POP #2 - Leadership

Peacefully enjoying One Piece

One Piece has been my companion for a couple of decades and I have not really spent much time reflecting on what it has to offer beyond the obvious entertainment, great world building, compelling characters and a wealth of imagination!

And I always enjoyed it for what the story is, inspirational fantasy, high stakes stories of bravery and good versus evil. With years passing by, I realized that one of the most important elements in my day-to-day (work) is leadership. The bottom line is that with great leadership, I feel inspired to put in 110%.

And, almost as a light bulb moment, I realized that one of key aspects of One Piece is leadership. Do not ask me why, but I genuinely did not think about it until a few days ago.

With that realization, it also dawned on me a perfect (first?) post to comment on the live action One Piece series. An adaptation which I loved (and I don’t think there were many successful manga adaptation to this day).

Let’s dive in!

Leadership in One Piece

Being captain of a (pirate) ship comes with leadership skills. One would expect fear and terror to be the drivers (and they were and are still probably used in real life ships); yet, what this story does so well is the inspiring characters it puts as front and center of their crews.

Monkey D. Luffy

Luffy is the most (and least) obvious: on one hand, he is the main protagonist of this story and it is obvious that he has to be a leader. Yet he has always been portrayed as a simpleton, not too smart.

Now, also in the live action there is a pinch of this silliness; yet since the very first episode it is clear why he is a leader: he inspires people. Specifically he inspires people to follow their dreams and to be confident in themselves (there is a line in which Zoro specially remarks on this). In other words, he is an inspiring leader and it truly comes across the very first moment we meet with him.

Red hair Shanks

The other obvious choice for leadership (and let’s better narrow it down, positive examples of leadership) is Shanks. He is a leader who earned the respect of his crew. He is one of the team (in fact, he moves crates around when we first meet him, like all of his crew members), fights next to them and earns Luffy’s respect when he fights the  sea monster. Shanks commands respect and deserves it at all times. This is his brand of leadership and it is incredibly - and appropriately so - powerful. 

Vice Admiral Garp

The last obvious choice here is Garp. While he is helped by his title within the Marine corp (and so hierarchy matters in this organization and the higher you are the more you matter), he also leads by example.

I loved the way he helped Koby develop his sense of right and wrong and this journey was carefully navigated by an expert in being the example. Garp is the most reasonable - better driven by what is right and what is wrong - leader in the Marine (for now) and he is able to help both Koby and Helmeppo to conclusions he achieved a long time before.

The controversial pics 

And then I have two more examples of positive leadership - and I did not think I could make these parallels.

Buggy the clown

Buggy, probably the most questionable choice in this list but there are still qualities of a leader in there. He took his freaks - in fact, he welcomes them in his crew - and gives them what they want (“a pound of flesh”). His skills come into play when he needs to make sure that his people are taken care of. Now, does this make him a decent human being? Not in the slightest but it was interesting seeing this leadership ability coming from him.

Arlong 

Last but not least in this selected list is Arlong. Hear me out: in the live action in particular, he is spearheading (pun intended) the fight of the fishmen for freedom. He refers, in multiple occasions, to the fact that fishmen were used as slaves for labor mostly and only until recently they were freed. He feels he must fight the prejudice of humans about fishmen (the most obvious one is that fishmen are considered stupid). While Arlong and his pirates commit atrocities, it is also true that he is fighting for his people and that part of this brutality is driven by the discrimination his people feel and experience on a daily basis.

What would be great next?

Next, I hope to see a few more female driven leadership. I know the manga is a bit light on this aspect but it would be interesting to see a few changes (also to make this story appealing in the long run).

Who else do you think should be on this list based on the live action series? What other leaders are you looking forward to seeing in this adaption?