I Am the Man Who Is Going to Become the Pirate King!
The One Piece anime has already reached episode 300. I only started watching it over this winter break, and I watched the more than 200 previous episodes and several theatrical films in one go. Of course, it is a very good anime.
The first 200-odd episodes are the most exciting, especially the first few dozen. And like other very long anime series, the further it goes, the more the plot begins to feel drawn out, and the tension of the story lessens and less. This is probably due to the interference of commercialization. But I am still full of anticipation for the future of One Piece—because its subject matter is especially well suited to an ultra-long serialization.
The will inherited from generation to generation, the changing of the times, and people’s dreams—none of these can be stopped.
受け継がれる意志、时代のうねり、人の梦……these are things that cannot be stopped.
As long as people continue to seek the answer to freedom, all of this will never cease!
人々が自由の答えを求める限り、それらは决して止まることはない！
“ONE PIECE”:
Overcome myself——克服自己
Navigate the reticent companion——航行中无言的同伴
Eager for the historical fact——渴望历史的真相
Pursue the most of dream——追寻世上最大的梦想
Insist on promise——坚持承诺
Entertain a belief——怀抱信念
Confront the life——面对人生
Embrace emotion——拥抱情感
As for plot summaries of One Piece, there are plenty of them everywhere online, so I won’t write much about that. What I want to write about is: the theme of One Piece—freedom and dreams.
“Do you want my treasure? If you want it, you can have it all. Go find it! I left everything in this one place!”
In the “Great Pirate Era,” countless people were summoned by this last utterance of the Pirate King Gold Roger before his execution and set out for the Grand Line.
One Piece stirred up certain resonances deep in my heart:
The sea is like the ocean of wisdom, while pirates are like “lovers of wisdom,” setting sail for the great route in response to the summons of “treasure.”
I don’t know why, but I always feel that philosophers are a lot like sailors, drifting and searching in an boundless sea. And philosophers certainly are not ordinary sailors; they are bound to be “pirates,” because philosophers must be heretics and rebels, and must break free from the constraints of convention, and must never fear opposing the whole common wisdom of the world. Without the resolve to be a pirate, one cannot be a philosopher.
But pirates come in many different kinds: the first kind does a little petty mischief and takes advantage of a crisis to loot a bit of money in a chaotic age, and is satisfied with that. This kind is a pseudo-scholar, at most someone who can only be called a “worker in philosophy,” merely making philosophical inquiry into a profession by which to earn a living; the second kind succeeds in exploration, discovers some new islands, or else occupies some islands by force, and then draws a circle around them and proclaims themselves king. Thereafter, anyone who passes through that sea area must sincerely salute them and ask them for advice and experience. This kind is called an “expert”: they have made their own field profoundly thorough and thoroughly well-worn, but they have gradually lost interest in and ambition toward the other shore of the sea; the third kind truly takes pleasure in seafaring adventure, does not aim at making money, and will not be content to garrison a lonely island. They only hope to experience more scenery in more places. But if the hearts of this sort of people do not contain a “ONE PIECE,” no dream to pursue, no direction for the voyage, then after all they are not material for a Pirate King.
“ONE PIECE,” “the world’s greatest swordsman,” “ALL BLUE,” “the historical text”… No matter how others say that these dreams are impossibly far away, or even impossible to exist, no matter how much they say that pursuing dreams is unrealistic, childish, and naive, I have always believed firmly: it is there, waiting for me to find it. Dreams may come in many forms, but the ship of the Pirate King is a ship that pursues dreams.
“Truth,” “the supreme good,” “perfection,” “eternity,” “the ultimate,” “the infinite”… All of these have long since become fantasies forever beyond the reach of philosophers, and even saying “I want to be a grand master!” will draw ridicule. Has the “Great Pirate Era” really already passed?
The changing of the times cannot be stopped, but neither can human dreams. As long as people continue to seek the answer to freedom, all of this will never cease!
In this age, saying things like “I want to seek truth” really does make it easy to be ridiculed; I would ridicule those people too. But the man who truly wants to become the Pirate King is not afraid of ridicule.
Dreams—everything—is “there,” at the end of the Grand Line. Go find it!
I am not a sailor, at least not yet. I am a fisherman, casting nets and catching fish only at the shore; but I face the sea, watching, waiting. After all, should I set out to sow dreams, or to chase dreams? I have not yet made up my mind—perhaps I can do both?
I can set sail at any time,
March 24, 2007, 15:03
Latest Comments
Yiwu
2007-03-24 17:59:54 [Reply]
Is it a bit of a coincidence? Or is it inevitable?
How come I remember showing this to you? Who knows. http://uniceros.yculblog.com/post.2576111.html
And yesterday’s: http://uniceros.yculblog.com/post.2695227.html
“Should I set out to sow dreams, or to chase dreams?”——To chase them oneself is itself a kind of sowing.
What does ONE PIECE translate into in Chinese? A piece?
Someone once asked the first person to reach Mount Everest why he went there, and he answered: Because it is there. 因为它就在那里.
I have great confidence in you. A future great pirate!
Gǔ Hū
2007-03-24 18:31:41 [Reply]
I’ve read your blog, but your “sailor” refers to “PHILOSOPHY,” or to “truth,” whereas my sailor refers to a “philosopher,” and “PHILOSOPHY” is the Grand Line, while truth lies at the end of the Grand Line. My metaphor formed independently, though perhaps it also shares with yours the sense that different paths lead to the same destination.
ONE PIECE is the original name of the Pirate King; in the anime it is generally not translated, and it refers to that legendary treasure that contains everything.
Yiwu
2007-03-24 18:42:44 [Reply]
It does seem to share the sense that different paths lead to the same destination
Yiwu
2007-03-24 18:43:35 [Reply]
But why do you have to emphasize “man” so much… just “person” would be fine.
Hahaha…
Gǔ Hū
2007-03-24 18:51:44 [Reply]
One Piece can never be found. When One Piece is found, the story will be over—how boring would that be. But the story will never end, and the legend will be written forever. Perhaps I know that I can’t reach the destination, but precisely because I know I can’t reach it, I can let myself go and search with all my heart!
But as things stand now, I don’t yet have such ambition. Sometimes I think that if I could find a future Pirate King and become a sidekick, setting out to sea merely in order to “become a brave warrior of the sea,” that would be good enough—but the one worth me being a sidekick to must be a man who is going to become the Pirate King!
To always remain by the seashore as a fisherman who spends all day daydreaming is also an ideal life.
Gǔ Hū
2007-03-24 18:52:51 [Reply]
Was that line the protagonist Monkey D. Luffy’s original line~
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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