Although One Piece has become a massive series where the balance of world order is threatened on a consistent basis, it didn’t always start like that. In the beginning, One Piece was a much more casual, slow-stakes, and relatable adventure about the journey of a group of friends on a quest to become great pirates. While, at its core, the series is still the same, at times it feels that the original pre-time skip feel is buried under world-ending plots and massive lore reveals.