報名類別:英文寫作
篇名：
探索漫畫〝航海王〞與海盜歷史的相關性
The Relation between One Piece and the History of Pirates.
作者：
鄔家源。台北市立士林高級商業職業學校。二年十一班
陳曉芬。台北市立士林高級商業職業學校。二年十一班
廖翊辰。台北市立士林高級商業職業學校。二年十一班
指導老師：
惠風
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The Relation between One Piece and the History of Pirates.[鍵入文字]
I.
Introduction
One Piece is one of the most famous Manga series worldwide. It attracts children
and teenagers and its popularity ascends gradually. According to an oral survey,
most of students in our class are interested in One Piece.
The background of One Piece corresponds to the real history “Voyage Time”, when
there were many pirates running wild on the sea. Therefore, we resolve to look into
the inner background of One Piece and investigate the similarities and relation
between One Piece and the history of pirates of Voyage Time.
The author of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda is one of the greatest caricaturists in Japan.
When Eiichiro Oda was 17 years old, he won the Tezuka Award offered by the
Japanese publisher Shueisha with his work “WANTED”. Later, in 1997, he
composed the comic “Romance Dawn” which became the origin of One Piece.
Before long, the comic “One Piece” came off the press.
The content of One Piece is talking about an innocent boy whose name is “Luffy”.
When Luffy was little, he was affected by a pirate, called “Red-Hair”, and determined
to gain the treasure “One Piece”, which settled on the end of Grand Line, the most
grand and dangerous ocean in the world.
What’s more interesting, some of characters relate to the real figures in Voyage Time.
For instance, a pirate, called “Blackbeard”, supposed to be the most overwhelming
enemy Luffy had ever met, accorded with the real English pirate, Edward Teach, the
most notorious English pirate in the world. Even the sailing boats, weapons,
fireworks, island’s folklores, landscapes, architectures, living manners, and clothes in
One Piece interconnect with the specific events and realistic things in history.
Finally, by virtue of these instances, we realize One Piece associates with the factual
history of Voyage Time. We would like to explore these topics, and introduce the
correlation of One Piece and the actual history of pirates during Voyage Time.
II.
Thesis
A. Background
1. The introduction of One Piece
One Piece, written by Eiichiro Oda in 1997, is a series of adventureful stories, and
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receives much popularity among teenagers.
Following is the preview of One Piece.
Twenty-two years ago, the King of Pirates, Gold.D.Roger, proclaimed a significant
message when he was about to die. He said to those attending his death penalty that
he had settled a treasure, called “One Piece”, in the end of Grand Line. The
expression caused an influential incident that people worldwide rushed to the fore to
enter the Grand Line, coming into the One Piece. Consequently, Roger created the
period of pirates, which was called “Voyage Time”.
In the East Ocean was an innocent boy, Luffy. When he was 7, he was affected by
Shanks, better known as Red-Hair and became determined to find One Piece and
became the next King of Pirates. However, Luffy accidentally ate the Devil Fruit,
turning into a rubber boy; he even couldn’t swim in the ocean. Ten years later, Luffy
started his journey from his hometown island with a simple boat. Afterward, he
organized a group of pirates, and got many dependable companions from many places
of East Ocean. They went through a number of fatal incidents, defeated various
enemies, and got a new sailing boat. Before long, they entered the Grand Line.
The enemies in Grand Line are more dangerous than before, such as Crocodile, a guy
with sand-controlling ability. He was a president of a syndicate whose members can
arrest pirates for the government and garner money from it. He even put Luffy into
deadly situations twice because of his ability to absorb water from a person.
Another enemy was Eneru. He was regarded as the god of Sky Island because he
had the most invincible ability among all kinds of Devil Fruit in that he could
discharge awesome electricity. In order to achieve his plot, Eneru even almost
destroyed Sky Island and made Luffy and his partners feel despaired. Later on, there
were still many overwhelming enemies threatening. However, Luffy and his
partners conquered them with their efforts. To date, Luffy and his partners still sail
on the Grand Line. Their adventure won’t stop until they reach their destination.
2. The history of pirates in voyage time.
The voyage time started from the 15th to the 17th century, to have many pirates
running wild on the cruise. Better known as the Age of Discovery, it was a period
when many European ships explored for new trade routes and tradable partners.
During this phase, there were many famous explorers appearing in Europe, such as
Cristoforo Colombo, Vasco da Gama, and Fernado de Megallanes. Furthermore, by
virtue of the growth of Colonialism, Europe soon settled a base of developing
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economies and politics.
The discovery of new routes also influenced the development of the world hundreds
of years later. The origin of the Age of Exploration was stimulated by the request of
commercial trade first. For the Westerners, they yearned after finding a route from
West Europe to Asia, bringing some eastern spices. Therefore, commercial
merchandise was madly being traded at that time.
However, it was also a time to have many pirates running wild on the seas.
On
account of the age of exploration, more and more pirates showed up and were remnant
on the seas. One of the most notorious pirates in medieval Europe was the Vikings.
They came from Scandinavia and invaded Europe in 783. On top of Viking pirates,
pirates in West Europe, North of Africa, East of Asia, and even the Caribbean are
infamous as well. From 1691 to 1723, the period was called “The Golden Age of
Pirates”, thousands of pirates activated lively on the trade routes, and the end of the
period was marked by the death of Bartholomew.
Additionally, the history of the voyage time of pirates has the same background as
One Piece. Both of them are in “Voyage Time”, having many similarities with each
other. For examples, the Jolly Roger, the flag representing the identity of pirates is
hung on the mast. It is painted with an image consisting of a white skeleton head
and two thigh bones beneath. Therefore, in One Piece, you also can see diverse
kinds of Jolly Roger. Another instance is about the kinds of pirate ships. It was
common to see the three-mast ships, sailboats in the One Piece certainly like Luffy’s
sailboat, and the Marine’s warships. Not only those mentioned above, but also
pirates in Voyage Time, such as Edward Teach “Black Knight”, and William Kidd,
correspond exactly to the characters in One Piece.
B. Characters
There are numerous, diverse characters showing up in One Piece, such as pirates,
sailors, and islanders. Each of them has different personality traits and abilities, and
some of them even correspond to the realistic pirates in Voyage Time. Before
introducing characters, we have to explain the relationships between Seven Forceful
Pirates under King and Privateers.
Seven Forceful Pirates under King, abbreviated to “SPK”, have similar description
with privateers. Two of them were hired to rob pirates of their treasures by the
government;. In One Piece, all members of the SPK, such as Mihawk, the most
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awesome swordsman in One Piece; Do flamingo, controlling others’ action with
invisible threads; Boa Hancock, the most beautiful female pirate in One Piece; Jimbei,
a mermaid formed Whale Shark; Moria,controlling anyone’s shadow randomly,
support the government no matter what happens. Since the privateers have the
permission to snatch treasures from pirates and ships from other countries, then some
of the revenue they garner have to be given to the national treasury.
1. Luffy and his partners
The main characters in One Piece are as follows: Monkey.D.Luffy, who is the
main character, resolving to be the king of pirates when he was little. He can stretch
any part of his body at random because of rubber ability received from Devil Fruit;
Roronya Zoro is a swordsman, who is able to use three swords at the same time.
He is strong and powerful, but he has gotten lost many times because he always
forgets where he comes from; Nami is a voyager, who loves money very much. Her
family was assaulted by pirates in her childhood so she really hates pirates; Usopp is a
sniper, who always tells a lie. Although he is a coward, he will become courageous
when faced with an emergency; Sanji is a violent, cook lusting for women. He not
only has an exquisite skill of cooking but also is good at kicking; Tonytony.Chopper
is an unusual reindeer which can turn into a man at random. It has superior skill of
medicine and hopes to become a doctor who can cure all diseases; Nico Robin is a
mystery woman. She is an archaeologist who has a passion for history; Franky is an
emotional boatman. He is almost made of metal because he had been injured by a
train and most of his organs in his body were broken. To revive, he transformed his
body into a half-machined body; Brook is a musician who is a live skeleton.
2. The pirates in One Piece.
a. Portgas.D.Ace He is Luffy’s brother, one of the captains in White Beard Fleets.
He has a fire-controlling ability because of Devil Fruit’s influence. Hence, he
can even destroy numbers of warships made by iron with a scorching, burning fist
smashing. However, he was defeated by Black Beard, Marshall.D.Teach, and
was kept captive in prison.
b. Black Beard, Marshall.D.Teach One of the Seven Forceful Pirates under King.
There are many guns tied to him and he has a dense beard on his face. He was
one of the captains in White Beard Fleets originally. Nevertheless, in order to get
the Devil Fruit he had coveted, he killed a captain who gained it, escaping from
the Fleets to reorganize a group of pirates. Due to having the ability to invest
any substances into a black hole, he was becoming an aggressive pirate.
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c. Bartholomew Kuma One of the Seven Force Pirates under King. Often holding
a Bible, he is actually a half-machined man, so his surface is as stiff as steel. On
his hands is a strange meatball which can rebound everything to repel any attack.
d. Bellamy The captain of Bellamy Pirates, arrogant and proud, has the ability of
turning into a spring body. He was beat out by Luffy because he had insulted the
dream of Luffy’s partners.
e. Eustass.Kid He is a brand-new pirate who can manipulate all things made of
metal at random.
f. Basil Hawkins A pirate coming from North Ocean. He can convert his
detriment to the other and counteract any offense with his Voodoo Dolls.
g. Jewelry Bonny A female pirate called “The Munchables” because she is able to
eat up countless things in a short time. She even can turn a normal adult into an
old person or a child by Devil Fruit’s influence.
h. X.Drake A brand-new pirate coming from North Ocean. Originally, he was a
Rear Admiral, but for unknown reason, he determined to be a pirate. Meanwhile,
he has the ability to turn himself into a giant Tyrannosaurus.
i.
Yapu A pirate whose hands are twice longer than common people. He can use
any part of his body to generate an ingenious music rhythm to assault someone.
3. The Pirates in Voyage Time Corresponding to those in One Piece
Some of characters in One Piece correspond to realistic pirates in Voyage Time
exactly, including their name and appearance. We will introduce these pirates’
profiles, such as their background and achievements.
a. Edward Teach (1689-1718) One of the most notorious English pirates in the
world, called “Black beard”. There are many weapons, such as swords, daggers,
and pistols, hung on his body, and even his bread was weaved as a blasting fuse
like a tough guy. In 1715, He attacked initially the Royal Navy that general
pirates don’t dare to offend. During the war, Edward dexterously made use of
his voyage capability to seriously defeat the Royal Navy without fire. From then
on, he became famous and his reputation spread widely. However, in 1718, he
was interrupted by two warships in the gulf of North America and it developed
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into a bloody massacre with Edward being killed by a lieutenant, Maynard.
According to his appearance and name, Edward Teach corresponds to the “Black
Beard” Marshall.D.Teach and Edward.Newgate in One Piece.
b. Bartholomew Roberts (1681-1722) A famous English pirate. Roberts is
different from other pirates who are rude and violent. However, he is handsome
and gentle and that broke stereotype for pirates. He is also a Christian, always
wearing a sacred cross, and prays with his crews on Sabbath together. On
account of his pious belief, he even established some taboos to his crews. In
1722, the English marines stealthily assaulted Roberts’ pirates in the sea area near
by Gabon Republic when Roberts was weaker than before. Roberts died in a
fierce battle; his death was marked as the end of the golden age of pirates.
Bartholomew Roberts can be associated with the Bartholomew Kuma in One
Piece because both of them have Christian stuff on their body respectively;
Roberts carries a religious cross and Kuma holds a Bible all the time, and they
have the same surname as each other.
c. William Kidd (1645-1701) One of the most infamous Scotland pirates in the
world. When Kidd was 5, he immigrated to New York Colony after his father
passed away. In 1695, he was entrusted by the governor of New York to attack
the pirates and French trade ships in the Indian Ocean. Afterwards, he was
conferred a letter of marquee by William III and became a privateer. The
following years, Kidd worked in the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, he didn’t find
any pirates to make money from them so that he became an embarrassment.
Weighed down by his arduous condition, he offended a French trade ship whose
captain is an Englander. Consequently, Kidd was regarded as a pirate at that time
and the British government offered a big reward to arrest Kidd.
In 1699, Kidd
was arrested in Boston, and even tortured seriously in prison. Two years later,
Kidd was punished with the hanging penalty.
William Kidd corresponds to Eustass Kid in One Piece because of identical names.
d. Bartholomew Portugues (?-?) A well-known Portuguese pirate. The
achievement about Portugues is absent in many references. What we consulted
is that he was once caught by enemies, and he escaped successfully using a barrel
of wine made into a simple boat. As a result of his name, Bartholomew
Portugues corresponds to the Portgas.D.Ace in One Piece.
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e. John Hawkins (1532-1595) An English voyager, strategist, pirate, and even a
slaver. He constituted the slavery and sold slaves in the period of Elizabeth I.
What’s more interesting, he had once defeated the La Felicissima Armada
belonged to Spain. Not only can his name be related to the name of Basil
Hawkins in One Piece but there is an illegal slave trade in the island where Luffy
encountered Basil Hawkins.
f. Anne Bonny (1700-?) The most notorious female pirate in the world. Although
Bonny has a comely appearance, she is cruel and atrocious. She had stabbed her
woman servant’s abdomen, injuring the followers of her at age of 13. Not until
she grew up, did she depart her piracy. She attended many battles, getting a great
deal of money during her life as a pirate. She corresponds to the female pirate,
Jewelry Bonny, in One Piece.
g. Francis Drake (1540-1596) A famous English explorer and pirate, know for the
achievement of travelling around the world after Fernando de Magallanes. The
record about Drake is not abundant in references, what we know just that his
nickname is El Draque, meaning “Dragon” in Spanish.
Thanks to the
information, we can understand Francis Drake corresponds to X.Drake in One
Piece because of their similar name, and that two of them stand for two huge
monsters, dragon and Tyrannosaurus.
h. Cheung Po-Tsai (1786-1822) A Chinese pirate in the 19th century. Cheung led
Red-Flag pirates, containing four millions pirates and six hundred warships during
their golden age. At that time, these pirates were one of the most heavily armed
organizations in South China Sea. They went wild on the coast of Kwangchow
and snatched treasures from foreign trade ships and government ships. Even
though he was a pirate, Cheung always takes care of the populace who were in
need because he had come from the destitute. In 1812, when the power of
Red-Flag pirates was weak, Cheung surrendered to the Chin Dynasty and got a
capacity to eliminate pirates in Pong Ho. Moreover, we discoverd that Cheung
was called “Cheung a-poo”; according his name, we can figure out Cheung
Po-Tsai corresponds to the Yapu in One Piece.
i. Samuel Bellamy (1689-1717) A famous pirate in Caribbean. Bellamy was
called “the Prince of Pirates” because he was generous with the captures in his
ship and he even gave old boats to them after taking over their ship so that the
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captured could escape. Thus, these pirates addressed themselves as “Robin
Hood’ Band”. We can figure out Samuel Bellamy correspond to the Bellamy in
One Piece through their same surname. However, you will think the two of them
are extremely unlike; One is generous and compassionate, the other is mean and
evil.
Aside from the characters, there is a correspondence between One Piece and pirates in
Voyage Time. In the last chapters we had talked about the “Jolly Roger”, the
representative of the soul of pirates. Through further research, we found that “Jolly
Roger” is actually associated with the King of Pirate in One Piece. “Jolly Roger”
was based on the expression, “Old Roger”, which was the name of pirate flag in the
Caribbean. Most interesting of all, the name of the King of Pirates is
“Gold.D.Roger”; it means the King of Pirates is a symbol of belief certainly. That is
to say, these realistic pirates in Voyage Time could be the source of inspiration for the
author of One Piece. Perhaps, the author of One Piece is looking for the information
of these characters on the Internet or other media in progress.
Table 1: The comparison of the comic roles and the real pirate figures.
Characters in One Piece
Pirates in Voyage Time
Similarity
Portgas.D.Ace.
Black Beard,Marshall.D.Teach
Bartholomew Kuma
Eystass.Kid
Bellamy
Basil Hawkins
Jewelry Bonny
X.Drake
Yapu
Bartholomew Portugues
Edward Teach
Bartholomew Roberts
William Kidd
Samuel Bellamy
John Hawkins
Anne Bonny
Francis Drake
Cheung Po-Tsai
name
name, appearances
having Christian stuff
name
name
name
name, female pirate
name, nickname
name
C. Islands in One Piece connected with authentic situations.
According to the specific information we mentioned in the last chapter, we can
acquaint that the author of One Piece devised it with the source of Voyage Time.
That is to say, One Piece is based on the expertise of Voyage Time. In fact, One
Piece not only involves in the Voyage Time but also other actual situations and
positions. Take the islands in One Piece for example, the island, Kingdom of
Alabastan, where Luffy fought against Crocodile, is comparable with Egypt by virtue
of the similar geography and clothes. People in Alabastan wear the clothes made of
flax just as the dressing manners of Egyptians, and the geography of Egypt and
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Alabastan are both filled with dessert. That’s why Crocodile attempted to take over
the country because he could make use of his sand-controlling ability. Speaking of
the name of Alabastan, the origin of Alabastan is alabaster which was applied widely
for ancient Egyptian to make household utensils and even be a container loaded with
decomposed organs from mummy.
Another example is the Sky Island because the architecture in Sky Island, where
Luffy combated Eneru, is similar with the Mayan. On the Sky Island is much
architecture, which looks like the Mayan shrine, Kukulkan pyramid, used for religious
rituals. Moreover, the buildings in Amazon Lily, where Luffy encountered the
Empress of Pirates, Boa Hancock, look like the Chinese traditional architecture.
The following island is Water Seven, where Luffy was ravaged by Cipher Police No.9,
a secret governmental criminal organization, attempting to abduct Robin. The
environment of Water Seven corresponds to Venice, a touristic city known by its
particular folklore and artworks; likewise, both of them are also called “The City of
Water”. People in Water Seven and Venice convey everything by water
transportation because Water Seven and Venice are full of many water roads.
Furthermore, people in the two islands also wear masks when there are carnivals or
bustling feasts. Even the buildings in Water Seven are the same as Venice’s. Also,
the famous sea tide “Acqua Alta” in Venice is similar to the “Water Deities”, a huge
sea tide which submerged most parts of Water Seven in One Piece.
Besides, the colossal prison in abysmal sea, Impel, where there are many atrocious
criminals imprisoned and even Portgas.D.Ace kept in captivity, has the same model as
the hell in Buddhism. In Impel, you can see numerous criminals are thrown into the
boiling hot water, tortured in a mountain of swords, run after by lots of terrible beasts,
and even maltreated by a giant with a cattle head. Exactly you can see these
circumstances in the illustrations of hell recorded in Buddhist scriptures as well.
It may be inferred that One Piece consists of large numbers of knowledge widely.
From history to geography and folklores, not only the realities of Voyage Time but
also the situations worldwide are involved in One Piece. In One Piece, there are
many voyagers measuring the correct direction with compass and map, pirates
attacking village in order to get money, sailors battling fiercely against pirates for the
sake of justice and harmony, and different kinds of people, such as someone like
Egyptians, someone like Europeans, and someone like Chinese, contacting with one
another. One Piece has such a vast world outlook. One Piece is not just an assorted
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and adventureful series comic book but an innovative encyclopedia certainly.
III. Conclusion
Generally speaking, everyone thinks that “One Piece”, the series comic, is not suitable
for the topic of essay, but why we choose it as the topic at the beginning? Actually,
One Piece is an inspirational series comic. A group of people strive to accomplish
their dreams because everyone has his own goal, own dream. Somebody wants to be
a doctor, somebody wants to be a teacher, and somebody wants to be an artist or
architect and so on. However, does it take much time and effort to reach their
destination? There is no absolute correct answer. We just believe that we have to
concentrate on our definite goal and we won’t give up until we succeed in our
objective.
In this thesis, we can explain in detail that relationships between the characters in One
Piece and real pirates in Voyage Time are indeed consistent, and we also follow that
he author spent painstaking efforts to consult numerous references. Prove that it’s
not easy to create a systematic series comic. One Piece is not merely describing the
superficial plots about adventures and battles; but in its innermost is vast knowledge.
In One Piece, Luffy and his partners’ adventure have not come to the end yet, and they
are approaching many unknown trials in the future. What we know is just a drop in
the ocean and our field of knowledge will develop continuously as the process of One
Piece.
References
李中文 (譯)。 (2005) 海盜(Die Piraten)。台中市：晨星出版社
尾田榮一郎 (作者)。方郁仁 (譯)。 ONEPIECE 航海王。台北市：東立出版社
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2010) Wikipedia .
available:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Piece_characters.Dec.19.2009
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