What happened to the mystery? What happened to the wanderlust? What happened to the relationships?
Every OPfag deep down knows that the manga has declined heavily in quality. No longer is One Piece about getting immersed in a loosely inspired pirate setting. There are no more crew dynamics or sense of progress, nothing. Instead, we have predictable save the kingdom plots, a bloated crew that is always seperated, and guranteed years of fillers after Oda dropped the pointless Imu and road poneglyphs elements. One Piece is a shell of it's former self, a carticature. For anyone that will still read this manga after ten years, I both salute and pity you.
If Oda wants to maintain his reputation and credibility, he should end this manga before it inevitably tanks in sales for going on too long.
It did. Crocodile is still the best villain and the promise that his story isn't done is one of the reasons I'm still reading it.
Samuel Miller
Post-timeskip has had 385 chapters Which has consisted of: >Fishman Island >Punk Hazard >Dressrosa >Zou >Whole Cake Island >Wano By Chapter 385 of the overall manga we had >Shells Town/Orange Town >Syrup Village >Baratie >Arlong Park >Loguetown >Reverse Mountain/Whiskey Peak >Little Garden >Drum Island >Alabasta >Mocktown/Skypiea >Long Ring Long Land >Water 7/Enies Lobby
Tyler Parker
I do love 20th Century Boys. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending and epilogue, but it was a damn good ride.
Blake Taylor
The main problem is the paneling. I don't have the image on hand, but just comparing the Don Krieg fight to any of these nu-OP pages with a dozen panels on them is eye opening.
Owen Perez
Dressrosa was a bloated monster as long as from Shells Town to Reverse Mountain. It's the reason why those lists aren't equally diverse.
Anthony Powell
Exactly this. They entire point of the manga, starting from Zou, has been to go straight towards the endgame. They've found three of the poneglyphs that reveal the location of Raftel. Truth be told, I probably explore the pre-timeskip era more, but post-timeskip has more tangible progress and gives more answers.
Camden Evans
Luffy should trip over the One Piece on his way to fight Kaido.
WRAP IT UP, ODA!
Levi Brown
all of the villains pre timeskip were one dimensional fodder aside from maybe arlong. also dressrosa was just alabasta with things actually happening.
Aiden Nelson
Upvoted!
William Russell
Absolutely right, but somehow I feel less connected to the story.
It was always big and had constant new characters, but the sheer number makes the story feel unwieldy. Maybe if he focused more on the crew for a bit?
Easton Williams
>lirerally leads to the one piece is pointless It doesn't need to lead to it. just more filler
Ethan Stewart
I feel the same, and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's simple burnout, or maybe there is a more objective drop in quality. I do think Oda works better with smaller scopes and more personal stories; I've always enjoyed flashbacks, but the 'war' that ends part 1 is one of my least favorite story arcs, whose explicit purpose is to be as epic and involve as many characters as possible.
One thing I do love though, and which comes to fruition more post-timeskip, is seeing the Straw Hats move up in the world. They start off as complete nobodies, with Luffy being just some random kid in a rowboat that nobody would ever take seriously; by the time of Alabasta, they've upgraded to being cool losers (ie they have almost no reputation and are still more or less just nobodies in the grand scheme of things, yet have a rapidly-growing list of accomplishments to their name and are very competent and capable); and by the present chapter, they have one of the most impressive ships in the world, are in charge of a fleet of more than almost 5000 people, and Luffy is being considered for Yonkou status while having one of the world's highest bounties. It's all very exciting and wonderfully executed.
Logan Wright
I think the primary error was having a main crew of 10 characters. He always splits them up because you just can't write that many people at once without causing real problems in a manga. It is my belief that the crew's roster should have rotated instead of being cumulative. Write it so that Zoro, Nami, and Sanji accomplish their main dreams and step off to enjoy them for a bit, etc. Then bring everyone back for the final battle.
