Manga: State of the series - Worth the wait?

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Regardless, please buy the US edition of the manga before it gets all messy. 

PS - This article was written by PirateBeck and does not fully represent the feelings of Mikey-san but since he approved this, that would suggest he agrees somewhat.

   
   After enduring eight weeks of Fishman Island flashbacks, ONE PIECE is taking a week out of the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine before the big fight between Luffy and the Fishman pirate gangs presumably kicks off. 627 chapters have been printed and it seems nothing is set to stop this juggernaut from breaking records and out-selling each previous volume. Or does it? Nearly 30 chapters of the NEW WORLD, the term that’ll be used by Viz Media come Volume 61’s printing in 2012, have been released and yet, one has to question whether Oda has lost some of the magic that made the series seem worth the price of admission for so long. Read on, as I analyse some of the weakest aspects of this brand new world.

           Unlike many of the Shonen titles that populate Shonen Jump, One Piece rarely relied on power-ups and fighting as it's focus, rather as something the characters developed in their own spare time to use against those who wished to destroy them. Although Oda later came to abuse the Gear Second power-up that he gave Luffy, a power-up he continues to use in near every battle despite it also slowly reducing his life span, it never got in the way of what made the series fun to read, as its focus has always been about adventure as opposed to fighting. Yet, the reintroduction of the Straw Hat gang has given us little aside from power-ups and visual alterations to their hair styles and clothing. Despite spending two years apart from one another, very little feels different about the characters themselves, especially that of Luffy who suffered immense pain of late. While this may have been Oda’s intention, as many new readers have come on board since the war, the way in which he re-established this brings back memories of how the series began instead of showcasing how they’ve grown over the years. The effect is similar to that of what the Amazing Spider-Man is currently experiencing in his own title in that he’s not growing as a character, he’s growing because he can design all these amazing suits and because he has the ‘perfect’ girlfriend that allows him to get away with the stupidest of excuses, despite being shown as somewhat unbalanced herself. The story thus suffers since the focus is on the characters attributes rather than the character themselves, taking the reader out of their story. I’m not suggesting that Oda should make the characters seem emotionally shattered or turn them into pirate replicas of Sasuke Uchiha but in all honesty, Luffy feels a lot less mature during this arc than he did throughout Sabaody or Water Seven, the latter of which were he made a choice between saving or leaving the Going Merry behind. Luffy's character has never been about maturity but if a brother was to die right in front of you, you outlook on life will change, even in the tiniest of ways. Regression is what I’d use to describe what the character has gone through since leaving his comrades behind.

            Power-ups themselves are not a terrible concept however and if used correctly, can make the story far more interesting, as one developing within Yusuke was what ended up making his battle with the former spirit detective Sensui in YuYu Hakusho worth reading into. Even so, despite their strength being suggested or even hinted at, they’ve yet to really show it. Within the last 30 chapters, there have been a grand total of three battles, one of which is currently being fought while a flashback ensues. One Piece after all is a shonen (boy) series and thus, fighting is something that is expected of the genre, though as stated above should not be the key aspect in a series like One Piece. By not including it within the title, it contradicts his previous statements that the series is primarily a children’s story, like how romance is never focused upon in the romantic sense. This lack of action, especially in the 62^nd collection of the series, has been felt across the board but we’ll continue to delve into that as we go along.

 Even Luffy is getting tired of all this.

            
     Discounting the fighting and progressive aspects of the story, one of the most important things to consider of the story is the story itself and the current lack of it. Discounting the last 8 chapters, not a lot has happened since the Straw Hats headed to the island. Most of the time has been spent introducing lots and lots of characters, ones that have had little to no impact on the story itself as well as the unnatural way in which these characters were forced upon us, leading to a unsmooth introduction to the latest batch of debatably loveable characters. The problem with this is that by doing this, the focus has been removed from the title characters themselves and put on people that, at this point, we couldn’t care less about. Fans spent two years waiting for the Straw Hats to start kicking ass and yet all we’ve seen are new characters and a focus on silly gags. In fact, one of the plot points in this arc was driven by Sanji’s massive nosebleed, which caused the guards to notice their presence. I apologise but this is some of the weakest writing I have seen from Oda yet. Having to rely on a gag to progress the story is just lazy and shows that his strengths, as evidenced by his lack of focus, is waning. By using something silly to drive the plot, it makes the story seem childish which would be fine is we weren’t supposed to be taking the entire scene as a serious development.

            Speaking of the nosebleed, what caused Sanji to erupt with such force was being surrounded by mermaids who are supposed to far more beautiful than any human could be, as we are to believe within the story. Oda’s art has suffered little between the Paramount War and the New World yet this is the perfect example of one of his few artistic weaknesses, drawing individualist women. Due to his current inability to draw breasts on human characters smaller than a D-cup, along with the fact that many of his females share the exact same facial designs, only highlight the fact that the mermaids in no way look any more appealing than the amazons, the inhabitants of Sabody or even the female Straw Hat pirates. It is somewhat hard therefore to see how any of the characters are more desirable than human females, especially since some of the female fishman have reasonable breasts. To be blunt, their role in the story was to be that of a desirable sex object for our favourite chef and musician, making them no more special than a blow up doll with fins. 

No I can't get over how this is supposed to taken as a serious development

            However, the weakest part of the story thus far has been the flashback itself. What makes this one particularly weak is its placement as well as what was previously established in the story. Oda relied heavily on his tropes for this one, as we knew going in that Fisher Tiger and Queen Otohime were already dead before we started and thus those came to light pretty quickly. Despite this, it still felt drawn out and poorly handled as we knew from the start that Queen Otohime was destined to fail. It’s hard to invest in characters who you know will be dead by the end of the flashback and considering where he placed it, just made it seem all the more disheartening. If Oda had written this during his earlier days, he would have either waited until the arc was drawing to a close (Usopp and Brook) or revealed this in a far better fashion than he did here, as the overall result of the flashback was predictable and yet, it still felt drawn out despite only lasting for roughly eight chapters. There were certainly highlights, like the emotional death of Queen Otohime and her struggle to get the fishmen accepted by humans, but those highlights could have been saved for later or been better written as the placement within the story itself was awkward. As stated before, it's been two years since the Straw Hats were fighting under one flag and for them to start fighting, only to be interrupted by two months of flashbacking takes one out of the experience.

            Now, you may argue that since this is just my personal opinion, many would disagree, saying that this is just what the fans have been wanting since the war ended. Well, despite the increase in popularity, One Piece volume 62 is currently the lowest rated volume on the Japanese version of Amazon with over double the amount of 1 star reviews as there are 5 star reviews. And their comments? The exact same stuff I’ve spent this entire essay going over.

The lowest rated volume on Amazon Japan. Even lower than Skypiea.

            In short, I personally feel that One Piece has hit an all new low, as the current arc has been unfocused and drawn out, leading to scenes of humour that are supposed to be taken seriously, flashbacks that could have easily been saved for a later date and plot points that will most likely be forgotten about as things progress. What remains now is how the fanbase will continue to interact with the series itself. Will they continue to enjoy the series for what it used to embody best or be willing to admit that, despite all their claims against titles like Naruto and Bleach for being terrible, One Piece is suffering from the exact same problems they complain about? Oda may reach his high point once again but only time will tell if this series can regain its glory or if it will continue to sink.