Is one piece as story dying
Imo, no. Thats not the actual problem. One pieces story imo has been very consistent in terms of delivery and themes each arc.
The problem Oda has always had is pacing. This was apparent in much shorter arcs (Alabasra and Skypiea), but readers had far less time to complain because Oda was outputting 50+ chapters per year as opposed to 35-40 now, and arcs are far longer.
For example, hes ALWAYS done the useless meandering in arcs. Skypiea is one of the worst offenders of this. Its not really a bad thing, but once you know what I mean, you start to point out the "flaws" as they become more apparent. Biggest one in Skypiea had to do with keeping Luffy trapped for 20+ chapters so he wasn't involved in subsequent fights.
You can sort of see this mindset with Wano, but its 10x more glaring because Oda has 10x the characters this arc than Skypiea. For example:
- Chapter 980-981 started the raid for Luffy and Zoro. They traveled for 8 chapters, only to get thrown back to the performance floor and have a group shot with the crew.
- 990 starts with everyone heading off. Oda leaves Zoro on the performance floor until 999 (recall Luffy stuck in the snake moment in Skypiea).
- Conversely, Sanji from 997-1005 was stalled with Black Maria, which then he further stalls Sanji until literally this chapter. That's 15 chapters
- Oda then has the 5 Supernova fight Kaido from 1000 until 1010, only to now bring Zoro and Sanji back down to the performance floor.
Long story short, it was all done to give Zoro a moment with the Yonko and Luffy, but it took 20 chapters, all while balancing 50 other characters this arc. Doing so allowed a 10ish chaprer fight with the scabbards. Its hard as fuck and personally I love the chaos and the meandering, but I can see why some people don't.
