Summary
It’s not an exaggeration to say thatOne Pieceis one of the greatest shonen manga in history. The fact that it can still dominate the top 10 list in terms of sales and popularity nearly three decades after its debut is nothing short of mindblowing.
There are tons of reasons behindOne Piece’sstaggering success, and one of them is its ability to subvertconventional Shonen tropes. With that in mind, here are the unique and refreshing waysOne Pieceturns the shonen tropes upside down.
Luffy Doesn’t Want To Be A Hero
During the Fishman Island Arc, Jinbe asked Luffy to be the hero of the fishmen. Without skipping a beat, Luffy said, “I love heroes, but I don’t want to be one. Do you even know what a hero is? Let’s say there’s a bunch of meat! Pirates will feast on the meat, but the hero will distribute it among the people! I want to eat the meat!”. This quote perfectly describes Luffy’s core values as a character.
Most main characters in the Shonen series do what they do because of selfless reasons. Goku fromDragon Ballfights dangerous enemies to protect the people of the earth,Deku fromMy Hero Academiawants to be the hero who protects the powerless, and even Tanjiro fromDemon Slayerrisks his life to save his sister, and there are tons of other selfless heroes like them.
That is not the case for Luffy at all. Sure, he saves countless people, even entire kingdoms on multiple occasions, but he does it simply because his friends happen to be the citizens of those kingdoms. That is the case for Nami’s hometown, Chopper’s Drum Island, Vivi’s Alabasta, and Rebecca’s Dressrosa, just to name a few.
He doesn’t do all that because he wants to bethe hero who saves innocent people. He simply does it because the bad guy hurt his friends, so he wants to get back at them. Everything he does comes from the need to satisfy his own desire, not for the sake of some greater good or to be the people’s champion. Fortunately, what he desires is often in line with the good of the people.
Who Is The Good Guy?
Another reason why Luffy is not your typical hero is simply because, in the world ofOne Piece, Luffy and his crew are considered to be criminals. That alone makes him different from the overwhelming majority of Shonen heroes out there. But the fact that he is a pirate doesn’t mean he’s bad, or thelaw enforcer like the Marine is good. It’s much more complicated than that.
Luffy, and numerous other pirates in the series, often act as the good guys, while the Marines, who are supposed to be the allies of justice, are the ones who oppress the people. That said, there are also ruthless and dangerous pirates like Kaido and Doflamingo who would kill countless people without batting an eye, and kind andheroic Marines like Garp and Kobywho would do whatever they could to protect innocent people.
Unlike other shonen series that have clear-cut heroes and villains, likeMy Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball, and countless more, it can be hard to discern who are the good guys and the bad guys inOne Piece. Both sides can be good. Both sides can be evil. And there are even those who live in the gray area.
No Training, No Tournaments
Two of the biggest tropes in Shonen are training and tournament arcs.Naruto, Dragon Ball, Fairy Tail, My Hero Academia, Black Clover, Jujutsu Kaisen, and countless other big Shonen series have both of these arcs baked into their stories. Other series likeDemon SlayerandBleachmay not have a tournament arc, but they arelittered with training arcs. Meanwhile, series likeRecord of RagnarokorKengan Ashuraare basically one massive tournament arc.
As forOne Piece, most of the training happened off-screen. It’s as if every character figured out how to improve their abilities in their own free time, away from the prying eyes of the audience. The only thing that resembles training montages are some short clips after the end of the Marineford Arc where the Straw Hats members are separated from each other.As for the tournament, a case can be made for the Davy Back Fight mini arc back in the early days of the Straw Hats pirate. However, it’s actually more akin to a strange yet interesting battle between two pirates, rather than an actual grand tournament involving multiple parties.
Those are some of the unique and refreshing waysOne Piecesubverted the Shonen tropes. That being said, evenOne Piececannot fully escape some of the tropes that define the Shonen as a whole, such as tragic backstories, yelling out the name of their special moves, elaborate monologues, and many others.
However, as described above, as much as they follow the rules, they also break them and even pave new anddifferent ways to tackle those tropes. Because of that, they open the path for other subsequent series to follow their examples, which we can already see in series likeAttack on Titan, Chainsaw Man, and the most recent one,Dandadan.
One Pieceis available to stream onCrunchyroll.
More:One Piece: What Happened To The Whitebeard’s Fleet After The Marineford Incident?
