One Piece

[Painted Outlaw]

Been catching up in this recently since I somehow missed out on reading anything since the timeskip (I know I should get back to YYH, but as long as I finish rewatching that by March, I'm good) and I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

Fishman Island, while most of it was the Straw Hats trouncing Hody's forces, I still felt for Shirahoshi in regards to her mom. And, it was great tying it into Nami's past with Jimbei's past and their relation to the Arlong debacle. Punk Hazard, I'm almost done with and while Caesar Clown is seeming a weaker villain story-wise than Hody, the character interactions have more than made up for it. Sanji!Nami and Smoker!Tashigi was glorious.

Next up seems to be Dressrosa which... 101 chapters.... I'll clearly have to pace myself on this one, huh?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Dressrossa is a mixed bag, IMO. While it never feels outright terrible, it has several parts that drag. There are definitely some high points, and one particular returning villain who gets a surprisingly compelling redemption story within the arc, but on the whole it felt about fifty chapters too long.

The good news is that the Zoe arc, which immediately follows this one, is a much shorter transitional arc that gives the characters some breathing room. This is then followed by the Whole Cake Island arc (which is currently in the middle of its climax) which is superb. It's easily the best post time-skip arc of One Piece, and the story only looks like it'll grow more interesting from here.

[Painted Outlaw]

That's good to hear, should make trudging through Dressrosa easier if I know that there's good stuff coming up afterwards.

[Painted Outlaw]

So Dressrosa... overall, I did like it and there were some good ideas tossed around in there that kept me reading but at the same time, once you got past chapter 750, it clearly started to show its length and I started to wonder if I was going to finish last night because of how little progress I felt I was making. I did though, so that felt good. Tl;dr: Good arc but, man did it need an editor.
Also, I doubt I'm going to remember Doflamingo much in the long run. Not that I'm gonna say every villain needs a sob story (because just look at Naruto how bad that could go) but there ultimately just wasn't much to him beyond "I mess up a city, make people sad"... which well, even Buggy could do that so I don't get what makes Doflamingo so much worse.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Agreed. The arc had its moments but much of it was hampered by the simple fact that it long out-stayed its welcome. And after all of the build-up from previous arcs, Doflamingo wasn't nearly the threat that I imagined him to be.

Like I said, though, Oda learned his lesson from that going forward.

[VLordGTZ]

It's funny that Dressrosa went on for over 100 chapters but I barely remember anything from the middle portion because the focus would erratically jump around and too much was going on at once.  Meanwhile, Wholecake Island has been exceptionally memorable.  I just caught back up with the manga last week, and it's probably the most that I've enjoyed the series since Marineford.  Hopefully, Oda will be able to keep it up with Wano, because it feels nice being excited for One Piece again.

[Painted Outlaw]

Caught up last night and, I'm not sure how I feel on Whole Cake Island; in a good way, though. But every time I thought I had an opinion, it kept changing as I read. Like, when we got introduced to the Germa 66, I thought "These guys are buttholes, I hope they get killed"; and they still are, don't get me wrong but I didn't want them to die as Pudding and Big Mom wanted it. Or when Big Mom got her flashback, I thought "Really? Do we really need this?" to "Holy sh#t, she just ate her foster mom?!?!". So, props to Oda for keeping me guessing how I'll feel rather than being static about it.

On the regulars: I like Jinbei, he's cool. Carrot, I could take or leave; I don't have much opinion on her really, she's just there. Pudding's a delightful mess though, why can't more tsunderes be total nutcases like her? "If I sit on that carpet next to Sanji, people will think we're married a-a-a-a-and I w-w-w-wouldn't mind being married bu-bu- *explodes*"

Quick edit: Oh, vaguely related, but I saw this during my reading and does anyone know who these characters are? The designs on the left interest me more but, I wouldn't mind knowing who both are.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Some of those are characters from WSJ's last round of Jump Starts. They belong to various different series, one of which (Hungry Marie) has already been cancelled. Of those, Dr. Stone (featuring Senku as that guy with crazy blond hair on the right) is currently the most popular in the weekly rankings.

[Painted Outlaw]

Huh, interesting. I'll have to look into that then, thanks!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, remember how earlier this year Oda's editor claimed that we would be getting to see the Reverie and Wano arcs this year? Yeah, I had my doubts about that and apparently Oda has confirmed that it will be at least another year before the story reaches that point. There's still too much ground left to cover for Whole Cake Island alone to even be finished before the end of this year.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So much for learning from Dressarosa. This arc is too long.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So much for learning from Dressarosa. This arc is too long.

I disagree. Unlike Dressrossa this arc has constantly changing scenarios to keep the story interesting and engaging, and having these various different phases in conjunction with the consistently interesting character dynamics is how you do good story-telling in a battle shonen series like this. It really reminds me of the first half of the Namek arc with the multiple factions (Straw Hats, Germa 66, Big Mom Pirates, Sun Pirates, and various other groups or characters) working independently of one another while in some cases teaming up. In any case, what one person or group does has a cascading effect on everyone else's plans, keeping the plot excitingly unpredictable.

Something feeling long doesn't really have to do with how many chapters it goes on for as much as it has to do with the actual content being covered. Dressrossa both was too long and felt too long because it told a story that was something we had already seen done better in just half the time (it's basically a weaker version of the Alabaster arc, with Doflamingo replacing Crocodile). Whole Cake Island still works because it's constantly thwarting readers' expectations while effectively building up the story through really well-written scenarios that both work on a short-term level while also cleverly planting seeds for later plot points to unfold.

It's one of the best story arcs running in Weekly Shonen Jump right now, and considering the competition, that's saying a lot.

[Painted Outlaw]

(it's basically a weaker version of the Alabaster arc, with Doflamingo replacing Crocodile).

Man, Doflamingo wasn't even as fun to read as Crocodile. What helped the latter was how ruthless he was from cutting down Robin to putting two Baroque Works in the clocktower. That and his claiming that... iirc, he tried crossing the Grand Line but the journey broke him(?) into who he was today helped him be a good foil for Luffy.

Dofla just had a bunch of boring cannon fodder and he was upset he couldn't buy more slaves, yawn.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, does anyone remember when Luffy's bounty reaching 100 million after the events of the Alabasta arc seemed like such a big deal? Yeah, that almost seems cute to look back on....

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oda says we're 80% done now: https://kotaku.com/the-one-piece-manga-is-80-percent-finished-says-eiichi-1827796353/amp

If this were anyone else I'd be thinking that they are planning to rush out an ending after making a statement like that. With Oda I'm a bit more skeptical because for all I know that "80%" could take him another decade to get through. I'm not really sure Oda gets the concept of percentages all that well considering that it was 65% done just two years ago which was only 5% progress from the 60% that he had covered four years before that.