I'd like to watch this..

I'm getting really sick of the multi-chapter flashbacks that Oda insists on inserting into every single arc. And always just as the story is really getting interesting. Yes they add context and background and develop the characters. No this is not even remotely the ideal way to do it. They just destroy any kind of pacing and they can all be summarized as "LIFE IS UNFAIR. DEAL WITH IT."

All of them can be replaced with a dialogue balloon:

Sanji: "The reason I am so devoted to this restaurant is one time Zeff ate his own leg so I could survive."

Nami: "Arlong killed my foster mother and I joined him so that I could win my village's freedom. Shit was sad, yo."

Chopper: "People hated me because they thought I was a freak, but a kindly old quack doctor with a life long ambition to plant cherry blossoms had a terminal illness. He gave me to old lady doctor so she could teach me how to be a doctor."

Vivi: "I was childhood friends with the leader of the rebellion. He's a bit of a dumbass. Also we used to hang out in the clocktower."

Wiper: "My ancestor wanted to the ring the bell to prove that famous liar guy wasn't actually a liar."

Franky: "Fucking marines, am I right?"

I bet we're going to get Robin's somewhere down the line. And it will probably be as simple as "Reading glyphs/finding the truth lets me honor my [loved one] who [tragically died] because [betrayal]. Also, I'm probably working for CP9 because I want to bring them down from the inside and I'm not going to tell the Straw Hats because when Nami tells me how Luffy and the others saved her from a similar situation I never really pay attention."

It would be better if it was spaced out or drastically shortened or god I dunno, reserved for a TV/chapter special a la the History of Trunks from DBZ.

Yeah Robin's past is basically intertwined with the arc I presume you're up to a fair bit.

That does accurately sum up Franky's deal though. He's pretty great.

Franky's beef is with the World Government rather than the Marines., but yeah that's pretty fair.

So Gear Second is Kaioken and Gear Third is USSJ2.

Given each Gear seems to incorporate an aspect of rubber (Second: Durability, Third: Malleability) I have no doubt in my mind that Gear Fourth will be some kind of deformation power where Luffy can change his entire shape.

Thus, Gear Fourth will basically turn Luffy into Majin Buu.

How is a ship dying so impossibly sad.

It was their nakama.

He.

I like Brook quite a bit.

Yeah you do.

Hang on, the Strawhats were gearing up to go to Fishman Island after Water 7/Enies Lobby. Yet glancing at the anime filler topic I see that the Fishman Island arc doesn't start for another two hundred episodes. That's somewhat concerning.

I know a two year time skip happens in the world of One Piece itself, but jesus that must be like four years of real time. How can they still be travelling on the Grand Line that far into the story? What do they do for those two years?

When I heard about the time skip, I figured they got to the end of the Grand Line*, realized that the treasure they were searching for was inside themselves (lol) and agreed to go their separate ways. That's what I thought at least, but now I don't know what to think. Do they just get delayed constantly between now and Fishman Island? I imagine the ominous "THE TRIGGER" fight between Ace and Blackbeard has something to do with it, but even with a war I don't see how that stops the story for two years (in-universe).

* Also, wasn't the Grand Line supposed to be hellish landscape of eternal torment that would leave people as broken husks? Before the Strawhats got there, the only ones we met who had traveled on it were Zeff and Hawkeye, and they were treated like a big fucking deal because of it. But now we found out everyone can get there no problem and that there are kingdoms within it that are filled with normal people. Is there a part of the Grand Line that is especially nightmarish? Is that what the "New World" is? I feel like I need a map.

Yes, the New World is the hellish place (from what we've seen of it so far.

I don't have a map of the One Piece world but I'll try to explain it. Take a globe and put a cross in it with intersecting lines. Each of the squares you created is one of the Blues, one line is the Grand Line and one line is the Red Line. So there's two points where the Red Line crosses the Grand Line. One half is the beginning of the Grand Line and after you go halfway round the world you come up against the Red Line again. After that is the New World.

Also the time inbetween those 200 episodes is probably some of the most substantial plot advancement in the series. Well, the show moves to a crawl here and becomes entirely awful as Toei keeps lowering the budget, but the manga has a quick pace if you don't read it weekly.

Brook owns bones.

YOHOHOHOHOHOHO.

Spoilers for anyone not up to where you are, Kaio can confirm whether this makes sense but heres my interpretation:

Spoiler:

That's a good point, a lot of people would probably plan their journey out now that enough people have travelled the Grand Line so it would be well documented. People would know about Little Garden and stay clear of that, so yeah I guess people would be a bit safer just living on islands in that course.

Correct me if I'm wrong on one thing though:

Skypia spoilers:

Sarbud, don't read this yet.

Spoiler:

Superbuu3 wrote:

Spoiler:

Yup this is the justification. People on the ground see the log pose pointing up and assume it's a glitch cause by that giant wave uplift thing.

Kaio wrote:

Well, the show moves to a crawl here and becomes entirely awful as Toei keeps lowering the budget, but the manga has a quick pace if you don't read it weekly.

Also could you elaborate on this? Isn't One Piece pretty much a religion in Japan? How does the anime suffer as a result of the budget cuts? Wouldn't less budget mean they have to cut down on filler because they can't afford to produce anything that isn't critical to the story?

Toei gives its less popular anime a higher budget because they don't have a devout following. One Piece will be in the top 3 anime watched every week anyway so why waste any money on it. They also moved the show from Sunday afternoon ("primetime") to Sunday morning and changed directors after the Strawhat flashbacks episodes in Enies Lobby. Everything became shitty after it because the new series director has no sense of pacing. Add that to the crappy animation (there were some good animators left but most of them moved on to Toriko) and the show is virtually unwatchable now.

That's a shame, but it isn't the first time I've heard bad things about the anime so I can definitely see that happening.

Really, it's not that big a problem. My strategy so far has been to read about a dozen issues of the manga, then go back and fast forward through the anime, stopping only to watch the scenes I want to see.

I was pretty luke warm to Thriller Bark at the beginning, but everything from the Strawhats confronting Oz to Zoro sacrificing himself for Luffy was great.

Top 5 Arcs:

Arlong Park
Alabasta
Enies Lobby
Thriller Bark
Everything that's going on behind the scenes between the World Government and the Four Emperors.

Yeah, the first 2/3rds of Thriller Bark is fairly "meh", but the climax - everything from Oars vs StrawHats onwards - ranks right up there with anything OP has ever done, before or since.

Man speaking of Arlong, octopus henchman out of nowhere.


I really love how Oda has actually planned stuff out. The groundwork for so many story lines and plot developments are established ahead of time and it leads to a substantially better and fuller story experience.

Ahaha Duval. I was not expecting that.

Casa wrote:

I was pretty luke warm to Thriller Bark at the beginning, but everything from the Strawhats confronting Oz to Zoro sacrificing himself for Luffy was great.

Top 5 Arcs:

Arlong Park
Alabasta
Enies Lobby
Thriller Bark
Everything that's going on behind the scenes between the World Government and the Four Emperors.

Let's not forget every scene with Brook in it.

I loved the armour scene.