Growing up, I never watched anime. I think that in total I watched two episodes of Dragonball Z in the first 17 years of my life. I grew up on American cartoons like “Fairly Oddparents” and “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and although I knew that anime existed, I never even attempted to watch it.

Then, as my friends changed and my interests went along with them, I decided to start watching anime. The first one I chose to watch was one of the longest major animes because it would be too easy to start with something more digestible. “One Piece” has 1,034 episodes and counting, with only about 100 episodes of filler (content that doesn’t advance the story). I’ve just now gotten through 100 episodes, and I’ve been watching on and off since April. I’ve also miraculously dodged spoilers from my friends who are caught up, which has made the experience of watching much more enjoyable.

I’d like to add that I really dislike Usopp (voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi and whose name, I just discovered, refers to the Japanese word for lie). Although he had a really sweet backstory, with his leaving the Usopp Pirates and Kaya (Mariko Kouda) behind to become a “brave warrior of the sea,” I just find him to be obnoxious at times. He claims to be the captain of the Going Merry constantly, and he strikes me as pretty abrasive. I’ve been told by my friends that my opinion of him will change at some point soon, but at this point I plain don’t like him.

If I had to pick a favorite character, I’d say Roronoa Zoro (Kazuya Nakai). He’s a stereotypical firebrand, and his fight scenes are always animated extremely well. I hope that, in later episodes, he fights Mihawk (Hirohiko Kakegawa) again. Having bested Zoro once before, Mihawk is the only obstacle Zoro has on his path to becoming the greatest swordsman in the world, and I think that another battle between the two is one of the things I look forward to most in the 934 episodes I have yet to watch. I also love Luffy (Mayumi Tanaka), even though he’s kind of a moron. The moment when Luffy was about to be executed in “Buggy’s Revenge! The Man who Smiles at the Execution Platform!” (Episode 52) only to be saved by a bolt of lightning was hilarious. It’s clear that he has a suit of plot armor on at all times, but it never feels cheap to me when he manages to skirt death.

I really enjoyed the Loguetown arc, especially “Sandai Kitetsu and Yubashiri! Zoro’s New Swords, and the Female Master Chief Petty Officer” (Episode 49). That episode really solidified Zoro as my favorite character and the cursed blades that he picked up in this episode have made me watch each of Zoro’s sword fights with a lot of interest. I found Daddy the Father (Toru Furuya) to be a really fun way to give Usopp backstory, and I hope to see him again for future worldbuilding.

The way the show has progressed—following Luffy’s odyssey first through the East Blue and now through the Grand Line—is fantastic. The Going Merry acts as a literal vehicle to advance the plot from one crazy location to the next, each of which develops the crew and occasionally adds new members. I don’t really know how this show has stretched to be longer than 1,000 episodes but I can’t wait to find out. This show is well-animated, funny and is some of the best television I have ever watched. It takes a lot of patience and time to watch “One Piece,” but I’d say that it’s been well worth the commitment over the first tenth of the show.