series, he accidentally eats the Paramecia-type Gum-Gum Fruit, causing his body to gain the properties of highly stretchable rubber. In addition to his Devil Fruit ability, Luffy eventually learns to use Haki. After his life is saved by Shanks when he is seven years old, Luffy decides to achieve the tantamount goals of finding the series' titular treasure and succeed Gold Roger as King of the Pirates. Ten years later, wearing Shanks' straw hat, he sets out to sea to gather a crew and sail the Grand Line, where the One Piece is supposedly hidden.
Roronoa Zoro — A swordsman who uses up to three swords, holding the third in his mouth. To fulfill a promise to his childhood friend and rival, "Kuina", he decides to become the world's greatest swordsman by defeating Dracule Mihawk. Before meeting Luffy, Zoro has become a bounty hunter. Zoro is saved from his executioners by Luffy, who decides to follow his dream. He makes it clear that he would turn on his captain if he ever stepped between him and his dream, although he later says that he can not fulfill his dream if he does not help his captain fulfill his.
Nami — A navigator and thief who recognizes and analyzes even the slightest changes in the weather. She is also an excellent pickpocket. Her dream is to draw a complete map of the world. She briefly betrayed the crew during the Baratie Arc, but rejoined at the end of the Arlong Park Arc after her past and true intentions were revealed. Throughout the series, Nami fights using a three-sectioned bo staff. Usopp later provides her with a version of this weapon capable of controlling weather, called the Climate Baton.
Usopp — A liar, talented inventor, skilled painter, and sculptor. Usopp fills the role of the Straw Hat's Sniper. In combat, Usopp primarily uses slingshots to fire various kinds of ammunition. During Usopp's early childhood, his father, Yasopp, leaves him and his mother to join the Red-Haired Pirates. Some time after this, Usopp's mother, Banchina, falls ill. Usopp starts telling his mother and other villagers lies, stating that his father has returned and will be taking them with him. His mother eventually dies, but Usopp, in his sadness, continues to tell lies. Despite all this, he does not blame his father for leaving him, but takes pride in his heritage. Usopp has an alter-ego named "Sogeking", a hero sniper, wearing a golden mask and cape.
"Black Leg" Sanji — The Straw Hat Pirates' cook. He knows how it feels to starve from first hand experience, so he will never refuse someone a meal. He has a strong sense of chivalry, because of which, he will never harm a woman, even if he dies. Sanji also seems to keep this code regardless of a woman's appearance. His dream is to find the "All Blue", a legendary sea, containing every kind of fish in the world. Sanji only uses kicks while fighting. He said that this is because a chef's hands are his most prized possessions and should not be risked in battle. Sanji begins using a fire-based kick technique known as Diable Jambe, in which he heats his leg by spinning around rapidly to increase his attack power. Eventually, he can fly using CP9's Skywalk technique and can use Diable Jambe without spinning around.
Tony Tony Chopper — A doctor and a blue-nosed reindeer who gained human properties by eating the Zoan-type Human-Human Fruit. He comes from Drum Island, where he studied medicine under Dr. Kureha. Using a self-developed drug he calls Rumble Ball, Chopper can assume more than the three forms provided by his Devil Fruit ability alone. When complimented, Chopper acts really happy while either telling the person who complimented him to stop trying to make him happy, or that he isn't very happy.
Nico Robin — An archaeologist originating from Ohara, home of the world's largest and oldest library; she becomes an archaeologist at the age of eight and learns how to decipher the writings on the ancient stones called Poneglyph, which are scattered around the world. However, the World Government destroys the island for housing archaeologists along with her returning mother, Nico Olvia, researching these stones. As a result, Robin cooperates with various pirates and other outlaws, eventually becoming a member of Baroque Works as its vice president, nicknamed as "Ms. All-Sunday" at the time, being briefly an antagonist to the Straw Hat Pirates before joining them. Like the scholars of Ohara before her, it is her dream to find and decipher the Rio Poneglyph, which is said to tell the world's lost history. Her devotion to history and its preservation goes so far that she will even risk her life to protect ancient artifacts and buildings. Robin ate the Paramecia-type Flower-Flower Fruit, allowing her to create temporary copies of parts of her body on surfaces near her. However, if her replicated parts are hurt, she feels the pain on her actual body.
Franky — Originally named Cutty Flam, he eventually starts calling himself Franky to hide his identity. He gains infamy as "Cyborg" Franky and becomes shipwright of the Straw Hat Pirates. Abandoned by his pirate parents on the Grand Line island Water 7 at the age of ten, Franky becomes an apprentice to the master shipwright Tom along with Iceburg, who later becomes the island's mayor. When Tom is taken away as a criminal by the World Government for building Gold Roger's ship, the Oro Jackson, Franky tries to stop them. In the process, he is severely injured and, to survive, rebuilds parts of his body using pieces of scrap metal, turning himself into a cola-powered cyborg with super-human strength. His dream is to build a ship, become its shipwright, and sail it to the end of the world. To that end, he builds the Thousand Sunny, a brigantine-rigged sloop-of-war, and joins the Straw Hat Pirates.
==Anime Series==
Toei Animation produced an anime television series based on the manga chapters, also titled One Piece. The series premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on October 20, 1999. Since then, the still ongoing series has aired more than 1000 episodes and has been exported to various countries around the world.
In 2004, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the license for distribution of One Piece in North America. 4Kids collaborated with Viz Media to distribute the series for home video release. This dub was heavily edited for content, as well as length; reducing the first 143 episodes into 104. Such edits included changing the appearance of guns, replacing Sanji's cigarettes with lollipops, and story edits pertaining to violence or the mention of death. 4Kids originally created an English version of the original opening theme; however, the music was replaced with an alternate score. The series premiered in the United States on September 18, 2004 on the Fox network as part of the Fox Box block, and later aired on Cartoon Network in the Toonami block in April 2005. 4Kids released a statement in December 2006 confirming that it cancelled the project.[53] In July 2010, an interview was conducted between Anime News Network and Mark Kirk, the Vice President of Digital Media for 4Kids Entertainment. In this interview, Kirk explained that 4Kids acquired One Piece as part of a package deal with other anime, and that the company did not actually watch any of the series before acquiring it. However, once 4Kids realized One Piece would not work with 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 on producing One Piece "ruined the company's reputation." Ever since that incident, 4Kids established a more strict set of guidelines, checks, and balances to determine what anime the company acquires.
Following the 4Kids dub in 2006, Funimation Entertainment began production on an English-language release of One Piece. In an interview with voice actor Christopher Sabat, Sabat stated that Funimation had been interested in acquiring One Piece from the very beginning, and produced a "test episode," in which Sabat played the character of Helmeppo and Eric Vale played the part of the main character, Monkey D. Luffy (they would later go on to provide the English voices for Roronoa Zoro and Sanji, respectively). After producing a new English voice dub, which featured minimal edits compared to the 4Kids dub, the company released its first unedited, bilingual DVD box set, containing 13 episodes, on May 27, 2008. Similarly sized sets followed with fourteen sets released as of October 26, 2010. The Funimation dubbed episodes premiered on Cartoon Network on September 29, 2007 and aired until its cancellation on March 22, 2008. The remainder of Funimation's dubbed episodes continued to be aired on Australia's Cartoon Network, and then shifted into reruns of the Funimation dub before being replaced by Total Drama Island. 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 onwards, will be changed to the 16:9 widescreen format. On May 18, 2013, the uncut series began airing on Adult Swim's revived Toonami block from episode 207 to 384 on March 18, 2017, after replaced by Tokyo Ghoul.
==External Links==
*One Piece Wiki
*Wikipedia
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Category:2000s shows