Gotta say, I’ve been growing to appreciate as of late how much One Piece finds fun and excitement in exploring and learning about the world, whether it be better learning about one’s character, history, or new ways of defending one’s self. I get the feeling that a lot of series, including non-Japanese ones, seem more keen on talking about how cruel and corrupt the world is, which of course One Piece has also showcased, but perhaps more to the extent of being cynical and hopeless, as opposed to the more hopeful, fulfilling outlook One Piece has. Keeping in mind how one should always be quick to point out the corruption and cruelty of reality, I’ve come to understand that even that has a limit before one starts going into a crazed, empty existence, possibly feeling that the world is too cruel to be worth living in. That’s probably one way in which a character like Luffy‘s is noteworthy, because he knows how cruel the world can get, yet he’s still willing to acknowledge the beauty, wonder, and excitement the world has to offer all the same.
The fun and excitement of the world.
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I absolutely agree with the sentiment here. Very well put. One Piece has always been a go-to when the world's been feeling dark to me. Few other other things have the right mix of enough size and depth to effectively distract and the kind of tone to be an upper, not a downer.
I think also there's a tangentially related point the series proves about what makes good worldbuilding. So many of the things propped up for building a world lean realistic or gritty, like your Game of Thrones and so on, to the point that you can end up thinking that's the only way to do it. But One Piece manages to make a planet that feels vast and populated and like it keeps going when the main character isn't there and the camera isn't trained on it without ever compromising its feeling of fun or core sense of humour. The central principals worldbuilding aren't darkness and grim mundanities, they're scope and consistency, and One Piece, despite its tall tale-style ridiculousness, has both in spades.
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I wouldn't really consider this to be a thing unique to One Piece tbh. Depends on what media you read/watch/play, but lots of stuff have a similar optimism. What I do like is that One Piece does a good job avoiding characters being purely evil/bad for no reason at all. Baddies come off as being actual people too, with their own motivations and such, and you can't help but root for some of them and have to remind yourself that they're a total dickhead. But it's like, they're not an irredeemable dickhead.