Happy New Year! - Nami: Fill & Download for Free

Nami, of course.Oda literally filled us with clues about it, not to mention that she is the only one that would make sense narratively speaking.First of all, let's clear up the gossip on the web that Oda said there will be no romantic relationships between crew members. To anyone who says this colossal bullshit I always asked to show me the interview they were referring to, and everyone always replied with "I can't find it .."well, I guess the lost interview self-destructed after being read by the anti-shippers, what a lucky coincidence. Or maybe, just maybe this interview… doesn't exist at all.In fact there is only one question that Oda answers on this point:D: “Doesn't anyone on Luffy's crew fall in love? Will there never be a romance among crew members? (Sanji is an exception in this case) I'm just wondering. “- from NaokoOda: Of course they're in love... WITH ADVENTURE!Is an interview of 2008.. And he simply avoids answering the question.But he never said "there will never be romance among the members of the crew."if he wasn't planning relationships between crew members he could have said "no, there will be no love or romance between them" But he didn't.He avoids giving a definitive answer, stating that they are in love with adventure. A fact he points out in the manga when in the Thriller saga Bark Nami refuses to marry Absalom saying "I’m not ready for this..I still want to go on adventures!!"she says she is not ready, which implies that one day she may be ready.while Luffy at Hancock's marriage proposal says .. “I’m not marrying you!!”He doesn't say he's never going to get married . He says he doesn't want to marry her. and anyone who wants to come up with "Hancock will end up marrying him anyway as happened for Goku and Chichi or Naruto and Hinata .. because in this type of manga the girl who expresses her feelings is the one who ends up with the protagonist and blah, blah", you are making two absurd comparisons.First of all… Goku didn't even know what the word marriage meant! Luffy knows what that means, that's why he rejects Hancock!Second..Goku marrying Chichi only served in the plot to give birth to Gohan and Goten. That's why there is no real relationship growth between them, but they go from being friends to being engaged. That's the world of Dragon Ball and it makes sense in Dragon ball.In One Piece Oda has no need to make Luffy have children to continue the story, ergo a marriage with Hancock would be of no use in terms of plot! To be honest, Oda stated that the whole Hancock thing in love with Luffy was a necessary trick to get the pirate to help Luffy in freeing Ace. That's why he made her fall in love with Luffy. Not because Oda has big plans for their future love, but because he needed a logical reason of why she would help Luffy.So, sorry Hancock supporters. not gonna happen.Regarding Naruto, if you really believe that Hinata became his wife only because she was the character who had a crush on the protagonist, then I suggest you go back and read the manga well. because this is not the case at all.. Although most of the time Naruto has his head full of Sasuke .. there are moments scattered throughout the manga that show the importance of Hinata. An importance that Naruto himself does not see until the end.for example when Naruto loses confidence in himself, before the fight with Neji ..Naruto's entire strength is based on "not giving up. Not taking his word back is his way of being Ninja. Remember?"Well, it is Hinata who leads him to realize this. Once Naruto realizes this, he never gives up on anything, despite all the failures.And this relationship is also brought to light during the great war… when Hinata once again takes all doubts away from Naruto's heart.This proves that each story is set on a different basis. While in Dragon Ball, Chichi and Goku's relationship is a means to have new Sayans… in Naruto, Hinata is the girl who moves the heart of the protagonist when it is in doubt and who therefore becomes his great love. The endgame.Do you know what the two stories have in common?Both Kishimoto and Toriyama lay the foundations for the future.In fact, Goku and Chi-Chi meet as children and their promise leads to their future marriage. The words of Hinata towards Naruto become the basis of all his Ninja path and it’s always Hinata who in the great war manages to show Naruto everyone's heart.Oda did the same. He has laid a solid foundation.Now, Hancock was written to be the means that allows Luffy to reach Ace. She has no emotional impact on Luffy. Literally.while Nami? Obviously she’s a nakama .. like Zoro, Usopp, Robin etc .. BUT there is something more to their relationship and Oda makes no secret of it.What are their foundations in the story? How do they differ from those of the other crew members?First of all let's look at the cover of One Piece.If Nami is just his nakama like the others… why is she on the front page cover? Wouldn't it have made more sense to leave Luffy and Shanks' crew alone ..?I mean, Shanks is the man who moved Luffy to become the pirate’s king and to be honest all Luffy's knowledge of what a pirate must be is given by Shanks. So it makes sense that he's on the cover. But Nami?The only answer I can think of is “ because she is the heroine of the story.”And what is the best way to give a clue without confirming in a canon way something that we will surely end up seeing only at the end of one piece?“a picture says more than a thousand words.” did you know?So the point is that already from the cover, Oda wanted to focus on Nami along with Shanks and Luffy.The relationship between these three characters is further connected later by another element: the straw hat.not only belonged to the pirate’s king, but is the main element of the story that connects Luffy's relationship to Shanks.The straw hat is the symbol of his promise to the man who inspired him and who saved his life. so the fact that Oda uses this important element to declare the connection between Luffy and Nami, it's a huge thing.Nami was a thief who only stole from the pirates. A thief who had already betrayed him. He had no reason to trust her again. Despite that, he puts his straw hat on her head, to say:“I trust you.”He entrusted his treasure to a thief who steals from the pirates.Trust is the same reason Shanks leaves Luffy with the straw hat.He's saying "I entrust my treasure to you"Their bond of trust is therefore represented by the straw hat.It is no coincidence that Luffy uses the hat again in Drum and Skypiea as it is confirmation that that hat is what binds Nami's trust in Luffy. And even before that, Shanks' trust in Luffy.Especially when you consider that Oda could have written Nami's rescue in other ways. But it doesn't. That's why when someone says "Usopp wore the hat too, Bibi kept it too .. etc" I find myself rolling my eyes in despair!It's not about wearing the hat. It's about the gesture Luffy makes. The same gesture Shanks made with him. A bond of trust.From the start Oda shows how different Luffy's trust in Nami is from any other crew member. He literally has a blind faith in her.Like… when Luffy was informed by Johnny that Nami “killed” Usopp, Luffy not only kept holding onto his blind faith in Nami but he also threatened Johnny for saying such things about her!Luffy doesn’t show the same unconditional faith when came to doubt Zoro because of the words of wounded man he didn’t even know (Whiskey Peak Arc) and he even doubted Robin ( Water 7 arc) until Nami told him and the crew the truth behind Robin’s desertion!And of course this bond of trust is fully reciprocated by Nami.In the Arlong park saga, just the fact that she asks him for help is a big step for Nami, because as Nojiko said, after Bellemere's death Nami never asked anyone for help.In Drum, when they have to climb a snowy mountain and Usopp, Sanji and Biby are all against the idea .. Nami is the only one to approve without hesitation.During the fight with Eneru, Nami enters for a moment in panic. Luffy reminds her to trust him, throwing his straw hat at her.Soon after, Nami is ready to face Eneru.Obviously Luffy is blindly trusting his entire crew at the moment. And at the same time his crew trusts him. But the way Oda wanted to create the bond between Luffy and Nami, at the beginning of their journey, is unlike any other of the crew.To support this explanation, we also have the simple but significant fact that the only film entirely created by Oda, Strong World, is based on the relationship of trust between Luffy and Nami.summing up -A villain kidnaps Nami for her navigational skills. Luffy is beaten by the villain. Nami to save him and the others has no choice but to follow the bad guy and leave a message to Luffy.In the message she says that he can never beat Shiki and that they would risk their lives unnecessarily .. towards the end, however, she whispers:"I'm sure you will come to save me anyway"An ending that Luffy doesn’t hear, and for that he gets angry with Nami.He practically accuses her of not trusting him.Again, it's about trust.Also at the end of the film, when the crew talks about Nami's message, Sanji refers to it by saying "what his ears heard was a love message." curiously Nami shortly after says "I addressed those words especially to you Luffy"To me it seemed like a great pun by Oda: "a message of love, especially addressed to Luffy"Interestingly, Oda also drew the crew's reaction, right after Luffy hears the full message.We can see Nami blushing and Sanji and Luffy both have their hand to their ear as they hear the message.And before anyone comes up with the phrase "movies don't have canon bases and so blah, blah .." it's not about what is canon or not in the story.It's about Oda's choice to show Luffy and Nami's relationship.To show this bond of trust.Decision that Oda takes again when in the film Gold decides to change a scene.How does it change?He shows that Nami still has faith in winning, because she has faith in Luffy.Then she is taken by the bad guy, Luffy gets pissed and tells him to let her go.At that moment the villain sees himself from the past in Luffy. The same determination of his past in wanting to save… the woman he loves.I mean, do you realize how significant it is that Oda took an interest in the film just to draw a lunami scene, which once again highlights their bond of trust?And what about the parallels between Luffy and the villain?Oda create a flashback about the enemy's love story and made this parallelism between the person the enemy loved and Luffy with Nami.It doesn't matter if the story isn't canon, what matters is the willingness to show Luffy and Nami parallel to a romantic couple.This takes us back to the first One Piece cover, where Luffy, Shanks, and Nami are drawn.As I said, the straw hat connects the three characters.But this connection doesn't end there.In fact, if Shanks is the man who shows Luffy what it means to be a pirate, Luffy is the man who shows Nami what it means to be a pirate.the best example is when some bandits throw their sake on Shanks and baby Luffy gets angry with Shanks because the man instead of beating them, lets them go and laughs.Only when the bandits threaten Luffy's life, then Shanks beats the bandits.The same happens with Bellamy. with the difference that it’s Nami who don’t understand why Luffy lets himself be beaten by them.but the "coincidences" do not end there, in fact in the East Blue saga, Luffy makes only two promises.One to Shanks, the promise we all know. " I will become the king of pirates"And one to Genzo, before Nami leaves her village.“Don't make Nami lose her smile.”The funny thing, it's not just the fact that once again Luffy makes promises linking these two characters, but also the fact that Genzo is a father figure to Nami, so the whole scene looks a lot like a father threatening the boy his daughter is about to marry.More importantly, Oda only draws this scene between Genzo and Luffy.He's not asking the entire crew to take care of Nami. He's telling Luffy.When Nami gets sick and doesn't smile anymore, Luffy gets worried. He clearly says: "she's not smiling"And what about when they're leaving Alabasta and Nami is clearly sad that Biby won't come with them?Luffy tells her he will give her a piece of meat. The intent is obvious. He wants to make her smile and thinks she will be happy eating meat, just like he is happy. Anyone who watches One Piece knows that Luffy deeply loves meat .. and so the fact that he is willing to share it with her is not a trivial matter.I mean, remember what Luffy tells Jimbei about how he sees heroes?"A hero shares the meat he has. A pirate celebrates and eats it."Here, the fact that Luffy shares meat with Nami implies that despite being a pirate ... for her, he can become a hero.I know. I know. it seems like I'm reading too much into the matter, but this is where authors like Oda fool you. When you don't pay attention to details.Details like a drawing of Oda where he inserts all the main women of the story and draws Nami with a Queen's crown.Or the drawing where all the crew members are knights, except Nami and Luffy.The subtle difference that Oda has made from the beginning between the two characters and the rest of the crew, is not to be underestimated.So: do I think Luffy and Nami are in love ever since he put that straw hat in his head?NO.You see, One piece is not a shojo manga. That's why it makes me laugh to read comments like:"Luffy has never shown a sexual interest in Nami" and other such nonsense. Whoever writes these things hasn't understood anything about One Piece.The shojo nature in the tale is used by Oda as a humorous vibration. Like Sanji and his love for any female or Hancock and his love for Luffy.So having Luffy's "shojo" reaction to Nami would just end up being a humorous situation and disastrously change Luffy's character. Like Hancock's visions.Luffy is not the man Hancock sees in his visions. That's a fantasy.So, to those who say "Luffy hasn't shown romantic reactions towards Nami, so he's not interested in her" I would kindly remind you that One Piece is not a shojo manga, so the romantic reactions you speak of have nothing to do with the style of One Piece.As I said, those kinds of reactions are used as humor. So you cannot rely on the absence of them to decide what Oda's intentions are. No.It’s about laying the foundations towards the future.The relationship between Luffy and Nami, their bond of trust represented by the straw hat which is the main symbol of the tale, these are the foundations.Nami doesn't see the Luffy of Hancock's fantasy, Nami sees Monkey D Luffy:the man who showed her what a pirate is.The man who freed her from her nightmare: Arlong.The man who wants to risk his life just to ring that stupid golden bell and let people know that the golden city exists.It’s for that man that she risks her life. That's the man she believes in.so no, I don't see the straw hat as the symbol of a romantic relationship between Luffy and Nami .. but as the basis that Oda put in the first part of the story that allows Nami to be Luffy's partner in the future without changing One Piece.Oda himself said for Strong World ... “ I really wanted to make a 'hero saves the heroine' story. and .. I had no intention of bringing in someone new to fill that [heroine] role. So when I had to think about whom to use for it amongst the straw hats of course that meant Nami "*"Of course that meant Nami"Why, for example, in Oda's eyes couldn't the heroine be Robin?Luffy also saved Robin and to do so, he challenged the world government.Yet in Oda's mind only Nami, among the crew, can fill that role.Why? because of the bases on which the two relationships were born.Both join the crew for personal reasons. Both leave the crew because of their "demons"BUT…In Robin's story, the entire crew wants to save her the moment they discover her real reasons. Before that, as Zoro says, "we have to figure out if Robin is our enemy or friend."Only when the reasons why Robin left the crew become clear, Luffy really moves to save her.In Nami's story, Luffy is the one who wants to bring her back, even before we know her reasons. In fact on that occasion, Zoro says to let her go, while Usopp wants to chase her only to take back the ship.While Luffy, literally says: "I don't want to sail without her”And again, Luffy can't see the lies in Robin's farewell words, until Nami herself tells him the truth.While in Nami's story, he immediately unmasks her lies and for this he waits in Nami's village.Not surprisingly, Zoro tells Nojiko "we will listen to your story, even if nothing will change"Why wouldn't anything change according to Zoro?Because his captain's will was to have Nami on his journey, regardless of everything else.Another important difference is the focus of the two scenes.In Robin's rescue, the whole crew is in front of her. Luffy speaks, but the faces of the others are completely present in the scene.While, in rescuing Nami, Oda shifts attention only to Luffy and Nami.When she turns around she says "Luffy, help me."He puts his straw hat on her and then replies "Of course!!"Until then the scene is entirely focused on the two of them.Soon after, Luffy shows us and Nami that the rest of the crew are also close to them. But before Luffy himself calls attention to the group, Oda focuses on Luffy and Nami.As I said, Nami was written with the foundation to be the heroine of the tale. That's why it was obvious for Oda to use her and not Robin in Strong World.And that's also why, a future relationship between her and Luffy would fit perfectly into the plot without changing the nature of One Piece.Do you need more evidence?Well, after the two-year time jump, Oda changed all the characters.Curiously, Oda gave Zoro a scar in his eye, similar to that of Rayleigh, who was at the time second in command on Roger's ship.Making Zoro look a lot like Rayleigh, not only in appearance.Both are the first to join the crew. They both love to drink alcohol. They both use the sword.Oda has already shown this kind of similarity between Roger and Luffy..After two years, he does the same with Zoro .. and with Nami.Oda makes Nami similar to Rouge.We know very little about Rouge's character.She was Ace's mother. She protected her son by holding him in her lap for fifteen months. And she had a romantic relationship with Roger (wife, partner, fling) Oda still hasn't confirmed anything .. what is certain is that, to produce Ace, their relationship had to be extended to more than just friends.So the fact that Oda displays this kind of connection is not a trivial matter.Especially if we consider the fact that only the three characters that Oda called "the triggers of the story" were given this aspect similar to the protagonists of the past.So..What if, like Zoro and Ray or Roger and Luffy, the similarities between Nami and Rouge don't stop at appearances?As far as we know, Rouge could have been the crew's navigator.And as far as we know at the end of the story Nami could become the mother of Luffy's son ..In short, history could repeat itself..So moving into the future, Nami is the only character who could become the pirate queen, without altering the kind of tale that One Piece is.

You know,It isn’t just dogs too.This is Latte.Latte is about ten years old.I found her one day in the middle of nowhere. Fifty kilometres from any community in a back woods road in Northern Alberta, Canada.This is Latte sitting in the console of my F-350 the day that I scooped her off of that remote, dusty road.Latte, despite me rescuing her has never been ‘My Cat’ she has always viewed me as a pride member and equal but I have never been her favourite.The day I brought her home she bonded strongly to my lady at the time. We also had two other cats, Julien and Nami. Julien passed away a year or so later in a horrible seizure but her and Nami have always seemed to treat each other as sisters.When the lady and I parted ways, Latte was miserable. She paced the house looking for her, cried constantly and finally stopped eating. I damn near lost her, she withered away to more or less skin and bones before I got her back.Even then she was never bonded strongly to me the way say, Nami did who has always been ‘My’ cat. She had her quirks though. I spent a lot of time in the bush then and would be gone for a few days at a time and every time I got my rifle case out to go she would hop up in it until I hugged and said goodbye to her.Fast forward six years. People came and went in my household. I had a friend who got into a bad situation so I offered to let him stay with me. We will call him George.George got on very well for a long time but after a couple of years his depression more or less took hold of him.As soon as George became ill, Latte bonded strongly to him. I think she felt she needed to look after him. George said to me one day that if it wasn’t for Latte he wouldn’t even have a reason to get out of bed.I eventually moved to another community to seek a job opportunity. I left Latte with George and he looked after her quite well, which was saying something because this guy at this point couldn’t even manage a shower every two weeks. He had been paid off from some settlement at work so just .. decomposed essentially, but he looked after Latte super well. I joked that I guess you have a cat now and he smiled and said well she picked me as her person. I thought that was lovely, she is an incredibly affectionate cat and she became a therapy animal for him of sorts.She always did have a great “resting bitch face” even when purring up a storm.Then George stopped giving me rent money as his settlement ran out and he felt he couldn’t go back to work. Remember I had moved away so George wasn’t paying me and I was carrying two households by myself.So I sold the house. My lady (who is my wife now) and I agreed to let George have a room in our place in the new community for awhile. He would get a job, etc.George did not get a job. He did not pay rent. He ran up tons of expenses. Towards the end things were getting really tense between he and I and one day it finally cumulated in a horrid row and I kicked him out. I gave him a date he had to leave by.During the time he and I were fighting you could see the strain it was causing Latte. Even her fur changed. She became incredibly meek. After every argument she went to comfort him.George refused to leave our home no matter what we tried. That date and another came and went. He began locking Latte out of his room, as he was spending all of his time locked in there so he didn’t have to see me.She kept aging, eating less and less as she was cut off from him.Then one final day George decided to attempt to kill him self. Enough was enough. I involved the police at that point and got him out of there. I genuinely hope George is getting the help he needs now. George isn’t a bad guy at all but his illness consumed him.We nearly lost Latte again.She has always been a tiny cat but wasted away to so little of anything, a pathetic and tired mass of scraggly fur that spent all of her time hiding and barely came out for any reason.My wife tried so hard to bond with her. So did I. Nothing worked. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. She mourned George even more then the lady I had mentioned. She even gave up her grooming and that is when we truly thought she was done for.Slowly though, my wife won her over. I remember being shocked when one day we heard a little mew and felt a cat jump onto our bed. We assumed it was Nami but it wasn’t, it wa Latte finally come out of hiding. She improved every day after that.Now they are inseparable. Literally. Lattes favourite place to relax is on my wife’s back.She is herself again. Finally.So yes, it’s traumatic for dogs, for cats and for any animal.Remember their world is /tiny/ and is basically a home and a person and whatever else enriches it. But they don’t have hobbies or distractions. They have you. They have us.When an animal chooses to love someone they do it whole heartedly with no holding back. It is genuine and a wonderful and fierce thing. Taking that person away is removing a huge chunk of their world and what makes them who they are.So yes, it’s hard on them.Latte almost died twice because of it — and it will never happen again. She is happy, loved and settled now and has been for some time.I just wanted to share the story I guess.Latte, brown, Nami, gray and Alvin, a most cheeky bastard in white.

To understand why One Piece is so special, you have to understand a few things about fiction in general, and the Japanese manga industry in particular.First off, do you know what the most important element in any story of fiction is? Some of you may say it’s the plot. Some of you may say it’s the conflict. Some may say it’s the setting. But the correct answer is none of these. It’s the characters.It is not possible to have a good story without good characters. You can actually have a story with a barebones plot and a barely-described setting, but you cannot have a meaningful story without good characters.This is because humans naturally need something to relate to in a story in order to enjoy it, and what provides that anchor is neither a nebulous plot, which is something that exists in the realm of ideas, or the setting, which can be really good but to be honest any setting will do as long as you have characters in it. The characters are what make or break a story. That’s because the characters provide something for readers to identify with and understand what is happening.For instance, a fire in the forest means nothing, if there are no people, animals or what not to experience the fire and all the things it entails. You can even have a story where the “character” is the “spirit of the forest” that laments a fire destroying it. No humans, but you have a central character that still provides the focal point for a reader to understand what is happening and what meaning you are trying to impart in the story.And guess what? One Piece is a manga which gave special attention to its characters. It has some of the best character development in any manga or anime.There’s a great plot in One Piece, and a rich, whimsical setting in the Pirate Age, but the reason One Piece stands out is neither of these, its because its characters are some of the most memorable and important in all of manga history.The rubber man Luffy may sound like a Mr. Fantastic ripoff to many of you, but when you look at the attention to detail Oda put into describing Luffy’s story and his raison d’etre you realize just how good Oda is at character development.This wasn’t just some kid who went off on a boat to become Pirate King. The reason he wanted to become a pirate king, his strong motivations to reach the top, all stemmed from his childhood experiences with Shanks and admiring him and his pirate crew. This is culminated in the ultimate emotional moment of Shanks sacrificing his left arm to save Luffy, then giving him his trademark straw hat.This is powerful character development, and it wasn’t saved up for some flashback several dozen chapters down the line. We got it right at the very start of the manga.And Oda didn’t stop there. As he introduces each main character from Zoro to Nami to Usop then Sanji, each one is introduced in an especially good way, and developed to perfection. Nami is a special case even among these exemplary characters, as she got even further development in Arlong Park later. But I’ll get to that in a bit. You’ll find that even seemingly minor characters like Cody also got such excellent character development in these early chapters.That is how masterful Oda is at creating characters at developing them. His mastery of the most important element of fiction — the characters — instantly elevates the manga to something far above its peers.Contrast this to another popular manga contemporary - Naruto.When you compare One Piece’s character development to Naruto’s, you see how big the difference is between these two series, both of which are held among the true greats and classics of the genre.Naruto himself is well-done. You have the shunned outcast boy who is hated by everyone and seeks approval to become the greatest ninja ever. His character story is not bad, not bad at all. But when you look beyond that you suddenly see the seams in characterization.Sasuke is just the edgelord emo boy brooding in the corner, but he doesn’t receive the same attention and loving character development as Naruto does. His motivations are just as dark and foggy as his mood. Sakura is even worse. The only thing in her mind is boys. Well, one boy in particular. She is a lousy character, and that’s being generous. Kakashi we don’t really see into the depths of his personality. Kishimoto does a great job showing what kind of character he has and how he treats his companions as the most important thing in the world, but other than that single facet he is largely a flat, if rather cool, character. (and worse, you’ll find Kakashi’s defining character trait is just something Kishimoto regurgitated from Oda, which I’ll explain further later).You can’t even compare it to the conviction of Zoro’s drive to become the greatest swordsman in the world because of his promise with his dead childhood friend, or Sanji’s drive to cook because of the sacrifice Sef made to keep him fed during those times of hunger and death, or Usop’s propensity for lying as a means to deal with his grief at the death of his mother and later on to take care of Kaya. And nobody in the entire Naruto manga has a story or character to even compare to Nami, the poor girl who was forced to become a thief to save her village.You quickly see how the supporting cast of Naruto pales in comparison to that of One Piece. And this is true for most other anime and manga. Most of them aren’t even on the same level of footing as One Piece when it comes to character development. While Naruto does improve and expand of many of its characters later on, none of them except for Naruto himself were as elegantly developed as the entire main cast of One Piece.And that is the first thing and most important that makes One Piece truly special and a cut above the rest.I’d also like to mention another thing that really makes One Piece special: the Conflict. Conflict is another essential element to fiction, and here’s the thing about conflict: conflict in fiction is used to generate Emotion. To continue the earlier example, if you have a forest burning, the fires will no doubt cause devastation and desolation which will evoke emotions in the characters, which in turn evoke emotions in the reader.Creating a strong emotional response is essential to any good story. Stories that cannot stir our emotions are as good as a science textbook - maybe it’ll give you facts and knowledge but it won’t entertain your soul. Conflict is the primary means of driving emotions in fiction, and in One Piece this is done masterfully through the conflicts between the protagonists and the antagonists, and from other general events.I’ll discuss this more later.The characters are a universal concept in fiction which shows how good One Piece truly is. But to understand why it is so important in the world of anime and manga, we need to understand something more specific in the manga industry.Do you know Shounen Jump? Shounen Jump is the magazine where One Piece is originally published. It is a legendary magazine in Japan, and is the single biggest manga magazine in circulation in the entire world. It is no exaggeration to say that this magazine is the pulse of the entire manga industry. And manga is the basis for anime. Many of the biggest anime in the entire world have their roots in Shounen Jump.Shounen Jump is a magazine that is based on three themes. These are: Friendship, Effort and Victory. Any series that runs in Shounen Jump has to contain these three as a central theme to the story. These are the three qualities that Shueisha, SJ’s parent company, believes is important to instill in the youth who read manga.And no other series exemplifies these three core themes better than One Piece.This is the cover of the 50th year anniversary issue of Shounen Jump. You’ll see that the size of the characters on the cover shows how important those series are to the magazine, and thus to anime and manga history in general. YOu can clearly see how One Piece and Dragon Ball are heads and shoulders above everything else, even popular series like Naruto, Slam Dunk, Haikyuu, Boku no Hero and Yuu Yuu Hakusho.That is because out of all of them, One Piece is the manga that best exemplifies Friendship, Effort and Victory, the core values which Shounen Jump’s readership appreciates.All of the main protagonists — and there’s a lot of them from the core five of Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usop and Sanji — have a dream, a r’aison d’etre for existing. Achieving that dream is Victory in itself, but that’s a long ways down the line. From their very inception you can see how each one of them put in extreme amounts of Effort to pursue their dreams.In the very first chapter Luffy trained his ass off to improve his rocket punch so that by the end of the first chapter he could destroy a gigantic sea monster with just one punch. Zoro had endless bouts of training with Queena just so to beat her. Usopp made up lies every day to keep his hope of seeing his father again and to bring a smile to Kaya’s face. Sanji almost died to learn the true meaning of making others happy with cooking. And that’s just their origins!As they come together they form a crew of pirates. This is Friendship. While friendship has been a core concept in all Shounen Jump titles, no other series in the entire history of Shounen Jump crystallized it so well as One Piece’s concept of nakama.One Piece did it so well that Hiro Mashima, the author of Fairy Tail, ripped it off practically word for word in his story about guildmates in a wizard’s guild. Kakashi offered it a special tribute when he called all those who betray their nakama worse than scum. There is a reason why One Piece is so influential, it’s because it turned this concept of Nakama and Friendship into an institution for all shounen manga to copy afterwards forevermore.It’s important to understand from a fiction writer’s viewpoint just how amazing what Oda does here is. His classic technique is to introduce a Character and set him against a strong Conflict, which pushes an extreme amount of Effort required in order to finally achieve Victory, with the help of Friends and comrades.And other than the Alabaster Arc scene shown in the picture above where Oda beautifully illustrates the concept of Friendship and Nakama among the Straw Hat pirates and Vivi, the first truly great show of Friendship in One Piece comes earlier during the Arlong Park story, which is Nami’s origin arc.Arlong Park tells the story of how Nami’s home village was subjugated by the Arlong Pirates. Arlong however saw Nami’s talent for cartography, and in his greed he took on a deal with Nami to let her “buy” her village from him if she paid him a princely sum of 100,000,000 Belli.The greed of Nami throughout the story so far was just her trying to save up enough money to save her village. The herculean amount of effort it took her to make that much money was betrayed though when she finally made the amount and Arlong uses a corrupt marine officer to “confiscate” all the stolen money Nami saved up.Nami is so enraged and stricken with grief and frustration at this that she even stabs her own shoulder, where the symbol of the Arlong pirates had been tatooed, in her helplessness to go against Arlong.It is here at this lowest point in her life that she calls out to Luffy for help, to which Luffy just places his most treasured straw hat on Nami’s head, and yells into the sky, “ATARIMAI DA!!!” (OF COURSE I WILL!)Joined as one to help their nakama, the Straw Hat Pirates march on to defeat Arlong and claim Victory. The mere hurdle of getting Nami to finally open her heart and ask the Straw Hats for help was such a major milestone of Victory in the entire shounen genre, and the likes of it haven't really been seen again since.This is the one scene in the entire history of Shounen Jump which without a doubt exemplifies the three virtues of Friendship, Effort, and Victory, the best. Not only does it show the three elements important in Shounen Jump, it is also the culmination of strong character writing (the most important element of fiction) and conflict (the second most important element) as we see the emotional conflict between Arlong and Nami and how this drives her nakama to save her.It is an ultimate classic scene and cements forever how amazing One Piece is, both from a universal fiction standpoint, and most importantly in the specific medium of the Japanese manga industry where One Piece began.A lot of people who only saw One Piece later on never managed to appreciate this fact, especially in America where anime fans were primarily exposed more to Naruto in the mid 00’s.For those of us who were behind One Piece and following it from the beginning, we saw many of the conventions and ideas One Piece introduced slowly seep and become integrated in other anime at the time, including shows like Naruto, Fairy Tail, Konjiki no Gash Bell, Law of Ueki, etc.One Piece was phenomenally influential in the manga and anime industry and became a new gold standard which other series took as a model to pattern their stories around and characters around, just as Dragonball had almost two decades prior.That’s what makes One Piece so special. It is a true landmark in the history of anime and manga.