One Piece

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What do you get if you throw pirates, fantasy, supers, action, comedy and hot babes into a blender, then cook it low and slow for 20 years and counting? You get One Piece.

Plot

20 years ago, the world's most famous pirate, Gol D. Roger (commonly misheard as "Gold Roger", both in-universe and out) was captured by the Marines. Right before he was executed, he revealed to a listening world that his legendary treasure, reputed to be the greatest the world had ever seen, was lying hidden in "One Piece" and he dared whoever listened to find it and claim it for themselves. Thus began the Great Pirate Era, as scores upon scores of thrillseekers, brutes, dreamers and bastards alike began flocking to the sea in pursuit of One Piece and the title "King of the Pirates" that its recovery would bestow upon them.

20 years since the Great Pirate Era began, enter our hero: Monkey D. Luffy, a typical shonen-esque manchild who, armed only with freakish strength, inexhaustible determination, a surprising amount of charisma and a Devil Fruit that has turned him into living rubber, sets out to find the One Piece and become King of the Pirates with his loyal crew, the Straw Hat Pirates.

Geography

The world on which One Piece takes place has no official name, but is sometimes nicknamed "The Grand Blue" by fans due to the naming theme of its major quadraunts. Unlike our world, the One Piece world is dominated by oceans, with thousands if not millions of comparatively small islands scattered across the vast seas. The sole continent is The Red Line, which lies atop an unbroken ridge of crimson stone that stretches in a complete circuit from the north pole to the south pole and rises hundreds of miles above the ocean's surface. Combined with the equatorial sea called The Grand Line, this divides the world into four quadrants; distinct seas called the Four Blues; North Blue, South Blue, East Blue and West Blue.

We don't know much about the Four Blues except that the East Blue is generally considered the "weakest" of them; it has the tamest weather, the fewest pirates, the least conflict and its people are generally closest to Earth normal. Which makes it all the more shocking that some incredibly strong people, including Gol D. Roger and Monkey D. Luffy, were born in the East Blue. Also, the North Blue is home to the Vinsmoke Kingdom/Germa 66, a bunch of powerhungry bastards who want to seize power from the World Government and who sell their elite troops out as mercenaries.

The Red Line is just as mysterious. We only know about two points on it; Reverse Mountain, where four enormous channels carry seawater up from the Four Blues and then down into the Grand Line, and Reverse Mountain's polar opposite of Mariejoise, the Holy City where dwell the Celestial Dragons and from which the World Government is ruled.

Cutting the Four Blues off from the Grand Line are the Calm Belts; miles-wide expanses of unnaturally calm, still water, devoid of currents and wind. Add to it that these are the breeding grounds of the Sea Kings, an array of giant oceanic monsters, and the Four Blues are effectively cut off from each other. Only the Navy can freely traverse the world by a combination of exclusive access to proprietary technology and maintaining a stable of badass warriors so strong they can kill Sea Kings as if they were swatting flies.

The Grand Line is where shit starts to get really fucking weird. For starters; every island in the Grand Line exists in its own permanent seasonal climate - Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter - but also has four seasons in synch with the wider world around it. This means you have sixteen possible seasons to take into account when you land on a given island; Summer-Summer could see you burning in a heat-scorched desert, whilst Winter-Winter would be a frigid artic climate at its absolute worst. Adding to the chaos, each island is made of a unique mixture of magnetic minerals, giving it a distinct magnetic field - so regular compasses, which work fine in the Four Blues, go absolutely apeshit in the Grand Line and are no use. Instead, you have to rely on a special device called a Log Pose, which can record the field of an island and unerringly track towards it - when you arrive on that island, it will reset itself by locking onto the field of the next nearest island. This leads to the existence of a secondary type of Log Pose called an Eternal Pose, which registers one magnetic field and never resets, so it can always guide to that specific island.

The side-effect of these crazy seasons and magnetic fields is that the sea of the Grand Line is absolutely nuts. Weather is random and unpredictable to the point you could go from a tropical spring day to dodging icebergs to wrangling a gale to back to sunshine in the span of five minutes, the currents are constantly shifting around, and to cap things off the water is full of monsters.

Oh, but it gets worse. See, the Grand Line is divided into two halves; the stretch from the entry at Reverse Mountain to Mariejoise is known as Paradise. This is because the next half, the so-called New World, is like Paradise turned up to eleven. The magnetic fields of the islands can fluctuate on an hourly basis, necessitating the use of a special triple-needled version of the Log Pose (sometimes referred to by fans as a "Tri Pose") to be able to navigate. The monsters are bigger and fiercer, the weather is nastier and crazier, and the people are the meanest, nastiest, strongest, toughest sons of bitches around. Nobody has ever reached the end of the New World except for Gol D. Roger and his crew, which is one of the reasons why he was considered the King of the Pirates. To even get to the New World, you need to either go over the Red Line through Mariejois, or dive down to the sea floor and go through the tunnel underneath it, which is the home of the fishmen and merfolk.

Also, high above all of these are the White Sea and the White-White Sea; "sky oceans" made up of clouds with a density akin to either water or land and inhabited by their own alien civilizations. These regions are as little-detailed as the Red Line and the Four Blues.

Races

Aside from the obligatory humans, the world of One Piece is full of strange humanoid races, though we don't know much about any of them.

Giants are known to inhabit this world, and are native to the Viking-flavored island of Elbaf. They are huge, strong and generally an honorable race.

Fishmen are a race of aquatic humanoids with physical traits of various fish - these traits appear at random for each child, so parents of one species may have features of an entirely difference species. Their size varies wildly, and they can be incredibly large. What distinguishes them from the merfolk is that they are always bipedal. Fishmen can breathe underwater and are roughly ten times stronger than the average human on average, although that varies between individuals. Whilst fishmen and merfolk live at peace, there's a long and bloody history between them and humanity. Despite this, fishmen and humans are capable of crossbreeding.

Merfolk inhabit the deep sea of the Grand Line and are distinguished from their fishmen relatives by always appearing as human from the waist up, and a fish from the waist down. When female merfolk reach the age of 30, they gain access to a low level of shapeshifting that allows them to split their tail into two fin-footed legs, allowing them to walk on land, as well as fuse it back together to restore their incredible swimming speed. Like fishmen, merfolk vary widely in size. Merfolk and fishmen can interbreed, in which case their offspring will randomly be either fishman or merfolk.

Fishmen and giants are known to be able to interbreed, creating hybrids called "Wotans". Some fans have speculated that the many absurdly large humans who show up throughout One Piece canon may actually be Half-Giants or the distant descendants of human/giant interbreeding.

Long-Arms, Long-Legs and Long-Necks are human subspecies characterized by unusually long and flexible bodyparts. These races are probably based on the Japanese yokai Tenaga-jin, Ashinaga-jin, and Rokurokubi respectively. We don't know much about these races, beyond that Long-Arms have a reputation as thieves and tricksters.

Triclops/Three-Eyes are another human subspecies, distinguished by the presence of a third eye in the center of their forehead.

Minks are a race of beastfolk who are found only on the wandering realm of Zou, an island-sized landmass that sits atop of a gigantic elephant named Zunisha that eternally roams the sea. It's unknown where they originated from, with fans speculating that they may have some connection Zoan type Devil Fruits, but like fishmen and merfolk, their animal species is random and not defined by strict parental heritage. They possess superhuman physical abilities, including the ability to generate powerful electrical attacks via an energy/fighting style they call "Electro", and can achieve a super-powered berserker state called "Sulong" by staring at the full moon.

Dwarves exist in the world of One Piece, but are tiny, inches-tall wingless fairy-like people known for their skill at gardening.

"Skyfolk" are a collection of human subspecies who inhabit the Sky Oceans. They can be distinguished by the vestigial wings sprouting from their backs.

Politics

Each island in the world of One Piece is nominally under its own independent authority, creating a vast, chaotic patchwork of kingdoms, republics, and gods know what else. However, in practice, everybody bows to the authority of the World Government, who have set themselves up as the supreme authority of the world. The World Government enacts its might through its control of the Navy, also known as the Marines; the single largest coherent fighting force in the world, officially dedicated to enforcing law and order and beating back the pirate hordes.

The World Government was founded 800 years ago, during something known only as "The Void Century", because all details have been deliberately scrubbed by the World Government. They have ruled for the 700 years since the Void Century ended without serious challenge. The nominal leaders of the World Government are the Celestial Dragons, the descendants of the royal families of the twenty kingdoms who united to form the World Government during the Void Century. However, 700 years of being treated as divinely blessed rulers of the world have made the Celestial Dragons hideously decadent, corrupt, self-serving and cruel, concerned for little other than indulging their every whim, no matter how petty, perverse or petulant. The true managing of the World Government is done by a council called The Five Elder Stars, and whilst officially they merely guide a democratic republic made up of the world's united kingdoms (at least those willing to pay the exorbitant annual tax/bribe that the World Government demands for membership), the truth is that they take their marching orders from an unknown leader.

It bears emphasis that the Celestial Dragons are complete and utter bastards, but because a combination of social exultation and the fact they are surrounded by ridiculously strong warriors who are paid ludicrous amounts of money to defend them against the merest thought of harm, nobody stands up to them. And, as the saying goes, the fish stinks from the head down; the rest of the World Government is just as corrupt and self-serving, and even the Navy, the ostensible face of law, order, truth and justice, is full of petty tyrants, murderously self-righteous fanatics, and every other asshole you wouldn't want in the military.

Challenging the might of the Navy and the World Government are The Four Emperors of the Sea; four New World-based pirate captains who are so ridiculously badass and powerful that they might as well be fucking gods and whose influence spans across the New World. The Four Emperors consist of Kaido (a ridiculously strong and tough giant who can shapeshift into a dragon, generally considered the most powerful being alive period), Charlotte "Big Mom" Linlin (a deranged giantess matriarch who can eat souls), Whitebeard (an ancient but badass warrior who can create continent-sinking earthquakes with a thought), and "Redhaired" Shanks (the youngest of the group, and the only one without a Devil Fruit, meaning he got the role through sheer combat skill and badassery).

Somewhere in between, although nominally on the side of the World Government, are The Seven Warlords of the Sea; a set of seven super-strong privateers who have accepted legitimacy in the face of the World Government's forces in exchange for being willing to aid them in opposing the Four Emperors and any other major-league threats. At the time of the story's start, the Seven Warlords consist of Dracule Mihawk (the world's greatest swordsman), Crocodile (a genius strategist with the power to turn into and manipulate sand, as well as disintegrate anyone he touches), Gecko Moria (a giant necromancer with an island-ship full of zombies), Bartholomew Kuma (a hulking cyborg with the power to "push" anything he wants to anywhere he wants - it's more dangerous than it sounds), Boa Hancock (an incredibly beautiful Amazon queen who can petrify anyone who thinks lustful thoughts about her), Jinbei (a fishman martial arts master), and Doflamingo (a sadistic genius with the power to create and control string, a Celestial Dragon by birth but outcast from his peers and pissed off about it). By Chapter 956 of the manga, the entire "Warlord" system was abolished and the pirates who filled it have had their bounties reinstated and now activly being hunted down by the World Government.

Also worth mentioning here is the existence of Impel Down, the great prison of the World Government reserved for pirates, which is technically an independent but allied nation. Impel Down is an artificial island consisting of a tower constructed from the surface of the sea down to the sea floor, and is divided into six levels, known as the Six Hells. Level 6 is top secret; nobody but the high-ranking government officials are supposed to know that it exists. Layer 1, Crimson Hell, is an artificial forest where every leaf and blade of grass is a razor sharp blade (the name comes because it's been stained red with blood), which is also infested with venomous spiders - the inmates are chased through the forest once every day. Level 2, Wild Beast Hell, is a labyrinth where the corridors are stalked by a variety of dangerous predatory animals, as well as four super-nasty Zoan-empowered guards. Level 3, Starvation Hell, is a desert-like super-heated oubliette; prisoners are tossed down here and left with the bare minimum of food and water to keep them alive in the perpetually scorching hot environment - the "sand" is actually made up of the desiccated remains of countless prisoners who died here and disintegrated. The heat comes from Level 4, Blazing Hell, where prisoners labor endlessly to stoke ridiculously huge fires that burn night and day, heating up a lake-sized cauldron of blood. Ironically, Level 5 is the Freezing Hell, a super-chilled snowy wasteland where prisoners struggle to survive in the face of the cold and the roving packs of hyper-aggressive arctic wolves (who btw, were moved from Level 2 beacause the wolves were too vicious and hunted down the other beasts from that level). Finally, Level 6, Forgotten Hell, is an oubliette reserved for the worst of the worst - the strongest, nastiest, most outright overpowered badass rogues ever to cross Impel Down's doorstep. Being unable to hurt them in any of the other hells, or simply because their crimes are that heinous, Impel Down doesn't even bother trying to torture them, but just tosses them down here in the dark to rot.

Superpowers

As a shonen action series, naturally, One Piece is full of fighting. What separates it from a "vanilla" pirate series is the use of outright superpowers. Whilst there are plenty of examples of typical shonen-esque "just that strong" badasses and wacky martial arts, there are a couple of major sources of superpowers that pop up during the series.

Devil Fruits

The most ubiquitous form of power in the One Piece world, and certainly the most famous, are Devil Fruits. These magical (or possibly archeotech, but fuck it, we'll stick with magic) fruits come in countless forms, united by the shared rules. Each specific fruit grants a single solitary power; you eat one bite of it, you get the power, and that fruit goes inert. Nobody can gain any benefit of that fruit until you die, whereupon the fruit "reincarnates" and becomes active again. Once you eat a Devil Fruit, you become vulnerable to water; immersion in standing water makes you weak and woozy depending on how much there is, and once it gets deep enough, you're basically totally paralyzed - doesn't matter how badass you are, if you fall into deep water, you become immobile and sink like a rock. This is why you travel with non-Fruit users; to save you from drowning. Also, you can only ever have ONE Devil Fruit power - if you try to eat another Devil Fruit, you'll die. You will literally disintegrate on the spot. There is a single exception to this rule; a villain named Blackbeard somehow acquires the power of a second Devil Fruit, and this is treated as a Big Fucking Deal by anyone who knows of it.

Also, you apparently can gain a Devil Fruit's power by cannibalizing its current holder before they die.

In addition to whatever powers they grant by default, Devil Fruits can undergo a mysterious phenomena called "Awakening". Very little is known about this phenomena, except that the end result is that it drastically augments the user's Devil Fruit abilities in some way. The only canonical example, Doflamingo's String-String Fruit, gave him the ability to transmute inorganic material in his surroundings into string his command, as well as producing string from his own body.

Devil Fruits are divided into three major categories, based on the type of powers they bestow. Whilst each Devil Fruit grants its own unique power, there can be a certain amount of redundancy; the existence of a Flare-Flare Fruit, which is the Logia of Fire, does not prevent the existence of the Magma-Magma Fruit (Logia of Magma), nor the Hot-Hot Fruit (Paramecia that lets you raise your temperature to "steel and stone melts in your presence" degrees).

Paramecias (or Paramythias, depending on the translation) are the most common of Devil Fruits, and can largely be summed up as "The Devil Fruits which aren't Logias or Zoans". Seriously, Paramecias have the widest variety of possible powers, all wrapped in a single word or concept. Whilst the average pirate aware of Devil Fruits may consider them the weakest of the three Devil Fruit categories, the truth is that they operate on Stand logic, where it's less the fruit's strength and more the user's creativity that defines how powerful a Paramecia user can be. To put things in perspective, of the Seven Warlords and Four Emperors who have Devil Fruits, there is a grand total of one Logia (Crocodile) and one Zoan (Kaido) - the others are all Paramecia users. Doflamingo, for example, has the String-String Fruit, which lets him create and control string. This seemingly innocuous power lets him do shit like create "blades" of monofilament wire that can cut battleships in half from miles away, control people like puppets, pseudo-regenerate by stitching wounds back together as fast as he takes them, "fly" by grappling from cloud to cloud, and create expendable clones of people by making string "dollies" of those people which are under his perfect mental control. Or Kuma, whose Paw-Paw Fruit gives him pawpads on his palm that let him teleport himself and others to anywhere on the planet, compress air into explosions, or "push" the fatigue and pain out of one person and into another person. The smart sailor knows that a creative Paramecia user can be one of the most deadly beings on the planet.

Zoans are Devil Fruits that allow the user to shapeshift into a specific animal, with each Zoan Devil Fruit granting access to two forms; the animal form, and a hybrid form. Of all the Devil Fruits, Zoans have the most redundancies, with many cases of specific Zoan Devil Fruits for specific species. For example, the Cat-Cat Fruit has specific Devil Fruits that let you become a lion, a cheetah, a leopard, a tiger, a jaguar, etcetera. Zoans have two notable subcategories; Ancient Zoans allow the user to become a prehistoric animal, like a dinosaur, whilst Mythic Zoans grant the forms of magical creatures, such as phoenixes or dragons. Whilst the average pirate would consider Zoans to be more powerful than Paramecias, the same people who know of the potential strength of the Paramecia often consider Zoans to be the weakest type of Devil Fruit. Whilst they do seem to grant an overall increase in physical abilities, they are the definition of a one-trick pony; you can turn in a specific animal, and that's that. Creativity can help, but it can only go so far in this case.

Zoan Devil Fruits are worth noting for the existence of two related phenomena. The first are Zoan Items; by unknown means, a weapon or tool can be "infused" with a Zoan fruit, turning it into a living creature that can shapeshift from item to animal and back (as well as into a hybrid form). This effectively can create very unusual but powerful weapons. Canon examples include a cannon that was "fed" a Dog-Dog Fruit, allowing it to shapeshift into both a warhound and a half-dog half-cannon that could move and fire itself, and a sword that was "fed" an Elephant-Elephant Fruit. The second phenomena are the SMILES; these are an attempt to artificially replicate Zoan Devil Fruits, and whilst they can work, they are incredibly flawed. 9 out of 10 will simply afflict the user both with the "super-drowning" weakness of a Devil Fruit and an inability to express any emotion other than smiling and laughter. Of the 10% of SMILES that actually do grant a power, the result can be anything from "permanently have your body mutated into a part-animal in a useful way" (for example, a Horse SMILE turning you into a Centaur) to "gain a limited form of Zoan-style shapeshifting" to "have your body permanently deformed in a useless way by part-animal traits". This last result is particularly common and results in some truly appalling freaks of nature, such as one guy who found himself becoming the "tongue" of a giant hippo.

Logias are the rarest and generally accepted as the most powerful of the Devil Fruits, period. These are elemental Devil Fruits, giving the user the ability to create and/or manipulate a single specific element. Usually, the user can also transform their body into that same element, which makes them virtually impossible to harm, but there are exceptions (the most notable being the Dark-Dark Fruit). Some Logias have unexpected secondary powers as well - the aforementioned Dark-Dark Fruit can nullify an opponent's ability to use their own Devil Fruit powers if the Dark-Dark Fruit's user can touch their opponent.

Haki

The most well-defined of the "super martial arts" in the series, Haki was the big revelation at the halfway point of canon, offering the most viable alternative to Devil Fruits as the "main" superpower of the setting. At its core, Haki is the standard shonen "willpower affects reality" affair, but there are three distinct Haki skills.

Armament Haki is the offensive Haki branch; by concentrating their will, the user can reinforce their body to nullify damage, and increase their own striking power. It's particularly useful in that Armament Haki can penetrate Devil Fruit-granted resistances; a skilled user could punch a Logia (who can normally just turn into elemental matter to let the blow pass harmlessly through them) or the eater of the Gum-Gum Fruit (which turns the body into living rubber, making the user immune to blunt force), and as such it's the most commonly seen and used of the three Haki branches.

Observation Haki strengthens the user's perceptive skills, in ways ranging from augmenting their ability to sense danger to full-blown combat-usable precognition.

Conqueror's Haki is the rarest of the three Hakis, and is the only one that can't be taught - you're either born with it, or you're not. It's basically a telepathic assault, allowing the user to knock the weak-willed unconscious or send them fleeing in irresistible terror through the sheer presence of their emotions.

Rokushiki

A World Government-controlled set of six super-powerful martial arts techniques, Rokushiki (The Six Powers, in English) were introduced as kind of a prototype to Haki, but quickly were forgotten once their users were defeated. They consist of:

• Geppo (Moonwalk): The ability to "fly" by literally walking on air, mechanically described as kicking so hard and fast that the user "pushes" off of the air as if it were a solid platform
• Tekkai (Iron Body): The ability to clench the muscles so tightly the skin becomes virtually impenetrable except by the most ridiculously strong.
• Rankyaku (Tempest Kick): The ability to strike so hard and fast that the wind pressure forms a projectile blade that can cut through steel and stone. Usually used as a kick, but it can be done with punches too.
• Soru (Shave): The ability to move with incredible speed, to the point the user can seemingly teleport, mechanically described as being able to kick off from the ground ten times in the span of one second.
• Shigan (Finger Pistol): The ability to jab a finger with such speed and strength it can punch through steel or leave bullet-like wounds in flesh.
• Kami-e (Paper Art): The ability to move with incredible flexibility, allowing one to "flow" around attacks with impossible grace and agility.

In addition, those who have mastered Rokushiki can use the hidden Seventh Technique, the secret art of the Rokuogan (Six King Gun), a powerful two-fist thrust that delivers a bone-pulverising shockwave into whatever it strikes.

Whilst two of the known masters of the Rokushiki are also able to use a technique called Seimei Kikan (Life Return) to manipulate their own bodies in unnatural ways, it is not a formal part of Rokushiki training but instead something they sought out on their own.