While a lot of Shonen series rely on complex battle systems, edgy characters, and a lot of deaths to fuel their plots, it almost seems like One Piece is in a world of its own. It doesn't take much to see that One Piece is unlike any other Shonen series. While it may share several tropes with its Shonen Jump brethren, its style and sense of storytelling set itself apart with a childlike whimsy unseen since Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factor.
This series has made fans cry over inanimate objects and cheer for things that shouldn't logically be possible. With that in mind, let's run down a few corny things that only the best Shonen series of the last 20 years could get away with.
10 Having People Survive Huge Explosions
Huge explosions in anime have consistently been serious things. Unless the heroes manage to escape at the last minute, they're being prepped to be part of a sad backstory. However, One Piece's creator, Eiichiro Oda, didn't learn about explosions from other, realistic anime. He took a page from Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and The Mask.
He has characters brush off massive explosions as if they were just dust in the wind. At their most common, One Piece characters simply have some soot and burn marks after an explosion. At their most serious, they're like Sabo surviving a point blank blast, Franky surviving a lab's detonation, or Alabasta's Pel somehow surviving a city destroying bomb.
9 The X Mark Pose
Speaking of Alabasta, its arc certainly left fans with plenty of memories, one of which fans should've seen coming but still managed to hit pretty hard. When the Straw Hats found out that Mr. 2 could copy other people's looks, they created a special system to maintain their identities.
They each had an X drawn on their arm and would tie a band around it, only revealing it if another Straw Hat asked them to. While it was initially prepped as a strategy, they also made it a symbol of their greater friendship. When the Straw Hats were looking for an indirect way to tell Vivi goodbye before they left, they each held up their X marks in solidarity. It's a simple gesture that still makes fans cry.
8 Make People Cry Over A Ship
When fans talk about how good One Piece is, they tend to proclaim the same thing, "It can make someone cry over a ship." They're not wrong. The Going Merry was the first formal ship the Straw Hats ever had, and it carried them through the East Blue and the first half of Paradise.
When it started to break down, it somehow managed to pilot itself to save the Straw Hats when they were trapped on Enies Lobby. Afterwards, the Straw Hats gave it a viking funeral in which the ship itself started to actually speak and give its own goodbye. It's stupid. It's illogical. It's one of the saddest scenes in anime history.
7 Let Sanji Spin His Leg On Fire
Moving away from corny things that have made fans cry, let's get started on corny things that made fans cheer. During the same Enies Lobby Arc, each of the Straw Hats were somehow able to make up new super moves. While some were based on the character, others were kind of just pulled from thin air.
One such move was Sanji's Diable Jambe. This move involves Sanji spinning on one leg hard and fast enough to ignite his entire leg on fire. This flame is somehow hotter than the flames of hell but doesn't actually burn Sanji himself.
6 Let Zoro Grow New Limbs When He's Mad
While the explanation for Sanji's new super move may seem ridiculous, fans can at least understand it from an aesthetic perspective. Roronoa Zoro's new move from the same arc is not as forgivable.
When Kaku began to berate Nico Robin during his fight with Zoro, he somehow made Zoro so mad that the Pirate Hunter grew three heads and four new limbs to cut down the giraffe in one blow. The series has yet to explain how any of this was possible, but it doesn't seem like fans are too concerned.
5 Super
If there's one member of the Straw Hats that defines "corny," it's Oda's entire interpretation of American culture, "Cyborg" Franky. This is a giant robot fueled with cola who only wears a speedo and a Hawaiian shirt. However, the most corny thing about the guy has to be his catchphrase.
When Franky is feeling really hyped, he leans to one side, extends his arms to where he's leaning, and screams "Super!" Catchphrases alone are already a pretty corny thing, but Franky really sells it here with his panache. The fans themselves just love it.
4 Center An Entire Arc Around Cake
When Monkey D. Luffy and a small sliver of the Straw Hats went out to rescue Sanji, they had to step foot on some well-protected, enemy territory. They managed to succeed in their mission but found themselves the target of Big Mom's relentless ire.
Things got so dire that there was really only one thing left to do: Bake a cake. There were a lot of conflicts during this arc, but the only one that had a direct outcome to the Straw Hats' success was Sanji being able to bake a building sized cake to feed Big Mom.
3 Have Regular Swords Cut Big Things
While Sanji has had plenty of corny moments, he still plays second fiddle to the crew's first mate. Zoro has had several moments of corny, anime stoicism in the series. He's survived brutal cuts, said a lot of really cool lines, and even puts up his headband like a samurai Ask Ketchum.
However, if there's one thing that Zoro does that takes a cake bigger than Sanji's, it's the things that he's cut. Zoro has progressively cut bigger and harder things throughout the series. He's cut boulders, he's cut steel, and he's even cut buildings. The time-skip really let things take off, when it let Zoro cut through a man made out of an entire city.
2 Beat People Up...With A Stare
One can only wish that cutting through cities was the most corny that One Piece super moves have gotten. Alas, that is not the case, as Haki has opened up several new opportunities for battles, narrative, and corniness.
With Conqueror's Haki, one person is able to knockout thousands of people with just a look in their eyes. Since this moved was introduced, One Piece characters have been able to easily defeat weaker enemies by just staring really hard at them.
1 Luffy Using Friendship On Marineford
Last but not least, this list reaches a scene that's not only corny for One Piece but Shonen anime as a whole. During the Marineford Arc, Hawkeye Mihawk remarked how Luffy was able to gather an entire army of prisoners, pirates, and even an Emperor to aid his rescue party.
He'd look on and proclaim that the ability to befriend and command ally and enemy alike was Luffy's true power. For those who didn't catch it, Mihawk was essentially stating that Luffy used the power of friendship, the power that all Shonen protagonists share, to save Ace. He made an entire speech just about Shonen main characters. Luffy really is special.