One Piece

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Thanks.

You know, if I ever were to do a list of the best fights/battles of any kind in anime/manga, Marineford would easily make my top 5, possibly even managing to place as my third favorite behind Joe vs. Rikiishi at #2 and Shohoku vs. Sannoh as my favorite.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Battles including non-combat based sports matches, among other things? Hmm, that would an interesting list to make. But yeah, all three of those would definitely be in my top ten too.

[Avaitor]

I just had to share this!

[LordGoku]

So since I'm under the assumption that Dressrosa has ended, I'm going to give my two cents. I won't say that this is One Pieces weakest arc, but it's around there. And here's the thing, earlier when I first started posting I said that One Piece is perfect. Admittedly that was me coming off of a high from re-watching the Marineford arc, but yeah, right now I can't garner any excitement from One Piece right now. We need to go to other places. and do other things.

The positives before we get to the negatives. We FINALLY get Doflamingo as the main antagonist. He had a lot of build up, a lot of pull in the world that I am glad that we finally get to see his taking the stage. There's stuff that I'll mention later, especially on how he was defeated on this arc in particular, but we'll get to that later. Another positive is the Corazon/Law flashback. In all honesty, this is probably my favorite flashback, second to Robins of course. Laws past with his family on the White Island, and his relation to Corazon, was magnificent. Corazon from his introduction to his death proved himself to be an interesting character. The way that he was contrasted with Doflamingo in that, though they had the same past they ended up so different. Corazon could have easily become Doflamingo. But that's the thing, Doflamingo could have been Corazon. He could have been someone kind and caring that wants to help others. And his death scene was a beautiful kind of tragedy. The scene with Law in the box, having to listen to him die was so great. I loved every second of it.

Another thing I liked was Gear 4. This is the first power up Luffy has had in years. Luffy gets them so rarely that it hasn't become annoying like in Fairy Tail. The theme of blood->bone->muscle was so subtle that I didn't even know there was a theme in the first place. And because of the enormous power it holds it gives Luffy a trump card with which to use against his stronger opponents. Before I couldn't see how he would be able to defeat the stronger opponents down the line like Blackbeard or Sakazuki. Now I can, and I really can't wait for those battles to come. One more thing I liked was the very final climax. Where during the fight against Doflamingo, the birdcage was shrinking, and everyone was doing their best to hold it back. Admittedly, while I knew no one was going to die I felt like the emotion and the tension was there. And the scenery of buildings burning, and all hell breaking loose, it was such a great image that it felt like a true climax.

Now the negatives, and this is my big one. THE ARC WAS TOO FREAKING LONG. One Piece arcs usually last a year at most. We had Water 7 and Enies Lobby, but those were two different locations spread over a couple years. We were stuck in Dressrosa and Dressrosa only for two years. There are other examples of longer story arcs like in Naruto, with the Ninja War. And while the Ninja War wasn't the best Naruto arc, fatigue didn't really set in until the stuff with the Kage. The Ninja War had a bunch of characters going to different places, and fighting different opponents. Here it was only Doflamingo and his men. Which leads into my next problem. There were your typical Bleach "People we don't care for fighting other people we don't care for."  And I might get tarred and feathered for saying this, but during that time I liked Bleach way more then One Piece. The time I'm talking about is right after the flashback where we had one off fights with the gladiators going against Doflamingos men. Those chapters coincided with the Ichibei vs Yhwach fight, and I felt much more thrill and excitement for that fight. And here's why: in that fight there were legitimate stake, we knew what would be lost if Ichibei was defeated, and we knew both of these characters prior to the fight. Admittedly we didn't get Ichibeis backstory, and stuff like that, but we didn't need to. We knew who he was, what he stood for, and the consequences should he lose. As for One Piece let me ask, would anyone care if Don Chin Jou lost his fight. What did we know about Ideo or Sai prior to their fights. That was the problem during those fights. It was a bunch of randos whom I had no connection to. I had a connection to Bartelomeo, and Cavendish, but that's about it. Otherwise I could not care if they lost. In fact, I couldn't care for the fight period because no one dies in One Piece.

Okay last one, Ussopp. Go to chapter 740, and go to the very last page. That one action irreparably damaged Ussopp to me to the point where he's easily my least favorite Straw Hat. I've been having problems accepting Ussopp as a coward post timeskip, because I feel like he should have grown more as a character. His cowardice reached a point where I honestly feel it doesn't work anymore. He's stronger now. He has pop greens, he fought against FAR worst odds, and came out alive, yet he still is the same coward who will run away. And that is the part that annoys me the most. His running away to leave the Tontatta to die is quite honestly the worst thing any of the Straw Hats could have done. Sure he came back, but that was after being guilt tripped into hearing their death squeaks. For all he knows they really were dying, and he couldn't muster up the courage to do what was right that even Chopper and Nami would. The same courage they showed during Punk Hazard. And for that reason I feel I cannot take Ussopps character seriously anymore. It feels like for every show of bravery he'll go right back to being that coward.

So, yeah this was not my favorite arc, and it hurts. This is the arc that finally brings down Doflamingo, and it feels like such a MEH arc. I should be more excited about this. I should feel happier about about these bigger arcs, but this was such a disappointment, and one of the few black marks on One Pieces otherwise prestigious record.

6/10

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I agree with pretty much most of what you said about this arc, though keep in mind I've found OP to be in a real slump ever since Fishman Island.

Aside from the length, which is definitely a really big problem with this arc, I must really echo your opinion about the side characters this time. I didn't care about any of them. I didn't give a shit about Rebecca or her father or anyone else. And it's funny how this arc finally brought us huge reveals that we've wanted to see for a long time, but they all felt so bland and anticlimactic and were really disappointing. Sabo was revealed and he was kind of just....there. This is Luffy and Ace's childhood "brother" and he felt less important in this arc than many other side characters. And Doflamingo has been built up for over an entire fucking decade, and now that Luffy has finally faced him, I can only think of him as an OK villain at best. More memorable for his actual build-up than for being a great character.

What made past arcs great was a sense of something to lose and something to gain, and an actual investment in the characters. With Arlong Park and Baroque Works, it was about Luffy fighting for others, but also a clash of his philosophy as a young, naive adventurer against those of more seasoned and cynical pirates. With the CP9 saga it was the very status of Luffy's crew on the verge of being broken apart that carried us through, what with their first ship on the verge of going down, Ussopp's falling out with Luffy and temporarily leaving the crew, and Robin on the verge of being executed. The entire arc rode high on the emotions of the characters, which made us really care about the outcome. And then Impel Down and Marineford literally had Ace's life on the line and brought nearly every major character in the entire series into direct conflict against each other. It was a really rewarding climax to the first half of the series, and Oda brilliantly killed off Ace at the end of it to demonstrate that there were some things that Luffy just couldn't prevent from happening.

The newer arcs have all of the formula of the older ones but lack the same substance that made them great. And even worse is how Oda has treated some of the characters. Robin barely gets anything to do anymore (having her on the sidelines commenting on Rebecca's father's fight instead of fighting herself really irritated me), and yes, I still haven't forgotten that notoriously awful OOC moment for Ussopp. Personally, that really hurt my opinion of the character. And to be clear, he didn't even get guilt-tripped into saving the Tontatta. He literally just got cornered and had no choice but to act, to save himself. So, basically, if he'd been allowed to get away, he literally would have just left innocent people to die. Nevermind the fact that he should've long since outgrown his cowardice. Even when he was at his most cowardly, he would NEVER have refused to help defend his own fucking allies. Fuck that shit, Oda! You should know better.

[LordGoku]

Yeah I forgot about Rebecca and Sabo, but that goes to show how A) how little I cared and B) their importance to the over all story. Rebecca is such a blatant Mary Sue, Orihime level character, that she is easily the worst character in One Piece, and really brings out the worst of Odas abilities to write women. Her presentation of a female gladiator that could fight with the best of the was betrayed, hard, by her numerous damsel moments where each and every time she was forced to rely on men to come and help her. She literally screamed "HELP ME ICHIGO TOY SOLDIER" that when it happened she became the worst of the worst. And heres a theory I had. I think part of the reason I had a problem with her is because of her design. Her look, while provocative, gave that feeling of a badass woman, which One Piece is seriously lacking. If she had been designed to invoke a princess vibe, I would still have problems with her character, but I could just tell myself that she is a princess. But there was a serious dissonance between her design and her role in the arc making her such a serious disappointment. Honestly, in Alabasta I had problems with ViVi, but now looking at Rebecca, ViVi is so much better to me now.

And yeah, a lot of good that Sabo reveal had. He did nothing this arc, except fight in the coliseum as Lucy. After that he just sat around fighting random characters. He never had a moment where he fought with Luffy. He never had a real conversation with him. It was just, he was there and that's all. Such a disappointment.

And one final nail in the coffin that I and so many people forgot about. Remember back in Jaya when we first met Doflamingo, and he had this thing about how this is the new age of pirates, and dreams are meaningless and all that. That never came up at all. There was never a moment where he confronted Luffy about his philosophy. He was just presented as the puppetmaster, and that was it. He never had that at all. Back then he was presented as the ultimate cynic to Luffys ultimate idealist, and we looked forward to the moment where Luffy and him clashed for their ideals. The World Nobel twist was cool, but whatever happened to what came before. What happened to his "New Age" his era where dreams will come to an end. Yeah in retrospect Doflamingo was a disappointing villain.

[Pharass]

I've fallen way behind on my One Piece reading (last time, I believe I was at chapter 785 or something like that) and I'm not sure when I'll get around to catch up. Still, I'd like to know one thing: Have they defeated Doflamingo yet?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah. They finally beat him a couple weeks ago, and now we're in wrap-up for Dressarosa and set-up for the next arc.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm just praying that Oda finally manages to get the pacing of this series back on track.

[LumRanmaYasha]

So recently the One Piece Podcast crew finished their read through of the entire series from the beginning through the end of Dressrosa, and a few days ago they did a two-part special where they ranked all the arcs in the series from least good to best. It was a really interesting discussion that raises a lot of good points and different takes on various arcs, and though very long, I definitely recommend giving it a listen.

Here are their rankings, in case anyone is curious and doesn't have the time to listen through the podcasts yet:

Spoiler

1. Water 7/Enies Lobby
2. Arlong Park
3. Alabasta
4. Marineford/Post-War
5. Jaya/Skypeia
6. Drum Island
7. Sabaody Archipelago
8. Dressrosa
9. Thriller Bark
10. Impel Down
11. Punk Hazard
12. Baratie
13. Loguetown
14. Long Ring Long Land
15. Whiskey Peak
16. Fishman Island
17. Romance Dawn
18. Amazon Lilly
19. Little Garden
20. Syrup Village
21. Laboon
22. Orange Town

[close]

[Spark Of Spirit]

I haven't even read all of that and I disagree. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

With the discussion, or the list?

Personally, since the list is composited from the personal lists of around two dozen people, and almost all of them have done a full read-through of the entire series in the last six months, I think where things ended up are justified, even if my own personal list would look a bit different.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'd personally put Impel Down higher, Marineford at #1, and Skypeia and Fishman Island lower, and while my own list would look very different from this one still, there aren't any glaring stand-outs other than the ones that I mentioned.

Also, to be fair, W7/EL is a perfectly acceptable choice for the top spot, given how we ranked it above the others in our story arc list as well. Arlong Park being so high is understandable as being a pivotal arc in the series, but also a bit questionable since there are several arcs of higher quality that have come out since then. I mean, it's still good for what it is, but I couldn't justify it being higher than stuff like Alabasta or Thriller Bark, myself.

[LumRanmaYasha]

This editorial captures a lot of feelings I've had towards the series in recent years. While Oda's storytelling is still strong, he's been paying so much attention to setting things up and the goings-on of the world and big-picture stuff that the character development, and the sense of heart that first endeared me to the series, has been missing for quite a while now. I've said it several times before, but most of the Straw Hats feel like 2-dimmensional caricatures of themselves now, and their interactions no longer feel genuine, but rote. Considering what I used to love about the Straw Hats was the close, family relationships they had with each other, the shallowness of their personalities and interactions now has left me a lot less emotionally engaged in the story than I used to me.

Don't get me wrong, I still feel a surge of emotions whenever I revisit my favorite parts of the series. I consider everything before the timeskip some of the all-time best manga period. And even now, I'm still excited for the many things that lie ahead, and have been thoroughly enjoying the series' output this year. But there's a reason that I've left it off my favorite manga list for some time now. That powerful emotion connection that I have with pre-timeskip One Piece has been sorely lacking with post-timeskip stuff, even in the material I really like. While that doesn't change how I feel about pre-timeskip One Piece and the memories and emotions I associate with it, the fact the series hasn't been able to truly move me on a deeper emotional level for nearly 5 years is disappointing, and leaves me wistful. The current arc seems to be moving in a direction that might fix some of those problems (Sanji has never felt more like himself since the timeskip than he did in the Zou flashback), so I'm hopeful that the series can recapture the emotional investment I had with the series with some of the upcoming material before too long.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's literally exactly what I've been saying for years, especially in regard to the characters (which I specifically remember discussing about with you a couple of years ago). They feel like they only have three functions post time-skip: fight, spout exposition, and partake in tired and predictable running gags. That would be fine if they still had dynamic interactions with each other and continued to develop, but I feel like I just lost any connection to them after their long absence from the Whitebeard Saga.

The story and villains have also been merely passable for the most part so far. Nobody even close to the level of Crocodile or Rob Lucci, among others, IMO.

I used to wait in high anticipation each and every week for a new chapter of One Piece to drop, and I would gobble it up and even re-read new releases and partake in intricate discussions and craft theories about future events. Now I just read it as a routine.