Every Friday I read the latest chapter of One Piece and every week it reaffirms that One Piece is the greatest piece of literature in comic book form at least since I was growing up. I don't mean it in the sense that it is extremely intellectual well-written dialogue with deep themes and symbolism, but rather that the worldview and story is bigger and better than anything else I've ever read, hell even in novel form (it helps that OP is fucking LONG).
The worldview is incredible. Things happen in the present and then you go back and re-read chapters from years ago and you see people commenting off hand about these exact same things and you realize this was all foreshadowed and connected years ago into the worldview. There are so many MAJOR characters, major groups, and the world is so big...yet everything makes sense and is just weaved together so perfectly that it feels like the author Oda Eiichiro must have sat down and basically jotted out a 1000 outline of the entire universe before he even started the manga.
Even the characters are fantastic. The lead character Luffy is probably the most likeable lead in any Japanese comic to date. It's impossible to hate the guy, he's just awesome. The rest of the crew and the antagonist are usually fun and likable as well. The major villians and major powers tend to be well developed interesting cast members.
The writing has excellent humor, great emotionally powerful moments where you stand up and cheer along with the characters, and great fight setups.
The art is kinda funky and it turns a lot of people off, but you get used to it and it gets better as it goes along. It's no Berserk or anything in artistic excellence but it looks good.
So yeah, outside of a few people on gaf I don't know ANYONE who actually reads One Piece. Instead people read these shitty comics like Naruto or Bleach or something...wtf! Sometimes you meet someone who watches the anime adaptation of OP, but it's got nothing on the comic. The pacing is slow and there's added fillers between arcs. It's an utter crime to humanity that so few people outside of Japan read One Piece. Normally I think mainstream and majority taste is usually awful, but the fact that One Piece, which is IMO the greatest manga ever written is also the #1 most popular manga in all of Japan and has millions of readers makes me happy inside. Unfortunately this does not expand to the western world.
I implore you, if you haven't read One Piece, give it a fair chance. The beginning is kinda iffy as the start of most comics are, but sit down for an hour or two and read a few volumes and give it a fair shake. Maybe it won't be for you, but it just might become the greatest thing you've ever read and make you a happier person.
