Introduction

In this blog/project, I hope to convey that you can learn, grow and even become a better person through the teachings of One Piece. I believe that the lessons that are within the anime and manga of One Piece are able to teach you of ways to think about and cherish the things that you have in your life that some, if not a lot of you might not have thought about from that point of view. To me, this project is important, because through my explanations of what you learn through One Piece, it will hopefully show people that most anime aren't usually without some educational or social teachings buried within them. Anime's from Japan, like One Piece, aren't like the majority of cartoons in America. They are able to teach you more than cartoons, which tend to be more about the funny and stupid things that happen.

For this blog/project, I'm going to go over 6 topics of lessons that I think you could learn from watching and/or reading One Piece. These lesson can also be interpreted to show you a glimpse into some of the views and ways of how Japan does things and it's feelings towards certain topics. Hopefully, another thing you'll get from my posts is a view of the honorable ways of Japan and some of the traditions that pertain to the culture there.

Lesson 1: Following Your Dreams

The first lesson I'll be going over is the lesson of "following your dreams". It is one of the two most constant appearing of the lessons that you could from One Piece. The group of main characters, the Straw Hat pirates are all examples of this lesson. They all have their own dreams that they aspire to accomplish. 

The Straw Hat Pirates take this lesson very passionately. They all have their own dreams and they're helping each other to achieve them. But in the world of One Piece, many people mock and put down those who have the biggest dream of all in the world. And that dream is of becoming the King of the Pirates. This is the dream of Monkey D. Luffy, the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates has that very dream. Many take the idea of him becoming it as a joke at first, but he usually proves to them that he's strong by doing whatever they thought was impossible. And those who mock his dreams en up on the wrong end of his fist. 

One example would be a member of the Shichibukai (Seven Warlord of the Sea), Mr.0 a.k.a. Crocodile. By the time they actually met, Luffy was already determined to beat him up for manipulating his friend's Kingdom, but during their fights, Crocodile made comments about how a no-name rookie as weak as Luffy could never beat him or survive on those seas. This just made Luffy more determined to beat him up even more to prove him wrong. In the end, Luffy beat Crocodile up and proved to him that he is no average rookie. He showed Crococile that no matter who or what tries to harm him, his friends, or any of their dreams, he'll beat them up regardless and surpass them. 

Another example would be the conflicts he had with the pirate, Bellamy the Hyena. Bellamy declared that the era that pirates dream had come to an end. Pretty much telling Luffy to give up and pack it in. He even laughed at and mocked Luffy's current dream to go to the Sky Islands. He views it as nothing more than a fairy tale. Even when Bellamy started to beat on him, Luffy didn't allow something as worthless as Bellamy's views and weak attacks affect him. He might have sustained a few wounds, but he came out as the bigger man and still held passionately on to his dreams. And he continued to have no interest in him, until he beat up and stole the treasures of one of Luffy's new friends; Smashing everything his friend had worked so far to collect towards his dream. To avenge a friend, he repaid Bellamy for all he deserved.

I hope that from reading this, you learned that no matter who tries to get in the way of your dreams to not allow them to succeed. To not throw away your dreams because someone else says so and push forward towards that dream. 

This topic is related to my project theme because it's about lesson number one, follow your dreams. You also learn a side-lesson along with that, to never give up your dreams to naysayers.