One Piece, Vol. 1  (English, Paperback, Oda Eiichiro)

One Piece (Volume - 1) Shonen Jump Graphic Novel is a series featuring Monkey D. Luffy, a boy with special powers who becomes a pirate. In this book, he and his mates set sail to find a unique treasure called One Piece.

Summary Of The Book

Shonen Jump is a comic magazine aimed at teen and pre-teen boys in Japan. Each issue features Manga artwork which is popular in Japan. One of these is the One Piece series, which began in 1997. The Shonen Jump Graphic Novels follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew. The One Piece series begins with a back story. Two decades before the actual storyline begins, Gol D. Roger, the King of the Pirates is executed. Before his execution, he declares that his treasure, One Piece, would belong to whoever finds it first.

This announcement signals the beginning of the Great Pirate Era, as a large number of people set out to find the treasure. Monkey D. Luffy is one among them. As a young boy, his hero was the pirate Red Haired Shanks. Monkey D. Luffy acquired special powers after accidentally eating a devil fruit known as the Gum Gum Fruit. It made him extremely flexible like rubber, but cost him his ability to swim. In spite of this severe handicap, Luffy dreams of becoming a pirate, sailing the seas in search of the famed treasure, One Piece. He gets his ship and builds a crew to sail with him. They call themselves the Straw Hat Pirates. One Piece (Volume - 1) Shonen Jump Graphic Novel traces the beginning of their adventure.

Luffy befriends a swordsman named Roronoa Zoro. Zoro decides to help Luffy in his quest to build a pirate crew and find the treasure. Luffy then encounters Nami, a pickpocket and a thief. She is a skilled navigator and can also detect even the slightest changes in the weather. Luffy makes her his navigator. The Straw Hat pirates acquire more members. Usopp, a skilled marksman, becomes their sniper. Sanji becomes their chef. Their doctor is an anthropomorphized reindeer called Tony Tony Chopper. Together, the Straw Hat pirates sail the seas, encountering strange creatures and new worlds. The crew acquires more members during the course of their journey.

About Eiichiro Oda

Eiichiro Oda is a popular Manga artist. His other popular works include One Piece x Toriko, Wanted!, and Dragon Ball x One Piece: Cross Epoch. Eiichiro Oda was born in 1975. He dreamt of becoming a manga artist from a very young age. His main inspiration was Akira Toriyama, the creator of the Dragon Ball series. Oda got his break when his story Wanted! earned second place in the Tezuka Award contest. He then began to work for the Weekly Shonen Jump, as an assistant in many of their manga series. He created a pirate themed story called Romance Dawn in 1996. The first One Piece manga then appeared in 1997, and became hugely popular. In a 2008 poll, Oda was placed fifth among the most popular manga artists in Japan.