In preparation for my essay, I’ve been working on reading all sorts of writings about One Piece, Eiichiro Oda’s manga series about Monkey D. Luffy and his crew’s adventures towards becoming the Pirate King and finding the One Piece! (A Grand Treasure left behind by the former Pirate King, Gol D. Roger). I’m really surprised at the level of insight that I’m learning from the many commentators; I did not expect to much critical work in the One Piece audience (my unenlightened bias, of course), but some of it has been great, and many of the commentators seem very passionate about One Piece (which makes me all the more taken in and passionate about One Piece too!). I paste the link at the bottom of this post; take this: “Above all else, [Luffy] values freedom, and thus grants it to his friends. He feels no need to demand subservience and only occasionally calls for direct obedience.” (1) This quote refers to Luffy’s very easygoing, and at times even goofy, take on his role as the crew’s captain. I never once thought that the reason he grants others in crew the freedom do what they want is because he wants to do what he wants. This would, at face value, seem paradoxical and unwise, since choosing the wrong crew mates could me you might easily be couped, but then again this reveals more about Luffy’s mental powers too. He’s not just a goofball, as some commentators say, but he “in choosing incredibly skilled people to handle those positions, when they step up to take control of a situation, it reflects well on him, rather than making him look weak,” or dumb. As Luffy himself put it, “I know that I need others to help me if I want to keep on living,” again, showing his rather veiled wisdom. Here’s another one: “Luffy is not a good leader, but he is good at leading.” (2) This is a cool way to say, you don’t always be head honcho in charge, but if you can pull through amazingly alongside your crew when a challenge shows itself, then, given you aren’t a holy and titular “leader”, you at least should get the title “good at leading”. All these points, all these ideas, are so new to me and I would’ve never thought about them (possibly) if I just sat and watched or read One Piece all on my own. So I guess this post really becomes an extension of my gratitude to all the redditors, bloggers, and vloggers who’ve spent their energy to write up about something many others may not care but to watch and give a little fellow at FAU a new look, a new take, a new breath of One Piece, one I’ve never had before, but because of this I think I will be a regular reader and writer of comments (maybe even a vlogger) myself. All in all, to close, I’d just like to say (if ever one of you readers fit the description), thanks you guys.
Ikuzo!
(1) http://onepiecepodcast.com/2015/02/11/carolines-column-monkey-d-luffys-treatise-on-leadership/
(2) https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePiece/comments/315gc4/does_luffy_become_a_better_leader/