Dust Speck in the Universe

There are so many components that make up a story but the most important element, to me, will always be character. You could have the most expertly crafted plot of all-time, if I don’t care about the characters, I won’t care about the work. Whereas if I care about the characters, the plot could literally be a trip to the DMV and I’d love it. That’s why I love character-driven series so much and I bet you’re wondering why I’m bringing this up while talking about One Piece. One Piece isn’t character-driven, there’s some Water 7 styled exceptions in there but for the vast majority, One Piece is a plot-driven series. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but plot-driven series can still have great characters. It’s not mutually exclusive, Hunter x Hunter is a character-driven series and has some great plot, it works both ways. So who is the best character in One Piece? Well, I was going to say that stupid cook but I still have working brain cells so instead I’ll give the actual answer, Roronoa Zoro.

So you want to write a story and decide there needs to be at least 1,000 characters in it or else you’re a failure. If you’re not willing to lower your standards, you’re left with an incredible challenge, how do you make all these characters distinct from one another? This is a task that One Piece’s Eiichiro Oda finds himself faced with, and one he miraculous handles really well. One Piece is filled to the brim with memorable characters thanks to several different techniques Oda employs. As a visual medium, the most readily apparent method is through character design. Oda nails this out of the park. Yeah, occasionally some of the woman will have too much Nami on their face, but that’s the only failing he has when it comes to distinguishing designs. And it’s not like all women came down with a case of the Nami’s either. It is disappointing but One Piece has so many countless creative and awesome designs that overall Oda definitely gets two thumbs up here. Another tactic is giving several characters there own unique laughs. I mean it’s a nice touch and I certainly associate some of those characters with their laugh like Luffy’s Shishishi but in a police lineup I’d never be able to match up most characters with their laugh. That’s not what I want to talk about though, rather I’m here to explain just how well Oda utilizes gags to make characters work.

One Piece has been around longer than most people have been alive, and because of that there’s more characters in One Piece than people I’ve met in my life. Thankfully, the characters in One Piece are much better than people in real life, so then the question becomes, who’s my favourite character in One Piece? There’s a lot of great candidates throughout the years. Mosshead’s certainly an option, you know, if I was complete idiot. Instead when it comes to my favourite One Piece character that answer has always been Sanji.

You wouldn’t know it from my video game posts but I actually love One Piece. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve spent more time on One Piece, than any other franchise in my life. I’ve seen 541 episodes of the anime, the first 384 of those I’ve seen twice. I’ve watched all 14 movies, several but all of the various specials whether they basically be full length features like Episode of Nami or random shorts like Jango’s Dance Carnival. Speaking of those video game posts, I’ve spent a good amount of time playing the series too. Not even counting crossover fighters like Battle Stadium D.O.N., Jump Ultimate Stars, J-Stars Victory Vs. Plus, or Jump Force, I’ve spent countless hours on One Piece games, mainly through the Pirate Warriors franchise. I’ve managed to platinum both Pirates Warriors 2 & 4, I would’ve platinum’d the first if RNG wasn’t funky bull shrimp, and I’m still working on platinuming Pirate Warriors 3 every now and again. Beyond those, I’ve also platinum’d Burning Blood maining the one true One Piece Waifu Koala. One of the Grand Battles, I don’t remember which one I think 2, Romance Dawn for the 3DS, Unlimited World Red, all games I’ve also put time into. I’ve even bought the VR game, though I’m petrified of all things reality so I’m not sure why I bothered. And of course, I’ve read every single chapter of One Piece, all 1,000 plus.