The Untold Truth Of One Piece

Although it's only a couple of decades old, "One Piece" has quickly become one of the biggest stories in the worlds of both manga and anime. In part because the premise is so simple, the show became something that fans glommed onto and refused to let go of. The world of "One Piece" is now massive, but its core elements have remained largely the same. 

The story follows Monkey D. Luffy, a young man who decides to travel to the East Blue Sea in order to search for treasure. Along the way, he picks up a crew and a gallery of supporting characters that are perfectly cast to play off of one another. The series has evolved from this relatively simple conceit, and Luffy and the gang have gotten into various adventures and picked up new characters along the way. Fundamentally, though, "One Piece" is a show about lovable people setting sail together in order to pursue their dreams. Here are some things you may not have known about the popular franchise.

Given the enormous success of both "One Piece" and "Dragon Ball," it makes sense that Eiichiro Oda was inspired in part by what Akira Toriyama had done with his series. The folks at the "One Piece Podcast" translated an interview between Oda and "Naruto" writer Masashi Kishimoto, in which the former called Toriyama influential.

"I'd have to say that Toriyama-sensei has been a huge influence," he explained. "Of course, there's 'Dragon Ball,' but I really loved 'Dr. Slump,' as well." Although the rules of each universe are different, the core elements of "One Piece," and the rogue cast of characters at its center have a lot in common with the motley crew that Goku assembles over the course of "Dragon Ball." 

In a conversation with Toriyama, Oda even acknowledged that he had fallen in love with "Dragon Ball" the second he stumbled across it. "I fell in love at first sight. I thought, 'He's too good!'" Oda explained. "At that time, I loved Disney, but I was thinking, 'This is even better than Disney stuff!'" Oda also said that there were specific things about the art style in the series that inspired him, including the way that Toriyama drew muscles and hands. 

Like many hugely important creators, Eiichiro Oda initially thought that he would be able to end the story of "One Piece" after five years, according to a translated quote found on an Amino anime blog. Although Oda knows how the series will end, he realized it would take him longer to get there than he had initially suspected. He also acknowledged that he liked the story too much to wrap it up that quickly, and ultimately decided to keep it going much longer than originally planned. 

In 2019, Oda said that he predicts "One Piece" would end within the next five years. The series is on its way toward a definitive conclusion, and at this point, that ending is still the one that Oda envisioned when he initially planned to end the series after five years. Although the series will have run for more than 25 years by the time it actually ends, Oda is clearly committed to seeing his vision for the manga's ending realized. 

Much like how "My Hero" was a pilot of sorts for "My Hero Academia," "Romance Dawn" by Eiichiro Oda was a prototype for the "One Piece" story. The first version of "Romance Dawn" was a 50-page one-shot published in the "Shōnen Jump 1996 Summer Special" on August 4. The second version was only 45 pages long and released in the 41st issue of Weekly Shonen Jump the following month.

Both versions share similar elements that are present in the finalized version of the manga while differing in many ways. For example, Monkey D. Luffy is more concerned about going on fun adventures than becoming king of the pirates. Additionally, the two female leads from the respective versions of "Romance Dawn" — Silk in the first version and Ann in the second version — are clear prototypes of Nami. The Devil Fruits are also said to come from a mystical tree in the second version of "Romance Dawn," while their origin is still a mystery in "One Piece." Finally, Red-Haired Shanks sacrifices his left arm to save Luffy's arm and gives Luffy his straw hat in the first version of the story; in the second version, Luffy is inspired by his pirate grandfather who shares the same characteristics as Luffy's grandfather, Monkey D. Garp, in "One Piece."

"Romance Dawn" has been adapted in various ways. The first version was adapted as an anime special called "One Piece: Romance Dawn Story." The second version became Episode 907 of the TV anime series. The first episode of the live action "One Piece" series is called "Romance Dawn," and it's featured in the video game "One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3."

The fantasy world of "One Piece” might be a work of fiction, but many of the series' outlandish characters are inspired by real-life pirates from the 17th century. Gol D. Roger, arguably the most important character in "One Piece," shares inspiration with two real-life pirates. The first is the French pirate Olivier Levasseur who, upon his hanging, tossed a cryptogram from the scaffolding into the crowd and told them if they could figure out the message his treasure would be theirs. Levasseur's treasure was never found. Similarly, Gol D. Roger tells pirates everywhere to go look for his treasure, the One Piece, before he's executed by the World Government. The second source of inspiration for Gol D. Roger is Henry Every, an English pirate who led possibly the most profitable pirate raid of all time in 1695. After capturing a treasure estimated at around $95 million in today's currency, Every became known as "The Arch Pirate" for his tremendous wealth. There are other examples of real-life pirate references in "One Piece," such as the real "Blackbeard," Edward Teach inspiring Marshall D. Teach, leader of the Blackbeard Pirates. There's also the Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts serving as inspiration for Bartholomew Kuma, the legend of Awilda for "Iron Mace" Alvida, and the Irish pirate Anne Bonny for Captain Jewelry Bonney.

Even though "One Piece" gets away with a lot more than your average kids' cartoon in the U.S, it still has a younger-skewing audience in Japan. Therefore, the anime tends to water down the manga's most graphic moments. Case in point — characters who give the middle finger in the manga do not do so in the anime. There are various examples of characters flipping the bird to others in the manga, so much so that it became a running gag. The one character most associated with this offensive gesture is Trafalgar D. Water Law. When Law meets the Eustass Kid at the Human Auctioning House, he gives him the middle finger. In the anime, Law simply shoots Kid a smug grin. When Donquixote Doflamingo defeats Law in the "Dressrosa" arc of the manga, Law gives him the middle finger in defiance. The anime version dulls the edge of this rebellious moment by having Law verbally mock Doflamingo instead.

Before Toei Animation became the home of "One Piece," Production I.G. was the first animation studio to adapt Eiichiro Oda's manga into an anime. Production I.G. — the anime studio behind shows like "Haikyu!!," "Psycho-Pass," and "Ghost in the Shell" — produced an original video animation (OVA) of "One Piece" for the 1998 Jump Super Anime Tour, an event that celebrated the 30th anniversary of Shōnen Jump. Eschewing a straight adaptation of an existing storyline, the OVA is an original story penned by Oda that primarily features Monkey D. Luffy, Nami, and Roronoa Zoro taking down a nasty pirate named Ganzack and his crab-like pirates.

It may seem strange that Production I.G. didn't land the TV rights to "One Piece" after their work on the OVA, but this practice isn't uncommon, as pilot OVAs shown at Jump Festa are often done by different anime studios than the ones chosen for TV production. A recent example of this is Studio Pierrot producing the "Black Clover" TV anime series in 2017 after 2016's "Black Clover: Jump Festa Special" OVA by Xebec Inc. The director of the Production I.G. OVA was Gorô Taniguchi, who went on to direct the 2022 theatrical film "One Piece Film: Red." The OVA was even shown during a five-hour promotional stream for "One Piece Film: Red."

Thanks to the work of Funimation-slash-Crunchyroll, the "One Piece" anime series has experienced a resurgence in popularity in North America. The series is widely available in its original form, subbed and dubbed, on various streaming platforms, in digital stores, and home media releases. Plus, films like "One Piece: Stampede" and "One Piece Film: Red" have been rolled out at North American theaters to commercial success. North American "One Piece" fans have it good.

That wasn't always the case, however, as the defunct 4Kids Entertainment originally owned the English rights to the "One Piece" anime and subjected it to countless questionable changes. Like most 4Kids dubs of its era, "One Piece" was heavily censored to ridiculous degrees. The 4Kids dubs were Americanized like crazy and had most of its original music replaced by an interchangeable track. Worst of all, some episodes of "One Piece" were skipped or merged into a singular episode. Needless to say, fans were not happy with these changes. 

The lasting legacy of the 4Kids dub of "One Piece," however, is its American intro that tells the story of the Straw Hat Pirates through a reasonably corny rap song. Oddly enough, 4Kids also produced an English cover of "We Are!," the first "One Piece" anime opening song but decided against using it. While hardly anyone mourns the loss of 4Kids and their rights to "One Piece," the fandom has embraced the 4Kids "One Piece" intro music. After all, how many other classic anime series can say they've got a rap theme song? And who can hate a line like "Yo-ho-ho he took a bite of Gum Gum!" Shawn Freshco Conrad, the man behind the rap, explained how the theme song came to be. He even updated the rap for the crew members that don't get to appear in the 4Kids dub. 

Various aspects of "One Piece" have been influenced by historical figures and real-life events. When designing the three significant marine admirals from the series — Kuzan (aka Aokiji), Borsalino (alias Kizaru), and Sakazuki (alias Akainu) — Eiichiro Oda turned to three late but great Japanese actors as a source of inspiration for their appearances.

Kuzan is based on the late Japanese actor Yūsaku Matsuda who starred in films like "The Beast to Die," "Detective Story," and "Black Rain." Matsuda's status as an actor is so legendary that he also serves as inspiration for Kenshiro from "Fist of the North Star" and Spike Spiegel from "Cowboy Bebop." Borsalino is based on the late Japanese actor Kunie Tanaka who appeared in films like "The Bad Sleep Well," "Sanjuro," and "Battles Without Honor and Humanity." Finally, Sakazuki is based on the late Japanese actor Bunta Sugawara.

One of the great things about the "One Piece" series is the communication between fans and series creator Eiichiro Oda. Through the question-and-answer column in the manga, Oda often answers fans' lingering questions about the world of "One Piece," no matter how ridiculous the questions may be. For Volume 56 of the question-and-answer column, there was one fan who had a more serious question: "If One Piece was set in the real world, which countries would the nine Straw Hats come from?" Oda's response: "Well. I'll just put what fits with the character's image." Here's what Oda put down:

"Luffy: Brazil

Zoro: Japan

Nami: Sweden

Usopp: Africa

Sanji: France

Chopper: Canada

Robin: Russia

Franky: USA

Brook: Austria"

Obviously, Africa is a continent and not a country. Whether or not Oda has an extremely limited knowledge of global geography, or simply didn't think hard enough about this particular fan question is unknown. 

According to series creator Eiichiro Oda, "One Piece" is entering its final story arc, meaning the series' quarter-century journey will soon come to an end. There's no telling where this ship will sail for its final destination, but there's one thing that everyone can be certain of — before the series is complete, at least one character in "One Piece" will wear an eye patch. 

Confused? In the over one thousand chapters of "One Piece," there has not been a single pirate with an eye patch. The same is true for the TV shows and movies. Why? According to Oda in the "One Piece 10th Treasures" special collectors' book, he said he wanted to avoid the stereotypical pirate look. "It's not like every pirate has an eye patch!!!," Oda wrote. "You can totally draw pirates without an eye patch!!!!"

Oda is not against the idea of drawing a pirate with an eye patch — he's just more interested in the journey that gets them there. "And with that thought in mind it all began; the story of a normal-looking boy's pirate story. I thought, if there's an image in everyone's head about what a pirate is, then I thought I would write [and] draw about the process of the boy getting there. But it's not like I dislike eye patches, so in the final scenes of One Piece, there is one pirate who appears with an eye patch."

Fans have speculated that the fabled eye-patch-wearing pirate character could be Monkey D. Luffy, as the story of "One Piece" has been his journey from a young dreamer to king of the pirates.

One of the wildest revelations about "One Piece" is that it could very well have never existed at all. In an interview with TBS in Japan, the manga's first editor Takanori Asada said that it was rejected multiple times by executives at Weekly Shonen Jump. Asada explained how he went to bat for the series, persisting in hopes of convincing the higher-ups that "One Piece" was well worth taking a chance on. "Asada was frustrated with his bosses due to those rejections," Twitter user @sandman_AP, who translated the interview, said. "He even had a dream at night that he beats up his bosses." Eventually, Asada's commitment to bringing the story to the magazine made a dent in the opposition, and the rest is history.

Oda has maintained that his interest in manga is merely an amusing way to pass the time and avoid getting a real job. Yet, he's been in the game since he was only 17, creating his first work, "Wanted," in 1992. Indeed, he's mused in the past that he very well might have gone into film production if not for the emotional staying power he found with manga. This just goes to show that even great works that seem fated to exist see plenty of forks in the road. In this case, we're thrilled that "One Piece" came to fruition, though it's fun to imagine what kind of movies might have come from the mind of Oda.

Besides the presence in manga and anime that "One Piece" has achieved, it has been the inspiration for so many video games that there is a full Wikipedia page dedicated to listing them all. While many of these games fall into the role-playing category, they span consoles and formats. It's a wide-ranging selection for video game enthusiasts all around the world.

Not only has the "One Piece" gang appeared in over forty games in the last two decades or so, but characters from the series also make regular appearances in various Shonen Jump crossover games, like "Jump Super Stars." Regardless of what you play on, there is likely a "One Piece" game out there for you, as the franchise has made appearances on everything from Gameboy to PlayStation to mobile apps and beyond.

"One Piece" has also served as the inspiration for light novels, music, art books, a trading card game, and museum exhibitions. As influential as the "One Piece" manga is, it's always finding new realms through which to shine.