The influence of Manga: One Piece

What can I say about Manga? Strictly speaking of what it is, its a bunch of drawings with dialogues relating a story, thats what people would infer just by hearing the word comic but for many people (me included) is more than just comics, more than fiction, for us it is life, how it is, how it should be, how we would like it to be, reality in many senses, lies in many others, dreams, happiness, sadness, friendship, love and many, many other things; we learn from them. One Piece is all the things said before and much more, a bunch of draws full of life. It still amaze me how the author Eiichiro Oda created this story even thought he was a beginner, and plus very young, he was just 22! (One Piece Volume Manga 01 by Eiichiro Oda) most Mangaka have their debut young, but not usually with a long story, and of course not as long as One Piece, I mean it started in 1997 (Weekly Shonen Jump by Sasaki Hisashi) and is still going!; either way, Oda-sensei always wanted to be a Mangaka, since he knew that kind of work existed, at the age of 4, he decided to be a mangaka because at that time it meant like not working at all. Since then, he wanted to write a story about pirates, which is what one piece is about. (Interview with Eiichiro Oda from Manga Tengoku by Kazuhiko Torishima). One Piece, as many other mangas, are about following your dreams, the endless search of the meaning of life, whether it is love, family, ambitions, dreams, freedom; It is more than anything about following your dreams, never give up no matter what the rest of the world says, keep your promises, find the meaning of life not just in you but in the people you can meet and trust. It all started with a little boy, with a big dream, and as the story goes, he finds people with the same dreams, some might get lost, but together they find a way out anything, the world comes down and make them fall, but they help each other and stand up again. Readers of Manga (as me) friends (many friends), people I get to know because we like the same stories; we share our experiences, emotions, feelings, what the characters and the whole story transmit to us, all we experience while reading manga and weve found out that we Do believe in those feelings, in that experiences, that nothing is impossible, we have our own stories to write; but as the world is, the rules we must follow, the path that everyone but us decides for our lives, all that make us forget what it is important, what really matters that your life is about you, that is your own story to write, as you want, with the people you want; that is what Manga give us, different worlds with different people, different thoughts and perspectives, where everything is possible if you really believe on it and keep trying, and that life is hard, the world is a horrible place, horrible things that you can not control happen, not everything will go as you wish, life is not fair, but that it is life and we learn to live with it, to enjoy everything we have, all our memories, sad and happy moments, all the people we meet, and so, just to at the end of our lives look back and feel satisfied with the path you choose, and smile back. Personally if you ask me why I like Manga so much, I could repeat the same as before, but actually I dont really know, I do not even know if there is a reason, I believe some things are natural, this might sound stupid, but I feel like its a part of me; as a child I used to feel like I lived in a different world or dimension, nothing felt real, I used to spent most of

my time daydreaming, at nights I couldnt sleep making up stories and when I finally fell asleep I had all sort of weird dreams. In my dreams nothing was impossible, but in my reality I was in a bubble, where I just did what I was told, I did not have to think on anything else, just follow orders. At some point in that distant and blurry memories was when Anime/Manga came to me, and allowed me to see different worlds, meet different people, different thoughts, another style of life, believe, feel and dream; so I think I mixed all of that with my soul or something; and the reason One Piece is so special, its because they show me a full world, all that I said before and much more things, and that dreams and the freedom of making them true are the best on life, and as Luffy (One Pieces main character) says My dream is become the king of pirates, but if I die trying, it will be fine too that words are my inspiration, and some of the reasons I wont give up in this life and in this creepy world.

References

One Piece Volume 01

December 24 1997 Shueisha Editorial By Eiichiro Oda

Weekly Shonen Jump

August 4 1997 Shonen Jump Editorial By Sasaki Hisashi

Manga Tengoku
December 2007 Web site By Kazuhiko Torishima

Faculty of languages

ESSAY

The Power of Manga: One Piece

Mercedes Lobo Rivas

Anlisis y Disertacin de Textos en Ingles

Gabriela Gallego

Mexicali Baja California

30/05/12