Media One Piece (spoilers!)

Not reading this thread really just updating that I’m at the conclusion of Wano and I’m starting to get sad because I only have like 100 chapters before I get caught up and I have to do the agonizing wait between chapters instead of being able to binge whenever I want lol

Whenever I do get caught up I might go back and watch One Pace though. Reason I stopped watching the anime and started reading was pacing and apparently One Pace fixes that pretty well. I just can’t get enough content lol but at the same time pacing matters to me
 
phoopes said:
Not reading this thread really just updating that I’m at the conclusion of Wano and I’m starting to get sad because I only have like 100 chapters before I get caught up and I have to do the agonizing wait between chapters instead of being able to binge whenever I want lol
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vk learns of waiting for chapters (no spoilers don't worry)
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phoopes said:
So I started watching the anime a few weeks ago and I’ve really enjoyed it for the most part so far!

Just finished the Drum Island arc though and I have to say it was kind of weak I think when compared to what immediately came before it. I was really invested in the whole conflict with Baroque Works and I thought finding a doctor for Nami’s illness would only be like a one or two episode deal. But it turned out to be its whole thing that lasted awhile and in my opinion didn’t have great pacing or introduce really compelling characters like, say, a lot of the stuff that happened in East Blue. Is this a common sentiment amongst fans?

Right now with where I’m at the crew is on the way to Alabasta with Chopper in tow and I’m happy that we’re finally back it seems to taking down Baroque Works. Even if I don’t really care for Chopper all that much so far it seems like he’s here to stay and I guess it makes sense to dedicate a lot of episodes to his backstory and such if he’s going to be a permanent member of the crew but… yeah what I’m trying to say basically is that for almost the entirety of Drum Island I was like “come on let’s get this over with so we can see what happens in Alabasta” and I was wondering if anyone else felt the same way
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This guy is finally caught up (4 and a half years after I started haha)

What a ride it’s been, what a ride it will continue to be. Now I can finally participate in this thread in full (while I wait for the next chapter to come out ugh)
 
phoopes said:
This guy is finally caught up (4 and a half years after I started haha)

What a ride it’s been, what a ride it will continue to be. Now I can finally participate in this thread in full (while I wait for the next chapter to come out ugh)
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took me ten years from 2014-2024 lmao, congrats!
 
Hey there, I have something to admit, I've been watching One Piece, a lot of it, I started an on and off journey of it 2 years ago, and got up to the point just before the events of Marineford begins

Nico Robin is my favorite out of all the Straw Hat Pirates, and my favorite arc has to be Enies Lobby, though I'm personally quite the fan of Impel Down too, I'm looking forward to what else One Piece has in store for me (especially since I'm very close to the timeskip starting)
 
So guys, I always thought that Doflamingo was Oda’s perfect in-Universe version of Jeffrey Epstein—

But now if I ask… was Epstein someone on Doffy’s level?
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The way the newest chapter sets up everything is really cool. I like that the villains are actually in trouble, Brook lore and him fighting is really cool and I think Usopp is about to do something crazy

I am still sour over the flashback tbh, I think I would love Elbaf a lot if it wasn't for it. The Harley reveal, there's more Strawhat character moments here than in the vast majority of post-timeskip arcs and it gives the characters a lot to do. I am also slowly warming up to the God's Knights, they tell a lot about Imu, Mariejoa and their characters are slowly becoming better

I hope there will be a few epilogue chapters in Elbaf to show off more of the island
 
I'm just glad to see that Brook really knows more than he led on. Before this arc, all we knew about his home kingdom was that it was in West Blue, and that he was working officially for that kingdom as a knight and a musician before shifting into a pirate. We are now learning how and why that happened, but at least it's confirmed in the actual story.

Meanwhile, Franky's backstory aligning with Queen eerily well, however, was only revealed off-screen, and those two didn't even interact during Wano. Is this because Japan (not sure about the rest of the world) sees Franky as a meme, not as a well-written character?
 
I’ve been thinking through this and it’s crazy how much my favorite characters in One Piece have changed as an adult and in our modern politics—

Favorite Characters:
1) Kuma
2) Fisher Tiger
3) Bon Clay
4) Saal
5) Monkey D. Luffy
6) Monkey D. Dragon (I’m certain this will be revised in the future)
7) Dr. Hiriluk
8) Jinbe
9) Nico Robin
10) Tom-San
 
What about your most hated or "love to hate"? Doflamingo and Saturn are among the top ten for me, but a bunch of characters only had a vague change of heart. Doffy instead became more obsessed with watching the world burn (or drown), while Saturn was thankfully reduced to a skeleton.
 
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Doffy is my favorite villain— most love to hate, most compelling. Love to hate you could say.

I find it difficult to separate most hated from favorite villains because of him— but pretty much the characters I hate the most are at the top of the WG.

Imu, the God’s knights, the 5 elders, the celestial dragons, cipher pol— it’s easy to most emotionally pick out individual examples like Spanda, Charlos, Garling… but then you remember that these characters are essentially just representation of classes and systems that are all functioning under the same supremacist paradigms so no real point in hating the individual characters more or less than their peers.

Oh and then amongst Marines I would call out Ryokugyu and Akainu as particularly loathsome though I fundamentally despise the Marines entirely except for Fujitora.

Fujitora literally the only one. Fujitora probably in the top 20 fav somewhere

My favorite villains (for also being emotionally compelling/creating emotionally compelling scenes & Conflicts) are probably:

1) Doffy
2) Arlong
3) Spanda
4) Charlos
5) Akainu

With Arlong being way more interesting after Fishman Island/Fisher Tiger’s story.
 
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Do you guys think that the anime is surpassing the manga?

At the Water 7 arc I definitely thought the manga carried the tone better.

But for Kuma’s story even without having seen all the anime, I think the anime probably did it more justice than the manga though I haven’t seen every episode.

With Jarul’s line about being enemies of the government— I think it would be an incredible scene IF Jarul had a fiercer/more determined expression. I feel like the anime’s going to do a lot better with Elbaf and God’s Valley
 
I know I am a negative nancy about One Piece for a while but like

why is Usopp just not doing anything...

It was already frustrating to not see Franky do something with Vegapunk, but it was character interaction that could've been done anywhere and he did interact a bunch with Egghead. Now we had some Vegapunk interaction that was pretty good

But Usopp was meant to do something on Elbaf. And he just doesn't do anything

The entire idea of people's worst fears becoming monsters was a perfect set up for him, the coward, to become a brave warrior of the sea. And now the monsters are seemingly gone and nothing was done for him. It's even weirder because the other strawhats got a surprisingly large amount of character work, with Robin reuniting with Saul, now Franky, the whole introduction with the first couple of strawhats returning to a simpler adventure, Brook having more of his backstory revealed...

It's just Usopp who's not doing anything. That can still come up but I am becoming more and more pessimistic about that from chapter to chapter. Kinda like how Wano was great set up for Zoro and he just kinda fought and got a flashback that didn't do anything and that was it for him
 
ok friends, what's your overall take on post-timeskip One Piece?

on the negatives I think

1) the opening of post-timeskip is awful. A lot of people hate the redesigns, I think 90% of that stems from the Fishman Island outfits looking awful (and yeah Franky and Chopper did become significantly worse). Fishman Island is a questionable arc with a very good flashback, a beautiful environment and some great reveals, but lacking a lot in every other aspect. Even worse is Punk Hazard, I genuinely think it's the worst arc in the entire series, bar properly introducing Law. It has absolutely no stakes, the big kids aren't interesting and we've already seen the crew dominate in Fishman Island, another arc were they just steamroll isn't good at all. There's also nothing done with the island being half fire and half frozen

2) it's really sad what has been done with the strawhats. We never see Nami draw maps, Chopper is no longer character but just a mascot, Zoro is just a walking powerlevel (though to be fair he was that like 90% of pre-timeskip already), Usopp and Brook don't get much to do, Jimbei is... well he's there alright. I think it's slowly getting better, Elbaf was better about this and Egghead already gave them some nice moments

3) the arcs are overloaded and feel rushed due to this. Dressrosa has so much shit going on in the timespan of a few hours, yet we see very little of the culture and life there, opposed to Alabasta which was such a beautiful location and wonderful standalone story. And Wano. Man

on the positives however

1) some of the writing is sooooo good. Oden's and especially Kuma's backstory, Whole Cake Island's ending, almost all of Egghead (which I genuinely think may be the second or even the very best arc in the series). There are soooo many gems that just have me coming back week by week. The writing that became most excellent was anything with worldbuiding. Around the Reverie, everything just became so tightly knitted and beautiful, all the ways the characters and the world just interact with each other and how it makes this beautifully alive world. Pre timeskip One Piece already had amazing worldbuilding, post timeskip is probably the best worldbuilding I have seen in any piece of media

2) I think some of the arcs are much better than people give them credit. Whole Cake Island is such a good arc, definitely top 10, maybe even top 5 material for me. And yes I agree with most critique on Wano, but I still think that the overall arc is very good. Wano is still a very beautiful location, the intermissions were extremely hype, it gave some very underappreciated Strawhats like Brook and Chopper some things to do... I wish it just wasn't so extremely backloaded. If the allstars were the antagonists of act 1 and 2 and gave the strawhats some better fights, if Yamato was introduced earlier and interacted more with the cast and if the epilogue wasn't such a massive huge mess, it'd maybe be a top 5 arc, and as it stands, I still remember reading it week by week extremely fondly. There was so much hype there after all

3) Egghead was incredible and Elbaf (minus the God's Valley flashback) seems to be very very good too. If this continues, the Final Saga may be fit for a beautiful ending

so anyway, I'll get back to season 2 of Netflix One Piece :blobthumbsup:
 
I’m too disappointed in God’s Valley flashback to be genuinely disappointed in anything else.

I guess if there’s anything it’d be that none of the villains including Kaido or Big Mom can out do Doffy in stage presence and drama. There’s plenty of strong opponents but none of them are interesting or representing a clash of ideology on Doffy’s Level.

Fishman Island I’ll defend to the end JUST because of Tiger and then Luffy and Jinbe overcoming hate by sharing blood
 
Oh, okay, this chapter too also makes me consider whether or not I have to quit reading the chapters. I don't know what's up with Oda, but again, just like with Elder Jerule, this quote and stance by Usopp is totally undersold and underwhelming, just based on the visuals. When this scene gets to the anime, it's going to be so hype, so powerful, so dramatic. So... I know that the drawing quality has not technically fallen at all, but the emotional tone and heart poured into it doesn't seem quite where we expect from One Piece, even if the writing itself is still strong. But it does make me consider whether or not I should switch to being an anime fan based on the level of production quality poured into the anime project right now.
 
oda setting up high stakes and then trivialising them cos it's not in a flashback is getting tiresome

some character moments feel like an afterthought aka franky last chapter you spent a long time sailing together and had no talk of "hey franky the fuck is your fuel i got some ideas for it" but vegapunk as a whole has been purely asspulls imagined as a character the whole time.

the scale of elbaf should be a major factor but everyone (non-giant) just gets everywhere in one panel so it's irrelevant

i hope usopp's moment is honest and his own not getting ratatoskr similar to nami and zeus. usopp's whole deal is that he doesn't have the power of the main fighters but he still sometimes wills himself to enter a fight that he most likely will lose. any bullshit of "the squirrel recognises his bravery and lends his strength" reduces the character growth itself for me. im ok with usopp and the squirrel having a moment cos the squirrel's main deal is recognising a worthy personality but i want usopp to Do And Achieve Something on his own

but you gotta wonder what is there to do now even. the two morons have been dealt with for free and now it's luffy and loki in front of a possessed gunko. can imu convert either of them through gunko? if we get into a real battle against either loki or luffy from here after seeing that the way to undo a possession/conversion is killing the guy it will at least be interesting.

im too lazy to go check back in god valley but we saw last chapter just any mortal damage "might" undo reversi possession (we didn't see anyone actually turn back last chapter). so how was that different from rocks and his family, did he hold off on dealing a real finishing on every one of them? could have been cool to have even a hint of this undoing of the spell in there but no what we saw in flashback was just to build tension for something that was gonna have an easy-to-execute solution.

i think oda is in pacing dilemmas cos his health and he might need another major break to plan through the next few arcs. i would very happily read monthly chapters or even more spread out releases if it's just more cohesive overall.
 
the writing is good but its so undersold. Usopp's last stand was built up for decades and it was really small. If he gets up again and becomes the deciding factor in taking down Ginko through his wit and braveness, that would be great but it'd be still somehow undersold by the visuals

I don't know what's up with Oda. He delivered peak with Egghead and did very well until the (you know its coming, we'll never let this go) God Valley flashback. Maybe One Piece is meant to go monthly from now on
 
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think this reference to "world" has to have more meaning than just "everyone in the world" or a very literal "this physical planet itself"

looking for this made me look at the usopp panels again and man he is one guy who i would think to not spam one attack on the same enemy after seeing it does nothing.
the one guy in the crew who i would expect to have something up his sleeve to bind or restrict an enemy in some way with the deus ex machina that his plant bomb things can be, but no let's try the skull bomb again.
the one guy who pre-timeskip would have come up with something novel and ingenious when presented with the problem "they heal the damage they take".
even if gunko got free from it, the fact that usopp used his brains and faced a danger with faith in his plan would have done so much for his character.
could have spared him maybe 4 extra panels for this! and you could still show luffy and loki entrance after this valiant failure
 
well that chapter was fucking peak

it may be cope but I still doubt that Imu is male or a person for that matter. I don't think Imu has a clear human like form and that this form they took here isn't their original body. It wouldn't make sense for Imu to never be addressed by male (or really any) pronouns and to now be a dude. The fact that they address themselves in a kind of third person is also still iffy if Imu is just a guy that turned immortal and very powerful. I still think that Imu is a conglomerate being without a clear identity. Or that whatever the black shape is, is some possessive power that took root in one of the world nobles that founded the WG

the interactions between the elders and Imu at the beginning of the chapter are underlining this to me. They can question Imu and fear their descent, they seemed kinda like handlers for something that's just beyond them

furthermore, I am thinking more and more strongly (like previously) that Imu will not be the final villain and that Blackbeard will instead take over. Imu made their big break now, Blackbeard is still developing. And I think that narratively, a being that was plagueing humanity for centuries being overshadowed by a man without a heart hits really hard

And as my final cope: I think Usopp still has a chance. The fight against Imu's vessel was very surprisingly skipped. Usopp now coming out and facing a literal God would be so hard

also: season 2 of One Piece was a fucking masterpiece. Season 1 was already really good but season 2, in all honesty, transcended the source material, and I absolutely adore the Baroque Works saga
 
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