The manga One Piece is currently a manga that is running on the magazine Shonen Jump, a weekly magazine that releases multiple chapters of different manga at once. One Piece is one of the longest running manga as well as the most successful for their volumes are the best selling in Japan. It is also one the oldest manga on Shonen Jump releasing its first chapter in 1997, a testament to its popularity as mangas are ongoing and the popularity lets the manga to keep running and stay on the magazine. I have read One Piece for many years on the internet as a chapter is released each week. It has also adapted into a show that is also currently running is Japan.
Here is a link for people to read One Piece Online
http://www.mangareader.net/103/one-piece.html
The story is set in a fictional time of pirates with the main character being on the right here named Monkey D. Luffy (Luffy first name, Monkey Last name). The story like many Japanese manga is supernatural with characters having superhuman or supernatural abilities such as the main character Luffy being able to stretch his body as his body has rubber properties from eating a fruit that grants the eater a random ability along with having super strength. The story follows the adventures of Luffy as he sails the seas dreaming to become the King of Pirates while searching for the legendary treasure of the previous pirate king called One Piece (the namesake of the series). Along the way he will assemble his crew through meeting new friends and enemies which is the general core of the story. The story is generally positive and happy through the funny jokes and actions of Luffy but at the same time can be serious and sad as well. The story is also separated into arcs where the story will focus into a certain adventure until completion then it will focus into another arc and so on.
The art work is very unique as many characters in the story do not possess a shape that is typical of a normal person such as people that are a lot larger then others while some have large arms with normal sized legs while Luffy himself is very proportioned. This way of drawing leaves readers in a sense that they wont be surprised when interesting shaped people are introduced. When reading One Piece many will find it funny as Luffy the main character himself is very courageous but stupid in a funny way as he interacts with other characters but at the same time can being very meaningful as most characters have deep back stories that are revealed so characters are not simple and have no substance. Each of the main characters have a large importance that affect other characters and even if one dies they continue to affect the story through influencing others.
Like many other manga, One Piece is read right to left with panels separating sequences such as time and actions. Speech bubbles are generally placed closer to the character speaking rather then pointing to them. It is still easy to tell who is speaking as each of the main characters have completely unique personalities so it is easy to distinguish between speech bubbles.
One piece is not a graphic novel that remains popular with it funny jokes and antics. It is popular because the story does not diverge from the main idea of manga. For example story arcs usually tend to stray away a bit from the main idea but for One Piece each arc plays an important part of the structure of the story. This leaves the reader satisfied as the story does not waste time while can go on for many years as the chapters released continue to add depth to the story. Many at first will find One Piece very strange as a main character who can stretch is very awkward but as you read through it you can see that the story has incredible depth and nothing is a placeholder in that story. I would recommend this graphic novel to anyone as it is a read for all ages.
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