Current Events Oda's stalling is getting more and more shameless

[dirtyLarry]

Like the title says - it's reaching absurd levels.

Let's look at the situation right when Imu made his first moves (around 1180):

Loki and Luffy are ready to fight Imu.
Sanji and Zoro are getting ready to fight Killingham and Sommers.
Biblo is trying to tell Chopper/Robin about some hidden lore.
Gunko is passed out and not their ally.
Zaza is starting to wreak havoc.
Children of Elbaf are in danger and targeted by the Holy Knights/Imu.

Now let's take a live look at the current situation 17 chapters later:

Loki and Luffy are still fighting Imu with no end in sight and nothing groundbreaking happening in between.
Sanji and Zoro are still fighting Killingham and Sommers (only change: they seemingly learned how to use CoC)
Biblo is still trying to tell Chopper/Robin about some hidden lore
Gunko is still not their ally
Zaza is still wreaking havoc
Children of Elbaf are still in danger and still getting targeted by the Holy Knights/Imu

It's absolutely mental if you take off your fan glasses and think about it objectively.

The only real plot development we got over those past 17 chapters were some generic shonen powerups for Zoro and Sanji. Outside of that the overall situation is exactly the same it was back then with only trivial stuff (which wasn't exactly influencing the main storyline much) happening.

Just to put it into perspective: 17 chapters were whole fleshed out arcs in the past (Jaya, Little Garden, even the whole Saboady arc only had a few more chapters).

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Oda is dealing with more characters than he usually did pre timeskip. That's why the pacing will always be slower compared to pre timeskip arcs and why is been slower since Fishman Island.

 

[dirtyLarry]

Oda is dealing with more characters than he usually did pre timeskip. That's why the pacing will always be slower compared to pre timeskip arcs and why is been slower since Fishman Island.

Sorry, but that's just some very weak attempt at an excuse.

He literally has 7 main characters he currently deals with this arc (Luffy, Loki, Zoro, Sanji - Imu, Sommers, Killingham) plus the usual side characters, which aren't really a focus though.

If you look at Sabaody for example, he had way more important characters to deal with and still managed a much, much better pacing.

 

[Reborn]

He's probably stalling due to habit of having something on landmark chapters like upcoming 1200 or his usual - coming up with more ideas which tends to drag things out

 

[Salah WG]

One Piece is written for Volumes, not Chapters, so each Volume will focus on something,
You can't sell a Volume that only contains Half a Sub-Plot because it needs to feel purposeful,
And you can't sell a Volume that feels without identity as it concludes so many Story Segments at once,

For Elbaph Arc,
You need One Volume for Introduction of Island,
Another Volume for Start of Trouble,
Two Volumes for Xebec Flashback + Harald Flashback,
One Volume for SHs & Loki's Counter Attack,

That's exactly what happened, Volume 111-115 tackled these Story Segments & ended with Imu's Arrival, triggering Second Half of Elbaph,
Now what do you need?

You need One Volume focusing on Imu,
One Volume focusing on dealing with his Knights,
Then One or Two Volumes for Conclusion, depending on what kind of Ending We gonna have,

And that's exactly what we got so far, Imu Focused Volume is Done, now we are near End of 2nd Volume focusing on dealing with Imu's Team, and Chapter 1200 will show us what Third Volume will focus on.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

One Piece is written for Volumes, not Chapters, so each Volume will focus on something,
You can't sell a Volume that only contains Half a Sub-Plot because it needs to feel purposeful,
And you can't sell a Volume that feels without identity as it concludes so many Story Segments at once,

For Elbaph Arc,
You need One Volume for Introduction of Island,
Another Volume for Start of Trouble,
Two Volumes for Xebec Flashback + Harald Flashback,
One Volume for SHs & Loki's Counter Attack,

That's exactly what happened, Volume 111-115 tackled these Story Segments & ended with Imu's Arrival, triggering Second Half of Elbaph,
Now what do you need?

You need One Volume focusing on Imu,
One Volume focusing on dealing with his Knights,
Then One or Two Volumes for Conclusion, depending on what kind of Ending We gonna have,

And that's exactly what we got so far, Imu Focused Volume is Done, now we are near End of 2nd Volume focusing on dealing with Imu's Team, and Chapter 1200 will show us what Third Volume will focus on.

I've gotten so used to reading weekly, that I had never awknowledged how volume serialization works in Japan.

 

[Reborn]

I've gotten so used to reading weekly, that I had never awknowledged how volume serialization works in Japan.

I live in Japan and had work with the manga industry. What salah said isn't true.

 

[Salah WG]

I live in Japan and had work with the manga industry. What salah said isn't true.

I didn't mean that you are forced to follow Story like that, I'm talking from Mangaka perspective in general, when you write your story, you will find yourself separating it into segments, and if you're a good writer, then you don't want one segment to feel too long (Lasts 2-3 Volumes) or too short that it doesn't justify being a segment at all, and you're not the one publishing those books, so you have to take into account how many pages you got,

Oda himself said that if He drew all his ideas, Marineford Arc wd be 50 Pages for each Chapter, but due to limited Pages & Manga being sold in Volumes, He had to compromise & adapt,

 

[dirtyLarry]

One Piece is written for Volumes, not Chapters, so each Volume will focus on something,
You can't sell a Volume that only contains Half a Sub-Plot because it needs to feel purposeful,
And you can't sell a Volume that feels without identity as it concludes so many Story Segments at once,

For Elbaph Arc,
You need One Volume for Introduction of Island,
Another Volume for Start of Trouble,
Two Volumes for Xebec Flashback + Harald Flashback,
One Volume for SHs & Loki's Counter Attack,

That's exactly what happened, Volume 111-115 tackled these Story Segments & ended with Imu's Arrival, triggering Second Half of Elbaph,
Now what do you need?

You need One Volume focusing on Imu,
One Volume focusing on dealing with his Knights,
Then One or Two Volumes for Conclusion, depending on what kind of Ending We gonna have,

And that's exactly what we got so far, Imu Focused Volume is Done, now we are near End of 2nd Volume focusing on dealing with Imu's Team, and Chapter 1200 will show us what Third Volume will focus on.

You're missing the point here.

Regardless of it being written for a volume format (yes, it is written like that) we have almost zero actual plot progression for two (!) volumes now.

Like I said - in the grand scheme of things almost nothing happened/changed since 1180.

Now compare that to Sabaody, where an insane amount of plot development happened in only a few more chapters.

 

[Djordje]

True and following this series weekly is a nightmare for a fans , especially with constant breaks from oda and magazine.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

True and following this series weekly is a nightmare for a fans , especially with constant breaks from oda and magazine.

Yeah I mean let's be realistic. The breaks are the real reason why we havent gotten anywhere. Without them, im pretty sure we wouldve been close to the end of the arc by now.

 

[dirtyLarry]

Yeah I mean let's be realistic. The breaks are the real reason why we havent gotten anywhere. Without them, im pretty sure we wouldve been close to the end of the arc by now.

That still doesn't change the fact that - even when reading it in a bunch - the plot hasn't moved an inch for 17+ chapters now.

 

[Salah WG]

You're missing the point here.

Regardless of it being written for a volume format (yes, it is written like that) we have almost zero actual plot progression for two (!) volumes now.

Like I said - in the grand scheme of things almost nothing happened/changed since 1180.

Now compare that to Sabaody, where an insane amount of plot development happened in only a few more chapters.

Sabaody was also written same way, it was 2 Volumes Arc only,
First Volume was Introduction just like any Arc, we had SHs beating Duval instead of Lego World, we got introduction of Sabaody Cast, key locations & how things work there, that's all, and then it ends with Luffy punching Charlos, marking the start of Sabaody's 2nd Segment,
2nd Volume fully focused on "Consequences of attacking a Celestial Dragon",

I understand what you mean, it's not how Oda tells his story that is bothering you, it's the focus of these segments themselves, Imu's Segment for example indeed led to nothing, but the only reason I tolerated is cuz it's Imu, so Oda wanted to prolong his Introduction that much,

I think problem with this Arc is that it has Cast/Components of a Short-Mid Arc, yet Oda is writing it as a long Arc, but tbh if we remove Harald & Xebec Flashbacks, and we forgive Oda for prolonging Imu's Introduction, then it's still not a very long Arc, and it's comparable to Punk Hazard Arc,

 

[kekaro]

Your bitching threads are almost as reliable as odas break ngl

 

[Fn Lucci]

One and a half volumes. 15 chapters from Zoro and Sanji setting their targets. 15 chapters from the defeat of Ohm to Luffy running up the beanstalk. Ener is defeated 20 chapters after meeting Luffy.

 

[dirtyLarry]

I think problem with this Arc is that it has Cast/Components of a Short-Mid Arc, yet Oda is writing it as a long Arc

I agree on that and it's the reason I've personally soured on it quite a lot the longer it goes on.

Especially the current phase of 17+ chapters without any noticable plot progression really annoys me.

I thought Oda was back on track with Egghead after a disastrous Wano arc, but right now he's falling into the same trap he often fell into post-skip.

 

[dirtyLarry]

Your bitching threads are almost as reliable as odas break ngl

As long as you click on them and comment, everything is fine!

 

[kekaro]

As long as you click on them and comment, everything is fine!

Damn is there ad money for making threads here?

 

[dirtyLarry]

Damn is there ad money for making threads here?

You don't have the WG connections?

 

[sanjikun]

This became obvious when we were approaching 1000. So he's trying to meet something at 1200.

Which is funny because he said he doesn't care about it, but still caves into the pressure.