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[SalvaPot]

Anyway, I was talking to my roommates last night about how One Piece is the best selling manga of all time and they thought that was the stupidest thing ever. They haven't even read it. Made me so fucking mad that they were shaming GODA's work.

I should just read it again for both of them.

Don´t worry about it, I have been reading/watching One Piece for maybe 4 years now and it took me by surprise how good it is, it really is a slow start but it just keeps on building and building and its just so good.

That is how I used to describe it to my friends (Who liked other, older mature manga, since they are a generation older than me) and they seemed interested but always had the excuse that One Piece was too long to be worth it, but I let them now it was worth it for sure.

So I think one of them pick it up, we are talking a big group of friends, a society you might say, and he ended up loving it and shared it with the others, and little by little more and more of them gave it a chance, even the most reluctant of them. Nowadays about 60% of the group loves One Piece and are up to date or getting closer, and more and more of them are giving it a chance, its irresistible.

Until I saw this image I couldn't put my finger on what felt different about the art. I always thought it was just busy panels but its seems for the last fews years he increased the thickness of his line work or maybe he's just drawing smaller overall? Everything feels much more gestural and looser which I like but I also loved all his other styles over the years.

Another comparison we can make:

And the canon explanation is that Sanji feeds them food that promotes healthy growth.

 

[B-Dubs]

Another comparison we can make:

And the canon explanation is that Sanji feeds them food that promotes healthy growth.

That definitely sounds like something Sanji would do.

 

[Order]

Another comparison we can make:

And the canon explanation is that Sanji feeds them food that promotes healthy growth.

Sanji must cook for all the women in One Piece then.

 

[Seesaw15]

In universe its at least a little bit plausible that a 17/18 year old Nami could have still been growing during the 2 year gap.

Another comparison we can make:

And the canon explanation is that Sanji feeds them food that promotes healthy growth.

But it makes no sense that between the ages of 28 and 30 Robin would still be growing.

I know Oda just likes big boobs

 

[B-Dubs]

Or Robin got a push up bra during the time skip. Those things can be tricky.

 

[SalvaPot]

In universe its at least a little bit plausible that a 17/18 year old Nami could have still been growing during the 2 year gap.


But it makes no sense that between the ages of 28 and 30 Robin would still be growing.

I know Oda just likes big boobs

Hmm, you know what? Do we even have a female character lacking in that department? I really liked how Tashigi looked pre-timeskip and then post-timeskip... yeah, I think Oda may just find them easier to draw.

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

i was in highschool there, now halfway through my career.

Damn

I started reading when I was a kid. Now I'm almost done with the University. In a few years, OP will have been with me for the majority of my life. Crazy how time passes.

 

[Chariot]

Oh my god


It's been 5 years since the timeskip.

I grew up with One Piece. The manga was one of the first things I read once I could read. Our lical libary had the first five or six books. Later I bought them myself and read the latest chapter online. From Gradeschool to University it grew alongside me. Probably will still going when I retire and die. ait's a grand feeling.

Another comparison we can make:

And the canon explanation is that Sanji feeds them food that promotes healthy growth.

Yeah, Oda do have issues with drawing females. Not very happy with the lack of designs and constant boobs.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Post-timeskip Franky is the only truly bad design.

The art looks "smoother" now, I agree. That's not the best word to use, but it definitely looks and feels different than Oda's older styles.

 

[Rebel Leader]

That definitely sounds like something Sanji would do.

We're done here folks

 

[cntr]

Another comparison we can make:

And the canon explanation is that Sanji feeds them food that promotes healthy growth.

To be fair, those are anime images. It doesn't look as bad in the manga.

 

[Imperial Bishop]

Post-timeskip Franky is the only truly bad design.

The art looks "smoother" now, I agree. That's not the best word to use, but it definitely looks and feels different than Oda's older styles.

Don't talk badly about Termiantor Franky, brother.

 

[BatDan]

To be fair, those are anime images. It doesn't look as bad in the manga.

The Skypiea one is manga. But yeah, the other four are from the anime.
I wish people would stop comparing his art through the anime, he has nothing to do with it.

 

[Johnlenham]

Don't talk badly about Termiantor Franky, brother.

Not a massive fan of how hes now some kind of cyborg to be honest.

 

[BatDan]

Not a massive fan of how hes now some kind of cyborg to be honest.

... He's always been a cyborg.
Hell, that's how he was introduced. "I'm a Cyborg" is what he said to Luffy and Nami.
Oda is just now taking advantage of it to the fullest. Complete with Terminator-esque eyes.

 

[Chariot]

... He's always been a cyborg.
Hell, that's how he was introduced. "I'm a Cyborg" is what he said to Luffy and Nami.
Oda is just now taking advantage of it to the fullest. Complete with Terminator-esque eyes.

I don't know, he looked perfectly normal to me.

:x

 

[SolVanderlyn]

He was a weird looking middle aged dude with popsicle blue hair that ran on cola. Now he's like... full on robot, and his hair looks stupider and stupider with every story arc. He used to be my favorite character, now he's my least favorite Straw Hat by far.

Brooke got about 100x cooler both looks and ability wise post timeskip, though.

 

[TheGreatDirector]

I think it's more impressive that it's nearly been 2 1/2 years since Dressrosa started. That really threw me off

Whoa it's been that long? I knew it was at least a year and a half but damn, this has been a long arc.

 

[BatDan]

Whoa it's been that long? I knew it was at least a year and a half but damn, this has been a long arc.

It's a combination of being a long arc and Oda taking a lot of breaks.
Don't forget the time One Piece was off two weeks while he was in the hospital.

 

[B-Dubs]

It's a combination of being a long arc and Oda taking a lot of breaks.
Don't forget the time One Piece was off two weeks while he was in the hospital.

All the breaks and standard weeks off add like 6 months at a minimum to that time.

 

[Chariot]

It's a combination of being a long arc and Oda taking a lot of breaks.
Don't forget the time One Piece was off two weeks while he was in the hospital.

A lot of breaks? Togashi wouldn't even have enough time to brunch in that tiny timeframe of One Piece breaks.

 

[BatDan]

All the breaks and standard weeks off add like 6 months at a minimum to that time.

Sounds about right.
Under normal circumstances, Dressrosa would have run for a little under two years. It ran longer thanks to the breaks.
By comparison, Hunter x Hunter's Chimera Ant arc is 132 chapters long, and under normal circumstances would have run under three years as opposed to the SEVEN years it ran thanks to the numerous hiatuses.

 

[B-Dubs]

Sounds about right.
Under normal circumstances, Dressrosa would have run for a little under two years. It ran longer thanks to the breaks.
By comparison, Hunter x Hunter's Chimera Ant arc is 132 chapters long, and under normal circumstances would have run under three years as opposed to the SEVEN years it ran thanks to the numerous hiatuses.

If there hadn't been as many breaks as there were, and Dressrosa had run for a little under two years, I doubt anyone would complain about the pacing. All the breaks really screw with the sense of pacing for the weekly readers.

 

[Mitch]

Decided to go all out and jump right into One Piece. On volume 5 right now.

Hoping to see Viz announce a 3rd box set to be released in November.

 

[Kornflayx]

If there hadn't been as many breaks as there were, and Dressrosa had run for a little under two years, I doubt anyone would complain about the pacing. All the breaks really screw with the sense of pacing for the weekly readers.

And that's why I can't wait until I get to Dressrosa in my re-read again. One Piece is just better to read in one go.

 

[Pegosaurus]

Decided to go all out and jump right into One Piece. On volume 5 right now.
Hoping to see Viz announce a 3rd box set to be released in November.

if you haven't already read it boy are you in for a ride

have fun

And that's why I can't wait until I get to Dressrosa in my re-read again. One Piece is just better to read in one go.

it's really great when you read it all at once

one of my favorite arcs really

 

[Torraz]

Hello,

I haven't read the manga in around half a year.

Has a new arc started yet? I really wanted to marathon the chapters, as the progress from week to week was too slow.

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

it's really great when you read it all at once

one of my favorite arcs really

Yepp. It's kinda tiresome how people whine on the pacing. Those who do should just wait and read one book at a time. Reading OP on a chapter basis is clearly not for them.

 

[Pegosaurus]

Hello,

I haven't read the manga in around half a year.

Has a new arc started yet? I really wanted to marathon the chapters, as the progress from week to week was too slow.

the Dressrosa arc just ended, but the new arc hasn't started yet. We're still on the "in between chapters

you can marathon the rest of the dressrosa arc though. as i said above it reads great all at once.

Yepp. It's kinda tiresome how people whine on the pacing. Those who do should just wait and read one book at a time. Reading OP on a chapter basis is clearly not for them.

yeah just read it volume by volume really. I stopped reading weekly during Punk Hazard because the pacing was pretty slow and then got back to weekly during Dressrosa. Never complained about the pacing online though.

 

[L Thammy]

I just started reading One Piece a little bit ago. I'm sure this has been asked a billion times already, but when does this really get going? I'm at around Mihawk's first appearance, where we get Sanji's backstory with Zeff.

So far I've found the manga to be really slow. The really interesting parts seem to be far between, and most of the characters aren't doing it for me yet. I'm not sure if the manga just isn't for me, or if it's still too early to tell and I have to see what it's building up to.

 

[Lunar15]

I just started reading One Piece a little bit ago. I'm sure this has been asked a billion times already, but when does this really get going? I'm at around Mihawk's first appearance, where we get Sanji's backstory with Zeff.

So far I've found the manga to be really slow. The really interesting parts seem to be far between, and most of the characters aren't doing it for me yet. I'm not sure if the manga just isn't for me, or if it's still too early to tell and I have to see what it's building up to.

The arc right after that is where people really get invested. If not there, once they enter the grand line, most people are on board.

To be fair, I think the Baratie arc is my least favorite of all arcs.

 

[Seesaw15]

I just started reading One Piece a little bit ago. I'm sure this has been asked a billion times already, but when does this really get going? I'm at around Mihawk's first appearance, where we get Sanji's backstory with Zeff.

So far I've found the manga to be really slow. The really interesting parts seem to be far between, and most of the characters aren't doing it for me yet. I'm not sure if the manga just isn't for me, or if it's still too early to tell and I have to see what it's building up to.

Yeah Arlong Park is where it really hits into high gear.

 

[Frozenprince]

The arc right after that is where people really get invested. If not there, once they enter the grand line, most people are on board.

To be fair, I think the Baratie arc is my least favorite of all arcs.

The Don Krieg fight is really meh. Just a contrived excuse to not have them immediately follow the Merry.

But yeah Arlong Park, which is the next arc, is really when the series gets good, and Alabasta is great (with the GOAT fight), Skypia is fun but I'v never gone back through it, Enies Lobby is the GOAT arc.

You're basically at the point where shit kicks off.

 

[L Thammy]

The arc right after that is where people really get invested. If not there, once they enter the grand line, most people are on board.

To be fair, I think the Baratie arc is my least favorite of all arcs.

Yeah Arlong Park is where it really hits into high gear.

The Don Krieg fight is really meh. Just a contrived excuse to not have them immediately follow the Merry.

But yeah Arlong Park, which is the next arc, is really when the series gets good, and Alabasta is great (with the GOAT fight), Skypia is fun but I'v never gone back through it, Enies Lobby is the GOAT arc.

You're basically at the point where shit kicks off.

Alright, thanks. I'll soldier on just a little bit longer then.

 

[IHaveIce]

I was just reminded that such crazy thing like Space Pirates exists in the OP world

 

[Clegg]

Decided to reread the Dressrosa arc straight throught and I've enjoyed it immensely. Definitely one of my favourite arcs. Not quite Water 7/ Enies Lobby which is the gold standard, but a highly enjoyable one all the same. There was just a bit too much going on for me. Law's revenge, Dressrosa's tragedy, Kyros' struggle etc. They're all interesting plot points, but muddled things a bit for me. I was satisfied with have they were all concluded though. Just think that the arc would've benefitted if more time were spent on one of two subplots rather than spreading chapters over many.

Completely forgot about the other pirate alliances because it was mentioned two years ago, but I've a great appreciation that Oda brought that back into focus in the last few chapters. It's obviously going to be a major point in future arcs. The same with Kaido and the Smile factory which has now been destroyed (which was also a tie in from a previous arc) Setting the seeds for future arcs during the current story is a calling card of Oda's. It's what he does better than any of his contemporaries. Dolflamingo has been a known villain for years now and he's been taken down. Feels immensely satisfying to read that.

 

[Rafa=FedKilla]

Decided to go all out and jump right into One Piece. On volume 5 right now.
Hoping to see Viz announce a 3rd box set to be released in November.

Thank you for supporting the mangaka!

 

[Imperial Bishop]

I might be in the minority, but I was hooked on One Piece at Baratie.
Mihawk's appearance and Luffy's bloody determinator fight against Krieg had me so excited.

Arlong Park extra-sealed the deal for me.

 

[Man God]

I might be in the minority, but I was hooked on One Piece at Baratie.
Mihawk's appearance and Luffy's bloody determinator fight against Krieg had me so excited.

Arlong Park extra-sealed the deal for me.

I was pretty much in after Usopp joined. Simple storytelling done well.

 

[Pegosaurus]

I was pretty much in after Usopp joined. Simple storytelling done well.

Yeah I was hooked by the time they fought the Kuro Pirates

I might be in the minority, but I was hooked on One Piece at Baratie.
Mihawk's appearance and Luffy's bloody determinator fight against Krieg had me so excited.

Arlong Park extra-sealed the deal for me.

Sanji's backstory got me so I'm pretty fond of the Baratie arc as well. Also seeing Zoro try and fight Mihawk was cool too.

As you said though, Arlong Park was the point in the manga where I was like "I really have to keep reading this, wow"

 

[smurfx]

Knowing Garp, he probably tried to make Dragon a marine. Maybe he actually was for a time, but clearly he saw something or experienced some personal trauma regarding the WG.

I think it would be really interesting to see their relationship since Garp casually mentions how he spoke with Dragon to Luffy.

my guess is that dragon was a soldier for the world government. maybe he was part of cp-0 or some other royal guard and got sickened by what he saw there. could be why somebody like smoker talked to him like he knew him. they might have started military school together except that dragon excelled from the beginning and was recruited by the world government.

 

[NHarmonic.]

Arlong Park hooked me.

Incredible arc, though i should say, i didn't find what came before boring at all. Baratie was needed for Zoro's determination, probably the only moment we saw him crying.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I might be in the minority, but I was hooked on One Piece at Baratie.
Mihawk's appearance and Luffy's bloody determinator fight against Krieg had me so excited.

Arlong Park extra-sealed the deal for me.

This for me too. Although I actually saw the Laboon episode before anything else. My friend sent a clip of the running gag with Crocus, and then I watched the entire episode. It was so unlike anything I'd ever seen that I had to go back and watch the rest.

 

[SalvaPot]

I enjoyed One Piece from the very start, really liked Luffy since page 1, but it was until the introduction of Nico Robin where the series got me hooked, and Water 7/Ennies Lobby is pretty much my favorite arc of all time along with the Chimera Arc from Hunter X Hunter and the Renho arc from Gintama.

 

[smurfx]

He could always Retcon CP9 skills into a different type of Haki, but honestly it was probably not something he really thought about at the start.

Haki in a lot of ways is better than having a devil fruit ability, so people like the CP9 not knowing at least the basic forms of it seem silly.

haki is pretty rare on the grandline. it's when you cross over to the new world that you see it everywhere. the strawhats where about to go to the new world and get wrecked if kuma hadn't sent them off to train. cp-9 might be good enough for the grandline. whoever is deemed worthy might then shipped off the new world and trained and become a part of cp-0.

 

[Jigolo]

I too was one of those people who pushed back One Piece because of vague interest. My first exposure to it was back when the 4kids version played on Toonami in the early 00's. Vaguely remember myself watching stuff from Sanji arc. Never really grasped me but I never thought to myself that it was childish or bad. Naruto on the other hand hooked me. Then one day in Feb/Mar/April 2012 (when I became a fan) I Googled Naruto vs Bleach vs One piece (I think I was reading something about the "big 3" that day) and a bunch of forum polls came up and OP was destroying Naruto and Bleach. So I figured I'd give it another shot, I have nothing to lose. This time some of the earlier scenes really stuck out to me this time unlike before; Luffy saving Zoro, the fight between Luffy and Kuro, and just the humor I am now used to and love about One Piece in general. Those are the things that really kept me going but once I got to the Nami scene in Arlong park I knew this show was something special. I think I watched all 520ish episodes at that point in just a 1 month and a half. Totally hooked me and I'm glad I've gotten into this series.

 

[Pegosaurus]

I too was one of those people who pushed back One Piece because of vague interest. My first exposure to it was back when the 4kids version played on Toonami in the early 00's. Vaguely remember myself watching stuff from Sanji arc. Never really grasped me but I never thought to myself that it was childish or bad. Naruto on the other hand hooked me. Then one day in Feb/Mar/April 2012 (when I became a fan) I Googled Naruto vs Bleach vs One piece (I think I was reading something about the "big 3" that day) and a bunch of forum polls came up and OP was destroying Naruto and Bleach. So I figured I'd give it another shot, I have nothing to lose. This time some of the earlier scenes really stuck out to me this time unlike before; Luffy saving Zoro, the fight between Luffy and Kuro, and just the humor I am now used to and love about One Piece in general. Those are the things that really kept me going but once I got to the Nami scene in Arlong park I knew this show was something special. I think I watched all 520ish episodes at that point in just a 1 month and a half. Totally hooked me and I'm glad I've gotten into this series.

yeah this is pretty similar to how i got hooked to the series, even around the same year too

 

[Squishy3]

I read the timeskip chapters when they came out after having only been up to somewhere in the middle of Skypiea and that convinced me to read the entire thing.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Newer fans will never know the pain of being caught up on the manga with only Kaizoku-Fansubs subbing episodes... years behind where Japan was... on a "done when they're done" basis (I.E. you get lucky if there's one ep per month)

 

[Seesaw15]

He could always Retcon CP9 skills into a different type of Haki, but honestly it was probably not something he really thought about at the start.

Haki in a lot of ways is better than having a devil fruit ability, so people like the CP9 not knowing at least the basic forms of it seem silly.

I don't think CP9 not knowing haki is as big of a hole as people make it out to be. They were trained since they were kids and if the government didn't trust them enough to train them in haki I'm ok with that. They're just black op assassins in the grand line taking out politicians. They're more than equipped to handle whatever comes their way with Rokushiki.

Its clear with all the hint's Oda gave us in part 1 about Luffy's conqueror's haki that he knew about it from the start of the series.