One Piece 

 

Luffy and his crew

  "My wealth and treasures? If you want it, I'll let you have it...search for it! I left all of it at that place" (9). Those were the last words of Gol d. Roger, the worlds greatest pirate right before his execution, in the anime One Piece. This was also the first line of the first episode which released in 1999. The series was written by Eiircho Oda. It walks through the life of a young man named Monkey d. Luffy. Just like Roger, Luffy too wants to be the greatest pirate in the world and he wants to find the world's most mysterious treasure also know as the one piece. Now what the one piece actually is, we don't know! The story consist of luffy gathering his crew and fighting many strong pirates, as well as taking on high ranking military forces to achieve his goal. The ongoing mystery of what the "one piece" is, allows Oda to write a long, detailed series in which the anime continues to release weekly episodes and have over 1100 episodes currently released. While the show consist of a great storyline and something fun to watch at home, a huge fandom ranging from in depth cosplay costumes to opening up restaurants revolving around one piece. 

   Comic Con

Luffy statue (1)

    Comic con is a place where all the die hard fans of any sort of comic based fiction gather together to meet various authors, collect souvenirs, and spend time with other fans over a couple days(7). Many people use this time to wear costumes resembling their favorite characters. Recently, one piece has been dominating the entirety of Comic con. Everywhere you look, you will always seem something related to one piece. The picture on the left shows a toppling statue of the main character Luffy overlooking the whole inside of comic con (1). 

Thanksgiving Day parade 

    Another way the fandom shows appreciation to the anime is non other than the Macy's thanksgiving parade. In 2023, one piece has made it's debut to be apart of the parade(13). Walking down the streets of New York, the large float of Luffy was guided my many people who consider themselves part of his pirate crew that day. In addition to show more appreciation to the matter, everyone posted a picture containing the hashtag #thanksluffy. This past thanksgiving, the statue actually crashed and deflated causing a new trend to arise called the "bucket hat luffy"(3).

Celebration

   

One piece day 2023 (8)

    Luffy has become so popular as an anime character, that even his birthday gets celebrated all around the world. Recently on April 12th, Toei animation announced they will be holding a birthday party in 5 cities in Europe for Luffy (4). The fandom loves one piece to such an extent, they are willing to travel across the the world to celebrate the fictional characters birthday. Furthermore, ever since July 22, 2017, Japan made an official holiday called  "One piece day"(12). On this day, a huge event takes place in Toyko but gets streamed worldwide, where they reveal upcoming plans of the series, host a concert using all the old iconic songs, and much more. In 2023, was the most ground breaking, recording shattering one piece day japan has ever experienced. Along with the great concert everyone loves, Oda announced the direction of where the anime was heading as well as releasing teasers about the future episodes (5). the shocking news sparked a great excitement throughout the whole fandom. Having such a strong fandom, the people gather together to celebrate fictional birthdays and even start a national holiday in japan.  

Cosplay

    Aside from all the celebrations and holidays dedicated to the show, one piece fans take pride through dressing up like the characters also known as cosplay. Cosplay allows every type of fan to be involved. Some take the time and effort to create a costume replicating a character down to the smallest detail. On the other hand, fans don't go as in depth for the costume, but still wear clothes resembling the character. Nowadays people can cosplay everywhere. They can find an event across the country to meet thousands of like minded individuals such as anime expo (14) or even as little as local Facebook group meeting up in a certain area. A small Facebook group know as ALA one piece gathering group, post a desired time and location to meet up, cosplay, hangout, then go home (6).Cosplay might be one of the most popular ways the fandom shows there love for one piece. It is a time where fans can fully immerged into the environment and almost feel like they are part of the actually series when they dress up.  

Fan Fiction/ Art 

    Eiichiro Oda's ability to create in depth characters in every aspect of the one piece storyline is nothing short of perfection. Oda always finds a way to introduce a character making all one piece love them. He also takes a large extent time to fully explain each character, leaving it up to fan's interpretation of who the character actually is for a short while. The fans get so attach to a character to a point where they write a spinoff of them know as fan fiction. Using the existing work of one piece, they take this information and add more elements to certain characters to give them a storyline of their own. webnovel contains hundreds of the most popular one piece fan fictions from spin off stories for some of the main characters, to extravagant stories about side characters who rarely showed an appearance in the series

    

One Piece x Studio Ghibli (11)

    Fans are completely captivated by the beauty of the one piece universe. Some say in the beginning of the series the art style was hard to watch and others appreciate the nostalgic effect the old animation had. Recently everyone fell in love with the new art style in the beginning of the Wano Saga. To cherish the scenery of each island in one piece or even the details in all of the characters design, fans will try to replicate these moments with their own artistic ability. In addition, many fans will mix match and combine the one piece characters with other popular anime art styles. For example, someone recreated all the one piece characters with the studio Ghibli art style(11).  

    Moreover fans go the extra mile and get one piece tattoo's. Tattoos might the one of the strongest forms of showing how much someone loves something. Tattoos are pricey, take long to get, painful and most importantly they last forever. Many fans like the idea of small subtle tattoos while others will get large aggressive tattoos covering entire body parts like 2020 silver medalist boxer, Ben Whittaker. Various forms of art leaves room for all sorts of fans to show how much one piece truly means to them.  

Ben Whittaker's One Piece Tattoo

One piece Coffee shop

 

Insider view: one piece café

   Lastly, the One piece fandom has been growing rapidly in the united states. In 2023, Netflix aired a live actions series of one piece growing the fanbase rapidly. Among all the fans in the United states, they finally opened a coffee shop revolving around One piece called the "One piece Café". This café consists of all the food the characters ate on their journey across the seas in addition to statues and wall art all related to the anime(2).  In early April the café had a soft opening in Las Vegas only allowing a select amount of people to eat there. On may 11th it will have it's official opening where all is welcomed to eat and enjoy the fully experience of the café. The fandom grew so immensely and rapidly on the west an amazing coffee shop opened solely for the fans. 

Works Cited 

(1) Babb, T. (2023, October 14). Luffy is the biggest thing at New York Comic Con (literally). Popverse.https://www.thepopverse.com/luffy-one-piece-nycc-new-york-comic-con-biggest 

(2) ComicBook. (n.d.). One piece opens official cafe in the United States. Anime. https://comicbook.com/anime/news/one-piece-official-us-cafe-now-open/ 

(3) Contributors to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Wiki. (n.d.). Monkey D. Luffy. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Wiki. https://macysthanksgiving.fandom.com/wiki/Monkey_D._Luffy 

(4) Europe, T. A. (2024a, April 12). Luffy’s birthday is coming!🥳meet us in Milan, Berlin, London, Madrid and Paris to celebrate it together, and leave with a little gift! *don’t forget to take your best selfie during the celebrations on May 5th using #luffybirthday2024 on Instagram, and find it on the dedicated... pic.twitter.com/kursyg0wlh. Twitter. https://twitter.com/ToeiAnimationEU/status/1778724758852383019 

(5) Frajs, M. J. (2023, July 23). Every major announcement on One piece day 2023: Gear 5, new opening, ending, and more. Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/anime/every-major-announcement-one-piece-day-2023-gear-5-new-opening-ending 

(6) Log into Facebook. Facebook. (n.d.). https://www.facebook.com/groups/onepiecealaax/?paipv=0&eav=AfY4cps0XiKGjgDiWYubqRowULoaO1odbR5Z7ZkOihsuQJIRuOnvUpr1STZBMiougdc&_rdr 

(7) Messier, A., & Fox News. (2023, July 17). Comic-con: Everything you need to know about the event. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/comic-con-fans-world-fantasy-what-is-it 

(8) One piece day 2023: Livestream Links, schedule, guests, where to watch. ONE Esports. (2023, July 20). https://www.oneesports.gg/anime/one-piece-day-2023-livestream-link-guests/ 

(9) One piece wiki. Fandom. (n.d.). https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/One_Piece_Wiki 

(10) Read onepiece fanfiction stories. Webnovel. (n.d.). https://www.webnovel.com/tags/onepiece-fanfic# 

(11) Unique collaboration: One piece X studio ghibli mashup. Pinterest. (n.d.). https://www.pinterest.com/ideas/one-piece-x-studio-ghibli/934737971987/ 

(12) Wiki, C. to O. P. (n.d.-a). One piece day. One Piece Wiki. https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/One_Piece_Day 

(13) YouTube. (2023, November 27). Luffy made it in his debut through the streets of NYC in the 97th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMIdfCesnBA 

(14) YouTube. (2019, July 16). One piece cosplay meet up - anime expo. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqsjDmXZm9w