"You want to know what One Piece would look like if I'd wanted to write a shonen? That's a very good question! First, it'd be way more cheerful..."
A translated excerpt from Eiichiro Oda's 2010 interview about celeberating 10 years of writing of his
seinen series known as
One Piece, having started in 2000 and concluding over in 2015. The interview reached a question over how
One Piece was originally planned to be a shonen, but Oda's concerns on the schedule and the like instead had him lead to a
seinen series in
Ultra Jump along with taking a bit of help from a team. This led to a darker and more serious
One Piece than initially planned albeit with some of the recognizable elements of the original draft such as Luffy's comedic style of fighting with his Gum Gum Devil Fruit rubber body and the wonderful if eccentric world-building. However, the violence and sexual undertones were never skipped out upon and there was often melancholic moments on the
Sea-Ram and later
Thousand Dawn, the ships of the Strawhat Pirates. While characters were seldomly killed, the wounds and damages were accumulated and matters taken seriously
Some have noted this may have impeded the series as the varioua 4-koma would show much more of the cartoony facial expressions and comedy with
One Piece that many felt was sorely needed to balance out the increasing drama and seriousness. Though the series never ventured into melodrama or angst, given Luffy's remaining prominent grin and the moments of quiet comfort the crew took with one another, even Zoro and Sanji putting aside their increasingly tense rivalry to have fun. There was still plenty of victories and celeberations such as saving Alabasta and Vivi's coronation to the destruction of Enies Lobby saving Nico Robin. At the same time, it was also seen from other interviews how he would feel a bit at a loss and even losing a passion for
One Piece because of the direction of the
seinen which his wife hinted at being because of the moe serious tone that would develop and being forced to follow up on that. Something that would become more apparent with the increasing volune of notes and potential ideas that would've been included, such as more crewmembers and the like. Despite this, the finale of having Luffy meet a similar end to Gol. D Roger albeit a bit more uplifting and inspiring a new generation is still considered a pivotal moment in
One Piece, with the popularity only being surpassed by
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure in terms of
seinen and getting an animated series from Studio Bones.
In fact, some have speculated that had Oda chosen a
shonen route, it would'e likely become one of Shonen Jump's Top 3, though it's debated whether it would've edged out
Bleach or
Fairy Tail in that regards. Though the most likely canddiate would've been
Fairy Tail, due to the manga having borrowed some elements of
One Piece regarding using a team to assist in writing, resuilting in a lot of smoothed errors, something that the mangaka of
Naruto (the biggest of the Top 3) or
Bleach regretted not having done. Many have also noted that even with the more stressful story, Oda likely would've been happier since he would've stuck to his original goofier ideas.
"The Japanese entertainment industry took their Western audiences alot more seriously in terms of relevance when many Youtubers and influencers proceeded to connect with Japanese fans and lead to a series of massive strikes from Nintendo to Shonen Jump."
