The vast world of One Piece that keeps on building itself into a better storyline than the previous one with a stronger antagonist, a new problem, and a new mission for the Straw Hats is what makes One Piece one of the best anime and manga series out there. This seems to be the recurring theme of the series but fans still love it because Eiichiro Oda puts a new twist every time.
Although this theme is quite common nowadays, One Piece has been following it since the start and upgrading it more and more as the story progresses. However, the recurring aspect of One Piece may be inspired by the popular anime series by Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball Z. One arc from the series can be called the inspiration for Oda san’s masterpiece.
The arc in discussion is the Namek Saga and it is probably the only arc in the entire franchise that involves the biggest adventure trip for the characters of Dragon Ball Z. While there are occasional differences, there are unquestionably many similarities between each One Piece arc and the Namek Saga.
The Theme of Namek Saga in Dragon Ball Z
Although Dragon Ball is primarily recognized for its action sequences, the Namek Saga highlights the series’ fantasy adventure elements. The Dragon Team’s arrival on the Planet Namek marked the start of the Namek Saga. To bring back Earth’s Dragon Balls and bring back their friends who perished fighting the Saiyans, they planned to use the planet’s Dragon Balls for this purpose.
Regretfully, the Frieza Force had already begun terrorizing the planet in an attempt to obtain the Dragon Balls for themselves by the time they arrived. Goku was their only hope of defeating Frieza and his army when he eventually joined the battle. But the entire arc shows the fighters collaborating with the locals, studying an unknown region, understanding their problems, helping them, and in the end saving them from a tyrant.
This was probably the first and the last time the Dragon Ball franchise followed the pattern and this became one of the best arcs of the Dragon Ball series. However, all these elements of the Namek saga are a recurring theme for almost every arc of One Piece.
Similarities Between One Piece and Dragon Ball Z’s Namek Saga
Exploring a new location taken over by villains the Straw Hats weren’t ready to fight is one of the most recurring themes in their exploits in One Piece. The Z-Fighters in Dragon Ball usually train to defeat their next opponent after determining who they think they will be. One of the few occasions they are taken off guard is the journey to Namek.
Additionally, Luffy frequently saves the day while battling the bad guys, which aids him in his attempt to establish himself as the Pirate King. When Goku defied Frieza, he too became the last hope for the honor of the Namekians and the Saiyan race.
All these and many other similarities point out the fact that the entire theme of One Piece is far too similar to that of the Namek Saga from Dragon Ball Z. Although there is no proof or confirmation from Oda, the parallels are far too similar for fans to notice.
