Two series that are published in two different magazines, but share lots of similarities. Some are just outlandish while some are too obvious. One Piece is around 9 years older than Fairy Tail and Mashima has talked about Oda being one of his inspirations, but lets see how far he takes that "Inspiration".
#1
Firstly, the most obvious one. Gildarts and Shanks. You have to be an idiot to not see the similarities between these two characters, in both appearance and their role in the story. Just looking at the appearance you can see they have similar clothes and a similar facial figure. Their hair color is also the same. They are both fatherly figures to the main character and both are seriously OP.
#2
Another similarity is the...