General & Others One Piece is by far one of the best pieces of literature yet
- Thread starter Blax Blah
- Start date
Ehhhh lol
Serious answer: One Piece is objectively not one of tha best pieces of literature ever. You’re stackin it up against other works that have withstood DECADES if not close to 100 years plus. And have held up long past their ending. There are literal pieces of lit that are kultural icons and defined humanity to an extent and you kan very easily argue shifted humanity
No sensible mfer would EVER argue tha same for OP lol
Joke answer: Bih I ain’t read a chapter of OP in like 4-5 years now lmao. Fuxk tha bullshit, Oda not bout to waste my fuxkin time
Serious answer: One Piece is objectively not one of tha best pieces of literature ever. You’re stackin it up against other works that have withstood DECADES if not close to 100 years plus. And have held up long past their ending. There are literal pieces of lit that are kultural icons and defined humanity to an extent and you kan very easily argue shifted humanity
No sensible mfer would EVER argue tha same for OP lol
Joke answer: Bih I ain’t read a chapter of OP in like 4-5 years now lmao. Fuxk tha bullshit, Oda not bout to waste my fuxkin time
Hell I'm from India and Shakespeare's plays Much Ado About Nothing and The Merchant of Venice were part of our English curriculum back in 10th to 12th grade.
OP is cool and I don't fault Blax for liking it more, but I doubt Oda's works will reach such literary influence as to ever be taught as reading material in a foreign country lol.
Definitely one of the most iconic shonen manga though afaik.
OP is cool and I don't fault Blax for liking it more, but I doubt Oda's works will reach such literary influence as to ever be taught as reading material in a foreign country lol.
Definitely one of the most iconic shonen manga though afaik.
Oda is the most consistent manga artist, pre-timeskip is really good in terms of the theme of freedom, pursuing your dream, nakama, Devil Fruits, exciting action, and finding new places for adventure.
But since post-timeskip, his ideas, core themes and execution has never been the same. Now quantity always bloats over quantity. Stories about struggle and earning victories become stories of chosen ones. Minor characters introduced and getting more and more amount of characters without development. The main characters get no development or growth personality-wise. Strawhat come to a troubled area, they beat the big bad, repeat. There are flashbacks inside flashbacks with no clear structure or purpose. Pirates have no dignity in front of idols like Shakky. Most plot points, hype moments, foreshadowing end without high-quality pay-off / resolve. Sacrifice moments are apparently fake deaths. Loud shout of quotes are for superficial hype moments instead of real character or plot development. New abilities and skills are not earned but given through cheap methods like haki bloom whatever, and instantly obsolete at next arc, everytime. Most battles and struggles become offscreened, dragged, switched, etc. Quite sad that exhaustion, schedules, burden leave Oda without much creativity anymore.
But since post-timeskip, his ideas, core themes and execution has never been the same. Now quantity always bloats over quantity. Stories about struggle and earning victories become stories of chosen ones. Minor characters introduced and getting more and more amount of characters without development. The main characters get no development or growth personality-wise. Strawhat come to a troubled area, they beat the big bad, repeat. There are flashbacks inside flashbacks with no clear structure or purpose. Pirates have no dignity in front of idols like Shakky. Most plot points, hype moments, foreshadowing end without high-quality pay-off / resolve. Sacrifice moments are apparently fake deaths. Loud shout of quotes are for superficial hype moments instead of real character or plot development. New abilities and skills are not earned but given through cheap methods like haki bloom whatever, and instantly obsolete at next arc, everytime. Most battles and struggles become offscreened, dragged, switched, etc. Quite sad that exhaustion, schedules, burden leave Oda without much creativity anymore.
It's mainstream light-hearted fun, it does what it sets out to do extremely well.
A lot of series that would be more philosophical or complex are not going to be easily accessed, and potentially have a barrier of entry, in that you have to more attentively engage with the text.
These kinds of series have cult followings, but it's nowhere near as accessible, but even they excel at what they set out to do. It's just not for everyone, which is a good thing. Not for the writers bank accounts but it is what it is.
It depends on the reader, most readers can consume One Piece, it's 5th grade level language, and it's easy to get the main key notes throughout the story, regardless of whatever can be speculated about.
If we look at Oda's intent, he doesn't like theory or speculation, he wants fans to just consume with their brain off and giggle at some silly moment he puts in. You can tell this is an idealised version of a young adult fantasy series because it's trying to capture youth in a bottle and keep it that way.
Every mainstream series will still have it's more hardcore fanbase, which is why we are on a forum. That will lead to contextual criticism (And I mean contextual, because the social aspect of the community reacting to the series) some valid, but others just come from a place of irritation because they want the series to be more like what they like, instead of just being One Piece.
And that usually happens when your taste changes over years, but trying to impose that onto a series that has always been set out to be a goofy shounen adventure, because Oda has wanted to write this final saga since the start, is illogical.
Reading weekly is not it, really it is a narrative that is intended to be one big story that you SHOULD be able to binge from start to finish.
Not something to craft theories about and criticise every chapter. If Oda could have it his way I think he'd want the series to be automatically done, so that people won't have to speculate and just consume from start to finish.
The Final Saga is the story he's always wanted to tell, if you seriously aren't enjoying reading it weekly, but you're still here. It tells me that you enjoy criticising the series more than reading it, which is not a good thing.
You can tell yourself all sorts of excuses and make it sound logical and reasonable, that what you're doing is fine, but is it really worth it?
Maybe it's just a way to direct frustration, but really you could be doing something else, but this is all you know now, so it's the laziest and easiest thing to do.
These One Piece Doomers who go and read a book or two, or maybe not even that and they just read Vagabond or something, and think they are at some elite level of literature that they can now trash a series they actively consume, are just straight up retarded.
Once you find something you can actively engage with and put time into and feel rewarded by it, you won't feel the need to behave that way, because you have an interesting thing worth pursuing.
These people are stuck in a void where, they are too lazy to move forward to find a replacement, feel it's too late to move back to the days where you just watched the anime for fun, so they just bash their head against a wall that's never going to change.
A lot of series that would be more philosophical or complex are not going to be easily accessed, and potentially have a barrier of entry, in that you have to more attentively engage with the text.
These kinds of series have cult followings, but it's nowhere near as accessible, but even they excel at what they set out to do. It's just not for everyone, which is a good thing. Not for the writers bank accounts but it is what it is.
It depends on the reader, most readers can consume One Piece, it's 5th grade level language, and it's easy to get the main key notes throughout the story, regardless of whatever can be speculated about.
If we look at Oda's intent, he doesn't like theory or speculation, he wants fans to just consume with their brain off and giggle at some silly moment he puts in. You can tell this is an idealised version of a young adult fantasy series because it's trying to capture youth in a bottle and keep it that way.
Every mainstream series will still have it's more hardcore fanbase, which is why we are on a forum. That will lead to contextual criticism (And I mean contextual, because the social aspect of the community reacting to the series) some valid, but others just come from a place of irritation because they want the series to be more like what they like, instead of just being One Piece.
And that usually happens when your taste changes over years, but trying to impose that onto a series that has always been set out to be a goofy shounen adventure, because Oda has wanted to write this final saga since the start, is illogical.
Reading weekly is not it, really it is a narrative that is intended to be one big story that you SHOULD be able to binge from start to finish.
Not something to craft theories about and criticise every chapter. If Oda could have it his way I think he'd want the series to be automatically done, so that people won't have to speculate and just consume from start to finish.
The Final Saga is the story he's always wanted to tell, if you seriously aren't enjoying reading it weekly, but you're still here. It tells me that you enjoy criticising the series more than reading it, which is not a good thing.
You can tell yourself all sorts of excuses and make it sound logical and reasonable, that what you're doing is fine, but is it really worth it?
Maybe it's just a way to direct frustration, but really you could be doing something else, but this is all you know now, so it's the laziest and easiest thing to do.
These One Piece Doomers who go and read a book or two, or maybe not even that and they just read Vagabond or something, and think they are at some elite level of literature that they can now trash a series they actively consume, are just straight up retarded.
Once you find something you can actively engage with and put time into and feel rewarded by it, you won't feel the need to behave that way, because you have an interesting thing worth pursuing.
These people are stuck in a void where, they are too lazy to move forward to find a replacement, feel it's too late to move back to the days where you just watched the anime for fun, so they just bash their head against a wall that's never going to change.
See, all that is reasonable. It's just the opening post seemed to working along the ridiculous logic of One Piece being greater than Shakespeare cause it has more cultural presence globally which is absolutely lol worthy.
If a person decides not to watch/read One Piece or manga/anime in general then they can easily never engage with Oda for their entire life. Meanwhile, Shakespeare's presence in English and English influenced culture is so omnipresent that it is flat out impossible to avoid engaging with a word, a phrase, an idiom or a piece of fiction influenced by Shakespeare.
Shakespeare is culturally immortal.
Oda isn't even the most culturally influential Japanese artist or even mangaka specifically. I would say that for example Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki and Kentaro Miura all have more global cultural reach and influence than Oda.
Oda is good but he's not Japanese Shakespeare, let alone actual Shakespeare.
If a person decides not to watch/read One Piece or manga/anime in general then they can easily never engage with Oda for their entire life. Meanwhile, Shakespeare's presence in English and English influenced culture is so omnipresent that it is flat out impossible to avoid engaging with a word, a phrase, an idiom or a piece of fiction influenced by Shakespeare.
Shakespeare is culturally immortal.
Oda isn't even the most culturally influential Japanese artist or even mangaka specifically. I would say that for example Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki and Kentaro Miura all have more global cultural reach and influence than Oda.
Oda is good but he's not Japanese Shakespeare, let alone actual Shakespeare.
