There appears to be an interesting correlation between ONE PIECE and an old Japanese adaptation of O'Dell's "King's Fifth" called "The Mysterious Cities of Gold," which is, in my opinion, quite shocking (but not in a bad way). This series was on Japan's TVs when ODA was around 7-8 years old.
Just to list some similarities:
Just to list some similarities:
- The OP narration to the Mysterious Cities of Gold has a broad resemblance with the One Piece OP narration.
- The protagonist is a young man called Esteban ("Child of the Sun"), who was once saved in his childhood by a respected sailor who promised to take him on his adventures (Shanks). This "Shanks" gave Esteban an amulet of great relevance, an object similar in various ways to the straw hat Shanks passed to Luffy.
- Esteban sailed to the "New World" in order to find a mythic city of gold, considered mere fantasy by most people. The place he goes is called "The New World," and his ship had a lamb head in the front (Going Merry).
- On the way, he met a young lady called Zia. She's the only survivor of an old tribe capable of reading a forgotten language that's key to revealing the history of the world and the location of this "City of Gold." Her tribe was murdered by some mysterious, brutal force, and her island was burned down to ashes. She ends up joining his adventure.
- The way to find this city of gold is exactly the same as in Laugh Tale: finding four secret locations and connecting them on a map.
- In their adventure, Zia got captured a few times and was forced to read the ancient signs by a bunch of malicious pirates. She then lied, in the same way Robin did. More people joined the crew.
- We met people of all sizes and races and experienced unnatural sea phenomena (like sea currents capable of lifting ships through the air).
- At a point, Esteban got captured by a "100% woman" Amazonian tribe that fights with bows and lives with snakes. There, it is revealed that he has the capacity to control the weather, something he does unintentionally. The Amazonians end up helping our protagonists, recognizing that strange event as an ancestral prophecy related to the "Child of the Sun" title Esteban has.
- Zia's abilities lead the crew to one of the "Ancient Weapons," a highly technological ship with tremendous power capable of navigating at amazing speeds. The ship has a lion head in the front (SUNNY GO).
- After all these events, we discover the culprits behind Zia's childhood tragedy: a powerful civilization of aliens established on the earth (they were called "OLMECS," literally "Rubber People"). They tortured and slaved people of all races and executed what's basically global control over hundreds of years using power and technology. Their interest: the city of gold and its treasure (an object, a single piece).
- We eventually end up arriving at this "Laugh Tale." In the entrance, we see a blocked door and a man with the mask of the Sun God (we then discover this man is the father of our protagonist and a member of an important cult dedicated to the Ancient Kingdom). He then proceeds to explain everything about the past.
- The Ancient Kingdom was a highly technologized civilization of the past, reduced to nothing by war and the power of "ancestral weapons." Their civilization was built around solar energy, so they were identified as the "sun people." They were the ones who built cities of gold around the world (each one being exactly like Shandora), but most of those cities were hidden after the events that took place. It is said the reason behind the war that took down the sun civilization was so asinine it was forgotten by the passing of the years, the same thing that happened to Dorry and Broggy (Chapter 129) and could get reused as a topic for the series most important events.
- We discover that this amulet "Shanks" gave to Esteban was the key to accessing the city of gold and its treasure (Laugh Tale and One Piece).
- Once our protagonists reached the city of gold (Laugh Tale), and this is pretty insane, we saw nothing but a familiar background. This background is almost the same as the first ONE PIECE ending background, "Memories," that being the same song we hear the moment Roger arrived at Laugh Tale.
- A "Great War" of all races against the world government eventually began, and... the story pretty much ended here, with "Dragon" sacrificing himself to protect everyone. Our protagonists end up being free to explore the sea.
