One Piece Volume 1: Romance Dawn (edició 2013)

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Title: Romance Dawn
Series: One Piece #1
Arc: East Blue Part 1
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 211
Words: 8K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Piece_chapters_(1_186)

Seven-year-old Monkey D. Luffy tries to join "Red-Haired" Shanks' pirate crew, but is rejected as too young. He accidentally eats a devil fruit which causes his body to gain the properties of rubber, but makes him unable to swim. After an ordeal with mountain bandits, Luffy abandons his plan to join Shanks' crew; instead, he vows to surpass Shanks, build up a crew of his own and become the next king of the pirates. Ten years later Luffy sets out to sea, frees the young Coby from a slave's life in Alvida's pirate crew and saves three-sword-wielding bounty hunter Roronoa Zoro from being executed by the Navy. With Zoro Luffy's first crewman, they set sail for the Grand Line (the sea where the One Piece – the treasure of the last king of the pirates – is supposedly hidden), and meet thief (and expert navigator) Nami.

My Thoughts:

I first started reading One Piece back in 2007. By 2011 I was up to Volume 29 and then Viz, the American company with the english rights, started playing catch up and publishing a volume every month. I couldn't afford that and neither could the library. So I stopped reading One Piece. Fast forward to 2021 and One Piece is up to Volume 97 this August. Digital manga is now a thing, which is good because my eyes can't handle the paper copies any more.

I was hesitant to start this series simply because you just never know how much you have changed in 14 years. Apparently, while I have changed, what I find funny hasn't. This still had me in stitches even while not laughing out loud.

Luffy D Monkey is a supremely confidant young man who isn't exactly humble but neither is he arrogant. He knows his powers and strengths and his weaknesses. He's just the kind of main character I like to read about. He's also insanely silly sometimes :-D

The original english translations use the name Roronoa Zolo instead of Roronoa Zoro. It should have been Zoro, as Zoro is a great swordsman of the 3 sword style (he literally holds and uses the third sword with his mouth) and his goal is to become the world's greatest swordsman. Just wanted to put that out there in case I ever include a picture and it he's referenced as Zolo instead of Zoro.

The most important thing to realize as you start this manga is to realize that the manga-ka is deliberately holding a Romantic View of pirates and the pirate life. Just accept it and you're good to go.

I'll talk more about other stuff in later volumes. This is enough for now.

★★★★☆ ( )

I liked the initial volume. Very light hearted. Nothing serious or emotional. Since I am a bit Naruto fan, I am finding a lot of Naruto character hangover here (though this book started before Naruto).
Hoping it gets better as we progress. ( )

A good start to the Manga series - I have watched the Anime first, and was interested in reading it from that. ( )

Liked Luffy, his initial battles, and the slow build of crew creation. Gum Gum... BUY MORE. ( )

This is one of my favourite manga. One piece has a wonderful setting and i love all the idiosyncrasies of various characters. ( )