One piece isn't what I expected. [long post]
Last year, I finally decided to give One Piece a try after fully committing to it. Having already completed Bleach, Naruto, and Boruto, I was excited to dive into One Piece and round out the "Big Three." Initially, I started with the anime, but after the Whole Cake Island arc, I transitioned to the manga. I recently finished the Wano arc (Gear 5 transformation is just chef’s kiss, by the way), and I have to say—for me, the manga experience was far superior.
While I believe the series is undoubtedly impressive, I can’t help but feel that the overwhelming hype surrounding it might have set my expectations too high. Don’t get me wrong—it’s a phenomenal story. However, in my opinion, One Piece has a few significant flaws that I feel aren’t as frequently discussed as they could be. What’s more, I’ve noticed that whenever someone offers constructive criticism of the series, it often sparks unnecessary backlash, which, to me, can be a little frustrating.
That said, I wanted to share some of my personal criticisms and would love to hear your thoughts on them.
- Repetitive Plot Structure To me, there’s no denying that One Piece has some of the best world-building in anime and an incredible “iceberg” lore. However, the way the story unfolds can feel somewhat repetitive. If I were to ask you, “Guess the One Piece arc based on this description: Luffy and the crew arrive at a new island, discover an evil villain terrorizing the locals, fight the villain and their crew, and save the day,” you could probably name the majority of arcs.While I understand that it’s an adventure anime and that the main goal is for the crew to explore and unravel the mystery of the One Piece, I feel there could be more creative ways to showcase the world than this recurring “heroes save the day” format. That’s just how I see it.
- Underutilized and Overstated Military Presence I feel the military in One Piece is presented as a powerful, authoritative force, but it’s often underutilized. The only time I really saw the military as a major opposing side was during Ace's death at Marineford. Beyond that, they seem to fade into the background, allowing the crew to go back to doing whatever they want with little interference. To me, given how much the series hypes up the military, I expected them to be a more consistent and significant threat rather than something that shows up sporadically.
- Overreliance on Mysteries I believe the core of One Piece as an adventure series, with the ultimate goal being to solve the mystery of the One Piece, is fantastic. But I also feel that the narrative leans a little too heavily on mysteries to drive the plot. Sometimes, it comes across as a convenient way to gloss over plot holes or fill gaps. For example, I’m definitely intrigued by mysteries like Luffy’s connection to Fishman Island, the history of Devil Fruits, the Will of D., Luffy’s secret dream, and, of course, the One Piece itself.That said, to me, it feels overused when nearly everything is framed as a mystery or deferred to a future revelation. With the final saga starting, I’m hoping for satisfying and convincing answers. It’s not just about learning what these mysteries are but understanding why they were mysteries all along. For me, that’s what will make the payoff worthwhile.
- Pacing Issues We all know the anime has terrible pacing—it’s been a long-standing issue—but even after reading the manga, I feel that some arcs drag on longer than they should. To me, it feels like the story sometimes prioritizes stretching events instead of keeping a consistent momentum. A few examples include the Dressrosa arc, which felt unnecessarily bloated with side plots, or the Whole Cake Island arc, which, while having amazing moments, seemed to linger far too long in certain parts. Even Wano, as epic as it was, had sections where I thought, this could’ve moved faster. While I understand the need to give each character and subplot its time, I think tightening the pacing in these arcs would have made them even more impactful.
I’m not an anime analyst, nor am I a critic or someone who knows better writing than someone like Oda, who’s been crafting this story longer than I’ve been alive. I just wanted to share my experience and see what you think. Let me know your thoughts on this!
(Btw I wrote this, and realized how garbage my writing is and how my spelling errors are more consistent that sasuke having chakra in boruto, so I put it into chatgpt and made it have better grammar and sentence structure.)