Before he created his masterpiece, One Piece, which turns twenty-eight this year, like many manga artists, Eiichiro Oda had produced a series of one-shots before jumping into the long-running format where they are able to showcase their art-styles. Considering that One Piece is a few pieces of media in which you feel every idea that the author had in their entire life injected into this one story where every island feels its own genre, reading these initial short stories showed that Oda was experimenting with different genres.

The first of these stories is “WANTED!”, Oda’s spin on the American Old West, in which Gill Bastar is pursued by bounty hunters, including Wild Joe, who got gunned down by Gill, only to come back as a ghost to haunt him. With the exception of the witty if antagonistic banter between Gill and Joe, the storytelling is rather loose and more about the kinetic energy that Oda brings to a gun fight, mixing action with his brand of cartoonish humour.

Oda improves his game with the next story “Future Present from God”, where the pickpocket Branco becomes the target of God himself, which leads to the pickpocket being forced to rectify that God made by saving a bunch of people from a building that is about to be destroyed by a meteorite. Like the previous story, the banter between the two flawed protagonists is a big driving force and whilst Oda isn’t trying to make a big statement about religion, he is having fun writing God as an almighty buffoon. However, what makes this a step-up of how Oda leans hard on the humorous side, from the exaggerating expressions from his characters to the pacing of the outlandish situation.

The next storyline “Ikki Yako” takes a more sombre tone where the wandering monk Guko arrives at a village where he is welcomed with open arms, only with the hope that he would vanquish a ghostly monster known as a “man-eater”. This is perhaps the weakest of the bunch, as there isn’t much comedy, though there is the attempt of a dramatic arc with Guko ridding of his cowardice to face this threat. If anything, it feels like a precursor for Oda’s next story that is far more successful.

“Monsters” focuses on Ryuma, a wandering samurai who finds himself in a sticky situation where he provokes someone who summons a dragon that will bring destruction to the town. It is here where you see Oda developing a number of ideas that you would associate with One Piece, from a tragic backstory, the author’s unique way of illustrating a sword fight, to even a double-page spread visualising an attack in the most satisfying way. And for One Piece fans, they will enjoy who Ryuma was before his fate as revealed in the Thriller Bark arc.

Last, but not least, “Romance Dawn” – the pilot chapter for what would become One Piece – where Monkey D. Luffy saves a girl and her best friend, Balloon the Roc, from the vicious pirate Spiel the Hexagon. Although there are notable differences between this and One Piece, Oda nailed what he is going to with his magnum opus, with Luffy being exactly as he is, a rubber boy who may not be the brightest, but his ambition and adventurous nature is just contagious. Even Oda’s art by this point nails that bounciness that would define the look of One Piece.

At the end of each one-shot, Eiichiro Oda would give some insight and witty remark about their development, showing he has always had a sense of humour, which cements what this collection is about, whilst also being a precursor for the author to create one of the greatest pieces of fiction. Go read this, but definitely read One Piece!

The problem with (re)publishing juvenilia is that it's, well, juvenile. I don't mean that it's bad, just unformed, and while it's definitely interesting to see where a creator's characters come from and how their style developed, the fact of the matter is that these stories aren't particularly compelling. The strongest, hands down, is Romance Dawn, one of two forerunners to Oda's smash hit One Piece. In this version, Luffy wants to be a specific type of pirate who fights bad pirates, and for some reason (possibly he hasn't done all the research yet), Oda doesn't just use “privateer” and “pirate” for these professions, which makes the terms needlessly unwieldy. But Luffy is still Luffy, albeit with a few more brains and less of an appetite, and he's already eaten the devil fruit and gotten his powers. The biggest difference in his backstory is that his grandfather is the one who gave him his straw hat and encouraged him to go to sea. He meets up with a Nami prototype named Ann and her giant bird, fights bad pirates, and a legend is started.

It's a decent story in its own right. Ann is less sexualized than even early Nami, and if this Luffy isn't quite as memorable as his later incarnation, his determination is very much intact, and his gleeful skill with his powers is infectious. Interestingly enough, he's also the only Luffy prototype in the book; other characters have much more of a Usopp or Zoro feel to them. There are many more Zoros than anyone, most notably in MONSTERS, although he's still far goofier than the man we know from One Piece. Most of the protagonists are gun-or-sword slingers, and many are operating on the dark side of the law. Gill, from the title story, is a self-admitted murderer (albeit in self-defense) and Branco from the second story is so bad that God himself is planning to take him out with a meteor. Ryuma from MONSTERS is a bit of a Kenshin, which may give some readers mixed feelings, although his story is the second strongest in the book. This one also features a proto-Nami named Flair, who feels like the inspiration for Nami's Arlong Park incarnation.

Oda's art is all over the place in this volume, as you might expect. You can see a clear progression over time, and even his high school manga debut is impressive, even though it feels very unrefined. This collection probably has the most merit as an academic retrospective of Oda's works, but it's still worth looking at if you're a fan. It was a long road from Wanted to One Piece, and seeing the steps has its appeal.

If taking on the entirety of the One Piece manga feels daunting, why not start with the second of these newly-translated manga anthologies? Wanted! consists of five one-shots, two of which will be familiar to fans of Oda’s long-running series. Monster, which got an anime adaptation not long ago, is present in these pages, alongside Luffy’s introduction in Romance Dawn.

While there’s not a bad story in the bunch, probably the most intriguing is Future Present from God. When God attempts to annihilate unrepentant pickpocket Branco with a meteorite, he accidentally writes down “Branch” (a local department store) in his Book of Fate with his Pen of Fate. But without the Eraser of Fate, the future can’t be changed. Now Branco has a chance to redeem himself… if he can convince everyone in the department store to evacuate.

I really enjoyed this. While I'm still new to Oda's work, it was really nice to read some of his early works. I love the artwork and his humour.

This a compilation of some of Oda's early short works, all published prior to starting One Piece. While the style has evolved, the tone and humor remains the same and makes for an enjoyable read. It's obvious that these early works went on to influence one piece, with some familiar faces making appearances as well as an interest in the particular type of story and characters that makes oda's work so fun.

As a fan of One Piece for over 10 years now, I knew I had to get a proof copy from NetGalley for the first English translation of Oda’s early works. I had come across Romance Dawn and Monsters before, but the other 3 short stories I didn’t know about! It really shows what Oda’s philosophies in life are and what he pulled from the stories when making One Piece. I was quite surprised at how much he enjoyed writing about ghosts.