After the anime arc that detailed pirate captain Trafalgar Law's pain-filled childhood as white lead poisoning claimed his family, his town, and his own health, there is a lot left to tell about the young pirate. We know he was saved from Doflamingo's crew by Corazon, who sacrificed himself to help the boy live. This novel, written by Shusei Sakagami, published by Viz, traces the events of Trafalgar's life after the death of Corazon and his eating of the Op-Op fruit, through his founding of the Heart Pirates.

One Piece: Law’s Story has a story by Shusei Sakagami based on Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga. English translation is done by Stephen Paul. Published by Viz Media. (October 28, 2025).

Erica Friedman
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Every long-time One Piece fan knows that there are certain things one should expect from a One Piece backstory: A miserable childhood, death, torture, destruction, found family, and redemption. One Piece: Law’s Story has all of that and, dare I even say it?, a happy end.

I'll admit that after the Corazon arc, I was actually interested in how Law went from being a persecuted kid to one of the strongest of the new generation of pirates. As you might suspect, it begins with him in a particularly precarious position, then rescued by an unlikely old man. This psychopomp, inventor Wolf, is a typical crotchety-but-lovable type, and I did indeed spend hundreds of pages waiting for his impending doom. I was not unhappy to be wrong on that score, which is to say that Law has an unusually positive story. Shusei Sakagami's ideas of what makes a good captain include values and honor, things that we love about the Straw Hat Crew, but see so rarely in other crews. Chapters open with illustrations from Law's childhood arc, which remind you with every step where Law came from.

More interestingly to me, Law is one of the few “good” pirates we know of, who is filled with rage. We know some of why, but here, we see him acknowledge it, but not be consumed by it. I've always liked Law, as so many people do —he's easily one of the most-cosplayed One Piece characters at any con I've been to. Here, we are rewarded for that affection. The Law we see is truly a decent person, living up to Corazon's sacrifice and using his strength for good.

We also get to see how Law ended up with a polar bear on the crew. Bepo is so goofy, so his, and the other crew members' origin story is wholly in keeping with what you might expect. This book was surprising for both everything it wasn't and for everything it was.

Lauren Orsini
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Reading One Piece: Law’s Story, I was reminded of Solo, the Star Wars film that conveyed Han Solo's origin story. From how he came up with the last name “Solo” to where he met Chewie to when he began piloting the Millennium Falcon, the film explored each and every question that fans never had about Han Solo. For all its comprehensiveness, it added very little of substance to Han Solo's character. We already knew from the first Star Wars movie that Han Solo was a cool guy, we didn't need an encyclopedia of reasons spoonfed to us. Such is the case with Law. He's already one of the most popular non-Straw Hat characters in One Piece—and in an epic with over 1000 named characters, that's saying something. This light novel is Law's Solo, conveying all of his little details but overall amounting to very little to enhance his opinion of the dude. The formatting is superb and I didn't find a single typo, but I wouldn't call this required reading for anyone but the most diehard Law fans.

This novel opens when Law is still a child, in between the backstory about Cora that he shares in the Dressrosa arc of One Piece and when he reappears as a member of the 13 Supernovas of the Worst Generation. Why does Law have a DEATH tattoo on his fingers? How does he meet Bepo? What about Shachi and Penguin, two members of his crew that are so minor that they are only discussed as a pair? And how does he come to be the captain of such an unusual pirate ship, the yellow submarine called the Polar Tang. The provenance of that final mystery introduces an original character: Wolf the Inventor, whom Law calls Junker. Since Wolf is not anywhere in the One Piece canon, it makes no difference to the overall plot if he lives or dies—a dramatic irony that this story plays with frequently, giving Wolf multiple serious injuries that he may or may not recover from. Since obviously we see Law, Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin as adults, there's never any concern with their livelihoods even as they barrel into one dangerous situation after another.

This book can only end one way so it's no spoiler to share it: Law becomes the captain of the Heart Pirates, and the story resumes with the One Piece canon that we are familiar with from the manga and anime. Since this story exists in that brief gap in time, and since creator Eiichiro Oda already shared what he considered to be the most significant portion of Law's backstory, there's not much for this light novel to explore. I found the book's climax, in which the gang holds off a marauding pirate crew with a shocking shared past with Wolf the Inventor, to be serviceably interesting, but it was more about Wolf than Law. The real reason this book was written wasn't because fans were asking for it. It's because One Piece prints money, and some portion of its fans will buy anything with the One Piece logo on it.