manga review (one piece vol 1)

(Read: 2/Dec/11)

      Romance Dawn

    Prod dets

One Piece series, Vol 1

Pub: 1997, SHUEISHA Inc, Tokyo

Author & Art: Eiichiro Oda

Cat: pirates

Format: graphic novel, paperback (mid); 207 pp w/ 8 chapters

Age Range: YA

    Synopsis

EAST BLUE part 1

As a child Monkey D. Luffy was inspired to become a pirate by listening to the tales of the buccaneer “Red-Haired” Shanks. But his life changed when Luffy accidently ate the fruit of the Gum-Gum Tree and gained the power to stretch like rubber...at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, still vowing to become the king of the pirates, Luffy sets out on his adventure...one guy alone in a rowboat, in search of the legendary “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world..

   Catch up.... I’ve been gathering and reading a bunch of reference materials to do this

“pirate story.” However, the pirates that I admired so much in my youth hardly ever left written records of their history. I guess they were just too busy having fun with their own adventures and they forgot to leave their stories for future generations. That’s just the trouble with those damned pirates.

                   —Eiichiro Oda, 1997

My thoughts.... let’s start with the fact that I have never read a Japanese comic before and so it took me a little to get into the whole thing—and I’m not talking about the fact that the book is opened backwards but it’s the fact that the squares are, and then inside the squares, the words are written backwards (at least for me) and so even though I got this it was hard to get my eyes to automatically go there, rather than try and do it the Western way.

anyway, we start the story off with Luffy as a kid and him wanting to go off sailing with the pirate but the captain Shanks laughs and jokes (it’s he’s nature) and says he’s too young. And all that. It’s actually a little funny. Then bandits come and the pirates win and then they leave.

The rest of the tale is set ten years after that and starts with Luffy in a rowboat heading out the sea. It’s funny, the fact that he gets caught in two disasters before long—not that they are big, and ends up somewhere new, on a ship with a kid that wants to be in the Navy.

And so, they go, head out, the kid—Koby—knows how to navigate (which Luffy doesn’t) and they end up at the Navy base, only it’s not right, the captain is a tyrant and his kid is a idiot. And they have a Zolo who goes after pirates for their bounties, he’s feared by all, and Luffy wants him on his crew.

Shit happens, and everything goes down and Luffy and Zolo are sailing off into the waters (neither knows how to navigate) and then Luffy gets taken by a bird and Zolo goes after him...more shit happens, and we meet Nami, thought it ends before we really know what’s going on with her.

Yeah, there’s so much more but I don’t really want to tell you the whole thing, what would be the point in you reading it—oh, I know, can’t it’s a hoot. Honestly the thing had me in happy tears because it’s just hilarious in spots. The art it awesome, and really great, total chaos when it needs to be, smooth as silk when it’s not.

The story line gets you hook faster than anything else I have read, and it’s not really because of the fact that manga isn’t all that hard to fall into but because it’s an awesome story line. Hell, who doesn’t like pirates and this is from the start of someone becoming one. And someone that is made of rubber—what’s not to like?

It really is set of books you should look into reading—hell, for us Australian’s it’s coming on Toasted TV (channel 10) soon, if it hasn’t already, which really means that it will come out on DVD, how great is that?

It was fun and fast and really it’s manga, it took me a little over an hour to read this first book, so there simple to put into spots of the day when you haven’t anything else on—hell, an appointment, this is a perfect set for you!

Oh, and even better you can read it to your kids, or they themselves (depending on the age) ‘cause I’m reading them with my son, and he loves them!

   Continues....I guess will just have to wait and see...

Series

Vol 1 to 58 (available in Australia, everywhere else and I’m not sure, little selfish of me, but hey, I just couldn’t be bothered)

☼☼☼