Mateship: noun, informal (Australian)
companionship or friendship, especially between men.

Hugely popular among audiences and prolific in its number of episodes, One Piece is an insightful and heartfelt narrative, underpinned by themes of mentoring and mateship. From the assembly of the Straw-Hat Crew, through to the individual story arcs of each of the primary characters, the series relies on the construction and development of interpersonal relationships and themes of reciprocity and guidance to propel the narrative, and its protagonists, towards their elusive goal: acquisition of the mythical one piece.

While there is a raft of interesting and pivotal interconnections between the various assemblage of crew members and further, an argument to be made that at different times every one of the primary cast is a mentor to another in some form, this chapter looks specifically at the mentoring relationship between Silvers Rayleigh and Monkey D. Luffy as a centerpiece of the series.  In doing so, it adopts a view of the role that Red-Haired Shanks plays in facilitating Luffy’s destiny as ‘king of the pirates’ and thus, his eventual encounter with Rayleigh. While Silvers Rayleigh is probably more often considered to be a mentor to Luffy in the traditional sense of the word, as I will demonstrate, Luffy’s relationship with and loyalty to Shanks is fundamental to the development mentor/mentee dynamic to begin with. Without the intervention of Shanks in Luffy’s life, neither he (Luffy) nor Rayleigh would have benefitted from the life lessons that are found specifically in the mentoring partnership and thus, Shanks and his mateship with each of them is worthy of consideration.

While the mentor/mentee relationship is at the core of the chapter, what my analysis of the Luffy-Silvers-Shanks relationship will also reveal is the importance of the layering of relationships throughout the series, highlighting the mateship that is at the core of both the longevity of the narrative and the reception of fans towards its characters.