Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.

On October 28, 2020, I started and finished One Piece’s “Romance Dawn Arc”—the first story arc of this massive ongoing manga. After catching up with the Tower of God Webtoon—all 485 episodes—as a “warm-up” to this series, I found myself quite excited to read this manga—having never read it or watched the anime during my childhood.

One sentence summary: Written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, the series follows Monkey D. Luffy traveling to the Grand Line—with his pirate crew—in search of the world’s ultimate treasure called “One Piece” in order to become the King of Pirates.

The “Romance Dawn” Arc is made up of three main stories. The first story is Luffy’s origin story, giving us context the driving force behind his dream to become a pirate and why he has the Devil Fruit—“rubber man”—abilities. The second story takes place ten years later when he sets off on his epic pirate adventure and meets Koby, helping the boy escape from an evil female pirate named Alvida. The third and final story is about Luffy recruiting his first crewmate named Roronoa Zoro and fighting against Marine Captain Axe-Hand Morgan.

I was surprised at how well each story transitioned from one to the other, and how simple-minded Luffy is, despite him being one of the original Shonen protagonists.

How Luffy approaches life is incredibly simple-minded—something I had been trying to embrace in my own life—and makes the arc’s three mini-stories so enjoyable to follow. Luffy doesn’t see titles and labels the way most people do, which contrasted well with the villains introduced—like Alvida and Morgan—who care about their titles and privileges for the power it provides them; they also boasted how great they were before getting their asses handed to them by Luffy.

Oda seemed determined to deliver the idea of simplicity—something I had been thriving for as well—through Luffy’s character, and these villains becoming lost in their privileged identities strengthened that message when confronted with someone they couldn’t control or take down. Overall, Luffy is a simple character, and his dream to become King of the Pirates is fun for him—it’s honestly as simple as that. Sometimes, people tend to forget we can do things just for the fun of it.

Rorona Zoro is similar to Luffy as being simplistic but in a different way. Zoro wants to become the World’s Greatest Swordsman because he made a promise to do so, but he also knows his limitations regarding that goal. However, he—along with those limits—can evolve over time. LIMIT BREAK!

Zoro doesn’t care much about titles either—similar to Luffy—and doesn’t mind “being below him” because the only title he cares about is “World’s Greatest Swordsman”. However, Zoro and Luffy do hold a mutual respect for each other that contrasted well with how Alvida treated Koby like dirt in addition to Morgan treating his son the same way; the villains didn’t care about the people working for them. Also, Rorona Zoro is a badass character.

The only thing I didn’t like about the arc was the fridge trope on Kuina—Zoro’s childhood friend. She was a powerful swordswoman in their youth and beat Zoro 2001 times with him not having won once. Then she died falling down some stairs after being denied her father’s dojo for being a woman. They had the potential to have a Guy-Kakashi type relationship—I guess Guy and Kakashi are like them since One Piece came out first, but the point is I hated how she died for his character development.

Yes, it was 1997, but using the fridge trope is still unacceptable, and I’m calling it out.

Koby was a great character too, with his dream of being a Marine being acknowledged by Luffy despite Marines and pirates being natural enemies. However, Luffy is a simple-minded character—again, not caring about titles—and saw their dreams as being equal, something I had been trying to instill in my current Writers’ Group, as we all have different goals and approaches that deserve the same level of respect. That’s why Luffy punching Koby in the face was great! Everyone’s goals are worth pursing, no matter how stupid it may seem or like. Have y’all seen the Hunter x Hunter meme about being able to go far if you don’t care how stupid you look? Let me drop that gem below for context.

Overall, I still found a way to enjoy One Piece for its simplicity. It was surprisingly simplistic. Simple plot. Simple characters. Simple goals in nature—not easy to obtain—but they know what they like and are working hard to get it. Simple, right? It’s hard, but it’s what they love to do. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. While the arc lacked high stakes, I’d still recommend giving One Piece a try because I have a feeling it’s about to get more complex moving forward.

Thanks for reading this manga review! Let’s keep it sailing toward the “One Piece”.

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