Print Review: One Piece Volumes 1-12

Review One Piece Volumes 1-12Written by WarpshadowRating very good

The shonen adventure genre is not known for being profound and neither is One Piece. But gosh darn this manga is just fun to read.

As a boy Luffy D Monkey’s was Shanks and Luffy dreamed of becoming a pirate just like him. One day without thinking much about it Luffy ate one of the devil fruits and gained the ability to stretch his body like rubber. The ability came at the price of losing the ability to swim . However Luffy has an unstoppable dream to become king of the pirates so something like that won’t stop him. All he has to do is find a ship and gather a crew that will allow him to sail for the grand line.

Adventures are things that make for good stories and there are few adventures as great as One Piece. There is one very annoying misconception about this manga probably coming from the character designs being that this manga is often thought of as childish and silly. In truth this manga runs the gamut from comedically absurd to tragic or heartwarming without missing a beat. Another great thing about this manga is it’s ability to refuse power creep; even though it is one of the premier shonen adventure shows (being even more popular that Naruto or Bleach in Japan) it has gone twelve volumes without having to resort to training sessions or power ups to keep the action fresh or exciting. In short One Piece is one of my favorite manga series as of late. There may be titles that are artistically superior but few are simply as fun to read as this story of a rubber boy who would be pirate king.