Thread on my experience with the One Piece manga over the past few months

So to start off, I’ve only been reading manga for about 2 years, but watching anime for about 4. I always avoided long series, especially One Piece which was the longest I was aware of, thinking that I could invest that time into multiple shorter series that I may enjoy more.

Furthermore, the goofy designs, and the seemingly lighthearted tone of the series turned me away from it. Didn’t seem like a type of series I’d enjoy. Which brings me to the first major point I wanna discuss about the series. Dark fantasy and just darker stories in general have

always been my favorite. It doesn’t necessarily need to be gorey or anything, I just like series that tackle mature/psychological topics, so even something like Act Age can provide that fix for me. So when I looked at OP from the surface based on what I saw people post of it and-

what the series looks like, I didn’t think I’d get any of that from it. MAN. I was wrong. OP is not a world of fun and games like I expected. In fact, the setting is actually pretty fucked up and it’s hella obvious. The surreal comedy and the bizarre designs definitely make it-

feel less extreme at times, but at the end of the day it doesn’t change what’s happening. When I say the setting is fucked, I’m not even just referring to the blatant shit like slavery, but the fact that stuff like the Void Century is even… possible.

But in regard to the types of stories I generally enjoy, this is for sure why Sabaody is my favorite arc. Anyways, on the topic of the Void Century, one of the most interesting aspects of OP which hooked me early on is the existence of the World Government and how corrupt it is.

I love how they are portrayed as antagonists for so many people around the world who have experienced their cruelty firsthand. I love how they are portrayed as antagonists for so many people around the world who have experienced their cruelty firsthand. They aren’t just enemies-

for the pirates. I also love how even within the organization we have characters like Garp, Fujitora (goat), Smoker, & Koby (to name a few) who highlight the fact that the World Government itself isn’t evil, but rather just those at the very top (as it often is many situations).

Oda has created a very intriguing political organization with them, and it’s crazy to think about how much is still unknown regarding the inner workings of it. Moving on, let me mention my favorite aspect of OP, which I’m sure is probably the case for a lot of people, and that is

the scale of the series. The way previous locations and characters continuously remain relevant to the story while being connected to present events in ways I would never expect, is awesome. And this is a frequent occurrence too. Furthermore, the physical world of OP is mind-

boggling, it’s so vast and creative. I just love it. I’m a fiend for ecology and geography so even the little additions to the world like Dugongs, and the bigger ones like Zou literally being a giant fucking elephant with land on top of it made me enjoy the experience even more.

In fact, the first thing I did after reading the latest chapter was look up a full map of the OP world (although I’m sure someone probably has a more detailed one, and I’d love to see that if so). Aside from that, I wanted to briefly talk about the pre vs post timeskip discussion

-that comes up so often which ties in to the last points I wanted to mention, being the plot and characters. The biggest lure of OP for me is the plot, and obviously post ts excels at this considering the end of Marineford and the pieces that were set in motion with it.

Everything feels so much grander now, and the stretch of chapters from Dressrosa to Reverie was by far the best in the series for me as I had the chance to see so much unfold on such an insane scale. So yeah, basically what I’m saying is I don’t think the series falls off after-

the timeskip, and while it may not have reached the peaks of Sabaody and Marineford (YET), it definitely holds its weight. Finally, the scale of OP and the constant shifts of perspectives due to the large cast, made it difficult for me to get too attached to the characters.

Once the characters and their backstories are established you know what to expect from them moving forward (there are some exceptions, this is just a general comment). It’s basically my only real problem but I can’t really think of a way for it to be improved as it’s kind of-

inevitable with all the events occurring simultaneously which need to be covered. And on that note, I have a bunch of minor favorite characters spread out throughout the series, but my #1 is, of course, Luffy. He embodies the very essence of the series and it’s hard not to like-

him, most of my favorite moments in the series are driven by him. And so with that, it’s been one hell of a journey! Glad I stopped being intimidated by the length and surface appearance of One Piece, because it’s provided me with a unique experience that another cannot provide.

It’s a 9/10 for me. My favorite arcs are: Sabaody, Dressrosa, Marineford, WCI, W7/EL. If you read all of this, thanks for paying mind to my ramblings lol