GOTG is basically One Piece in space…
By the time this comes out, it will have been a week since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 has been released in theaters and I'm sure there are some of you who have already seen the film and know every "behind the scene” moment, easter egg and cameo. My apologies if you've heard every hot take from here to the Shi’ar Galaxy. But you haven't heard mine. There’s another franchise out there to whom the similarities are too close to ignore.
True believers of the jury, my case is a simple one. I believe that Guardians of the Galaxy (especially Vol.3) is pretty much One Piece in space.
In the before time, when the MCU was only a small collection of Avengers, I saw Guardians of the Galaxy opening night in a theater that only consisted of a handful of strangers. The excitement for this movie wasn’t as palpable as Iron Man or the Avengers.Understandably so. This was coming off the heartbreak of losing Edgar Wright for Ant-Man, the disappointment of Thor: The Dark World and the high-bar-heels of Captain America: Winter Soldier (One of the greater MCU films in my opinion). To go from the well established cast of Avengers (both actors and the comic book characters they portrayed) to an ensemble of lesser known characters and whose biggest acting names played a tree and a raccoon, there wasn’t much to base on how good of a movie we were in for. All I knew about the director at the time is that he directed Super and Slither. It was a gamble, but Andy from Parks and Rec flipping off John C. Riley did not disappoint. Years after the film's release, folks still played the soundtrack to the first movie on loop at my old IT job. It was insufferable. Great film. They made three more.
For those unfamiliar, One Piece is an ongoing hit Manga/Anime series created by Eiichiro Oda in 1997. Also known as “that one anime you want to get into, but there’s just too many episodes.” In this sea ferring epic we follow Monkey D. Luffy and the “Straw Hat Pirates” as they travel the world in hopes that one day Luffy finds the treasure known as One Piece and attains the mantle King of the Pirates. Seriously, the manga is still going. 26+ years and I still don’t actually know what the“One Piece” treasure is. Modern day Odyssey. It's still going because it's brilliant.
Morally ambiguous criminals with hearts of gold who travel to wildly different locations and encounter extremely unique civilizations that stretch the imagination. Huzzah we did a comparison.
The trope of a Ragtag band of misfits joining together for a common goal isn’t lost on me.
Although these two aren't a one-to-one comparison, the parallels are eerily familiar.
Captain and Crew of both have sizable ship upgrades through their journeys. The Guardians start with the Milano before it’s damaged, abandoned and replaced by the M-class “Benatar”. On the flipside, the Straw Hats had the “Going Merry” which was destroyed and replaced by “Thousand Sunny”, a brigantine-type ship which was double the size of its predecessor.
One of the more interesting things I found was the commonality of the crew's characteristics. It's a little weird because no two archetypes fit the same character. So it's less like a Freaky Friday body swapping of characters and more like a Frankenstein situation for these two franchises. I took it upon myself to list just a few examples that I found to better explain what I mean:
Monkey D. Luffy
I picture him kind of like if Drax was the leader of the Guardians. Although superior in strength to Drax, the two are both simple individuals who like to solve things by charging in and physically fighting problems into the ground. Who can blame them? It’s what they know and as they grow, they get increasingly better at it. The downside to this is even when warned of the consequences, they do what they want. Sometimes selfishly so. But you can't stay mad at Luffy or Drax. They bring a lightheartedness and earnesty to their crew’s dynamic that can't be replaced.
Nebula
Probably the best example of having a jumble of characteristics. She’s an augmented cyborg like Franky, a turncoat like Robin who started out as an antagonist, but her demeanor is much closer to Zoro being serious and easily gets irritated by her fellow crewmates. She even took on somewhat of a “first mate" type role (by the time of Vol.3).
Rocket
Did anyone else notice the small talking anthropomorphic animal in the room? Both Rocket from Guardians and Tony Tony Chopper from One Piece started out as normal animals. Rocket, a racoon and Chopper, a Reindeer. Sure, the paths they took on how they transformed are different, but both are now extremely gifted intelects in their chosen fields. On top of that, before finding kinsmanship in their respective crews, both were ostracized and bullied to different extents because of their abnormalities. Both seek affection and a place to belong, though they show it in different ways.
Starlord
In Vol.3, Peter Quill proceeds to pine for the affection of someone who won't give him the time of day. At the risk of stripping him down to his main gimmick throughout the story, that's Sanji in a nutshell. Both started their lives as ordinary boys, having fathers higher up the pecking order, mothers succumbed to illness, and were ultimately raised by unconventional father figures.
These key characteristics are important because the dynamics they have as a team and their chemistry inform their decisions. Which means they handle problems in the same ways.
Both crews put their found family first over everything. Whether it be a god or a government, they will spit in the face of anything and anyone who might stand between them and one of their own. We see this happen as the driving force in Vol.3. This also happens time and time again in the pages of One Piece, but one of the standout scenes for me is when Nico Robin was captured by the Marines and is slated for execution. The Straw Hats shoot through the Marine’s flag, declaring war on the primary militaristic branch of their world’s government to rescue their captured companion. Through hell or highwater, both crews put it all on the line while making time to look cool standing/walking side-by-side.
They also blunder in similar ways. The attention span of both, even while dealing with life threatening situations can turn into hijinks of sitcom-esque proportions as neither crew has members who can keep to taking things seriously for too long. There’s always a bit and I love them for it.
Another pattern/trope that I’ve seen (which actually gave me the idea for this article) is when the crew splits up, they leave someone at the ship to babysit. When they did this in Vol 3. I almost audibly blurted out, “That’s a One Piece move!” The feeling of isolation in the solitude before the character(s) have to fend for themselves and hold the line until the crew comes back or they bring the ship to the party. This happened with both Gamora and somewhat in the case of Kraglin and Cosmo (Who I also consider a soft Usopp and Chopper duo).
So if you loved the Guardians movies or are a big fan of One Piece and you haven’t seen the other, I highly recommend that you do. Writing this piece definitely gave me a stronger appreciation for Luffy and the gang. At the time of this article's release, Netflix is in the process of creating a live-action version of One Piece. I just hope that they take a few notes from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
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