One Piece

"I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"

In a world of endless oceans and exotic islands, a Golden Age of Piracy has arisen following the demise of the infamous "Pirate King", Gold Roger.

Pirates from across the globe are searching for Roger's treasure, One Piece, said to be hidden in the Grand Line, the most dangerous stretch of ocean in the world.

And one of them, Monkey D. Luffy, is determined to become King of the Pirates. And NOTHING is going to stand in his way.

The Fragmented Canon
One Piece is a highly popular, long-running shonen manga that has been adapted into an anime series. It is considered to be one of the "Big Three" shonen series, along with Bleach and Naruto, though its popularity in the West is significantly less than either of those two.

This is largely due to translation problems; the anime dub by 4Kids Entertainment is notorious for its poor quality and massive amounts of editing, and the Viz Media translation of the manga follows much of the same lines. As a result, compared to Naruto and Bleach, both of which were brought over with largely direct translation and thus made incredible amounts of cash, One Piece bombed in the West, and 4Kids eventually dropped the franchise. Funimation has recently picked up the rights to the anime dub (and even handled new Cartoon Network episodes for a while before that network dropped the show), and is releasing "Uncut" dubs on DVD, which attempt to be much more faithful translations.

The result is that One Piece can practically be said to have four or five different versions of canon. The anime and the manga are inherently different even in the original format, due to different media standards and the need for filler episodes. In addition, there is the Viz Media manga, the 4Kids anime dub, and the Funimation dub (and the Funimation dub can be divided between TV releases, which attempt to maintain some consistency with changes made by the 4Kids dub, and the Uncut releases, which do not). The differences between the versions range from characters' ages to characters' names to some story arcs being outright excised.

Basic Canon Summary
Regardless, the basic story of One Piece remains the same throughout. A teenaged boy named Monkey D. Luffy, inspired by the Age of Piracy he lives in and a certain pirate captain he met when he was younger, aspires to become the Pirate King and find Gold Roger's legendary treasure, One Piece. To this end, he sets out to compile a crew (first mate, navigator, sniper, cook, doctor, archaeologist, shipwright, musician, and possibly others yet to come) and sail the Grand Line, a legendary sea that runs like a belt around the One Piece World, and which only Gold Roger himself has ever fully traversed before.

The story follows Luffy as he gathers said crew and traverses the Grand Line, having innumerable adventures along the way and meeting many colorful friends and foes (and "colorful", here, is not used lightly). Many of them- as well as Luffy and several other members of his crew- have consumed "Devil Fruits", strange fruits from the Grand Line which, when ingested, give the user fantastic and often superhuman abilities at the cost of being forever unable to swim (a dangerous restriction on a world that has an even higher water-to-land ratio than Earth). Opposing the pirates of the world is the World Government and its military arm, the Marines (A.K.A. Navy depending on which translation you ask).

The story is divided up into Arcs, usually named after and centering around the island the Straw Hats are currently on or the opponent they are currently fighting.

The Strawhat Pirates
WARNING! SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION! IF YOU HAVEN'T READ OR WATCHED ANY OF ONE PIECE, IT IS SERIOUSLY RECOMMENDED YOU DO SO FIRST!

The story's stars are Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirates, currently numbering nine. In order of joining, they are:


 * Monkey D. "Straw Hat" Luffy: Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, which were named after his ubiquitous straw hat (which appears on their Jolly Roger). 17 years old, thick as a brick but occasionally piercingly perceptive. Has been known to eat amounts of food in a single sitting that could feed a decent-sized town for a week. Damage his straw hat or mess with his friends, and nothing in the world can save you. Ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi (Rubber-Rubber Fruit), which turned him into a "rubberman": he can stretch any part of his body to amazing extents.
 * Roronoa Zoro: translated as Zolo in the 4Kids dub and Viz Manga. First Mate of the Straw Hat Pirates. Former pirate hunter who joined Luffy's crew after Luffy saved him from being wrongly executed. Incredibly tough swordsman who uses an interesting three-swords-style of fighting (two in his hands, one held in his mouth) and who is legendary for his fighting ability. Tends to sleep whenever he can get away with it; has absolutely no sense of direction and is notorious for getting hopelessly lost. Probably the heaviest drinker on the crew, though it doesn't come up often.

Links
http://www.onemanga.com/One_Piece/1/01/ - online translations of the manga on OneManga. Beware: the translations are inconsistent and occasionally poor in quality early on due to the different teams doing the translations. Still, it's well worth the slog-- once you get to Arlong Park the quality starts picking up, as does the plot.