The SH crew has spent less than a year together, which feels really weird since with the way they’re written, you’d think that they’ve known each other for several years. Brook has spent like only 2 or 3 months total with the crew. Oda could very easily work around this by just making the SHs stay at islands longer in order to reset their Log Pose, or just make the sailing time between islands longer. Why doesn’t Oda do this? Does he want Luffy to become PK at no older than 19, or is it just something he doesn’t consider or care about?
Questions & Mysteries Why is the Straw Hat Pirates’ journey so short?
- Thread starter Shiroyru
- Start date
I think the idea was that he wanted to do what other popular battle focused Shonens (i.e Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, Bleach etc.) do and have the characters start off at an age that's close to the age of the demographic the manga is for (in this case, male adolescents), probably so it's more relatable for them, since no child/teen is really interested in seeing grown ass men and women exploring and fighting.
The problem is he seems to be fixated on that idea and won't let the characters grow up more unlike other series where the characters grow into their 20s or 30s alongside their friends, so the Straw Hats are mostly around their very late teens or early twenties.
The problem is he seems to be fixated on that idea and won't let the characters grow up more unlike other series where the characters grow into their 20s or 30s alongside their friends, so the Straw Hats are mostly around their very late teens or early twenties.
Well it's a shonen
So the protag being an actual shonen would be more relatable to the main demographic.
Also the fact that op was supposed to be like 5 year series. But it blew up and expanded so much. So we have spent nearly 30 years with them while the story has only progressed like 6 months in verse not counting the time skip. So the juxtaposition makes it way worse.
I agree tho. Oda shoulda made the shp spend a bit more downtime on islands, or shown some time in sea. If only he cut the bloated arc to arc cast down and gave that time to develop shp...
So the protag being an actual shonen would be more relatable to the main demographic.
Also the fact that op was supposed to be like 5 year series. But it blew up and expanded so much. So we have spent nearly 30 years with them while the story has only progressed like 6 months in verse not counting the time skip. So the juxtaposition makes it way worse.
I agree tho. Oda shoulda made the shp spend a bit more downtime on islands, or shown some time in sea. If only he cut the bloated arc to arc cast down and gave that time to develop shp...
Short yeah but the show is 1170+ chapters and 1155+ goddamn MF'ing episodes, time is different in Anime, bro, like a big example of this, when Luffy fought Crocodile first time in the desert, he told him he'll give him 3 minutes and then he has no time to play with him *proceeds to fight him 11 minutes throughout the whole goddamn episode" before using sables/sandstorm that distracted Luffy that it will go to Yuba and Luffy begged him like a pathetic dude to stop the sandstorm cause the old man has nothing to do with it and stabbed him, gave Luffy his first L on his fighting record.
Last edited:
Shonen shit you know how it goes
I don’t think I’ve ever read a shonen manga or watched a shonen anime with proper story progression time wise relative to the rest of the verse
We’ll see these characters in the past growing well into their 30’s, 40’s, sometimes 50’s
They hit the peak of their careers by the time they were middle aged, they hit their physical primes by their 30’s, etc
But in shonen every character grows and hits their peak by their early 20’s max. Or rather the story is completed by that point and that’s pretty much all we get
Now that I’m thinking about other manga I’ve read I’d say this applies to most manga actually. It’s very rare to see a series hit a point where the MC goes past their late 20’s. It practically never happens
If they start young they’ll typically end fairly young (unless it’s based on a true story/real history where the author is forced to have a lot of time pass, usually historical fiction)
I don’t think I’ve ever read a shonen manga or watched a shonen anime with proper story progression time wise relative to the rest of the verse
We’ll see these characters in the past growing well into their 30’s, 40’s, sometimes 50’s
They hit the peak of their careers by the time they were middle aged, they hit their physical primes by their 30’s, etc
But in shonen every character grows and hits their peak by their early 20’s max. Or rather the story is completed by that point and that’s pretty much all we get
Now that I’m thinking about other manga I’ve read I’d say this applies to most manga actually. It’s very rare to see a series hit a point where the MC goes past their late 20’s. It practically never happens
If they start young they’ll typically end fairly young (unless it’s based on a true story/real history where the author is forced to have a lot of time pass, usually historical fiction)
DBZ is the godfather of shounen and Toriyama allowed his MC to grow into adult, and all protagonists were adults as well.
Loda is just weird with this shit.
Wano should've ended with another timeskip, it makes zero sense for Luffy to go from one shot material of base Kaido, to being relative to him, with just one month of training.
Espcially since powerscaling in OP is a lot more coherent than DBZ, aside from out main protagonists all being 18-22
Loda is just weird with this shit.
Wano should've ended with another timeskip, it makes zero sense for Luffy to go from one shot material of base Kaido, to being relative to him, with just one month of training.
Espcially since powerscaling in OP is a lot more coherent than DBZ, aside from out main protagonists all being 18-22
I think Shin from Kingdom is the only one I’ve seen / read that have a real age development and grow through the years (Guts and Throffin too but it’s not really the same genre)
he started the show chapter 1 at 14y old and he is now 29
and I think it is a great way to make a protagonist evolve
i would also like if the SH had spent more time in the story and not just some months
he started the show chapter 1 at 14y old and he is now 29
and I think it is a great way to make a protagonist evolve
i would also like if the SH had spent more time in the story and not just some months
My only problem with Shin is he ages but like… not really though
Maturity wise pretty much all characters are exactly the same, design wise he’s nearly identical to how he looked when he was 17, he still wears rags instead of a full set of armor despite being a general, etc
That’s like a lot of people’s biggest complaint when it comes to Kingdom. Dudes damn near 30 but he still dresses and acts like a teenage shonen protagonist
I’ve heard that it’s cause the Japanese audience don’t like the idea of him changing too much (at least that’s what the community says) but it’s still silly to me
Maturity wise pretty much all characters are exactly the same, design wise he’s nearly identical to how he looked when he was 17, he still wears rags instead of a full set of armor despite being a general, etc
That’s like a lot of people’s biggest complaint when it comes to Kingdom. Dudes damn near 30 but he still dresses and acts like a teenage shonen protagonist
I’ve heard that it’s cause the Japanese audience don’t like the idea of him changing too much (at least that’s what the community says) but it’s still silly to me
This might be best saved for a different thread but Shin is in a really weird spot for me as a Kingdom reader
Like he’s matured but… eh it doesn’t really feel like it a lot of the time
He still looks really young compared to pretty much everyone around him (30 btw) and in terms of strategy he’s still the same
I mean they hold a meeting and he still looks completely lost. Keep in mind, he’s been on the battlefield now for roughly half his life and can still barely keep track of a plan
I get he’s supposed to be an instinctual general (so a shonen protagonist basically lol) but his “instincts” are just like observation haki in OP it triggers entirely based on the plot and is super inconsistent. We’ll go multiple battles with Shin looking like a scrub tactically and then in one battle all of a sudden he’s able to sniff out exactly what’s happening
Duke Hyou was the perfect blend of instincts and intelligence. Shin is half baked when it comes to instincts and is still as dumb as he was when we first met him
@grey matter
DBZ handles it better but that’s also kinda unfair because DB and DBZ are technically 2 different manga but under the same umbrella
Like DB told a complete story
DBZ is simply the sequel to that complete story
So naturally the characters are aged up, ya know? Cause then we could also count Boruto lol
But then again quite a bit of time does actually pass within DBZ so you could count it actually
Like he’s matured but… eh it doesn’t really feel like it a lot of the time
He still looks really young compared to pretty much everyone around him (30 btw) and in terms of strategy he’s still the same
I mean they hold a meeting and he still looks completely lost. Keep in mind, he’s been on the battlefield now for roughly half his life and can still barely keep track of a plan
I get he’s supposed to be an instinctual general (so a shonen protagonist basically lol) but his “instincts” are just like observation haki in OP it triggers entirely based on the plot and is super inconsistent. We’ll go multiple battles with Shin looking like a scrub tactically and then in one battle all of a sudden he’s able to sniff out exactly what’s happening
Duke Hyou was the perfect blend of instincts and intelligence. Shin is half baked when it comes to instincts and is still as dumb as he was when we first met him
Post automatically merged:
@grey matter
DBZ handles it better but that’s also kinda unfair because DB and DBZ are technically 2 different manga but under the same umbrella
Like DB told a complete story
DBZ is simply the sequel to that complete story
So naturally the characters are aged up, ya know? Cause then we could also count Boruto lol
But then again quite a bit of time does actually pass within DBZ so you could count it actually
