My wife, on the other hand, loves the story. She maintains that when I get as far into the story as she has (there are currently 47 volumes in Japanese, vs. 16 in English) I will read for the story rather than clever pictures.
The translated manga is published by Viz media, who have made a business out of finding the more popular Japanese properties and translating them with as much of the original art and format preserved as possible. This includes keeping the right to left reading format of both the book and each page. That said, there are little, helpful hints such as an arrow pointing left and the phrase "read this way" at the top of some pages to help readers adjust to the Japanese layout. There are other fun pages scattered throughout the book, such as the page that teaches you to draw a Jolly Roger and one that encourages the reader to design their own pirate flag.
Volume one serves to introduce the main characters and to get the story in motion. We meet Luffy, the central protaganist, as a young boy hanging out in a pirate bar, listening to the sailors tell stories. Luffy decides that he will become king of the pirates someday, somehow. In the meantime there is a scuffle with some bandits and Luffy eats one of the devil fruit, turning his whole body to rubber with the cost of never being able to swim. (Being made of rubber enables Luffy to use various combinations of stretched limbs to get himself or others out of tough situations.)
Luffy grows up and sets off to become a pirate. In the first volume, he saves another boy from a dangerous female pirate captain and, with the boy's help, saves the world's greatest swordsman from certain death. The swordsman becomes Luffy's first crewman and the story is launched.
The original Japanese story was first published in the pages of Shonen Jump magazine, a weekly that presents the next issues of several different stories in one volume. Shonen Jump is aimed at Japanese boys in the Jr. High School to High School range and the writing reflects this with its themes of friendship and its use of violence to produce humor. The art is, of course, manga style, with all the cliches and must-haves present. Emotion causes huge distortions to the mouths and eyes of whichever character is in the throes of an outburst, while Luffy's rubber body stretches to amazing and inconsistent proportions depending on the need at the time. The art is also brilliant. Clean lines and a minimum of shading are used to keep the page busy without being cluttered and to get the story from point A to point B easily and clearly.
The book is worth picking up if you are a fan of anime or manga, or simply curious as to what all the fuss is about. Priced at $7.95 U.S., each volume is almost twice the price of the Japanese versions, which makes collecting and reading the entire series a more daunting prospect. However, as the English language editions are still being translated, a dedicated reader can take his or her time and pick up new volumes at their leisure.
One Piece has its share of melodrama, absurdist humor, and cartoon violence, all of which makes it a fun, if sometimes simplistic read and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes next.
Links: Viz Media, Shonen Jump Magazine (English) and my Amazon Affiliate Link for One Piece Vol. 1 Romance Dawn (English)
This entry is cross-posted to Soapadoo.
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