One Piece: The Early Years
Romance Dawn

SPOILER WARNING: The two one-shot Romance Dawn manga drawn prior to One Piece, as well as the first chapter of the series and a few smidgeons here and there from really late chapters… like 300s and 400s, man.

The very first chapter of One Piece, Romance Dawn, sets the tone of the pirate epic with fun, despite loss endured by the characters. However, the Romance Dawn set at the beginning of Volume One was not the very first incarnation of the One Piece tale. There were two separate versions of Romance Dawn before the one that we know as the opening of One Piece. They are the alternate tales of Luffy, using three totally different realities for the setting. Each one has a different antagonist and their own way of fleshing out the vision and atmosphere of the One Piece story.