What Eiichiro Oda Saved (and Minimize) From the Unique Manga Pilot of ‘One Piece’

One Piece has by no means been larger than it’s proper now. It’s completed the not possible, because the two seasons of its Netflix live-action series are doing gangbusters; its long-running anime continues to sail toward its next arc; its manga continues to be going robust; and it’s bought a brand new, leaner anime remake on the way in which by Wit Studio. And with Eiichiro Oda lately hinting the remake will hew nearer to the stripped-down model of the story that the unique anime didn’t, now feels nearly as good a time as any for longtime followers and fence-sitters to learn how Oda first conceived One Piece earlier than it grew to become a world phenomenon.

One-shots are to manga what quick tales are to novels. Some one-shots act as artistic avenues for established mangaka like Tatsuki Fujimoto to craft after they aren’t engaged on their long-running collection, as he did with Look Back, Goodbye, Eri, and Simply Hearken to the Music. They will additionally function a particular collection of chapters that put a bow on a series’ ending as a lot as they add confusing cliffhanger questions.

However for a mangaka starting out, together with “the big three,” one-shots can even function a Hail Mary first draft that’ll grow to be the constructing blocks for his or her collection getting picked up.

Masashi Kishimoto wrote one for Naruto, Tite Kubo wrote one for Bleach, and Oda wrote one for One Piece. Wanted: Eiichiro Oda Before One Piece, printed in 2024, contains a compilation of quick tales, together with Monster, which Netflix tailored into an anime, earlier than Oda grew to become a family identify. However what we’re right here for is Romance Daybreak, the one-shot that may function the premise for One Piece‘s story.

Usually, when followers consider One Piece earlier than One Piece, the picture of Nami’s original character design, the place she’s wielding an enormous axe, involves thoughts. It goes arduous, and it’s a crying disgrace it by no means manifested within the collection correct. It’s additionally an ideal comfort prize that its tapped-in Netflix adaptation, which already references the manga color spread of the Straw Hat crew within the present, additionally referenced her OG fit from season one.

Except for design modifications, there hasn’t been a lot dialogue in regards to the authentic pilot itself, what was reduce, and what made it into the collection, aside from its title being the identify of the manga’s first quantity. So I made a decision to learn it and discover out for myself.

So what’s the identical about it? Luffy continues to be Luffy in that he’s goofy. Gum Gum fruit continues to be a factor, and his dream is to be a pirate. However first, the ripples in how Oda informed the story are very totally different from what followers bought when the collection launched in 1997. For starters, as an alternative of Shanks gifting Luffy his straw hat, it’s his grandpa, Garp, who seems to be like a chibi model of absolutely the unit of his last iteration. Extra apparently, although, is that its titular treasure isn’t the focus of the one-shot. As a replacement is a wrinkle in the kind of heroism Luffy engaged within the official collection as a freedom fighter.

Luffy’s dream is much less about being a pirate and extra about being a “Peacemain.” Peacemains, as one-shot Luffy explains, are a kind of pirate who go on adventures, preying on “Morganeers”—the sort of pirates who pillage and trigger chaos. This idea carries over within the ongoing series’ good politics, with the Straw Hats performing as freedom fighters, island-hopping, and releasing individuals from oppressive governments, the navy, and superpowered oligarchs. You’ll be able to see the energy of this concept resonate as an early spark within the one-shot that grew to become the collection right now, within the Straw Hat flag itself, which has grow to be a real-world symbol of resistance in Gen Z political protests.

Granted, the one-shot’s oversimplified model of excellent and unhealthy piracy as correct nouns was greatest left on the cutting-room ground. In any case, the collection’ ethical grey space between pirates and marines is certainly one of its strongest factors. No must put a load-bearing lore time period on it. Nonetheless, it’s spectacular to see that Oda had early concepts in regards to the heroism his crew would embody over greater than 1,100+ chapters/30 years later.

What follows is just about how the unique collection began out, with some neat little remixes. Luffy arrives on a villainous pirate’s boat and befriends one of many ship’s captives; as an alternative of that being Kolby, Luffy meets Nami off rip. Or extra particularly, he meets Ann. Whereas Ann is the spitting picture of Nami, her character looks like a combination with Nefertari Viv—a proven fact that’s charming looking back because the two are a popular pairing across all its versions. That is available in a parcel with Ann’s entire deal being that she has a pet companion, an enormous chicken named Balloon. Balloon is just about an early iteration of Vivi’s pet duck, Karoo.

As a substitute of getting Nami’s heartwrenching backstory, the one-shot sees Luffy assist Nami save Balloon from a nefarious pirate named Spiel the Hexagon, whom we will safely assume is an early iteration of Buggy the Clown. Spiel’s evil plot is to make use of Balloon’s blood as a result of it’s tied to an identical “sorcery” that the satan fruits give off.

The collection ends with Luffy punching out his adversary together with his stretchy fist as he and Ann sail off on an journey the place his identify rises in prominence. On a much less enjoyable observe, the one-shot additionally concludes with a small except for Oda about how he got here up with the concept for the collection, which features a point out of how he owes a lot of that to quitting his job as a manga assistant to Rurouni Kenshin‘s Nobuhiro Watsuki—a common path for aspiring mangaka, positive, however that could be a little bit of an ick to be reminded of One Piece‘s inception additionally owing rather a lot to his disgraced mangaka colleague.

All that stated, it’s neat to see how One Piece began out. Hyperbolically, it’s sort of like watching the Mona Lisa be painted. However much less exaggeratedly, it’s like trying on the key art of an anime earlier than all of the compositing and animation wizardry turns it into the work followers know and love worldwide. It’s additionally cool to see the spirit of remixing concepts keep it up, not simply from Romance Daybreak to One Piece however in Netflix’s live-action treatment of the collection.

So if this has added additional ammo to born-again One Piece followers, they will stay up for seeing the anime model of the chapter in its 907th episode. A frightening activity, yeah, however so long as you sort out it slowly, like consuming an elephant—progressively—you’ll in all probability get to it by the point the precise manga ends.

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