The first episode of one of my most favourite anime series ever. However, this episode is hardly interesting and half the otakus who start watching One Piece give it up on account of this episode…well mainly because of that annoying Koby -_-#
The prologue here is the same as how the manga starts out:
Wealth, Fame, Power;
The man who had acquired everything in this world,
The Pirate King Gold Roger;
The final words said at his execution sent people to the seas;
”My wealth and treasures?”
If you want it, I’ll let you have it;
Look for it, I left all of it at that place!”
Well the prologue in itself is brilliantly done. Keep in mind that One Piece is what it is because of it’s awesome storyline. So it’s finally time for the summary ^_^
It starts off with a sailor of a cruise ship spotting a floating barrel in the sea. Two other sailors hoist it up with much difficulty due to its weight. Meanwhile, in another part of the cruising ship, a dance is being conducted where we see a cute orange headed girl being asked to dance(hmmm….looks familiar…..). Back on the deck of the ship, the sailors spot a pink ship with a pirate flag bearing a skull with a heart on it. They immediately recognize it as the ship of the Alvida pirates and fire a cannon. The barrel rolls into the kitchen.
There is panic on board the ship and the captain unsucessfully tries to calm the passengers. The same orange headed girl on the other hand, looks happy for…some reason. The firing continues and the scene shifts to Alvida’s ship. Alvida is an extremely fat pirate with huge cheeks, wears a hat and carries a thick club. She is convinced that she is the most beautiful woman in the ocean and makes her crewmembers reinforce that fact(XD). Then they start boarding the cruiser ship and a pink-haired timid boy Koby(the omen which chases otakus away -_-;) is forced by Alvida to board the ship. The orange hair girl meanwhile changes into another outfit and boards Alvida’s ship(she’s a thief…not hard to figure out ne? 
). She somehow manages to make her way to Alvida’s treasure by kicking the crotch of one of the pirates left on boards(why don’t women realize that HURTS!!).
Back on the cruiser, Koby heads off to the kitchen where he finds a barrel(the same from before) while the other pirates loot the ship. As Koby pushes the barrel towards the exit, a few pirates arrive on the scene and tell Koby to keep quiet about the fact that they’ve been drinking(they think it is a wine barrel). As one of them is about to break it open, a strange boy wearing a straw hat breaks out of the barrel stretching his arms. The pirates fall back and unsuccesfully try to slice the boy with their swords and Luffy tells them how ‘dangerous’ it was to do so. He introduces himself as Monkey D. Luffy. The pirates are totally freaked out and dash out of the kitchen to inform Alvida.
Luffy is hungry and drags Koby along with him to the storage cellar where he munches on apples. Koby keeps telling him that Alvida would have him killed and Luffy punches him to shut him up. Koby says that he’s been pretty used to it since he was kidnapped by Alvida’s pirates when he had mistaken a pirate boat to be a fishing boat. By the time he realized it, he was already on Alvida’s ship as a slave(sorta). He says that he always wanted to be a marine and fight pirates. Luffy tells him to go on with his dream and then describes his own ambition of becoming pirate king by obtaining the ultimate treasure One Piece(and punches Koby again for saying it was impossible). He planned to enter the Grand Line ocean, the most treacherous ocean in the world from where most pirates never return. Koby is astonished at the fact that he plans on doing this without a ship and a crew. Alvida then breaks in with her club and thinks Luffy to be the bounty hunter Zoro. Luffy calls Alvida a hag(love it when their mouths just hang out like “WTF?!?” 
) and rushes with Koby to the deck where they are attacked by the pirates. Luffy stretches his arm against a mast and propels himself forward knocking the pirates out screaming “Gomu Gomu no Rocket(to)”(gomu=rubber). Luffy then revealed that he could stretch like a rubber since he had eaten the Gomu Gomu no Mi(rubbe-rubber fruit) which was a Devil’s Fruit(Asuma no mi) known to grant extraordinary powers to the eater. He tells Alvida that he’s a pirate looking for a crew. Alvida completely loses it when Koby calls her a hag and brings her club down on Luffy’s head(having no effect since its rubber). Luffy then stretches his arm and uses Gomu Gomu no Pistol to launch Alvida into the sea who ends up landing on one of her poor crewmembers(the one which was knocked off the ship by Alvida’s club earlier).
Luffy demands a boat from the pirates for Koby and they jump out with the boat into the sea since the Marines arrive on the scene to capture the pirates, splashing water all over the orange haired girl who is returning with her successful haul. On the sea, Koby asks Luffy about how he was planning to recruit a crew. He tells Luffy about Rorona Zoro who was captures by the Marines. Koby says that Zoro is a fearsome bounty hunter who mercilessly kills pirates just for the money. When Luffy thinks about making Zoro his first crewmember, Koby shouts again and gets punched by Luffy as usual. The scene then shifts to a guy with a bandana tied to a post…the Great Pirate hunter…Roronoa Zoro!!!
Even if the first episode isn’t impressive it gets better along the way. A unique feature of One Piece is that the story gets better with every arc. Though many people complain about the simplistic artwork of One Piece, I quite like it and think it to be a distinguishing feature of this anime. From the next episode onwards, the plot will gradually start to develop so stay tuned!
