With over 20 volumes of manga, over 100 television episodes, and at last count, five feature films, Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece is a juggernaut of a franchise in Japan. Since the beginning of the manga in 1997, the offbeat and adventurous tale of a young boy’s journey to become the King of Pirates has captured the hearts (and not to mention wallets) of millions of Japanese readers and viewers. American companies have seen this profit potential and both the One Piece manga (licensed by Viz and currently running Shonen Jump) and television series (licensed by Funimation with an unknown airdate) are being brought over the States. Perhaps now would be a good time to take a critical look at the manga which started the piratey craze that may soon engulf your local comic shop.

The premise of the manga isn’t all that complicated: as a young man of 17, Monkey D. Luffy sets sail from his home town in order to find the legendary treasure One Piece, and thereby become the Pirate King. However, the world has apparently entered the Age of Pirates, so Luffy isn’t going to be the only pirate seeking One Piece. But what makes Luffy different from other contenders is that, as a child, he ate a magical fruit and now has a body of rubber…which may not seem like a very good ability, but Luffy puts it to good use by deflecting bullets, inflating himself as a balloon, and stretching his limbs to extreme lengths and then snapping them back, creating an effect a million times more powerful than any rubber band. Of course, there’s no such thing as a solitary pirate, so Luffy gathers such entertaining crew members as Roronoa Zoro the napping swordsman, Nami the thieving navigator, Usopp the lying sniper, and Sanji the womanizing chef. And they all set sail for the Grand Line, where One Piece is said to be.

Like most any shonen manga, One Piece has many battles. How else are pirates going to resolve their differences? And these action scenes are very entertaining, but sometimes it’s difficult to figure out just what is going on, especially with the copious amounts of blood flying about.

The story itself doesn’t get that complex until around volume 18, when Luffy takes on one of the seven greatest pirates, Crocodile. Up until then, the story arcs are either related to freeing a character from their pasts so they can join Luffy’s crew or a short adventure totally unrelated to the Luffy crew’s quest for One Piece. While the character stories are interesting and very well done, the short adventures tend to be…well, short and overall pointless. That’s not to say they’re not entertaining or funny; it’s just that they do not advance the story at all.

However, where One Piece really shines is in the characters. Each character feels completely unique from any cliché or character archetype in manga. This can be chiefly attributed to the crew’s background stories which deepen each character a significant amount. Also, the bizarre character designs, like Usopp’s obscenely long nose or Sanji’s curly eyebrows, and downright strange facial expressions endear the characters even more, but that brings us to the main problem with One Piece: the art.

Most people feel one of two ways about the art: it’s either entertainingly strange or repulsively ugly. If you enjoy it, then One Piece is a great manga that’ll keep you addicted for countless volumes. If you dislike the art, though, you won’t make it past the first three chapters. The art is just so different, and let’s face it, out-and-out odd. But then again, if it was drawn any other way, would it be the success it is today?

Another problem with One Piece is the massive length. 23 volumes and still going is an impressive feat, but at times, the manga does get sluggish in the pacing (not Dragon Ball Z sluggish, but close enough). When you know that good battle is coming up, the last thing you want is for the Luffy crew to stop on a small island for a quick romp about. Also, it’s not very likely that One Piece is going to stop anytime soon, so any solid conclusion isn’t going to happen for a good long time. [Although Oda has mentioned that one member of the Luffy crew will leave the ship sometime in 2003, so things may get a little mixed up in the world of One Piece.] Feel free to edit out those brackets if you feel it’s too spoilerous Lastly, the manga suffers from the typical shonen ailment of predictability. Before a battle begins, you know that the good guys are going to win, even if they get whipped pretty badly at first. In fact, 90% of the time that Luffy fights, he thoroughly thrashes the enemy, which is why Oda probably chooses to find someway to keep Luffy from fighting until the very end of a battle (like locking him in concrete or knocking him unconscious).

But regardless of its faults, one cannot deny how innately fun One Piece is. It’s a tale that grabs the reader and takes them through thrilling battles, heart-wrenching losses, and ultimately, the glory of victory, which any reader can relate to. That is why One Piece is so successful: it lets both young and old, boys and girls, men and women experience the life of a pirate, as seen through a child's imagination. And everybody loves pirates.