Oda is the man!

Eiichiro Oda, the awesome man who created the infamous manga: One Piece, is a very dedicated artist. He was inspired to become a mangaka (manga artist) by the German-Austrian-Japanese animated television series "Vicky, the Viking." He started out One Piece in 1997.

He's a very talented man who adapted actual people and places to his work. One Piece has a world that shows great and diverse culture, races and locations. If you love watching One Piece like me, you'll probably remember or be familiar with these countries, islands, kingdoms, towns, and villages.

Here are some of One Piece Locations that are real places on Earth:

(Disclaimer: Since, you can google Real Life Places In One Piece as well as One Piece and Real World Landscapes, I will enumerate only those that aren't mentioned there. I knew most of the places through my friend who's an anime fanatic while the other one through research.)

TOP 3: Zunisha is the Elephant Rock!

One of the elephant rocks erupted by Eldfell volcano in Vestmannaeyjar Archipelago town(right) looks very much like Zunisha (left).

Zou is an island located on the back of an enormous, millennium old elephant, Zunisha. Zou is "elephant" when translated to English.

The elephant rock emerging to the shores of Heimaey.

Zunisha is compared to the Elephant Rock in shore of Heimaey, Iceland. It is a natural rock formation off the coast made up of columnar basalt. Though, Oda didn't really confirmed this, many fans would like to believe so. "Zunisha is real!" - they say.

TOP 2: Punk Hazard is Iceland!

Punk Hazard and Iceland are both Land of "Ice and Fire."

Punk Hazard is an island divided into the Burning Lands on one side and the Ice Lands on the other. In the center, there is a hole where seawater flows into it, which separates both halves of the island and has sharks living within.

Punk Hazard is similar with Iceland. Iceland is a volcanic island and sits on top of a divergent boundary, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, spreading two tectonic plates namely, Eurasian and North American plates.

TOP 1: Goa Kingdom, the Gray Terminal and Mt. Colubo are Metro Manila, the slums outside the city and Smokey Mountain.

Gray Terminal (left) and Smokey Mountain (right)

The Goa Kingdom, Gray Terminal and Mt. Colubo are situated at the Dawn Island. Goa Kingdom is the walled-capital kingdom near the sea. The nobles live in that side of the island. The trash collected from the Goa Kingdom is dropped in Gray Terminal. It is massive junkyard that's filled with diseases and crime laying at the edge of Mt. Colubo, a smoky pile of of discarded junk. It smells due to the burning from the sun. Extreme class separation and discrimination caused by the royal families and nobles is evident in these locations even though they're found in the same island.

Left: An aerial photo showing the different places in the Dawn Island. Right: An aerial photo of Makati City (the area with tall buildings) and the slums of Metro Manila outside it.

The Goa Kingdom, Gray Terminal and Mt. Colubo are very much compared to Metro Manila, the slums outside the city and the Smokey Mountain. Metro Manila is the capital region of the Philippines while the Smokey Mountain is the term stamped for a large landfill located in Tondo, Manila. It's where the garbage of Manila were dumped for more than 40 years creating a mountain of junk. People began settling in this area already building a community. They live to scavenge and sell bottles, newspapers, steels, etc. Flammable substances used for decomposing these litters also led to countless fires that took many lives.

The rogues shunned from mainstream society looking for treasures (left) and people scavenging for items worthy to be sold (right).

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