Transcription
Welcome to the Man of Recaps. This is the live action One Piece, season one.
Welcome to a world that is mostly ocean, and so naturally, it's full of pirates. 20 years ago, the Pirate King Gold Roger was captured, but with his last words, he told the crowd of his hidden treasure hoard. They call it the One Piece because I guess it's all in one piece? Gold Roger was executed, but he inspired a whole new generation to become pirates and hunt for the One Piece.
20 years later, no one has found it, so we follow a new hopeful, Monkey D Luffy. He's a happy-go-lucky energetic youngster, with unshakable confidence that he will find the One Piece and become the new king of the pirates! He's not off to a very good start, as his boat sinks and he's picked up by the evil pirate Alvida. Yeah, by the way, there are no normal pirates on this show, they all have to have some wild theme.
A prisoner on the ship is the unconfident Koby, but Luffy befriends him and stands up for him. Luffy is a decent fighter, especially because he has stretchy powers! Yes, as a kid he ate a "Devil Fruit" that turned his body into rubber. So he calls out his finishing move, "Gum Gum Pistol!" and knocks Alvida out of there.
Yeah he wants to be a *good* pirate, like his childhood idol, Red Haired Shanks, who saved him from a sea monster but lost his arm. Shanks gave Luffy his iconic straw hat, like "Come find me when you're a famous pirate yourself."
Now to find the One Piece Luffy needs a map, and maps are pretty rare in this world, so they go to a Marine base to try to steal one. But here he meets a couple other characters with anime main character energy, because they have brightly colored hair. There's the pirate hunter, Zoro, a master swordsman who carries three swords, but he only pulls the third out for special occasions. He gets in a fight with the spoiled son of the Marine commander, which lands him in jail.
But as Luffy sneaks into the Marine base, he gives him his spiel, "I'm Monkey D Luffy, going to be King of the Pirates" and sets him free, "You should join my crew." Also sneaking into the Marine base is the orange haired Nami, who's a thief looking to steal a map herself. The map they need is a real special one kept in the commander's safe, and long story short, they get it out there.
But now they got to fight the whole Marine base, all three of them working together, Luffy's crew has assembled! Though Nami and Zoro don't admit it yet. But now they fight the commander himself, Axe Hand Morgan, who does indeed have an axe for a hand. For the boss fight Zoro pulls out his third sword, which he holds in his mouth! Which is utterly ridiculous, but he makes it work.
As they make their escape, Koby's not coming. He doesn't want to be a pirate, he wants to be a Marine! Luffy's biggest thing is supporting people following their dreams, so "We may be on opposite sides of the law, but I know we can still be friends." So Luffy and friends sail away and they become known as the Straw Hat Pirates.
Now, what makes this map so special? Navigator Nami explains: the Ocean World is divided into four quadrants, with a big strip of land running down the middle. And around the equator is the "Grand Line", the most wild, untamed, dangerous place on the planet! The map they stole is the only known map of the Grand Line, so it's very special.
So our little crew has got the attention of Marine Vice Admiral, Garp - and yes, by the way, phones in this show are snails - and also Garp's hat is a dog. He's going to lead a squad of new recruits to hunt down these Straw Hat Pirates, including Koby, and Axe Hand's son, who now has an atrocious haircut given to him by Zoro when he escaped.
And it's not just the Marines, other pirates are after them too, the first of which is Buggy, the clown pirate. And Buggy's kind of funny, but he's also bad. And he recognizes Luffy's straw hat. Yes, he used to be friends with Shanks, but it didn't end well. And Luffy can't just beat this guy with his stretchy powers, because Buggy ate a Devil Fruit too! The Chop Chop Fruit that lets him break into pieces. He puts Luffy in a sea water tank, yes that's the problem with Devil Fruit, seawater nullifies your powers and makes you weak.
But Luffy's crew breaks him out of there and they figure out to lock Buggy's parts in the different chests, so now he's no longer a threat. Now our crew needs a new boat, and Luffy can't steal one, "Stealing is wrong" - I'm not sure he knows what a pirate is.
At Luffy's favorite boat he meets Usopp, a guy who exaggerates every story he tells. He claims he's best friends with the boat's owner, but turns out it's true, it's the young woman Kaya. She loves the obviously fake stories of the great Captain Usopp, because they make her laugh. She invites them to stay for her birthday dinner, but her butler does not approve, and soon spirits her away because of her poor health.
But turns out he is the pirate Kuro, leader of the Black Cat Pirates! And Kaya's not really sick, he's been slowly poisoning her this whole time as an evil plan to take all her money. Usopp fights with his signature slingshot, but Kuro's super fast - oh, he ate a Devil Fruit too!
Usopp Tries to warn the village of the pirate invasion, but they don't listen to him, it's the boy who cried wolf because his whole life he's been saying the pirates are coming. When he was a kid, his dad left to become a pirate, and he always hoped that his dad would come back. And turns out Luffy knows Usopp's Dad, he was part of Shanks' crew!
But Koby's here with the novice Marines, but Kuro convinces him that Usopp's a liar. He hands over Luffy though, who is mostly dead, because he drank the entire poison soup! Yeah, Luffy's favorite thing is food. But now Luffy barfs it up, he's totally fine.
So Luffy steps in to fight this guy, and he's normally a happy kid, but the one thing you don't do is mess with his friends! So Luffy goes into beast mode, "Gum Gum Bell!" and knocks this guy out of here! As thanks for saving her Kaya gives them the boat, and Usopp's going to come join the crew, have the real adventures of the great Captain Usopp - even though Luffy of course is the real captain.
But now the Marines have caught up to them and when Luffy sees Garp, he says "Grandpa?" Yes, young Luffy always wanted to be a pirate, but his Vice Admiral Grandpa did not approve, so yes this hunt is a family feud. Luffy bounces the cannonball back so they escape.
They come to the pirate restaurant, Baratie, which is of course Luffy's dream. And back in the kitchen is a master chef, it's Sanji. But his boss doesn't approve of him going off menu, so he makes him a waiter today, where he meets our crew and flirts with Nami.
But now Garp sends someone else after Luffy, a pirate himself, Dracule Mihawk. He's one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, legendary pirates that are pardoned by the World Government because it's too hard to go after them, and better to let them take out other pirates. Mihawk is famously the greatest swordsman alive, so Zoro stands up and challenges him to a duel. That's his backstory, he made a vow with his best friend to become the greatest swordsman alive, but she died in a tragic accident, and that's his third sword, it belonged to her.
So to prove he's the best, he's got to beat Mihawk, but Mihaawk pulls out his tiny little knife, and yeah this guy's on a whole other level! Even with Zoro's third mouth-sword, he beats him handily, breaks his other two. But Zoro's pretty good, so Mihawk slashes him just deep enough that he'll live, "Come find me again when you're ready."
As for Luffy, he's interested by this kid's spark, "I'm going to let you go and see what you get up to." But now hunting Luffy is the pirate Arlong, captain of the Fishmen Crew. He tracked Luffy here because he found Buggy's head, who had an ear in Luffy's hat the whole time! And Luffy can't beat Arlong, Fishmen are really strong, and pretty soon things look bleak.
But he saved by Nami, who's like "Hey Arlong, I got the map for you." Oh! She's been on his crew this whole time! But Luffy doesn't believe Nami really betrayed them, he knows there's something else going on, and is going to go to rescue her. And sailing out with them is the suited chef, Sanji. His dream is to find the All Blue, a legendary restaurant with ingredients from all four Seas.
As a kid he was captured by his future boss, who at the time was the captain of the dreaded Chef Pirates. When their ship sank they were marooned together, they split up the food, the adult took the bigger bag because he's an adult. But turns out there was no food in there, he gave it all to Sanji, and to survive, ate his own leg! Yes Chef Zeff is a real good guy, and these two fight constantly, but they love each other.
So we go to Arlong's headquarters at the ruined Coco Village, which was where a young Nami grew up, until Arlong invaded and killed her mother! But then Nami betrayed her people and joined ArLong's crew! Now she comes and collects tribute from them. "There's something up, Nami, I know you're a good person." She claims not to be, but of course she is.
She joined Arlong's crew as part of a promise that if she gave him one hundred million "Berry" - that's their word for money by the way - she could buy back Coco Village and he'd leave it in peace. And finally, Nami's collected enough, but Arlong goes back on the deal, sends the Marines on his payroll after her! So Nami is devastated, goes to cut off her tattoo, but her Captain Luffy is there to help her. "You're going to help me even though I betrayed you?" And he puts his straw hat on her, "Of course I will."
So the Straw Hat Pirates bust into Arlong's pool party, and it's a big anime fight, Hyah, Hyah! Sanji, by the way, only fights by kicking. Buggy agreed to help them if they get his body back, but he was lying, He peaces out.
Luffy goes to fight Arlong, and he's real mad that he messed with his friend Nami. Arlong's still way too strong, Luffy can't win, but it's the maps that Nami had drawn for him that will let him rule the seas and start a Fishman empire. So Luffy's going to destroy his map room, and he goes for the epic big kick, "Gum Gum Battle Axe!" Woah! Knocks Arlong all the way down, destroys the whole building!
But it's not over yet, because Grandpa's caught up to him. Koby steps forward, "Hey, Luffy's clearly the good guy here, I refuse to follow orders." Bad Haircut joins too, he's become kind of a better person and best friends with Koby. But Garp doesn't need them, he'll do it himself, because oh, Grandpa packs a big wallop! He grabs his grandson, "Stop fooling around!"
But Monkey D Luffy knows exactly who he is: he's going to find the One Piece and become King of the Pirates! So Garp gives up, "All right, kid, you win. I'm proud of you at least for following your own dream. But next time I see you, I'll have to arrest you."
Because indeed, Luffy has achieved one dream, he finally got his own wanted poster! He says goodbye to his Marine friend Koby, they've realized that there can be bad Marines and good pirates, so they both vow to be good. And Garp was impressed that he stood up for what's right, so he's taking the Bad Haircut Duo to be his personal apprentices.
But Luffy's new fame makes him a big target for all his former villains, who he doesn't kill, so they can all come back. And also watch out for a mysterious figure who smokes two cigars at the same time! And also watch out for the bad guy group Baroque Works, who tried to recruit Zoro at the beginning of the season but he turned them down.
But Luffy has friends out there too, like Red Haired Shanks, who is still alive. Mihawk visits him like "Hey I met Luffy," and look he's become a real pirate! And our crew has become a family, they all make a vow to follow their dreams. And the Straw Hat Pirates unveil their new flag, yeah the smiling skeleton with the straw hat.
So Monkey D Luffy is really doing it, going to go to the Grand Line, find the One Piece and become King of the Pirates! And that's where season one comes to an end. If you like this recap, hit that subscribe button, for more of the best recaps of TV and movies.