Who knew Luffys first proper fight vs a Yonko would be so dull, disappointing and disheartening.
At thus point I'm unironically rooting for Kaido as I'm fucking sick of goofy Luffy.
Luffy vs Katakuri was much longer but far more interesting exciting, compelling, fun etc imo.
This feels like Groundhog Day instead. Extremely repetitive, dragged out and inconsequential as fuck.
"5 minutes till Namek explodes, I mean Onigashima falls."
I was rampant defending Momonosuke before for some insane reason but i unironically want him dead now.
Aging him up barely made a difference so far. What a pointless sacrifice. You can argue he's delaying Onigashima falling but if Luffy does actually defeat Kaido like he's supposed to, isn't Onigashima just going to fall anyway?
It's funny Oda keeps referencing Wano as Hell because that's what reading this narrative equivalent of purgatory feels like.
And I thought Dressrosa and post tea party except Katakuri fight of WCI were BAD, sigh....
I was worried that Luffy vs his 1st Yonko properly or Kaido specifically would be as long as the Katakuri fight at least but ironically this is much shorter AFAIK but is feeling much longer.
Someone called this arc a dystopian AU and I think Oda did want it to have the dystopian feel ofc but he's trying way too hard now and it's affecting the readers for the wring reasons or a "little too effectively" or in a meta way.
The best parts of this arc are outside of the arc itself, the "intermissions" or "ad breaks". How fucking ironic is that? A few chapters of Reverie were far more compelling, exciting, enticing etc than the entireity of post TS especially this arc too.
I know this is gonna provoke a lot of return fire towards me, insults, arguments, accusations but fuck it, I really don't care anymore.
There's a trope called Darkness Induced Audience Apathy and another one called Arc Fatigue and they feel completely apt in this situation, especially the latter ofc.
Kaido and this arc deserve far better than this. Kaido is still hype as fuck but also still a complete mess and nowhere near as fleshed out as a character as he needs and deserves to be too. Which is a shame too as he's so fascinating and has such great dialogue and speeches. He reminds me of Doffy, Enel and Croc for those reasons and why I do enjoy Odas villains.
I like how we've gone back to bigger and stronger punches again and haki being wanked off again after that Gear 5th Sun God Nika Joyboy whatever hype reveal that feels so underwhelming now ironically.
Also Luffy goofing off when Wano citizens are about to have a flying island dropped on them, full of explosives as the metaphorical nuclear bombings on Japan for them. 20 years of slavery, starving to death, driven to suicide and familicide, humiliation, despair, tyranny BUT MUH FUNNY TOON POWERS AND CARTOON NOSTALGIA LMFAOOOOOOOO.
Fuck this arc man. Absolute curse on the series and the biggest, most damning and meta example of what's wrong with this series as a whole too, especially post TS.
Luffy vs Kaido and its bipolar identity crisis with DFs and Haki is extremely confusing and frustrating. Kaido even relying on his DF again after wanking haki and saying DFs are not enough/inferior/unneeded.
Unironically the worst fight I've ever seen, not just in One Piece either. Luffy vs Wapol and Foxy were better fucking fights than this. Even both of his Bellamy fights.
This is the shit Bleach got made fun of for too, the back and forth, the "my power counters yours but yours counters mine no but wait I counters you again and vice versa".
Can't wait for Cockroqchi to still be alive after all of this too. If he's actually permanently dead this time despite barely knowing how his DF works and what it's do, then good fucking riddance and thank fuck, finally too.
Anyway, I wonder how many insults for these clearly heretical comments about OP I'll get this time? If only I could become a complete cultist, alas.