There is still a solid formula Oda loves to follow and abuse, damsel/princess in distress, dictator oppressing island needs to be taken down and some other stuff but for the most part, he does try to keep things fresh and interesting and he does succeed.
Its just Oda reusing some plot elements like what I mentioned along with Luffy losing multiple times, having to buy time to recharge/recover, relying on allies constantly but also getting most of the hype/credit too and so on.
Its just Oda reusing some plot elements like what I mentioned along with Luffy losing multiple times, having to buy time to recharge/recover, relying on allies constantly but also getting most of the hype/credit too and so on.
Plus we must not forget that to create an impactfull theme, the repetition of said theme is an absolute necessity. That's why One Piece seems so powerfull and why you can easily pinpoint thematic construction in One Piece contrary to stries like My HEro which is completely all over the place for example.
Other series are constantly put under pressure to try and match the success OP
And that's an issue from the industry because it setsup a standard that is unattainable at least not without years of works and a lot of chances.
- My hero has a nice world but the story is completely unfocused and the drawings are made for comics, not Manga.
- Bleach world was too cramped and the story was too linear
- Dragon Ball(Z+) has an interesting world but there is no narration whatsowever put into the content
- Naruto had a shot to be amazing, but it lost himself because of a lackof narrative preparation (the ending needed a LOT MORE setup than it had)
- The Seven deadly sin quickly collapsed on itself in term of narration
- Rave/Fairy Tail/Eden Zero are inexistant in term of narration.
- I actually have a good memory of FMA, I should reread that to see where the problems are
- SNK is narratively interesting, but the artistic side doesn't follow..
- OPM is based on a single concept but behind that, it's empty.
Etc.
The industry must favorize shorter or less ambitious stories or it will not progress.