MANGA REVIEW | Pre-"One Piece" Oda Shows He’s Always Been "Wanted!"
Can you imagine a world without One Piece? What if there never was a story about a boy who wanted to be king of the pirates? Such a possibility could’ve occurred if author Eiichiro Oda had one of his other one-shots been green-lit to serialization. As Wanted! Eiichiro Oda Before One Piece shows, just about any of these pre-Grand Line tales could’ve been expanded towards bigger adventures. Well…almost all of them.
This collection gets its namesake from the first one-shot Oda published: Wanted! It was the runner-up in a Tezuka manga award contest, and it’s easy to see why it was rated so high. It has all the characteristics of what makes One Piece so iconic: kooky characters, expressive facial reactions, and a plethora of over-the-top violence that’d make Chuck Jones smile from ear-to-ear. There’s also a plethora of creativity, ranging from our anti-hero’s hilarious name to how he deals with another bad outlaw with quick wit.
Wanted!
Future Present from God puts the spotlight on a pickpocket, who has riled up the Man Upstairs. But a foolish mistakes results in God making it so thousands die in a meteor attack. So what does He do? Simple: get the man he was trying to kill to become a hero. With a plethora of poop-stepping and hilarious banter between the Creator and the pickpocket, Future Present from God is the most entertaining of reads in this collection. (With that being said, it’s understandable why its fate was a standalone story.)
Meanwhile, Ikki Yako places big responsibilty on a cowardly monk, who vows to deal with a mysterious monster. You get a good hint of what’s to come from Oda here, as the monk suspiciously looks like a certain sword wielder. But the funniest part of this story comes from the monster’s reveal, who looks like Gary Busey with a taste for human flesh (or, basically, just Gary Busey). It’s got laughs and some good action, but one may see why Shonen manga readers wouldn’t warm up to a story where a monk was the protagonist.
Ikki Yaro
Surprisingly, the weakest story is one that recently got an anime adaptation: MONSTERS. There are some good ideas in the story, but as a whole, this one suffers from poor pacing and a lack of truly likable characters. Sure, the villains are jerks, and there’s a nice twist regarding who the real baddie is. Nevertheless, MONSTERS is a mess, and I can’t fathom why this got animated instead of Wanted! or Future Present from God.
The collection ends where Oda finds his niche: Romance Dawn. Where One Piece first comes to life (or was it second?), Luffy takes hold of a panda bird of sorts. A call for an adventure arrives, with a pre-Nami named Ann being held captive by evil pirates. You get a backstory similar to what One Piece would later deliver, and Luffy’s rubbery powers are the same as the main story. Overall, it’s a fun prequel to a series that would be one day seen as one of the most iconic manga ever made!
Romance Dawn
Wanted! is a solid collection. Although not as robust as Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater, it does give readers a cool look into what ran through Eiichiro Oda’s mind before he settled for the pirate’s life. It would’ve been wild to see one of these other series be the thing that takes off Oda’s career, but perhaps it was for the best that Romance Dawn was the thing to spark a worldwide hit. (I mean, I don’t know anyone who’d picture a pickpocket not named Lupin The Third being transformed into a shonen icon.)
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.
