One Piece: Is [SPOILER] Dead?

One Piece is one of the few shonen series that does not rely on character deaths to lay emphasis on an event. In fact, this is one of the major complaints that fans have about the series. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Oda has mastered the art of articulation. He can use words and art to get the message across. As One Piece manga has entered the Final Saga, Oda seems to have become more ruthless in his approach, which makes sense considering he doesn’t want to prolong the story any further. It appears that he is willing to kill off characters that are not going to be relevant to the plot.