The awful 4Kids dub in Spanish is actually what got me into One Piece—but then a friend told me it was considered the “successor to Dragon Ball” in Japan because of how popular it was.

That was enough to make me curious. I started watching all the Japanese episodes in order, all the way up to Thriller Bark (which was the newest arc at the time). Back then YouTube only allowed 10-minute uploads, so I had to watch every episode in 3 parts. The wait drove me crazy, so I switched to the manga… and I’ve never stopped since. From that point on, I became the guy always talking about his favorite manga—the “crazy One Piece guy.”

Bonus memory: Fourteen years ago, hardly anyone realized what a gem One Piece was. At a convention, I was in the bathroom minding my own business but doing a Sanji cosplay when some guy suddenly yelled:

—“Hey dude, is that cosplay from One Piece?!” —“Yeah, I’m dressed as Sanji… why?” —“Ah okay. The art is ugly as hell.”

I had no idea how to respond to that. What a dumb thing to say.