It was hard to decide what my first topic of review should be. I’ve been asked to review different anime for this blog, but the truth is I’ve never reviewed anything before. Being an amateur, I decided my first anime review should be on something mainstream and easy to find. However, I find that reviews of the two biggest mainstream anime in the US, Naruto and Bleach, to be overdone and common. Even as a beginner, I wish to at least slightly stand out from the norms. Thus, this shall be a review of one of the most popular mainstream animes running in Japan, One Piece.

One Piece is one of the biggest mainstream animes in Japan. It started as a manga written by Eichiro Oda and serialized by Shonen Jump. Since 1997, the anime has been in production by Fuji TV and Toei since 1999. It currently  has well over 500 episodes and sells all kinds of merchandise throughout Japanese malls.

The world of One Piece is a world ruled by the seas. The vast array of countries and terrains are merely islands across the globe. The backstory is that long ago the famous pirate Gold Roger traveled the world and collected a vast treasure. Before Gold Roger’s eventual capture and execution, he hid his fantastic treasure somewhere within a strip of sea known as the Grand Line. This legendary man is known as “king of the pirates” and pirates around the world strive to obtain his fabled treasure.

The story in One Piece follows Monkey D. Luffy, a strange young man who has only one goal in life: to be king of the pirates. Luffy’s dream seems to be rather farfetched at first, since first meet him with no ship or crew. He’s light-hearted, fun-loving, easily impressed with others, and not quite what you’d expect when you think of a pirate, but it’s his strange personality that attracts the crew members that eventually come to follow him.

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