I know it's a dumb kids anime, but god damn it's so entertaining. I just got caught up to episode 953 (took me a whole year lmao) and now I'm watching the first season again on Netflix. That season one intro makes me so nostalgic I could cry!!
The character designs of Oda are really unparalleled and the early seasons are actually funny as hell. As far as messaging goes, I think the show is kinda confused because in one arc they'll be helping to restore a monarchy, then the next, aiding revolutionary fighters. Generally the crew seems pretty anarchistic tho in their fuck the Navy attitude and how everyone on board has a say.
The Wano arc is exciting and I wonder where it will go to next, Raftel maybe?? I'd like to see the straw hats interact with Shanks and his crew finally. What do you guys think?
the one piece is communism
edit: like, it actually probably will be something along the lines of the communist manifesto.
A huge inspiration for oda was toriyama (goku = the monkey in monkey d. luffy), who is unintentionally anarchist in almost all of dragon ball (goku being a person that can't see race, gender, class, etc., and who entirely fights archists (emperor pilaf, general red, king piccolo, prince vegeta, king frieza, Cell, who has a king motif, and Buu, who has a sultan motif)). idk where i waqs going wit this sry
This is a scalding take comrade. I've been trying to sus out what Oda's politics are, but to no avail. Luffy doesnt really seem to have a coherent ideology other than "I'm gonna be king of the pirates", but the way he operates is very comrade-like. Nami is a capitalist for sure. The rest of the crew are anyone's guess
Eh, whenever Nami talks about money, she's not talking about money. Ex) she cries about the billion berries they didn't get from Alabasta, because that's what it would have taken for her to wholly accept Vivi being gone without sadness. Arlong made it impossible for her to not interpret the world through money
Gonna talk about the Nefertari's real quick cus them and the Ancient "Kingdom" are the key to understanding Oda dumbing this shit down for kids, imo. The Nefertari's themselves being one of the 20 monarchs that opposed the Ancient Kingdom, although unlike all the other world nobles, they peaced out immediately, and hid one of the Ancient Weapons from them. Either way, Vivi and Cobra both literally describe a 'kingdom' as a people, which imo is there to show us that the Ancient Kingdom wasn't a monarchy like the World Government, but a at least a country with liberal democracy.
Spoilers if you're not caught up with Wano
Talking Gol D. Roger finding the One Piece and learning about Joy Boy and the real history, but being unable to do anything about the World Government. The void century, One Piece, and the World Government are thus linked entirely. So we know that the Ancient Kingdom was opposed by actual kings, who allied in order to defeat and erase their entire existence from history. They were that scared of something they knew or believed, because it's not like they did the same for the Ancient Weapons that could like actually destroy the world.
When Roger discovers the One Piece, he realizes he can't do shit, because he's dying of cancer, which afaik was established in Sabaody. If the One Piece is anything but history (and imo it's something along the lines of the communist manifesto in that it's entirely ideological), then a dying Roger could have done legit anything, but instead he lets himself get caught and executed*, so he could tell others to find it and inherit his and the ancient commies will.
i can go on forever with this pepe silvia shit, there's like a thousand fking chapters