One Piece is a popular Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda since 1997. It follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line ocean in search of the legendary treasure One Piece. The world of One Piece is populated by humans and other races like mermen and giants. It has been adapted into an anime TV series and thirteen animated films. One Piece has been commercially successful, selling over 430 million copies worldwide.

1. FACTS

2. Is a Japanese manga series
written and illustrated by Eiichiro
Oda. It has been serialized in
Weekly Shonen Jump since July
19, 1997; the individual chapters
are being published in tankobon
volumes by Shueisa, with the first
released as of December 24, 1997,
and the 75th volume released as of
September 2014. One Piece
follows the adventures of Monkey
D. Luffy, a young man whose body
gains the properties of rubber
after unintentionally eating a
Devil Fruit, and his diverse crew of
pirates, named The Straw Hat
Pirates. Luffy explores the ocean
in search of the world’s ultimate
treasure known as One Piece in
order to become the next Pirate
King.

3. OVERVIEW

4. The world of One Piece is
populated by humans and
numerous other races, including
mermen and mermaids,
“fishmen” (a race of fish/human
hybrids), giants, and fairies. It is
covered by two vast oceans, which
are divided by massive mountain
range called the Red Line. The
Grand Line, a sea that runs
perpendicular to the Red Line,
further divides them into four
seas: North Blue, East Blue,
West Blue and South Blue
surrounding the Grand Line are
two regions called the Calm
Belts, which experience almost no
wind and ocean currents and are
breeding ground for the huge sea
creatures called Neptunians.
Because of this, the calm belts are
very effective barriers for those
trying to enter the Grand Line.

5. While marine ships, using sea-prism stone to mask their
presence ,can simply pass through, most have to use the canal
system of ReverseMountain, a mountain at the first intersection
of the Grand Line and the Red Line. Sea water from each of the
four seas runs up that mountain and merges at the top to flow
down a fifth canal and into the first half of the Grand Line. The
second half of the Grand Line, beyond the second intersection
with the Red Line, is also known as the NewWorld.

6. The currents and weather on the Grand Line’s
open sea are extremely unpredictable, whereas in the
vicinity of islands the climate is stable. What makes it
even harder to navigate is the fact that normal
compasses don’t work there. A special compass called a
Log Pose must be used. The Log Pose works by
locking on to one island’s magnetic field. The time for
it to set depends on the island. This process can be
bypassed by obtaining an Eternal Pose, a Log Pose
variation that is permanently set to a specific island
and never changes. The world of One Piece is filled
with anachronisms, like the Transponder Snails, a
snail-like animals that can be attached to electric
equipment and function as rotary phones, fax
machines, surveillance cameras, and similar devices.
Dials, the shells of the certain sky-dwelling animals,
can be used to store kinetic energy, wind, sound,
images, heat, and the like and have various
applications.

7. A Devil Fruit is a type of fruit
which when eaten confers a power on
the eater. There are three categories of
Devil Fruit. Zoan fruits allow the user
to fully and partially transform into a
specific animal (real or otherwise, turn
a person into a mythical beast such as
phoenix or a dragon.) Logia fruits give
control and allow the user “to change
their living body structure into the
powers of nature.” Paramecia is a
catch-all category for fruits that give
the user superhuman abilities. They are
said to be the reincarnation of Sea
Devil himself, and as a result, Devil
Fruit users cannot swim in sea water, as
“they are hated by the sea”.

8. The series begin with the execution of Gol D. Roger, a man
known as the King of the Pirates. Just before his death, Roger
announces that his treasure, the One Piece will be available to anyone
who finds it, causing the Great Pirate Era to begin. As a result,
countless pirates set out to the Grand Line to look for the treasure.
Twenty-two years have passed since Roger’s execution, and
Monkey D. Luffy, a young man inspired by his childhood idol and
powerful pirate Red Haired Shanks, sets off on a journey from the
East Blue Sea to find the One Piece and become the King of Pirates. In
an effort to organize his own crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy
befriends a swordsman named Roronoa Zoro and they sail off to find
the One Piece. They soon met Nami, a navigator and the thief: Usopp,
a sniper and a liar; and Sanji, a womanizing chef; leading to
confrontations with Buggy the Clown, Captain Kuro and Don
Krieg.

9. Luffy encounter’s Arlong, a
fishman and a member of the Sun
Pirates. After Luffy defeats Arlong,
Nami officially joins Luffy’s crew
and the Navy places a bounty on
Luffy’s head. They later befriend
the doctor and anthromorphized
reindeer Tony Tony Chopper while
in Drum Island.
Luffy eventually defeats
Crocodile and liberates Alabasta.
Soon after, Nico Robin, an
archeologist and former member
of the Baroque Works joins Luffy’s
group. Franky joins the group and
builds a new ship, the Thousand
Sunny, for the Straw Hat Crew.
Soon after, the crew helps a
musician skeleton named Brook
find his shadow in Thriller Bark,
which has been stolen by Gekko
Moriah. After defeating Moriah,
Brook joins the crew.

10. The crew later prepares to sail off to the New World,
the second half of the Grand Line, after arriving at the
Sabaody Archipelago. While there, they befriend Silvers
Rayleigh, a former member of Roger’s pirate crew. The
crew eventually gets seperated during a battle with
Bartholomew Kuma, a huge cyborg under the control of
the Navy, at the Sabaody , with Luffy being sent to the all-female
island, Amazon Lily. Having learned that his older
brother, Portgas D. Ace has been detained at the
government prison , Impel Down, Luffy soon learns that
Ace about to be executed at the Navy Headquarters. In the
ensuing chaos, Whitebeard and Ace were killed. At
Rayleigh’s request, Luffy has the Straw Hats undergo
rigorous training regiments.
Two years later, the crew regroups at Sabaody
Archipelago and journeys to Fishman Island to enter the
New World. They left the island and finally reached the
New World , but not before starting a feud with Big Mom,
one of the “FOUR EMPERORS”, the strongest pirates in
the New World. Entering the half-burning and half-freezing
island, Punk Hazard, the crew encounter’s an old
friend and one of the New Warlords, Trafalgar Law , and
they formed an alliance to take down the Four Emperors
in the New World.

11. While working as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki,
Eiichiro Oda began writing One Piece in 1996. From there it
started as two one-shot stories entitled Romance Dawn- which
would later be used as the title for One Piece ‘s first chapter and
volume. They both featured the character of Luffy , and included
elements that would later appear on the main series. The first of
these short stories was published in August 1996 in Akamaru
Jump and later in One Piece Red. The second was published in
the 41st issue of Weekly Shonen Jump in 1996 and reprinted in
1998 in Oda’s short story collection, Wanted!.
Oda originally planned the manga to last five years, and he
had already planned the ending , but he found himself enjoying
the story too much to end it in that amount of time. He had
decided on from the beginning and he is committed to seeing it
through the end, no matter how many years it takes.

13. The One Piece series was licensed for an English language
release by Viz Media , who publishes it chapterwise in the manga
anthology Shonen Jump, since the magazine’s launch in November
2002, and in bound volumes since June 2003. In 2009, Viz Media
announced the release of 5 volumes per month in North America
during the first half of 2010, greatly increasing that number. In the
United Kingdom, the volumes were published by Gollancz Manga,
starting March 2006, until Viz Media replaced it after the fourteenth
volume. In Australia and New Zealand, the English volumes have
been distributed by Madman Entertainment since November
10,2008. In Poland , Japonica Polonica Fantastica is publishing
the manga – as of January 2014, 26 volumes have been released.

15. Thirteen animated films based on
the One Piece series have been
released in Japan. The films are
traditionally released during the
Japanese school spring break since
2000. The films feature self-contained ,
completely original plots or alternate
retellings of story arcs with animation
of higher quality than what the weekly
anime allows for. Funimation
Entertainment has licensed the 8th,
10th, and 12th films for release in
America.