#then again since he was roger's first mate shanks was inspired by him

[bottlepiecemuses]

Rayleigh Is Pulling A Shanks

Putting Blackbastard in his place. 

[deepmagician]

Chapter 1: Romance Dawn

Finally, here we go: the first chapter of One Piece! Romance Dawn is also the name of the first arc, and I think it’s a pretty good one. Full of promise for what’s to come. Now, first things first- before actually reading chapter 1, I have to alert those of you who may not know about this banger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eMfVfMkJDw

The infamous One Piece Rap. I’m not going into the history of the anime here, this is all about the manga, but I will say that the beginning is an accurate summary of the beginning of the manga. Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates, has left a great treasure somewhere. It’s explained later that One Piece is what people call the treasure, seeing as he left his vast wealth together. In... one piece. Neat.

This is the picture that opens the first volume, and I think it sets the mood for a lot of One Piece; Luffy, our hero, having a good time with his friends. We’ll meet them all soon enough, but it’s time to actually start the chapter, with our first appearance of Luffy. Probably read the chapter before this post, but you do you.

Cartoony kid with a giant mouth, Monkey D. Luffy. What does the D stand for? We’ll find out eventually, I’m sure. But right now we’re here to see Luffy establish his character:

He’s tough and he’s got an iron will, and he’s going to prove himself to everyone- especially the pirates using his village as a base. Pretty typical shonen protagonist in a lot of ways, but Luffy has tenure. The pirates are kinda impressed by Luffy’s bravado, but they still aren’t going to let him sail with them. So says their captain Shanks:

Shanks is a pretty cool guy. Very chill, and takes Luffy seriously even though he’s a pushy kid. He may be poking fun at Luffy, but he’s got a good point- Luffy is a kid and the sea is dangerous. If Luffy can’t swim, he’s going to be in big trouble. Shanks’s crew are generally hanging around and being jolly while this happens, which seems to be what they do most of the time. You can see why Luffy’s enamoured with them, and promises to learn to swim so he can join them. Either way, Shanks has been hanging around Luffy’s village for a year, so his crew, the Red Hair Pirates, are gonna sail off before too long. While everyone else is having a good time, however, a mountain bandit named Higuma the Bear makes a dramatic entrance. 

What’re you eating there, Luffy? Anyway, Higuma wants grog, and the pirates have drank the lot. Shanks offers him a bottle that hadn’t been touched yet- you know, because he’s a cool guy- and gets it broken in his face for his troubles. Higuma’s not playing. His bounty is 8 million berry and he’s killed 56 people. Berry (or beri, or beli, or even belly) is the currency of the setting, and 8 million is nothing to scoff at- for reference, 10,000 berry would buy you a very expensive shirt, as an example Oda gives later. Shanks plays it off and Higuma leaves, and Luffy is furious that Shanks didn’t stand up and fight the bandit. He goes to leave, and...

Oda loves his reaction faces, and here’s our first real look at them. Yes, the fruit Luffy was eating was a valuable treasure: a Devil Fruit that the Red Hair Pirates had looted from another ship. Luffy ate it, and now his body is made of rubber, but there’s a price: he will never be able to swim. Oops. For those curious about the Devil Fruits and their rules, we’ll get to it eventually, don’t worry. Anyway, a while later, it’s the day the pirates will set sail, and Luffy isn’t concerned- he doesn’t care about sailing with them any more after Shanks disappointed him. However, Higuma comes back to the bar, and Luffy picks a fight: 

It doesn’t go well. Still, Luffy’s made of rubber now, and that means he can take a hit like a champ, despite being a literal child. He gets beat up until Shanks shows up, but Higuma isn’t concerned. He thinks Shanks is a chump and has a bandit pull a gun on him.

Turns out Shanks being chill is a symptom of the ice in his veins, because he absolutely doesn’t give a shit as the guy threatening him gets executed. An icon. Up next are two panels that establish a lot of the tone of the series to come.

Good pirates fight for their friends, and they don’t care what they have to do to defend them. This is basically Luffy’s entire deal going forward, and it shows how much he does still really idolise Shanks. Luffy’s a bit of a brat right now, but he’s still a good boy who wants to take care of everyone.

Shanks’s first mate (who, like the rest of his crew at this point, is still unnamed) takes out the mountain bandits single-handedly and with basically no effort, so that’s cool. Higuma immediately gets the hell out of town, taking Luffy onto a small boat and kicking him into the water. Luffy can’t swim, and we’re about to learn why being helpless in the water is such a problem in the One Piece world:

This is what they call a Sea King. The world of One Piece is mostly islands of varying size, separated by a lot of water. We’ll get specific details about the world and setting later, but the big thing to know right now is that these things are everywhere. Pirates have to be ready to defend themselves from actual kaiju at a moments notice. Maybe Higuma realised he wasn’t ready for the big leagues the second before he got eaten. But what about Luffy, left in the water? Not to worry, Shanks shows up and frightens the Sea King away. Really, he tells it to leave and it does.

Luffy is saved, and he believes in Shanks once again! But at what cost...?

In a world where there’s giant monsters and pirates everywhere, Shanks sacrificed his arm for a child. For real, Shanks is a great character who inspires Luffy to do everything he does in the future. But for now, having saved Luffy and the village from the mountain bandits, his crew is ready to go. Luffy knows he’s not ready to sail with them yet, but he has a goal for the future.

Shanks gives Luffy his straw hat, saying it means a lot to him and that, once Luffy is a great pirate, he can give it back. Then he sails away, leaving Luffy to prepare. Ten years later, at that very spot, Luffy begins his quest to become King of the Pirates. He talked up his punch as having the strength of a pistol as a kid, but can he live up to his boast?

Of course he can. He’s our hero! 

And with this a grand adventure begins. It’s been a long time since I last read this chapter, and I’m glad to see how much it lives up to the legacy it created, and sets up so much of the tone and themes. It was an extra long chapter, as is pretty standard for chapter 1s in manga, and future posts won’t be as long, probably. Either way, I’m excited to be embarking on Luffy’s journey alongside him! Even though it’s for the second time... 

[eloarei]

Charmed

words: 1,464 fandom: One Piece characters/ pairings: Makino, Shanks, Ben Beckman, Ben/Shanks, Makino/Shanks flirting tags: oneshot, minor characters, drunken flirting notes: I started rewatching One Piece, and decided I was going to write a short fic about each of my favorite less-popular characters and/or pairings. I’ve never written about any of these characters before, although Ben/Shanks has always been on my periphery as a ship I know I’d be head over heels for if I tried it. (lol actually, I have several doujinshi of them, so it’s weird that I never looked up any fic.) Cross-posted on AO3. ~*~  There was something charming about the red-haired pirate, and even if he hadn't shamelessly and drunkenly flirted with her several times, Makino thought she'd probably still think so.

She had no idea what made the Red-Hair pirates decide to camp out in their quaint little town, because Fuusha was neither a bustling port city nor a remote vacation destination, but she didn't mind. Well, she minded at first; like any other village maiden, Makino was aware of how terrible pirates could be, and she was as wary of them as anyone. But they ended up being truly alright sorts, and what was more: they paid for their drinks. As bartender, that was a huge step towards a good impression on her. The little island had bandits galore (they liked to hide up in the mountains for some reason), but pirates rarely stopped through, so Makino didn't have a good idea of what they were supposed to be like, except for hear-say. (And there was plenty of that, these days, since Gold Roger had gone and sent everybody into a frenzy.) People said pirates were loud and rude and took what they wanted and were generally to be feared, and the Red-Hair pirates proved that to be mostly true and yet very false. They were definitely loud. They spent hours at the bar, sometimes a week in a row before they went out again, and the place had never seen so much activity. Butts in every seat (and table, and empty bit of floor space) and drinks in every mug (and sometimes hats and boots and skulls and other places drinks didn't normally go), and laughter filling the air. They were truly a boisterous bunch. Bartending had never felt so much like attending a party. Admittedly, they were rude too-- but never to her, or the other villagers, or even the bandits. It was just how they treated each other, with a sort of casual violence and disregard that might have seemed alarming if you didn't pay closer attention to them. But Makino could tell that they all genuinely cared about each other, despite the pushing and shoving and punching and insults, or maybe because of them. It was their own special brand of camaraderie, how they showed their affection. Well, mostly. They were a drunken bunch, and free with their affections, which mostly meant fighting and insulting, but sometimes meant draping themselves over one another and pressing messy kisses all over each other's beer-reddened faces. Their captain (the eponymous red-hair, Shanks) was the worst offender. Makino could hardly count the number of times she'd seen him leaning heavily on some crewmate or another, periodically slobbering on their face like a big excited dog. None of them seemed to mind; even the ones who didn't respond in kind would only shove him away enough to get some breathing room, grinning still like it was just another quirk of their beloved captain. Shanks had even come on to her a few times. She remembered the first time in painful clarity, like she could still feel the burning in her cheeks. He'd been slouched happily at the bar and just reached over and grabbed her hand and started pressing kisses to it like it was something they did all the time. “Ah, Makino, you're my favorite! You're the best bartender in this town. No, no, in the whole world! Has anybody ever told you that?” Even in the faint reflections of the glasses she'd just been cleaning, she could see clear as day how the color had risen in her usually-pale face almost bright enough to match Shanks' hair. She wasn't sure what she was feeling: some volatile combination of mortification, irritation, and exactly what you'd expect to feel when a charming and attractive man starts lavishing affection on you. She didn't have the strength or presence of mind to pull away, but luckily Shanks' first mate was never nearly as drunk as anyone else, and was on captain-guard-duty that day. “Lay off the woman, you lout,” Ben Beckman told his captain in a low rumble that was maybe a bit menacing, but definitely full of exasperated affection. He reached over and pinched Shanks' arm when the man didn't seem to hear him. The captain had the grace to look a little sheepish, even through his drunken haze. He pulled back from Makino's hand (damp on top from his messy kisses, moist on the palm from sweating), and gave her as polite and charming of an apology as he could probably manage. “Sorry, Miss Makino. I was just so impressed by the spirits today I could hardly help myself!” She'd brushed it off, of course, laughing and brushing her hair back behind her ear in a nervous sort of gesture. It had left her a little preoccupied for a few days, but she knew it didn't mean anything. It wasn't even that she wanted to date Shanks or anything (women did, of course, sometimes marry pirates, or marry a man that later went on to be a pirate, but it didn't seem like an appealing life, always waiting for him to come home, hoping he hadn't gotten himself killed), it was just that it was hard not to get a little flustered in a situation like that, even if it was clear as day that he wasn't really interested in her. (Not as more than a friend and provider of booze, at least.) No, she was fairly certain that Shanks was already involved with his first mate anyway. Beckman always kept an eye on his energetic captain, and never seem terribly upset when the man started getting handsy with their other crewmates (or the bartender). But he was always there for Shanks to stumble back to, and Shanks did. As touchy as he got with the others, the captain always still seemed to be playing. With Beckman, though, he looked more serious. He didn't perch on his lap in quite the same haphazard way, and he wasn't always full of laughs and sloppy kisses. Beckman was the one he went back to when his mood had started to calm. He'd slouch next to the tall man, lay his head on his shoulder, fiddle with his long black ponytail, and gaze up at him with a deep considering look you only ever saw on people who were drunk, or in love. (Makino's bet was on 'both'.) All the while, the first mate would puff on his cigarette and act like he was pretending he didn't notice or care that Shanks had melted into him, but from Makino's front-row seat she could see the way Beckman shifted gently to bring them closer together. Also they had sort of told her. After they'd stuck around for a while and she'd decided she wasn't hoping they'd go away any time soon, she realized she didn't know all that much about them and had started asking the usual questions: Where did you come from? Which island has been your favorite? Why did you decide to become pirates? It was just the two of them at the bar when she asked, “How long have you been together?” and she didn't realize Shanks had misunderstood her until halfway through his answer. “Oh, since we were back on the Oro Jackson, I guess. First time I hit on him, he thought I was trying to bribe him or something, since he had more seniority with the crew.” He laughed at the memory. Beckman gave a smirk that, on him, might as well have been a grin. “You always were shameless.” Shanks slapped him lightly on the shoulder. “Hey now, are you really gonna talk about your captain that way? You're gonna have to make it up to me later.” Rolling his eyes at Shanks' playfully lewd (and hopeful) expression, Beckman turned and raised an eyebrow at Makino. “As I said: shameless.” The group stayed a little less long that day than they normally did, and Makino got the impression that Beckman didn't mind his captain's shamelessness one bit. She never did figure out how long the crew had been together (her original intention with that question), but she figured the answer was 'long enough', given how much each of them clearly adored their captain. Then again, maybe it didn't take very long at all for Shanks to inspire that sort of loyalty; she'd only known him a few months and already she'd be hard-pressed to deny that she sort of adored him as well. That charming man, there was really just something about him. The Red-Hair pirate crew did eventually decide it was time to leave their little island, and Makino was sad to see them go, but glad she had a chance to meet them in the first place. And who knew? Maybe when the Great Age of Piracy was over, the great pirates would come back around for another long vacation.

[animeride-blog]

5 Themes In One Piece You Should Know About https://animeride.com/blogs/7083/5-themes-in-one-piece-you-should-know-about/

New Post has been published on https://animeride.com/blogs/7083/5-themes-in-one-piece-you-should-know-about/

5 Themes In One Piece You Should Know About

One Piece explores many themes like Slavery, Racism, Bonds, Inheritance, just to name a few, to tell it’s majestic story. It’s almost like a religious message with the cover up of shounen to make the holy book of One Piece seem more interesting to read in order for as many as possible to become better human being by learning from things the story tells us we shouldn’t do. It could be possible, he is Goda after all. Whatever may be the case, those themes are always fun to see in our favorite anime. With that, i am King, and here are 5 themes in one piece you should know about.

Number 5

Roger Pirates and Strawhats.

  Let’s first get the obvious one out of the way which is the parrarels and themes both of these crew has. Both the crews value friendship and their friends over anything and their captains especially have shown to be gone to ridiculous lengths if someone dares say something bad about them. The captains of both crews had a similar ability – Voice Of All Things -, they forced their fitst mate to join them, their first mate is a Swordsman and more then likely to be revealed in the future both first mates specialize in Armament Haki and have Conquerors Haki. Roger got his ship – Oro jackson – made by Tom of Water 7 and we know Luffy also got his ship from Water 7 and that too from Tom’s apprentice.

Number 4

The Theme of 3

One of the most apparent and active themes in One Piece is the Trifecta of various things. To start off, you have the Marine Admirals, The Powerhouses of the Marine, which are 3 in number. When you have a look at the powers of the 3 originally introduced Admirals in the story, they all had a Devil Fruit which was Logia in type. Talking about Devil Fruits, there are types of Devil Fruits we have been told exist. Paramecia, Zoan and Logia. A number of 3. When we move over in the Haki department, we can also see this theme as we have 3 types of Haki which are Observations, Armament, and Conquerors. Apart from of these, we have 3 Ancient Weapons, The 3 Great Powers – Marines, Shicibukai and Yonkous – 3 main commanders for a Yonkou, a monster trio for the Strawhats and so on.

 Moreover there are 3 main trees in the world of One Piece with significance. Those being The Treasure Tree Adam. Tree Of Knowledge and Sunlight Tree Eve. Some predict the former 2 have been inspired from the trees in heaven according to Bible and since there were 3 trees in heaven, there could be another important tree yet to be revealed to complete the trifecta of the holy trees, so to speak. There is even theories out there that Blackbeard might get 3 Devil Fruits since his Jolly Roger has 3 skulls, adding on to this theme.

Number 3

Theme of Yonkous

  Moving over to Yonkous now, each of them have a specific theme which defines their crew and what type of powers you can expect from them.

Kaido

Starting with Kaido, he seems to have a “Card” based theme to his crew where his underlings seem to be named based on the cards. Drake who is his underling is the ten in the card. Joker one is self explanatory. And there are leaks from Oda’s office which suggest his calamities – Commanders – also follow this route. We already have Jack, based of the Jack in Card Game. And the leaks suggest there will be a Queen, King and Kaido above all of them. His crew also has the beast and Zoan theme to it so you can expect most of his, especially commaders to be Zoan based users who have an intimidating appearance.

Big Mom

Big Mom follows a Theme of “Sweets” in which majority of her crew has powers relating to sweets. Her 3 commanders, Her Eldest Son and Tottoland being some examples of it. Along with which, her crew also follows a theme of “paramecia” based devil fruit users.

Blackbeard

Blackbeard’s theme isn’t much apparent as of yet but it seems to be heavily Devil Fruit based as his crew is actively looking for strong Devil Fruits, which is what we saw in Dressrosa. A likely guess would be that the theme of his crew would be that of Versatile Devil Fruit users lile that of the old crew he was part of, Whitebeard Pirates.

Shanks

This one is very obvious. Shanks has himself heavily implied that he doesn’t accepts Devil Fruit users in his crew. And we can see it since whenever we see his crew in a fight, they use weapons of some sort. Benn Beckman and Lucky Roo use a Gun while Yasoop uses projectile weapons. Shanks himself is considered to be a Haki Master and since his crew doesn’t seem to be having Devil Fruits, a “Haki” theme for his crew seems very plausible where his crew basically relies on Overpowered Haki to rival the monsters in the New World.

Number 2

Unity Is The Key

  One of the best things about One Piece is how two parties or multiple ones maybe at odds with each other but willingly or unwillingly, they end up working as a cohesive unit to work towards a common goal and achieve it eventual after a great struggle. And the best part about it is it doesn’t comes of as forced or cheesy like Fairy-Friendship or Talk-No-Jutsu. One of the best examples of this could be found in the Dressrosa arc. The pirates and other parties involved in the tournament were against Luffy, or had antagonistic personalities. But when they were trapped by Doflamingo in the Toy Factory Underground and freed by Ussop afterwards, they forcefully aligned themselves with Luffy to take down Doflamingo. This was necessary as Strawhats were overmatched with only half of the their crew present so Colosseum fighters were used in to help them and done so in such in efficient way that it felt natural as they come. Hell even Luffy didn’t want any of it but that’s what made it work and most of the Alliances Luffy has been in situations similar to this.

And Number 1

History Repeats Itself

  Something that happened in the past will happen again is one of the consistent messages Oda gives us through his manga for a sense of realism as it could also happen in the real life.

First you can have a look at the commonly known or some of the many commonly known parallels between the Alabasta and Dressrsa arc. A Shichibukai trying to take over/takes over a kingdom. The female subordinate of the Shichibukai which is a princess betrays him and tries to overthrow him out of power. Luffy meets his brother, there is a rebel organization in both arcs and we get new crew members/subordinates at the end of the arc. Except the parrarels, Dressrosa in some ways is also a progressions of things from Alabasta in a sense. l. Not just this arc, there are parallels between other arcs as well which i think you may have noticed like non talking things, talking in WHI, which is what we also saw in Thriller Bark. A strawhat leaves the crew – Zou Arc and Water 7 – and is rescued in the following arc – Ennies Lobby and WHI -.

Excluding the parallels, we have what you could call homages to previous arcs or events of One Piece to better tell that history repeats itself in which events repeat themselves in exact fashion.

In their travel to Nami’s Village, Strawhats encounter a Seaking, Luffy one shots him, tames him after which it takes them to the village, Seaking turns out to be the villains pet and is prdered to attack the Strawhats which it reduses to do.

In their travel to Fishman Island, Strawhats encounter a sea creature called Krakken, Luffy One Shots Him then tames him after which they reach Fishman Island with the help of the Krakken and it also turns out to be the villains pet. It’s ordered to attack the Strawhats and it also refuses to do so.

  In Fishman Island arc, we have the arc’s female lead, Shirahosi, asking Luffy to help her while crying and in Arlong Park Arc, Nami also asks Luffy for help while crying. Shirohoshi’s mother was killed by Hody by a gun and when we go back, Nami’s mother was also killed by a gun by a fishman who was the main antagonist of the arc.

Other include such as Luffy being attcked by a mythical creature in Punk Hazzard like he was in Little Garden. Zoro cutting a Dragon’s head in Punk Hazzard and the Samurai Ryuma from the Thriller Bark arc had also done the same thing in his past. Numerous Strawhats being chased out of their hometowns after they join the crew and many, MANY MORE.

And That’s my list! Comment down any of the themes that you like since there are so many in One Piece.