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There are two responses I get, without fail, every time I try to get someone new to watch this show. 'I don't like the art style' or 'I've seen the dub - NO THANKS.' I'm guilty of both of these myself. But if there's one thing I need to stress before even getting started on this review, it's that the 4Kids dub is NOT One Piece. For the love of god, PLEASE do not think it is. If you've suffered the misfortune of seeing some of the 4Kids episodes, just erase them from your mind and start fresh. They butchered it, there's really no other way to put it. They cut episodes, changed the dialogue to fit a MUCH younger and apparently far less intelligent audience (almost insultingly so), gave the characters RIDICULOUS voices, and pretty much watered down the entire series. FUNimation has done a much better job so far from what I've seen, but regardless, watching it in its original Japanese form with subtitles is really the way to go.
As for the art style, it's true, it's completely different from almost anything else I've seen. Much more 'cartoonish' and maybe not what you'd expect from an anime. Despite that, you end up loving it. I wouldn't even say that you have to 'get used to it' because it's not something that detracts from the rest of the series in any way. It didn't even take me two episodes before I was thoroughly enjoying it and seeing it as a fresh, new style, exciting almost and unlike anything I'd experienced before. Now, some 300+ episodes later, I can't remember ever NOT liking it, or even why I would have. Especially now with One Piece being aired in high definition, the art is crisp, clean, colorful - VERY sharp and wonderful to look at.
Now that we've got those two points out of the way...
One Piece is actually one of the best shows I've ever seen, anime or otherwise. The plot is pretty basic at first. Monkey D. Luffy has just set out on his own to find the legendary treasure 'one piece' and become Pirate King, and he's looking for a crew to sail with him. You'll find yourself falling in love with each and every new member as Luffy finds them. They're all extremely well developed, with interesting backgrounds and unique, fun personalities. They form one very quirky crew that's always discovering new adventures and somehow getting themselves into trouble as they strive to achieve their dreams. Each main story arc introduces new minor characters as well, and they're just as much fun and easy to fall in love with as the Straw Hat crew. Not one character is left out or feels like they're there for no reason. Everyone has a purpose and adds to the storyline, and one of the really cool things about One Piece is that these 'purposes' often resurface at later points in the series. No detail is left untouched, and you'll seriously be amazed by the way Oda threads together plots and characters and blends all their stories perfectly the more the series progresses.
The plot itself, though fairly straightforward at first like I said, quickly evolves into something HUGE. Much of the beginning of the series is dedicated to forming the crew and letting you get to know the characters, though it's definitely never lacking in action, but once they reach the Grand Line, you're swept up in adventure after adventure and following some of the most fantastic story arcs you'll ever watch. The battles and fights are well-paced, with the final boss fight almost always being completely EPIC. But even through the action, One Piece never quite loses it's lighthearted, humorous edge. The episodes are sprinkled with PLENTY of funny moments, never too many and never too few. There's always a wonderful balance of action and humor.
One Piece also has its fair share of heart-wrenching moments, which may take you by surprise! There are some EXTREMELY powerful scenes and episodes that kind of blindside you and leave you wondering when you became quite so emotionally attached to certain characters or other things. I've definitely found myself near tears or actually crying at more than one point. One Piece has it all - amazing characters, the never-ending yet never TOO over-the-top humor, exciting battles, fun adventures, heartbreaking moments with quick to follow touching moments. And underneath everything, there's always the theme of friendship and teamwork, of working to reach your dreams and helping those closest to you achieve theirs, of growing and maturing as a person and discovering the power within yourself to overcome obstacles of any sort, of just BEING THERE for the rest of your crew when they need you - of being NAKAMA.
In a word, One Piece is perfect. And perhaps I'm just biased, being an obviously OBSESSED fan at this point, haha, but what can I say? It's been running for 344 episodes so far and not ONCE have I wondered or hoped that it would start to reach an end. It is, simply put, amazing.
So why should you watch One Piece?
Because you're missing out on one hell of a fantastic show if you don't at least give it a try.

One Piece is by far the best shounen anime out there that I have watched.
But not all share the same views as I do, lets remedy that, shall we?
A long time ago, there live a fearsome pirate king who goes by the name of Gold D. Roger. He was able to attain everything. But alas he was captured and sentenced to execution. In the brink of death, he proclaimed that he left the great treasure, One Piece, somewhere in the Grand Line and it is for anyone to claim. This event ignited the Great Pirate Age.
In the world of One Piece, there is such a thing as a Devil Fruit. A devil fruit is a fruit bearing some supernatural ability and whoever devours it will get a unique ability however its origins are unknown. There are three types of Devil Fruit, Paramecia, a fruit that can materialize your body into a property. Zoan, a fruit that gives humans the ability of a certain animal, but if its an animal, it gives the ability of humans. And the last but certainly not the least Logia, is a fruit that makes the consumer manifest a certain element. But of course nothing is perfect. If you eat any of the Devil Fruit, you will be rendered immobilize when submerge in the water.
And where is our protagonist? The anime revolves around our mentally impaired boy, Monkey D. Luffy or a.k.a The Straw Hat Pirate(title came from his worn-out straw hat that he always have on). When our boy here ate a devil fruit that turns the consumer's body into rubber, he sets off to find Shanks, his pirate idol to return his straw hat as promise and find One Piece to be able to earn the title of Pirate King. Along the way he gathers all kinds of oddballs for his crew, The Straw Hat Pirates.
Now how exactly is One Piece different from the hundreds of shounen out there. Well, it isnt. It is exactly what a shounen should be. It follows the lose-train-win formula. So how is it any better? Bingo. Because it incorporates the formula into something fresh and simple.
One Piece arcs can be surprisingly good. There were even times that I was shocked at some plot twists and revelations. It has a very interesting setting as well. And what might that be? The World. The whole world is One Piece's oyster. It varies from vast, scorching deserts to cold snowy mountains, the concept of adventure here is well defined, it really makes you feel that world isnt small after all. And that my friend, is what an adventure anime should really be.
One Piece knows how to pull it off, be it comedy or serious, and believe me, One Piece knows how to be serious when it needs to be. But it never forgets its roots at the same time, and that is the emphasis of friendship and the bond of Nakama/Friends that glues the whole crew together.
Most shounen anime's suffers immensely from originality. Because of this, it is hard to distinguish characters from each other, especially in my case as I have my fair share as an otaku. And most of the characters in em lack depth and substance, its hard to remember a character when you know very little about him. But One Piece is immune from this disease. Each character of One Piece is very... say....unique that you'll find it hard to forget about them. They all have their individual motives, strengths, weakness and even quirky traits. Plus, each individual of the Straw Hat Pirate Crew has an immersing past, that'll be hard for you not to get delve into. And they all have a certain role, not one character gets overshadowed by the other. They do meaningful interactions with each other. And regardless, that each member is vastly different from each other, they all formed a formidable bond. Even the by-passing characters are memorable.
In contrast to the majority, I find the animation to be creative. Just like how the characters are different and distinguishable. Unfortunately people see it as something of a turn off, and quickly judges One Piece as something infantile. I am not going to lie. One Piece will not go beyond the borders of a shounen. It is not mature. But thats not the point here. An anime doesnt need to be ripe to be good. It just needs to be entertaining. Although I do enjoy a deep, thought-provoking anime, an anime doesnt need to be complex to be satisfying. It can be anything, as long as it offers gratification. And One Piece does.
Another potential problem is its popularity. Most people consider mainstream anime's to be somewhat of a failure because of its targeted demographic, and that is everyone. "If its able to attract toddlers, then it sucks" that seems to be case for most people. Some people neglect any anime that is able to summon countless little children in its area, thus abruptly convicting it as over-rated. Heck, some people even constantly hunts threads, just to be able to crack Narutard jokes off some newcomer. Do not judge One Piece from its fans. Judge it for what it is.
Do not be mistaken, I am not saying One Piece is for everyone. In the end, its all about taste. But if your have any hint of love for shounen surging in your veins, there is no reason for you not to watch this, not one bit.
In short, the plot is very promising, the main cast is several but well flesh out, the battles are very diverse, and engaging and the comedy doesnt get old, even after 300 episodes. But One Piece is not a masterpiece. It does not break any ground whatsoever. No matter how you see it, its still your typical shounen.
Regardless of this, the level of enjoyment I receive from One Piece is insurmountable. And sometimes thats all you need. Scratch that. Most of the time that's all you need.

Warning: Minor Spoilers
If I were to say anything bad (and I will have to do that as this review is not a positive one) about this anime that would not offend the hardcore fans (and I know there are a lot) is that it's PAINFULLY slow.
Even if you leave the fillers aside, still- the plot itself progresses in such a slow pace that it's rather hard to watch. Now for a younger audience it may not matter that much, but to me as a higher age audience, it matters greatly, after all, out of the 23~ minutes of each episode 3 are spent on opening and ending (which is usual I guess), but in most episodes, roughly 5 (!) or more minutes are spent on a recap of the current story arc, as if the creators of the show forgot it's a shounen anime and instead got the idea that the audience are elderly people with Alzheimer.
But ok, this means there is still 15 minutes left per episode right? Well, not really. In most episodes, the heroes get separated. When they do, the anime tries to keep track of ALL of them simultaneously, cutting every few minutes. This wouldn't be so bad IF after the cut, the same exact scene did not repeat itself (example - a few seconds that show one of the main heroes standing and looking at a place/ villain that is shown from a few angles. Then the anime continues elsewhere, and when it comes back to the same place, the same exact scene is shown). That may not sound as much, but in drastic cases that can sum up to a few minutes (the worst case I bothered to count was almost 4 minutes of time wasted on watching the same scene). Combined with a lot of other tricks, I'd say that a lot of episodes are left with about 11 minutes of actual content on average. That is simply dreadful.
Now to say some positive things for contrast- the story is actually very interesting and the characters are well done... BUT, no matter how good something is, if you drag it out too much (and this is indeed the case with One Piece), even the best story in the world and the best characters possible (not to say one piece has neither of those.. The story is great, and the characters are good, but not more) will not keep you entertained, and turn even the best story possible into a boring experience.
Now back to the negatives. NO ONE DIES IN THIS ANIME. This is of course an exaggeration, as some people actually do die in this anime BUT only when it's critical to the plot. At all the other times, the characters 'die' just to add drama and to come back a few scenes later.. Sometimes to 'die' again and add even more 'drama' (added ' because at this point its more awkward/silly after one time rather than dramatic). The worst case of this I saw was with Brownbeard who 'died' something like 5 times over 2-3 episodes (if I remember right), and still stayed alive in the end while the show tried to suck as much drama out of this as possible. And this brings me to the next point- fake drama. They seem to try and squeeze out as much of it as possible, at every opportunity they get. From crying children (and adults) to characters repeatedly 'dying' and to the most cliche tearjerkers possible at every turn of the story. They even go as far as to try and make the villain's henchmen AND EVEN THE VILLAIN himself have a tragic past that you are supposed to relate to and feel sorry for (because seems a villain can't just be evil because that is just the way he is, he had to become evil because something bad happened (lol)). Also I mentioned crying.. There is an unbelievable amount of it in this anime. And that would be ok (I guess) if
A- they did not try to milk it for drama (yep, that's a word that sure gets a lot of use when discussing this anime huh?) every single time
B- they didn't think that when someone cries, he instantly turns ugly, with snot running down his nose and with the worst face expression possible, regardless of gender, age or how emotional he is.
I'd say a lot more, but there is already a lot of text, and it's enough to sum it up - this anime is not one I would recommend someone to watch under any normal circumstances (maybe only if someone made a shortened version with all the repeats, openings, endings and cuts removed thus making the whole anime be at around 300 episodes max), I watched over 600 episodes myself, and I can safely say that although some parts were enjoyable, it was mostly rather boring when looked as a whole, and I am regretting the time I spent watching it (as of what i watched it so long- my friend recommended it to me and I did not expect it to last this long. I usually finish what I start, but this is ridiculous.)

*Contains major spoilers*
Well I'm about to do what most people consider suicide... Talk bad about One Piece...
Following: Full-fledged review and chibi review-version at the end for those who can't read:
FULL REVIEW:
To be clear about this: I have seen all movies and all the episodes released until now (ep 658) and while there are tons of things I'd like to talk about, one thing stands above all: One Piece never grew up like other shounen did. Naruto, Bleach, Dragonball and even Fairy Tail have become more mature and improved themselves over the passage of time. One Piece is still the same non-serious, immature nonsense that first aired in 1999.
Well to begin with One Piece's famous strongest point, the story... I am just not impressed. Ignoring the fact that after 600 episodes the anime's new arc revolves around talking toys and chibi fairies (childish as hell), most of One Piece's arcs are practically the same. Straw Hats arrive at said island, where a tragedy has been happening despite the place appearing bright on the outside, the whole tragedy originates from 1 man who is usually evil for the most pitiful of reasons, straw hats get seperated into 3-4 groups, straw hats kick villain ass, a big feast is thrown in by the glad citizens where another arc is foreshadowed before they move on to the next island. And while people will argue that the 'War of the Best'arc was different, I still didn't find it the least bit interesting (2 deaths only? really?).
Staying on the story part, lets talk about what's arguably the most important story element in a shounen: The villain. One Piece has yet to show us a villain whose appearance isn't laughable. Crocodile was wearing a coat in the middle of the dessert, Enel's ears were too long not to notice, blackbeard is missing way too many teeth to be taken seriously, Donflamingo... I can't even begin to name the things that make him not-even-slightly threatening. In general One Piece follows the brilliant rule that 'evil is stupid' and the protagonist's charge-ahead thoughtless moves always prevail against the plans the villains had been setting for a few good decades now. Going for villains' backstories, it's usually brilliant writing such as: Stupid for the Yolo, big misunderstanding in the past, pity jealousy and 'we will explain it some time in the future'. Sorry, its just hard to take these guys seriously.
Still on the story part: Being so kid-friendly is annoying. I can't get over how War of the Best, the 'grand battle' of One Piece only had 2 victims, or how the Colosseum in the Dressrosa arc had no casualties whatsoever in a 'battle to the death'. Oda grow some balls and KILL people. Also regarding Ace's death in the War of the Best... I am not amused by how all of One Piece fans claim it as the most tragic thing to ever happen and yet we knew nothing about Ace other than the flashbacks. You could just as easily have put a Nazi Officer in his place and I'm sure the fanbase would still be crying buckets if we saw a flashback of said officer playing with the snow as a child while some uninspired dramatic music was playing. I can't decide if I'm more annoyed by the awful writing or how moronic the fanbase is.
Humor & Fanservice: Waaaaaay too repetitive. It was funny in the first 100 episodes, now I just want to chocke puppies every time Brook makes a skeleton joke or Luffy and Chopper get overly excited about something. On the fanservice + story part: There is no female lead. Nami and Robin became important characters for their respective arcs (Arlong + CP9) but right after that they slipped in the background and became minor characters. Still on the Fanservice part: Oh yeah, sex, flirting and even love don't exist in this universe. Everyone trying to take part in one of those is either a villain-in-disguise or someone about to be tricked because of their stupidity. In general: For One Piece Sex/flirt/love is stupid (right next to 'evil is stupid').
Sound Part: 1st: The variety is a total disappointment. I can't remember a single track that actually got me on the edge of my sit. 2nd: The animators don't even make proper use of the soundtracks that already are avaliable to them. For example remember the final fight Luffy had against Crocodile. Do you remember the epic music? Obviously no because some moron decided that the fight shouldn't have music at all. Now imagine if at the same scene (final moments before Crocodile's defeat) One Piece's original opening 'we are' was added. Suddenly the scene becomes 100% more exciting. They already had the copyrights, it's not like adding it would hurt anyone! The sound effects are equally terrible. Just look at the brilliant sound effect of Sanji repeatedly kicking Don Flamingo in ep 655... Sorry but I have made RPG Maker games with better sound effects than this. On the voice acting part: MOTHER OF ALL ATTROCITIES, IT'S HORRIBLE. Just look at the age of the voice actors, half of them are about to die (and I'm crossing my fingers). The voices are completely unfitting for most of the cast, not sounding at all like the age they're supposed to portray (well that's a big surprise...). Of course screams of despair, crying etc etc don't sound even relatively convincing.
Animation: Just awful. Way below the antagonism. The only worse animation example I can provide in a relatively similar episode release period was the 'fast-paced-action' in the Naruto Vs Pain battle, and that was an artistic mistake on the studio's part that was never again repeated for exactly that reason. I won't even go into detail describing how lazy the studio is, using the same footage OVER AND OVER AND OVER.
Action: Doesn't really exist. One Piece doesn't ever show a proper fight without something goofy (aka annoying morons making even more annoying jokes) breaking up the seriousness. When the anime does decide to get serious it's just Luffy screaming on top of his lungs cliche lines while the villain doesn't even bother debating and just tries to kill Luffy (not that I blame them). The fights mostly consist of 10 seconds of action being repeatedly shown with slightly different soundtracks playing on the background each time and villain lengthy monologues inbetween them, usually followed by concentration-breaking flashbacks of things we have already seen a million times. If you're hoping for creative fast-paced excitement look elsewhere.
One Piece is like a kid that never grew up. After 600 episodes, despite all the 'hardshps' our protagonist came through, he never really matured, none of the characters did. The tone of the anime didn't mature either. a graphics improvement and a gradual increase of the cast members being the only notable changes since the beginning of the anime and for me it has just become too monotonous, too boring. Once Piece is waaay past its due, but there is a single reason it stays alive. Nostalgia. People are willing to overlook all of its flows simply because it serves as a bridge for times when things were simpler for them (or so they remember at least). But if someone was to judge One Piece for what it really is and not for the happy memories of being taken by daddy to the Luna Park he would see it for what it is: Trash.
CHIBI REVIEW VERSION:
Aweful animation and soundtrack, followed a story that quite clearly follows a pattern even for its jokes, overly repetitive and with action that doesn't really remind of action. Immature, with annoying characters that are portrayed as 'smart' rather than 'morons' and laughable villains. Stay away.