10 Ways One Piece Changed Anime Forever

Even though it has been well over two decades since its serialization, One Piece remains one of the most influential anime series of all time that has changed and impacted the anime industry in many ways over the years. Despite the daunting task that its thousand chapters and episodes present, One Piece has succeeded at fostering a loyal fan base both in Japan and well across the world and the reasons for its popularity are quite clear.

From its unique brand of humor to its hidden emotional core, One Piece is much more than a simple pirate adventure. The series was revolutionary among its contemporaries in many ways and many of its core values have since become the norm in modern manga and anime. As such, One Piece has influenced an entire modern age of manga artists, like My Hero Academia‘s Kohei Horikoshi, Black Clover’s Yuki Tabata, and even Fairy Tail‘s creator Hiro Mashima.

10

One Piece Proved An Anime Can Be Long Without Being Episodic

One Piece has a detailed overarching plot despite its length

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece is without a doubt one of the longest-running anime of all time and while it is nowhere near the top of the list, it certainly is one of the few anime of its length to have a non-episodic structure. All of One Piece‘s thousand chapters and episodes come together to tell one grand story that is still nowhere close to being finished, which is quite a feat.

Admittedly, the East Blue Saga can be considered somewhat episodic on first watch. However, even these first few lighthearted episodes quickly prove to be crucial to the larger story being told and the main cast and are revisited more times than one can count. An excellent is Arlong who foreshadowed the Fishmen’s tragic history of slavery and discrimination by the Celestial Dragons, which has come to the forefront in the series in recent arcs.

9

One Piece’s Unique Humor is Unmatched

One Piece‘s witty humor has managed to age well

Even though One Piece isn’t primarily a comedy series, it still manages to be effortlessly funny. One Piece‘s humor never feels forced, and while its perverted jokes can get a little old, the series’ gags rarely miss the mark. One Piece has some of the most original gags and Luffy’s unpredictability makes it so that one can never predict what route a joke is going to take, with every one of the Straw Hats following suit with their captain as well.

That said, what makes One Piece truly unique is its ability to seamlessly switch between its humorous and more serious moments without either losing out. Marineford is an excellent example of One Piece being able to retain a lighthearted mood even during the most severe situations while Gear Five is pretty much the culmination of One Piece‘s super ability to inject humor into anything.

8

One Piece’s Mysteries Weave an Intricate and Enticing Web

One Piece excels at foreshadowing and manages to keep fans invested with its endless mysteries

One Piece is most well known for its mysteries that deepen with every new arc. Though the series is finally in its Final Saga, the answers to the biggest and oldest mysteries are still nowhere in sight. Instead of providing answers, every new chapter or episode of One Piece only raises more questions than before. As such, One Piece likely has the highest number of unsolved mysteries, all of which form an intricate web that perhaps only Oda himself has mapped out.

However, despite the few breadcrumbs of hints the series reveals, One Piece inexplicably manages to keep fans hooked and has managed to do so for over twenty years. Oda has arguably mastered the art of revealing just enough to keep fans invested and his masterful use of foreshadowing plays an indispensable role in One Piece‘s storytelling.

7

One Piece’s Unique Themes Have Become the Norm

One Piece best executes themes of friendship and found family

While One Piece might be the first to implement themes such as friendship, loyalty, and found family, it may very well be the anime that popularized them. One Piece places a strong emphasis on these themes, which are present from the very get-go and persevere well into the series, shaping every decision that Luffy makes to this day.

Besides these, One Piece also explores poignant themes of honor, ambition, freedom, and the wonder of adventure that lend the series its distinct tone. One Piece‘s impact and influence in terms of its major themes can be felt in nearly every modern shōnen anime. The theme of friendship in particular has been wildly popular in anime for well over a decade, but One Piece is still one of the first anime series to place an emphasis on it and execute it well.

6

One Piece Sports an Amazing Diversity of Characters

One Piece includes numerous races and character designs beyond imagination

While One Piece has been accused of whitewashing some of its characters over the time skip, very few anime can claim to have as much diversity. From Skypieans to Fishmen, Minks, and Lunarians, One Piece‘s characters come in every shape and size, with the series introducing a new race of people in nearly every other arc.

Oda also takes liberties with One Piece‘s character designs regardless of race, which often results in some of the most unique, wacky characters like Gecko Moria, Kokoro, and Tamago, to name a few. Tottoland alone is an excellent example of Oda’s sheer creativity with regard to both character design and diversity.

5

One Piece Has the Most Intricate World-Building

One Piece‘s world-building is continually expanding

One Piece pairs its diverse, vibrant characters with a world that is just as intricate and colorful. Very few other anime can claim to come close to One Piece‘s level of world-building and Oda’s sheer creativity. Every island the Straw Hats encounter is completely different from the last, and though One Piece‘s world is very different from our own, it still manages to feel just as real. A major reason for this is how Oda expands the universe of One Piece through multiple perspectives.

Though Monkey D. Luffy is the protagonist of the series, fans see the world not just through his eyes. Oda often includes glimpses of what life is like all around the world of One Piece, be it a rebellion taking place in some unnamed country or simply people around the world reacting to a shocking story in the news. As a result, One Piece‘s world and the people in it feel alive as opposed to characters on a piece of paper which very few anime can achieve or hope to replicate.

4

One Piece Sets the Standard For Strong Female Characters in Shōnen

One Piece breaks gender stereotypes

In a genre that gravely lacks strong female characters, One Piece stands out as one of the first anime of its time to go against the tide. One Piece‘s female characters aren’t weak damsels in distress but are well fleshed out and pull their own weight in the story in their own way instead of being reduced to love interests or one or two cliché archetypes.

From the main cast of Nami and Robin to various minor female characters like Vivi and Rebecca, One Piece is full of female role models and offers its female cast the same treatment as their male counterparts. While One Piece has been criticized for its fan service, it never stoops to objectifying its female characters within the world of the series, which is a fine line that not many anime could walk.

3

One Piece is the Template for the Ideal Shōnen Power System

One Piece‘s power systems are simple yet consolidated

The shōnen genre is full of complex powder systems, each more complicated than the rest but One Piece‘s devil fruits have arguably stood the test of time like no other. One Piece‘s devil fruit power system is incredibly simple with basic rules that no one is exempted from which makes it easy to understand and quite sturdy. Despite its simple functioning, the devil fruit power system still allows Oda to go wild with creativity and dream up the most ridiculous powers so long as he can put an appropriate name to them.

Even Haki One Piece‘s secondary power system, has always followed fairly logical rules with easy-to-grasp subtypes. Despite being introduced late in the game, Haki managed to fit in almost seamlessly into One Piece‘s world and helped enrich the series’ fights to match the rising stakes and Luffy’s increasingly stronger opponents.

2

One Piece Proves Fights Needn’t Be All Serious

One Piece takes an unconventional approach to shōnen fights

When Gear Five first made its debut in One Piece, many fans had complaints that the form was too silly or too out of character for Luffy or that it would ruin the series’ fights for good. However, a simple rewatch of One Piece‘s earlier episodes proves that the series’ fights have always been just as goofy, with Luffy always being up to silly mischief since the very start.

Oda himself has explained that he created Gear Five because he wanted to make the series more lighthearted, especially as it approached a more serious turn of events for the Final Saga. In that sense, Gear Five has helped One Piece return to its roots. One Piece has never cared to be overly serious with its fights or fit in with other shōnen action series and this is one of the major reasons One Piece stands out from the crowd.

1

One Piece Showcases Surprising Moral Complexity

One Piece proves shōnen can transcend juvenile fantasy

One of the most striking features of One Piece is its ambiguous approach towards morality. One Piece carefully juxtaposes the Marines against the Pirates, never truly defining one side as entirely good or bad, but rather opting to let fans come to their own conclusions about the morality of each character. In this sense, One Piece displays surprising maturity, especially for a series targeted at young boys.

While there has been a good deal of anime that similarly explore morality in recent times like Attack on Titan, Death Note, and My Hero Academia, One Piece certainly deserves its laurels for being able to portray such moral complexity while still managing to be a goofy pirate adventure.

One Piece is available from Crunchyroll and Netflix.