One Piece (1999), Naruto (2002), and Dragon Ball Z (1989) – the holy trinity of our childhood anime shows. My oldest memories of watching any anime show are tied to at least one of the above three, however there are about 10 Best Anime Thriller and many that one should watch before getting into this never ending entertainment. Nevertheless, if you have started your anime journey and want to know is One Piece worth watching, then I will help you decide.
If you don’t already know, then, One Piece is a very popular anime that first came out in 1999. Yes, it’s been that long! It is an adaptation from a weekly manga of the same name, and guess what? The manga is still being published too. The show has a vast storyline, a diverse set of characters, and many action-packed battle scenes. One Piece has amassed a huge fan following over the years it has been on and continues to get love from newer audiences.
Whether One Piece is worth watching or not is a very open-ended question. The answer is both yes and no. It completely depends on you and why you want to watch it. If you are trying to catch up to the current season, it might be difficult. The show has too many episodes to be devoured in very little time. On the contrary, if you want to watch the show and follow the characters’ journey at a steady pace, then the show is worth it.
Watching One Piece is a huge undertaking as the number of episodes grows each week. It’s easy to come under peer pressure when your friends watch the show. Nevertheless, you must know what you’re getting yourself into when making such a huge commitment.
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Is One Piece Worth Watching In 2022? | Or Is It Too Late To Start?
Remember how I said One Piece is an adaptation of a manga? Yes, written by Eiichiro Oda; you also have the option to read the manga. You should know that One Piece manga has 96 volumes and 975 chapters. Now that doesn’t look like something that can be done in a week or two. Even reading the manga will take months, if not years. So if you have the passion and time, then have a crack at it.
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While reading the manga is a possibility, let’s focus back on the show. Is it still worth watching after hundreds of episodes and countless hours? Let’s look at it objectively by highlighting One Piece’s strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths Of The Show One Piece | The Positives You Can Take Away!
One Piece is a show about a young pirate named Monkey D. Luffy. His ambition in life is to find the ultimate treasure, also known as ‘One Piece.’ Finding the treasure will make him the King of the pirates. Spoiler alert, the treasure has not been found yet. The journey is long and hard, which is the show’s whole premise. Along the way, Luffy aims to create his dream crew to navigate the high seas together.
During this time, he makes lots of friends as well as enemies. Other pirates who also want to rule the sea want to get rid of Luffy. Then there is the Navy. They want to end all and every kind of pirate once and for all.
The only issue when committing yourself to One Piece is the length of the show. The good news is even though the show is 900 episodes long, there are very few filler episodes. Each episode has one thing or the other, which adds value to the story. Watching the show, you will never feel like asking what the point of the episode was.
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Great Supporting Characters | You Will Fall In Love With The Straw Hat Pirates!
Another strength of One Piece lies in its characters. The show is not just focused on Luffy and his adventures. The crew that Luffy creates – known as the Straw Hat Pirates – has stories of its own. They have goals and ambitions and are equally as fascinating as the main character. The crew develops at a steady pace with each member having a varied personality. One Piece makes you empathize with the crew members, which makes you fall in love with the show.
The crew makes the story interesting and the show more fun. This leads me to another point in its strength: the show’s theme. In its simplest form, One Piece is about a boy chasing after his goals. The crew members have ambitions too. Whether creating the world’s best atlas or becoming the best swordsmen, they all seek to achieve something. One Piece makes you want to work towards your dreams no matter how hard the journey is.
The length of the show makes it easy to lose focus on the end goal. However, the character growth throughout the show will keep you hooked till the end. Seeing how intricately one story relates to the other is fascinating and fun to watch. One Piece also keeps things fresh by constantly throwing around new mysteries. New cultures and characters are introduced whenever Luffy goes to a new island.
Weaknesses Of The Show One Piece | Negatives That You Should Know About!
Now that we have seen the good things about One Piece, it’s time to look at what’s bad. The most obvious thing is the length. One Piece is just too long. Even though each episode is only 22 minutes long, it still has too many episodes. 925 episodes, to be precise, at the time of writing this article. That’s a huge number of episodes to go through all at once. Even if you are a big fan of anime, there are only a finite number of hours in a day.
With so many episodes, One Piece often feels slow-paced. Simple things take too long to do. There’s only so much story the show writers can fit in one episode before the manga runs out. To overcome this, sometimes One Piece has long shots where nothing really happens. Shots with nothing but eye contact between two parties for 2 minutes straight. It gets a bit boring due to this.
Another one of the major weaknesses of One Piece can be attributed to its humor. The show has jokes in nearly every other scene. The problem is most of the western audience has trouble understanding it. This happens because the show is targeted towards young boys. Much of the mature audience will not find those jokes appealing.
Further, One Piece relies on puns and jokes in Japanese. Puns that will make sense for a Japanese audience but lose it’s meaning when they are translated into English. As a result, many of the punch lines fall flat and go over the top of the audience’s head.
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Final words
One Piece is a show with legendary status. That is partly because of how long it has been running. The weaknesses of the show don’t outweigh the strengths in any way. I hope this article helps you make your decision. If you ask me, is One Piece worth watching, then I will say heck yes! One Piece has been a big part of my childhood, so it’s never too late to get into it.