Nakama.
It's plain and simple. Nakama is the reason why I adore One Piece so much. No matter what happens or what the circumstances, once you are a friend with the Straw Hats, you are a friend for life and they will defend you until the very end.
It's a romantic idea of friends that doesn't really exist anywhere in the real world and only in anime. People you can count on to have your back and aren't two-faced about it.... people you don't have to prove or justify their relationship to you...
In One Piece, nakama isn't just comrade. It is unconditional love. It isn't romantic love. It's platonic love, which is my opinion is loads better to have anyway.
One Piece is an ode to all of those social outcasts; that it doesn't matter who you are or what you look like or where you come from, there is always somebody there to accept you. I've never been very good at making friends who want to keep me around, so naturally this is a beautiful thing for me.
Plus, it's about pirates! Pirates with superpowers fighting sea-monsters and other superpowered pirates!
... but mostly nakama.
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