The opening
Before going any further, let's watch some One Piece. And we are going to start from the very beginning, just like the author intended.
Tomi, meisei, chikara.
For those you who don't know, every episode starts with a very short narration that sets the storyline. This is two minutes long, so let's just watch it:
Here's what it says, sentence by sentence:
| Japanese Kanji | English Translation |
|---|---|
| Narrator: | |
| 富、名声、力。 | Wealth, fame, power. |
| この世の全てを手に入れた男 | The world had it all won by one man: |
| 海賊王ゴールドロジャー。 | The Pirate King, Gold Roger. |
| 彼の死に際に放った一言は | At his death, the words he spoke |
| 人々を海へ駆り立てた。 | Drove countless people out to sea. |
| Gold Roger: | |
| おれの財宝か? | My treasure? |
| 欲しけりゃ呉れて遣る。 | It's yours if you want it. |
| 探せ! | Find it! |
| この世の全てをそこに置いて来た! | I left all the world has there! |
| Narrator: | |
| 男たちは偉大なる航路（グランドライン）を目指し、 夢を追いつづける。 | And so people set sights on the Grand Line,in pursuit of their dreams. |
| 世は正に大海賊時代! | The world has truly entered a Great Pirate Era! |
And right after that, the opening music begins, very cheerfully. And then the episode starts.
To give you an idea of how deliberate this narration is, you should know that every episode starts with this narration. The first episode was aired in 1999, and the 1000th episode is from 2021. So there is more than 20 years of separation between them, and that narration is still the same.
It's quite something that the series starts, at the very beginning, with the words wealth, fame and power.
I don't think that would fly in today's landscape, at least not in America. It would be something like Diversity, Inclussion, Sustainability. Which is fine as well, of course. But look at that. Wealth, power and fame. That's how One Piece opens.
And what the story is showing us is that there is a man who is being decapitated by the government, so sentenced to death. And that this man attained the utmost wealth, power and fame. he was the King of Pirates. And his last words, right before being killed, inspired thousands of adventurers to also become pirates, to achieve what he achieved, the One Piece.
What the hell? That is absolutely brilliant. In more ways than I think we have time to get into.
For starters, it's telling you right from the get go that this is not a story for fragile people. This is, of anything, about ambition, about the will to succeed.
Then, it's evident that this is not a simple story. It's not black and white. Because this guy is obviously bad, right? Sentenced to death for piracy. But we also see that he became a King, whatever that means, and that he achieved everything that there's to achieve. This tells you that he was at least competent. No, rather that he was extremely competent, very capable, effective. And turns out that as he dies, instead of crying or cursing the earth, he has words of encouragement and challenge for people, urging them to claim his treasure.
This is clearly not a story about the goodies and the baddies. This is something else. This is about adventure, success and courage, even at the face of death.