Guardians of the Galaxy Is One Piece a Rip Off of Guardians of the Galaxy

[SethRodger]

Not trying to flame at all, and I up until now thought Oda was a genius...

I just saw Guardians yesterday and the whole thing felt like One Piece in Space

The characters of guardians are like one piece, Star Lord is like Luffy, even his personality and backstory, Gomorra is like Nami, Groot is like chopper, and rocket is like Ussop...

Is manga just a rip off of American comics, please calm me down guys, even the comedy was like a chapter of one piece, especially the end fight scene

 

[doink]

One Piece debuted in 1997, and this GoTG lineup debuted in 2008, so no it is not a ripoff. Most Japanese people had never heard of GoTG before the movie anyway.

I did see a Japanese article where the guy playing Rocket in the Japanese dub called it "One Piece in space" (宇宙版ワンピー&#12473 though...but that's more for marketing purposes.

 

[Lord]

One Piece came much before this incarnation of Guardians, also, i would argue that the characters are more interesting, but then again, they have had more time for development. If anyone would be ripping off, it would be Guardians, but i doubt Gunn ever read or watched OP, the "friendship" bit was more like Fairy Tail though, where the characters simply win thanks to the power of friendship, in OP they don't get power ups that easily and struggle much more.

Either way, i think One Piece's universe is more interesting, Oda's very creative with what he does, he rivals the likes of Akira Toriyama and Jack Kirby, while cosmic stuff of this scale with so many human like aliens isn't exactly my thing, i don't think Guardians gave an universe that was all that interesting in comparison, there was indeed good world building, but OP's the pro in that.

 

[Saitou Hajime]

The nakama trope is way more pronounced in OP than in GOTG, and is the former's quintessential trait. And the former emphasizes hotbloodedness far more than the latter, which tend to be more laid back.

 

[Lorenzaccio]

The problem here is that I really do not see so many similarities. Yes characters are weird and "problematic" in both stories. Yes, they are often over the top. Yes friendship etc. But One Piece derives from early Dragonball stories (friendship and funny fights) and JoJo (weirdness and strange powers) while GotG derives from American Sci-Fi tropes re-read in a fun way.
If you think about the actual powers of the characters, OP wins hands-down in weirdness. Very few fights are a matter of "I have more muscles" or "I am faster", as all powers are sooo weird, that the characters have to find a way to overcome the weirdness first, punch everything around only after.
OTOH GotG's plot is less linear, and future installments will certainly add more backstories or planets or aspects that will not devolve on fights only (as in OP, where everything ends-up in über-scale mega fights, mostly physical)