One Piece Grand Line: Where Is The Deadly Ocean?
The Netflix live-action adaptation of One Piece manga and anime sparked a widespread interest in the narrative, captivating even among those who generally aren’t that interested in the funny comics coming from Japan. Ever since the first trailer dropped, the new audience wondered who the protagonist is and where is this strange place he’s headed to, this Grand Line.
While One Piece manga and anime connoisseurs know Grand Line by heart, the newcomers to the franchise aren’t familiar with the concept, so it’s really important to clarify what the Grand Line really is, where it is located, and what makes the place so important.
The Grand Line is an incredibly dangerous stretch of the ocean, a route that’s famous to both pirates and adventurers, as it’s rumored that the last island on the Line hides the famous treasure of Pirate King Gol D.
The Netflix series doesn’t really touch upon this, and—spoiler alert—Season One of the series basically focuses on the formation of the Straw Hat Pirates and their departure from the East Blue Ocean towards the Grand Line in search of the eponymous One Piece.
The location of the Grand Line in the world of One Piece is mentioned briefly in the series in episode two. It actually isn’t a place or a location, but an incredibly dangerous stretch of the ocean, a route that’s famous to both pirates and adventurers, as it’s rumored that the last island on the Line hides the famous treasure of Pirate King Gol D. Roger, called One Piece.
The route itself wraps around the entire world, which is actually split into four quadrants of cast ocean, called the North Blue, East Blue, West Blue, and South Blue.
Grand Line Is Difficult To Navigate
Reputed as the “pirate’s graveyard,” both the land and the islands across the Grand Line possess a vast number of unpredictable phenomena that aren’t seen anywhere else in the world, many of which make the Line notoriously difficult to navigate—especially since normal compasses fail to work within the Line.
The only viable method of orientation and triangulation is via special devices called a Log Pose, which can be used to journey from one island to the other, with many journeymen hoping to reach the fabled final island that contains the treasure.
The Grand Line Islands
The lack of adequate wayfinding, strange phenomena, and numerous natural obstacles on the Grand Line in One Piece is actually what makes the Line dangerous to traverse. Its many islands, however, have their own population, with many normal people living on individual islands regardless of the dangers associated with sea travel.
Some islands on the Line are dangerous in their own rights, either due to unpredictable climate, dangerous wildlife, or the combination of both—so they’re either avoided by the citizens or the members of the population have taken the necessary precautions.
The Red Line
The Grand Line is further divided by the Red Line—a vast ring-like continent that circles around the globe—into two halves. The first half of the Line is known as Paradise, a name given by the people who returned from the second half, claiming that it feels like a paradise in comparison.
The New World
The second half of the Line is known as the New World, a stretch of seas where various powerful groups and factions of One Piece reside and hold their own respective territories.
As for the importance of the Grand Line in One Piece, the oceanic route is where nearly the whole narrative of the manga and anime take place, with the exception of a few different narrative arcs, such as Romance Dawn, Captain Morgan, Loguetown, Whiskey Peak, and Davy Back Fight Arcs, but some other parts of the story as well.
While we still haven’t been officially introduced to the adventures of the Grand Line in Netflix’s One Piece adaptation, we can expect the Straw Hat Pirates to explore the Line further in Season Two of the show.
