One piece is a comedy and fighting anime, based around pirates. It has a historical background, which is based on the "Pirate King: Gol D. Roger". Most people just refer to him as Roger... and he was the pirate who found "One Piece", which is a legendary treasure and gave him the status of the Pirate King. He was eventually captured and executed, but upon his death he announced to the world that he had hid it "there" and if anyone wants it they can go get it. After this, he was killed... and the age of pirates began, with many pirates trying to find One Piece. One such pirate is the main character, Monkey D. Luffy, who aspires to become the Pirate King. Thus the anime is based on Luffy's adventures with his pirate crew, which changes over time, and his journey into the Grand Lane, which is deemed to be where One Piece is hidden.
One important aspect of the story are the 'devil fruits', which is obviously something that someone will consume. Each devil fruit will give its user a particular power, depending on which fruit was eaten. Most of the fruits give very powerful abilities, or abilities that will eventually develop into something powerful. The downside of them, is that if the person falls into the ocean, they will lose all of their strength and simply drown... no matter how powerful they normally are.
Another important aspect is the use of bounties, which is a clever way to indicate how powerful people are... and I think its better than stuff like 'battle power' that you would see in Dragonball.
Luffy's pirate crew changes over time with new additions, but the main ones that you see during the early part of the anime are;
Monkey D. Luffy - Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. He has an iconic straw hat, given to him by a pirate named Shanks, when he was just a kid. Shanks had also saved Luffy's life when he was young, and Luffy looks up to him as a role model. When Luffy grew up, he decided he was going to become a pirate and look for One Piece to become the Pirate King. He has eaten the Gomu Gomu devil fruit, which has made him a rubber man. So he is able to stretch his body out, and he can not be harmed by bullets, which just bounce off him. Like many people in the anime, he has a name that most people refer to him as... which is 'Mugiwara', which simply means 'Straw Hat'. He has a very laid back personality, and is very childish at times. He's not a very bright person, although when it comes to fights... hes quite innovative... and when it comes to sentimental times, hes also very thoughtful and compassionate. He is also quite stubborn, and if any of his crew are in danger, he will do anything to save them. He is the most powerful pirate of the Straw Hat Crew.
Roronora Zoro - The second member of the Straw Hat Pirates, and has the nickname of 'Pirate Hunter'. He is a swordsman, who developed his own style called 'Santoryu', which is a style that uses 3 swords (1 in each hand, and 1 in his mouth). Despite not having a devil fruit power, he is extremely strong and skilled with the sword. He aspires to become the strongest swordsman in the world, thus he wants to defeat the current number 1 swordsman called 'Hawkeyes' Mihawk. He has the worst sense of direction imaginable... and always gets lost whenever he has to navigate on his own. He is the second strongest of the Straw Hat Pirate crew.
Nami - The female member of the Straw Hat Pirates and its navigator. She is quite intelligent, and she normally uses her intellect to fight battles, since she is physically quite weak. She later obtains a weapon thanks to Usopp, which allows her to have minor control over weather, thus allowing her to use that to fight on more even grounds. She has a strong lust for money, and she considers it the most important thing in the world. Her dream is to draw a map of the world.
Usopp - He is mostly the comedy relief of the crew. Physically he is as weak as Nami, but he has an arsenal of random stuff that he makes to use in his fights. He likes to boast and claim that hes the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, but when someone powerful comes along.... he will cower in fear. He is however quite gifted at tinkering things, and tends to invent a lot of random little gadgets, for example the weapon that Nami uses. He is also a gifted marksman, which can be seen when he fires a cannon with great precision.
Sanji - He is a passionate and highly skilled cook, but he also is a very strong fighter whose style is based around kicking. He is usually a pretty serious and hard faced character, but whenever a hot young female is nearby... he becomes really giddy and tries hard to flirt and court them. He is also very chivalrous, and will never harm a pretty lady or let them get hurt. His dream is to fine 'All Blue' which is an ocean with every ingredient imaginable, and he wants to cook using those ingredients. He is the 3rd strongest member of the Straw Hats Pirate crew, until maybe later when other people join, as I think its a pretty close call with some of the other people who join.
Chopper - He is the last to join for a pretty long time, but the crew attaining storylines end once they get chopper... and then a lot of the main story arcs begin. He is a reindeer who has eaten a zoan-type devil fruit, which gives him humanoid properties. He is a gifted doctor, and his dream is to be able to cure any illness. He is a bit cowardly like Usopp, however he can fight reasonably when he transforms, although I'd say he's a fair bit weaker than Sanji. Like Luffy, he is quite childish and is easily impressed by everything. He is also very gullible and will believe anything that hes told. Another thing is that he is flattered very easily, which he tries to hide often although he fails at doing so. Also, he has a funny habit where he tries to hide when hes scared... except hes hiding the wrong way, with his body out in the open whilst hes holding onto the wall.
There are also numerous powerful characters that are talked about throughout the anime. Probably the most prominent is a character named Whitebeard, who is known to be the strongest man in the world... with the power to destroy it. Luffy's role model; Shanks, is also a well known pirate, with some kind of special status in the pirate world. In addition, there are the 7 'Shichibukai', which translates to the Seven Warlords of the Sea. You will see more of them later on in the anime.
Rating - 9.5/10. Its one of my favourite animes, and I always look forward to it every week when it comes out. Even the fillers are actually pretty decent, especially compared to fillers of other animes. One thing that might deter people, is that the initial obtaining of the full pirate crew up to Chopper, takes up a lot of episodes... but this is because whenever a character is added... a large number of episodes are dedicated to the character development. I personally think this is fine, as I enjoy learning about a character's background... but I know theres a lot of impatient people out there who don't appreciate this kind of stuff. So I guess it depends... I definitely think people should at least give it a go. If nothing else... its a very humourous anime.
Below is a picture of Nami's future wanted poster. Although you might argue that its a bit of a spoiler... I personally don't think it is. I chose this pic, because its my favourite of Nami's poses, as I think its quite sexy.
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