One Piece is a very special series. It has an infectious enthusiasm about it, which makes you excited every time you get to spend more time with Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates. Reading a new issue of One Piece makes you feel like a kid picking up his first-ever X-Men comic.
Things aren't always happy and playful in the world of One Piece. Eiichiro Oda is a genius, pushing himself to the edge of his health to entertain us. Oda himself also has a dark streak, as he has hidden some nasty and uncomfortable concepts within One Piece that fans get to learn more about through his SBS sessions.
Updated by Sultan-Uz-Zaman, 21 June 2023: With over a thousand chapters published so far, you've probably learned a ton about the world of One Piece and just how deep the rabbit hole goes, but there are still some facts about the series that the show won't tell you. Even if you dive into the manga and keep up with every release, some questions are left unanswered unless you consult the author directly and review his questions and answers sessions.
There's a lot to discuss, from details regarding the crew to the real-world influence the series holds. Even though it's a painstaking process, Oda's dedication to his work and the global traction it's received is symbolic of how important and controversial hype around the series can get.
23 The Disturbing Sixth Movie
There have been several One Piece movies that have received a theatrical release in Japan. These are similar to the films created for series like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto: they have almost no bearing on the plot and are usually not part of the canon. It is for this reason that most movies that exist as part of anime franchises are ignored by the fans.
The sixth One Piece movie is well worth checking out due to how utterly different it is from the rest of the series. Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island has a final battle that may feature the most disturbing scene in the whole series. This is because all the Straw Hats (save Luffy) are absorbed into a plant monster.
22 4Kids Actually Made Bell-mère's Death Even Worse
The 4Kids dub of One Piece is notorious for being so awful that it killed the franchise in the West for years. The biggest manga series in the world only found an audience due to word of mouth among those reading illegal English scanlations online. It was always harder to convince someone to read One Piece after they had been subjected to the horrors of the rap song from the 4Kids intro.
The changes made in the 4Kids dub sometimes made events even more violent than they were in the original version of the show. One example of this is Bell-mère, the adopted mother of Nami. In the Japanese version of the One Piece anime & manga, Bell-mère is shot in the head by Arlong. In the 4Kids dub, she is imprisoned for life. Bell-mère presumably dies while in prison, as she isn't freed by Nami when Arlong is defeated.
21 There's A Future Where The StrawHats Fail
Despite how important a person's dreams can be in a series like One Piece, not all of them are meant to come true. Some people end up navigating through life as shallow husks as soon as they squander their potential on an unrealized dream.
Some inquisitive fans pondered over the fate of the titular Strawhat crew members if they ever failed at realizing their potential and asked Oda about it in an SBS. Luckily for them, they not only received an answer but also a graphic representation of how they'd look by the end of their failed journey together.
20 Luffy The Sadist
The best protagonists of video games and superhero comics tend not to kill their foes. This is because it would be morally wrong of them to do so... and it would also ruin the series if Batman killed the Joker within five minutes of meeting him.
Manga protagonists aren't held to the same standard. Goku had no problem killing King Piccolo, and Naruto was responsible for the death of Yura. Monkey D. Luffy has yet to kill any of his enemies in One Piece. Indeed, it took thirteen years for any character to die in One Piece.
Eiichiro Oda was asked why Luffy doesn't kill anyone in the letters section in the collected volumes of One Piece, called the SBS. Oda claims that the reason Luffy doesn't kill anyone is that he prefers to destroy the dreams of his enemies, which is far more painful than simply taking their life.
19 Big Mom Ate Her Adopted Mother
One Piece has featured some dark content, such as the death of Ace and the destruction of Ohara. The One Piece manga runs in Weekly Shonen Jump, whose main demographic is still young kids and teenagers. As such, the series has limits on what it can publish. This is why you won't see nudity or brutal decapitations on the pages of One Piece or My Hero Academia.
An example of Eiichiro Oda having to restrict himself happened with the origin story of Big Mom. The manga highly suggests that she ate her adopted mother and family. This would explain how she gained the Devil Fruit ability of her adopted mother. It could only be hinted at because the editors at Weekly Shonen Jump didn't want to have a little girl cannibalizing her family members.
18 Garp And Katakuri's Donut Eating Competition
When it comes to eating donuts, Katakuri actually ends up tearing his jaw, trying to fit as many of them as he can in his mouth since he loves how they taste. He even sings a cute little song about eating them in the anime and looks like he's in heaven while doing so.
The same can be said for Luffy's grandfather and Hero of the Marines, Monkey D. Garp, since we see him declare his attempt at trying to break the world record for the most donuts ever eaten by an individual in the anime.
17 The Tragic Blackbeard Connection
The main reason that Whitebeard was the most feared pirate of his era was due to his Devil Fruit ability. Whitebeard could cause earthquakes, which could also be used to create tsunamis. If Whitebeard was so inclined, he could wash away entire countries. This power later falls into the hands of Blackbeard, who might actually be despicable enough to sink a nation.
It wasn't long after Blackbeard gained the ability to create earthquakes that Japan suffered one of its most destructive natural disasters of all time. An earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 happened on the Pacific Coast of Tohoku, which triggered a massive tsunami. Had the episodes involving Whitebeard & Blackbeard been broadcast a few weeks later, they would have caused controversy over the content and likely would have had to be edited or skipped.
16 Real Life Pirates Have Used Shank's Jolly Roger
When people think of pirates, they generally imagine the aesthetic created by Treasure Island, which has been used for a long time. We still think of pirates as a relic of a forgotten age. This is partly due to the fact that ships are a lot rarer now, as it is far more convenient to travel by air.
Pirates are still very much a real thing. They exist in the South China Sea and off the coast of Somalia, as well as in other parts of the world. It seems that some Somali pirates have Internet access, as a video exists of a ship bearing the Jolly Roger of Shank's crew from One Piece. These pirates actually used Shank's flag on their vessel.
15 Famous Weapons With Human Avatars
One Piece has some of the best weapons. If you ever wondered how all the famous weapons would look like if they were drawn as humans, then Oda's got you covered since he got asked a similar question by one of his fans during an SBS. In classic Oda fashion, he went above and beyond his duty to answer by providing drawings depicting such a scenario.
According to the author, each weapon has its own personality for him, and the descriptions they have certainly fit the vibe of the weapon in question. Some are easy-going and laid-back individuals while others embody creepy characteristics.
14 The Series Is Outliving The Voice Actors
One Piece has been running since 1997 and doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. The timespan isn't that impressive, as Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has been in publication since 1987, and Golgo 13 has been running since 1968!
With One Piece having gone on for so long, it is only natural that a few of its iconic voice actors have passed away during the run of the show. These include Kazuyuki Sogabe (Benn Beckman, Silvers Rayleigh), Daisuke Gori (Jinbei, Dorry), Takeshi Aono (Dracule Mihawk), Takashi Taniguchi (Montblanc Cricket), Takkou Ishimori (Sengoku), Ginzo Matsuo (Smoker), and Chikao Otsuka (Gol D. Roger).
For the English voice actors of One Piece, we have lost Cole Brown (Blackbeard), Jerry Russell (Crocus), and Ed Blaylock (Sengoku). We can only hope that One Piece doesn't lose any more voice actors before the story concludes.
13 The StrawHats Got Retconned Before Romance Dawn
It's surprising how much One Piece had changed before it even became a series, considering how different some of the main cast was supposed to be before the first chapter was published. With some unique character design choices and affiliations, One Piece wouldn't have been the same if Oda got his way.
Just look at how much they've changed up Nami and Chopper's designs. From a mechanical arm with a battle axe and a chain-smoking adult reindeer to an effective cat burglar and adorable cotton candy-loving chibi reindeer with a unique personality, everyone got a revamp—even Zoro, who was originally intended to be a bodyguard for Buggy the Clown.
12 The Only Person Who Knew How It'd End...
There is always a suspicion with a long-running series that the author is just making things up as they go along. Some authors have been honest about how they didn't know the ending (like Stephen King with The Dark Tower series), and some lie and claim that they have planned everything out from the start.
Eiichiro Oda has always claimed that he has the story of One Piece planned out. It's hard to refute this, considering how many plot elements are hinted at years or even decades before they became relevant. There was at least one One Piece fan who knew how the series ends.
Hinati Fujinami was a kid from Japan who was dying of lung cancer. The Make-A-Wish Foundation helped fulfill Hinati's final request: to learn how One Piece ended. Oda visited the child personally and revealed the ending to One Piece to him in private.
11 If You Work On The Series, You Give Up Everything
Every mangaka who works for Weekly Shonen Jump has to run their ideas past an editor. This relationship was brilliantly outlined in Bakuman, which was a comic about the inner workings of the manga industry. The editor of a series can have a tremendous amount of power and influence over the story. The most famous example of this happened in Dragon Ball Z, as the entire Cell Saga was created due to one of Akira Toriyama's former editors not liking the design of Android 19 & 20.
Eiichiro Oda works himself to the bone for One Piece. He also expects his editors to do the same, as he has told previous editors that they must be willing to "Die for One Piece" if they are to work on the series alongside him. Going on what we know of Oda's schedule, he definitely isn't kidding when he says that.
10 Gol D. Roger's Moustache And Other Tidbits
As elegant as the former Pirate King's facial hair is, Oda's original intention was to make it look like some overgrown nose hair rather than a mustache. As gross as that is, it did sound rather funny. Not only that, the inspiration for Roger's final speech at Loguetown was Olivier Levasseur.
He was a real-life French pirate back in the late 1600s, and during his execution, he gave a similar cryptic speech that had onlookers befuddled by what he had to say. He's been credited with having hidden a vast amount of treasure, and his nickname "The Mouth" shows how good he was at grilling his rivals. He had a lost necklace with a cryptogram that's still being deciphered to this day.
9 4Kids Got Tricked Into Taking The Show
One Piece is a cultural phenomenon in Japan, yet it was a harder sell in the West. The show has cartoonish visuals, often including violent battles and depressing backstories. It would be hard to pass One Piece off as either some kids or an adult show.
That was the task given to 4Kids, which is why their One Piece dub is so reviled. They tried to turn it into a kid's show, which is pretty much an impossible task. 4Kids isn't entirely to blame for this, as they were duped into buying the license for One Piece.
4Kids were interested in buying different shows from Toei Animation and were convinced to take One Piece on as part of a package deal. Toei was desperate to try and recreate One Piece's success in America, so they presented it as a show that could be marketed to kids.
8 The Manga's Version Of Red Foot's Fate Is So Much Worse
The early chapters of One Piece included a few violent moments left out of the anime. The most significant of these involves how Luffy got his scar. He stabbed himself in the face in the first chapter of One Piece, in a scene that wasn't shown in the anime until recently. This was likely changed to prevent any kind of copycat behavior, which was probably for the best, considering how big One Piece became in Japan.
Sanji's backstory also had a scene change in the anime adaptation. In the One Piece anime, Zeff needs to have his leg cut off because it was caught under debris. In the One Piece manga, he cuts it off so that he could eat it, as he would have starved to death otherwise.
7 Whitebeard's Injuries Were Far More Severe
Eiichiro Oda made sure to give Whitebeard the most intimidating death of any character in One Piece. He was stabbed through the chest by Squard, shot repeatedly by bullets and cannons, and stabbed by numerous Marines. It took the combined might of the Blackbeard Pirates to deal the killing blow against him.
The anime version of One Piece toned down Whitebeard's wounds. The most significant of these involved his battle against Akainu. In the anime, Akainu uses his magma powers to burn off one side of Whitebeard's mustache. In the manga, Akainu manages to melt off a part of his face. A chunk of Whitebeard's head is missing during his final battle with Blackbeard.
6 The Terrible Fate Of Sugar
Sugar might be the most powerful devil fruit user in all of One Piece. This is because she has the ability to remove any memory of a person from the minds of others, which involves turning them into harmless toys. It's surprising that the World Government never tried to take her in, as she presents the perfect solution for dealing with famous pirates.
Things aren't so easy for Sugar, as her Devil Fruit keeps her youthful for the rest of her life. Sugar is actually twenty-two when she first encounters the Straw Hat Pirates. She will remain in that body until she dies. Eiichiro Oda drew what Sugar would look like had she never eaten the Devil Fruit.
5 The Case Of The Banned Exhibit
The Rising Sun symbol (usually shown on a flag) is common in Japan, yet it is considered offensive to the people of South Korea. This is due to the fact that Japan annexed the country and committed atrocities there at the start of the 1900s. The image of the Rising Sun is commonly censored in Korea, as was the case recently with Persona 5, due to Ryoji having the symbol on his shoes.
A One Piece exhibit got canceled in South Korea only three days before it was due to run. This was due to numerous complaints about how the manga frequently features the Rising Sun symbol, which usually appears in relation to the nation of Wano, which is heavily based on Feudal Japan.
4 But Girls Can't Like Giant Robots!
One of the running jokes in One Piece involves Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper being excited whenever they see a robot or a laser beam. These are usually provided by Franky, who creates numerous mech suits and vehicles during the time skip.
Whenever Luffy freaks out over seeing a robot, the female members of the Straw Hats (and any girls in the vicinity) are always unimpressed by what they are seeing. Eiichiro Oda explained in one of the SBSs that the reason this joke exists is that he doesn't think girls understand the "coolness" of giant robots and that they prefer things that are fluffy and cute.
It's odd that Oda would have this opinion, especially considering the billions of dollars the Transformers franchise has brought in at the box office. It can't all be dudebros who saw those movies.