One Piece Volume 1 : Romance Dawn - The Dawn of Adventure

covers romance dawn, introduces Luffy, Zoro, Nami

Luffy, Monkey D., future Pirate King: All brawn, no real brains (yet). The beginning of his voyage, which has lasted through nearly four HUNDRED chapters and countless adventures, is in these pages: Romance Dawn tells the story of Luffy's origins (well, at least part of it), and introduces not one, not two, but three main characters (Luffy, Zoro, and Nami, briefly).

This volume begins with Luffy's origin story, and brusquely moves into his (mis)adventures of gathering a crew and helping people. It's within the first three chapters that the Pirate Hunter, Roronoa Zoro, is introduced, who ends up on Luffy's crew as a fighter and first mate. It's also in this volume that Luffy fights his first major enemy, Axe-Hand Morgan, and forges a friendship with the young Naval-hopeful Coby.

The Viz-Media translation, which at first used "Zoro" but switched and reprinted using "Zolo," is mostly accurate, with several snappy lines thrown in, as well as pirate lingo. It was first published in June of 2003 in graphic novel format, and before that, in the American version of Shonen Jump.

Manga/Volumes/1 (last edited 2007-01-04 06:16:13 by Cinder)