Episode 1: The Man Who Will Become the Pirate King | One Piece Review!

Summary
A luxury ship avoids a whirlpool. While passing by it, three of the crewmen notice a mysterious barrel floating in the sea. They decide to take it, believing that it contains ale. After pulling it up the ship, one of the crewmen notice another ship coming from behind a small island. Unfortunately for them, it bears the pirate flag of Alvida the Iron Club! She is a big, fat, brute of a pirate captain, in who's presence it is a taboo to say 'big', or 'fat', or 'ugly', or 'monster'.

(My first thoughts on this anime was: Okay, so what's with the crappy drawing? Haha. It feels like this is an anime made for kids, and the graphics is waaaaay uncool--I could draw stuff like this when I was 12!! haha...But after viewing the first few episodes, I find myself deeply enjoying this anime. Despite having a negative first impression in great part due to the graphics, and in part due to getting used to other 'cool' series like Gundam, or Samurai 7, or the like, this anime has something deeply stirring to it. This anime has the potential to make someone laugh, and cry.)

Commotion ensues in the luxury ship as the pirates jump on the deck! In the panic, the mysterious barrel rolls down (mysteriously. lol) to the ship's lower deck. Coby, a boy who dreams to become a Marine, and who has been working like a slave for Alvida ever since their 'unfateful' encounter, finds the wine barrel and decides to give to Alvida, perhaps to please her and avoid any punishment.

Three of the pirates, however, find him rolling the barrel, and they decide to take the wine for themselves. One of the pirates, a big, stocky man, decides to break the wine barrel with his fist and brute strength(I don't know why anyone would do that! lolz. You'd have much of the wine spilled to the floor that way), but while poised to strike, out from the barrel came bursting a lean, young man dressed in plain red clothes and wearing a straw hat! The big pirate is knocked unconscious, to the surprise of Coby and the two remaining pirates!

The young man is Monkey D. Luffy! Or Luffy, for short. He is a young man who dreams to become the Pirate King! The Pirate King is the person who has everything in this world--Wealth, Fame, and Power united within one person. The Pirate King is the person who possesses the greatest treasure in the world--One Piece!

The pirates run afterwards, dragging their unconscious companion, when, after trying to attack Luffy, they end up with broken swords.

Coby tries to convince Luffy to get away before Alvida the Iron Club finds out, but Luffy is hungry and decides to follow his sense of smell.

Meanwhile, an orange-haired young woman is pillaging the treasures on the pirates' ship. She hates pirates, and steals from them. You will get to know more of her in the later episodes. :)

Back to the scene below the deck. Coby tells his story and how he ended up as a slave in Alvida's ship. I get to laugh at Luffy for being so open (and tactless, in a light way, ^_^) at declaring Coby a coward. This is where Luffy says one of my most favorite lines, when Coby says that it is impossible for Luffy to become the Pirate King: "It's not if its impossible or not. I do it because I want to. I decided to become the Pirate King. I don't care if I die fighting for it." Luffy's courage is touching and deeply inspiring to someone as wimpy as Coby. Coby decides to change his fate.

The two pirates who encountered Luffy, run up to report to Alvida, who gives them a taste of her iron club upon their mention of the word 'monster'. It's a taboo around her. :) They report that the person might be a bounty hunter. Alvida has her suspicions that it might be Zoro, the Pirate Hunter.

Luffy turns out to be someone they're not expecting. He is a rubber man! He is someone who has eaten the Devil's Fruit, and has been endowed with power of the Devil of the Ocean.

This is where Coby stands up against Alvida. Luffy kicks pirate ass and sends Alvida flying across the seas!



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