 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. Now today I have a very important topic to delve into, given that this entire channel is dedicated to exploring a single series. And that topic is quite simply, is One Piece overrated? So here's the deal. At a glance, One Piece is objectively a media phenomenon, and know that phenomenon has not hit properly in the western world like say Harry Potter or Game of Thrones, but make no mistake, One Piece has seen ridiculous success in Japan and the world at large, becoming the number one best-selling manga series of all time, as well as the third highest selling comic book series of all time in general. And it's incredibly close to overtaking Batman for that second place position actually, just a few more million, and we're there. So that's a pretty high standard to live up to I'd say, and just so you're all aware about where I'm coming from here, I obviously own an operator YouTube channel dedicated entirely to One Piece, so chances are I'm a bit of a fan. I've been engaged with the series since the early to mid-2000s, and it's very difficult to admit that because it reminds me that I'm almost 30, but we're reaching the point where One Piece has been a fairly standard part of my life for almost half of it, which is a crazy thought. With that said, I am not blind and I'm also not afraid to criticise the series when it's deserving of it. A good example would be my highly negative stance towards the anime adaptation, but even reading the manga week to week I do frequently criticise character, artistic and storytelling decisions made by a man held as a god amongst narrative, Etchera Oda. So as much of a joke as this may sound, I'd like to think that I can approach this from a pretty unbiased perspective, but I guess we'll see how true that is as the video progresses. So our goal here today is to figure out if One Piece is overrated. So how are we going to do that? Well, being the behemoth property it is, we're going to need to look at it from a few different perspectives, the first of which are the fundamental features presented in the core storytelling medium of the manga. Following that, we're going to need to switch perspectives and consider the question through the eyes of the anime adaptation, because it has been an undeniably huge aspect of the success of the series, as well as the medium by which most people enter One Piece. And finally, we're also going to consider the question in regards to the fanbase, because in the end it isn't the core story or the adaptation responsible for over or under hyping a product, it's the people talking about it. So that will be incredibly important to explore. And with all of these categories, we should have a well-rounded idea of One Piece through its core story, its presentation in various mediums, and its fan reactions, leading us to the answer of the question of whether or not One Piece is overrated. So without further ado, let's begin. So if you're not familiar with One Piece, I'm not sure how you found this channel to be honest, but just in case, let's cover the basics. Essentially, it's a series about a young rubber boy named Monkey D. Luffy, whose dream is to become the pirate king, which sends him on an ever elongating adventure to find the legendary One Piece, gathering a loyal crew of incredibly diverse characters along the way, each with their own individual dreams. That's the very basic premise anyway, because the manga was first published in 1997 and, well, more than two decades later, we're still on that adventure, so the story does become much more complex. But it has to be doing something right, yeah? Well, the successful run of the manga can really be attributed to the holy trinity of storytelling, being the characters, the world, and of course, the narrative itself. In terms of the characters, the primary cast of the Straw Hat Pirates are all very compelling figures to follow, and for the most part, they're constantly growing, working step by step in order to achieve their grand dreams. From the outside, a lot of them may seem like shonen stereotypes, such as the goofy main character, the badass secondary protagonist, the token female, the mascot, and of course, the gentlemanly Afroclad skeleton. Absolutely all of the tropes are here, but it doesn't take much investment in the series to begin to realize the depth that they all possess. For example, Monkey D. Luffy, the goofy main character, will continuously find a way to subvert your expectations, because he is one of the most unpredictable wildcards that the world of shonen has to offer, and that is very much highlighted in the chaotic nature of the events that unfold in the series whenever he is involved. He is capable of wonderful humor, spectacular action, heart-wrenching drama, and fantastic left-field decision-making that changes the world of one piece right in front of your eyes. Do not take a single image of him as an accurate representation of his character, because no single image is capable of summing up all that is Luffy. And that's very much true for most of the Straw Hats, yes, some of them have a lot more depth than others, and after a certain point far far into the series, it does feel like some of them become a bit neglected, but for the most part, that's because the series expands heavily into hundreds upon hundreds of auxiliary characters, many of whom command the interest and depth of personality that is traditionally reserved for key protagonists only. But are these characters anything to be particularly hype about compared to other series? Look, on their own, I'd argue that they aren't, actually. Any competent piece of storytelling should be able to deliver exactly what one piece does in terms of its characters. The key word there, being competent. As it is, one piece does set a high bar with its characters, but its true advantage is having so, so many well-designed figures to explore. Whereas in most series, when you start to get to the secondary and tertiary characters, they become very flat, like 2D cutouts. And there are other series that succeed in terms of characters alongside one piece that can be found in full Metal Alchemist, Hunter Hunter, and many, many others. And you know what, in fact, in the case of Hunter Hunter specifically, I'd even argued that its main cast are capable of much more depth and development than even the Straw Hat Pirates. So one piece certainly is not unique in this feature alone. And if one was to pose the question about whether or not the series was overhyped simply based on characters, I'd say quite possibly yes. I love these characters, but you can find other series out there that will provide figures on this level. Although definitely not anywhere near as many of them in a single piece of story. But with that, we can move on to discussing the world. And we're not moving too far, actually, because the world of one piece is legitimately a character of its own. Sometimes quite literally with things like an island on the top of a giant elephant. One of the most powerful and wildly underestimated aspects of storytelling is building the world, that the characters can inhabit, and it's here that one piece stands well and truly above any other manga series. And a lot of that advantage comes from the very simple concept that the Straw Hats are pirates, and as such they have no base location of sorts. So a good example of a base location would be Kanowa Village in Naruto. A lot of the series takes place outside of it, but after every major event the characters need to return to the village because, well, that's their home. And so it becomes increasingly more difficult to find good and interesting reasons to have them leave and explore the world, which is mostly made up of trees and things. And after a series of Naruto's long run, Kanowa Village also runs the risk of becoming quite a stale location artistically, not offering readers or watches enough new stimulus to remain as excited as they were when first exploring it. One piece does not have this problem because it has no central location like that. The Straw Hats live wherever they happen to be in the world, and so the environment is consistently changing, and continuing that brilliant feeling of discovery. You know, one year you're in an underwater paradise, the next you're on a half hot, half cold hellscape, and after that you take a trip to Anime Spain and even end up on an island made entirely of cake. The world is just so rich and never boring to explore, which lifts a huge amount of pressure off the characters which are amazing anyway, but when you think about generically popular Shonen, and I'll use Bleach as an example in this case, they tend to be entirely carried by characters. The world or lack thereof doesn't support them at all, and it becomes an overall less satisfying experience as a result. In this case, one piece innovates and elevates what can be done with what is considered by others as a mere backdrop. And so if we're talking about whether or not One Piece is overrated based on comments praising its world building, I would give you a resounding no. For this aspect, One Piece deserves every lick of hype it receives because it is like nothing else you'll experience in Shonen Manga. And finally, for this section, anyway, we need to discuss the overall story. And with a massive cast of in-depth characters and an unbelievably huge and detailed world to play in, it is a gigantic burden on the general narrative to weave it all together in a satisfactory if not engaging and amazing manner. And One Piece for the most part succeeds very well with this, featuring an incredible layered system of storytelling, featuring an immediate narrative, which is the arc specific concern of whatever is happening directly to our protagonist at the time. So for example, the Straw Hats arrive on Punk Hazard, and their goal becomes to capture Caesar Clown. But it also has a wider narrative connecting these arcs and sagas, and to use the same example that would be the connective tissue between Punk Hazard Dress Rosa and the Wano arcs, which build to tell a much grander story over time. And that's where most series will stop, but no, not One Piece, because above that wider narrative exists an even wider narrative, a meta narrative if you will, which is generally events brewing completely independently of the Straw Hats and leading to a much greater story combination. At the moment, we've only experienced one of these combinations in two decades of publication, which was the Paramount War, where after over a decade of events brewing in the background, all of that hard work paid off in quite possibly the greatest battle ever put to page. The thing is though, the One Piece story doesn't even stop there, because it has a meta, meta narrative hard at work even above this. And what I'm referring to here are the great secrets of the world, such as the Ponyglyphs, the Void Century, and even the lurking legends that are being gradually pieced together. And these four layers of storytelling interweave so seamlessly into each other that I can't actually point to another property that has ever accomplished anything on this scale that isn't a gigantic science fiction or fantasy novel series. The story of One Piece is not perfect, it does have its flaws and parts that are less compelling than others, but overall to have achieved this in a comic book medium is well worthy of attention, and I would say deserves every shred of hype dedicated to it. Nothing overrated and that's going to conclude this little analysis on the source material, as you can probably guess if we're isolating the Manga experience I do not think that One Piece is overrated. There's just nothing else like it on the market and it's entirely possible that there never will be again. However the Manga is but one facet of the monster that is One Piece, and we now need to discuss the anime adaptation. Now the Toei anime adaptation is certainly where I'd say the large majority of fans have their first experience of One Piece, because it's a much more easily accessible method of getting into the series due to the whole notion that reading manga requires some form of effort, whilst watching anime can be seen as a more relaxing and lazy experience with pictures that move for you, so that your precious eyes and imagination don't need to do anything whatsoever except be present. And hey, I was one of those people. My first experience of One Piece was with the anime and not only that it was with the four kids dub of the anime, so it's a miracle I'm even here today all things considered. And before I jump into a lot of negativity and pause there, just a heads up I'm going to be very shortly jumping into some grand criticism of the Toei anime adaptation, but I want to make it clear that while I am criticizing the choice of the companies who produce it, I am not criticizing those who choose to watch it. Do not take this as a personal attack if you love the anime, that's great. I'm legitimately glad it has its fans, I'm just not one of them. And with that, let's resume. I should point out that there was a time where the One Piece anime was pretty great actually, adapting two to three chapters in episode, providing some solid pacing and decent not great but decent animation. However, those times have long past. In the modern days, you'd be lucky to get one chapter adapted per episode due to a wide variety of reasons, none of which are to allow the manga to get ahead or to feed the families of animators. Two very common and very misguided arguments. But it is instead to keep One Piece running all year round to milk it for as much money as it can possibly generate, which is a decision adopted by the three major companies that have a stake in the adaptation, being Toei the animators, Fuji TV, the network, and Shueisha, the publisher of the manga. As a result, the overwhelming majority of One Piece is plagued with horrendous pacing, terrible artwork, and in some cases the absolute bare minimum required to technically call something a piece of animation. It is quite possibly one of the biggest abominations in the entire history of adaptations, although I will say that when it does hit, it hits hard. There is the odd occasion where time and resources are actually spent to ensure that a particular event is well done, but in the end these moments of greatness only serve to highlight just how painfully broken the rest of the adaptation is. As such, if you are someone who hypes the hell out of One Piece to your friends and their first experience is the last 600 or so episodes of the anime, they are either going to be extraordinary and narrowly forgiving human beings, or they are going to think that you are mad and have certainly overrated this product. And I simply cannot blame the people who have only seen the anime for thinking that the series is wildly overrated when it is borderline unwatchable from week to week. The best thing I can do for people is to recommend the manga, which will not only catch them up faster, but also give them a phenomenally better experience, but then there's that wall that exists in regards to not wanting to read. Somehow it is perceived that reading 900 chapters would be more effort than sitting through 900 episodes, which is simply not the case. In the time it would take you to sit through a 22 minute episode watching, you know, half a chapter being adapted, you could have read three manga chapters. But as a result of the anime, I honestly find it difficult to recommend One Piece to friends, because while I believe it's one of the greatest stories ever told, the anime does its absolute best to ruin that, and it is a credit to Oda's character's world and general story that it is able to survive in its current state. So when we're talking about the anime, One Piece is undeniably overrated. There are series out there with weaker characters, weaker worlds, and weaker stories that are a far more satisfying experience to watch, because what they do offer, they offer in far more appealing and artistically sound packages. And with that, we should explore our final topic in this discussion, which is the fan base. Now to be perfectly honest, I have a love hate relationship with the online One Piece community. The overwhelming majority of you are absolutely fantastic, but there is a sector of people who are absolutely insufferable, who will take the opportunity to complain about anything and everything, and yes I understand that I'm reaching this topic after doing nothing but complaining about the anime, but these guys are on a whole new level to me. If you were to take their word seriously, you would walk away with the impression that One Piece is the worst series to have ever existed and isn't worth a single millisecond of your time, despite the fact that these same people spend a sizeable chunk of their time discussing One Piece on a weekly basis. But you do also have the other extreme, the more zealous fans who will claim that One Piece is God's work, and there's nothing that even comes close to giving you the experience it delivers in any field, and that if you even have the slightest complaints then you aren't a true fan or a fan at all. Both of these thought processes are heavily flawed, and you should never give somebody preaching them a modicum of attention, but I bring them up because depending on who you encounter in the fan base, you're going to have a very differing expectation of the series. If you encounter the complainer, then you'll probably be incredibly pleasantly surprised by what One Piece has to offer, but if you get breached due by the self-appointed popes of One Piece, then your expectations are going to be artificially inflated to an unsustainable level, and not even One Piece will be able to deliver on them. Which is why the question of whether or not One Piece is overrated is so difficult. It's a lot easier to answer with a property that isn't viewed through two wildly different mediums by a global set of what can be very polarizing eyes. To use another property as an example, it would be much easier to examine whether or not something like Brick and Morty is overrated because you have one medium, a handful of episodes, and yes, a rabid fan base to deal with, but everything is far quicker to digest, and a conclusion can be found by anybody who wants to invest a small amount of time to investigate it. One Piece is not that simple. Even with the anime, which I pretty much universally condemned, there was a golden error of about 200 episodes that were pretty damn good, and if you were talking specifically about them, then I'd say no, One Piece probably isn't overrated. Then when you add in every other episode, my opinion changes rapidly. And that's not even taking the manga into consideration, or even the films actually, which I haven't touched on at all in this video, but they are a very separate experience from both the anime and the manga. And the latest ones in particular have been wonderful displays of what One Piece could be in an animated medium, although they are forced to take on much more simplistic stories that can be covered in one sitting as a result of being films. But there are far too many ways and combinations to experience this two decade long series to succinctly provide an answer as to whether or not it's overrated. What I can say is that there definitely is a reason why One Piece continues to hold strong at the top of the anime and manga world. It has something to offer. Something that I believe the large majority of people who give it a real go will come to discover and love. And personally, I think there's a lot here to justify the endless hype it receives, but be aware that One Piece is not perfect in any sense, although at the same time, I'm currently unaware of any story that is. So yes, One Piece could be a little overrated or even very much overrated, but it is absolutely undeniable that there is something there that has the potential to completely capture not only the attention, but the imaginations of those who choose to embark on this journey. So if you've never read or seen One Piece and you've somehow not only made it to this video, but made it this far into the video, I would say to you, go and experience the series in the manner in which you'd prefer. There is nothing to lose if you don't like it, but there is everything to gain from one of the most ambitious stories ever told. And that pretty much does it for this short to medium discussion on whether or not One Piece is overrated. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if Patreon isn't quite your style then please do leave this video a like, share or subscribe because it also helps support this channel an incredible amount. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigan retakes place on a daily basis. And finally, please do comment with your thoughts on whether or not One Piece is overrated. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.