After reading it again and thinking about it, this really can't be the end.
I have complained a lot about Oda's post-skip writing, but if it really ends like this, his storywriting truly turned to shit (and I mean that exactly like I say it without exaggerating).
Literally everything is anticlimatic rn:
- Nobody actually saw Kaidou's downfall
- What about the teasered "victory cry?"
- What about his awakening?
- What about all this talk about how people only lose faith when they see their hero lose in front of their eyes?
- What about his Oni background (teasered to be important in his dialogue with Yamato)?
- What are his real motives for staying in Wano that long (this chapter didn't explain at all why he deemed Wano "special")?
If this is the end, wtf did Oda think? He would've left a shitton of plotholes open (and those are only A FEW concerning Kaidou alone, I didn't even talk about all the other plotlines that would've been cut off).
I mean Oda can't have declined THAT much, right?
Thanks for this post. Because it shows exactly what many think.
This arc feels like to have sooo many questions who need to get answered, so many build up but in the end nothing come out of it, just Oda teasing but not bring it to the end. And I don´t mean the end plot build up but general this arc feel so that we go into the arc with less question and left it with more questions out.
Something who was Oda forte, his main skill for handle the story proper, I feel like Wano arc was to much plot to handle them.
I mean people should read DR and then go back to read wano, based on storytelling, it is a huge gap, Oda was never such bad as he was in Wano, like legit if we has tons of question to get answered even after 140chapters, then it is clear that Oda couldn´t handle the huge cast. I mean we get few questions answered, but the Oden flashback as example left us out with more question, I don´t even wanna talk about Toki role and character build up.
What I like in DR was that when Oda open up a plot, he ended it and give us the answer, I feel like Oda take more care in DR to
development characters then in Wano and in my opinion he kinda did it. You get many characters but most of them get proper good stories. Like the character build up for DR was better in writing then in Wano where many characters(the villians in case) didn´t get a proper build up.
Let talk about each part of DR as example, in case of fights wano is of course far better, but in story telling DR was far better, since Oda highlight each phase and development the good and bad characters pretty good.
Start with the Colosseum(rewatching it currently), you could feel something to characters like Barto,Cavendish,Don Family and the other characters of Luffy current fleet(as example Hajrudin). Oda give them flashbacks, great background stories, explain the motive and each character had a development during the arc.
As example the Scabbards aren´t worse, I like the flashback with Oden and also the Mink story, but I feel like Oda should never made so many scabbards, Denjiro should stay Kyoshiro,Ashura and Kawamatsu should cut of the cast,to many characters to handle.
Kinemon got a proper build up as also the Minks,but in case you see how Oda ruin the whole tension with the Minks, he build up Zou with Jack and totally ruin it in Wano, offscreen a fight like Inu vs Jack. Why build up a whole arc and a great build up to ruin it in wano?
A reason most like, to much characters!! In the end the scabbards stay under the potential what they had expect Kinemon.
And that with a arc over 140+chapters!!
In case the build up for Luffy grandfleet was far better for me since in the end each character had his own development.
Coming to the next part, the citizen, Tontattas and other characters like Kyros,Rebecca and King Riku.
In the end every of these characters had a positive effect to the story, the citizen who didn´t give up against Doffy birdcage, the Tontattas who saved their friends and Kyros(Rebecca and Riku) who could take their revenge. I feel like the development of the Riku family was far better then Oden family.
Coming to Doffy crew, we had a big long flashback, how Doffy meet his top four with a epic panel.
We see how the crew grow up, how they took over DR with a genius plan,working as crew together, the Law/Corazon flashback make it ever better for them. At top Baby5 and Senior Pink had great build ups, as compare look at Kaido crew and family.
Corazon as example,we as reader feel more for his character as for Yamato, just imagine this.
Kaido crew is flat,don´t have any character building except King and Kaido.
People wish proper build up for WsW, it was a disaster, I don´t wanna even speak about Jack and other flying six members, I remember how people had theory about Sasaki, Oda tease Denjiro and Sasaki encounter only to end it very fast, so many great potenial plots just ruined. And then Kaido the main antagonist since 400chapters ago. Just compare his character development with Doffy one...
What is the difference between a Hody,Ceaser,Doffy and a Kaido, when in the end Kaido get a same threatment, worse even then Doffy? And I don´t speak about powerscaling but development as character. We are sitting now over 140chapters and all what Kaido got for his own personal flashback are 3-5panels... Big mom as example got 2 back to back chapters and at top half flashback with Streusen, also many other flashbacks where we seen her. Big Mom as character get a far better build up as Kaido.
A Character who was hyped since 400chapter ago.
I don´t even wanna talk about the whole lore content..
Lot of question, so many questions where Im sure that Oda will not answer all of them, meaning we will leave this arc with many questions open up....
I could open up a whole book over 20pages in full detail what go wrong with wano, but I would probably need weeks to finished it...
Lot of terrible writing in my opinion, I never see Oda so bad as in this arc with so many fails, the case why this arc is not one of the worst is duo all the characters and good other stuff, im not saying it is the worst arc but I can´t understand how people try to tell me that this arc was Oda best work, it was for sure not. In my opinion it is not even in the top5 if this continue as I expect it.
In my opinion the hated WCi arc is far better then Wano arc, as example.
I hope and wish for the future that Oda don´t make ever such a huge cast, I fear for the final war!!
I hope he see how hard it is to make a good arc with such a huge cast, he couldn´t handle it.
The best thing for the future arc, make the cast smaller and focus finally on the story+Strawhats without stalling around or giving us characters like Tama and the Samurai.
We not watching and reading OP because of Samurai or other sideline characters, we reading it because to see how the strawhats reach their goals in the end. Alone the fact how Usopp and other strawhats get threat this arc so that Oda forget the most important build up, the strawhats...
The fight is finished, I don´t expect Kaido to stand up, I rather accept this failure of Oda and don´t hope for two weeks now that Kaido stand up in 1050...