I just finished the soul society arc in bleach. Idk if it goes to shit afterwards, but from what I've seen, the way Kubo wrote the bankai transformation for the zanpakuto utterly shits on the similar concept of devil fruit awakening in one piece.
Even before we saw the first bankai, it was already explained:
Do you see the problem here? Loda utterly failed to do any of this shit despite having ample opportunities to do so. He never gave a solid explanation on what awakening is, he never stated who could have awakening, and he never explained how one is supposed to awaken.
The result is countless meaningless theoryposts on whether particular characters have awakening or what their awakening could be. I remember people even saying gear 4th was actually awakening all along in dressrosa.
Loda has a habit of mystery baiting to maintain audience engagement. In most cases, it works, but specifically in regards to battle related aspects, it just undermines the story. It creates needless confusion and ambiguity where none needs to exist and makes certain aspects of the story seem incoherent.
Why did Luffy, Law, and Kid just magically get awakening to beat the yonko? In bleach, we saw that Ichigo and Renji both trained for bankai in order to achieve it. Then they used it in battle. For one piece, Loda just pulled it out of thin air. Kid and Law were supposedly holding back awakening the entire time on the roof while zoro was breaking his bones and Luffy was getting KO'd fighting kaido. Not to mention gear 5 being a complete asspull that felt utterly undeserved.
Mysteries are not substance. In fact, they are the absence of substance. Oda made a decision to prioritize mysteries over substance and the result is that the vs Yonko saga suffered horribly due to it.
Even before we saw the first bankai, it was already explained:
- what bankai is
- who has bankai
- how to achieve bankai
Do you see the problem here? Loda utterly failed to do any of this shit despite having ample opportunities to do so. He never gave a solid explanation on what awakening is, he never stated who could have awakening, and he never explained how one is supposed to awaken.
The result is countless meaningless theoryposts on whether particular characters have awakening or what their awakening could be. I remember people even saying gear 4th was actually awakening all along in dressrosa.
Loda has a habit of mystery baiting to maintain audience engagement. In most cases, it works, but specifically in regards to battle related aspects, it just undermines the story. It creates needless confusion and ambiguity where none needs to exist and makes certain aspects of the story seem incoherent.
Why did Luffy, Law, and Kid just magically get awakening to beat the yonko? In bleach, we saw that Ichigo and Renji both trained for bankai in order to achieve it. Then they used it in battle. For one piece, Loda just pulled it out of thin air. Kid and Law were supposedly holding back awakening the entire time on the roof while zoro was breaking his bones and Luffy was getting KO'd fighting kaido. Not to mention gear 5 being a complete asspull that felt utterly undeserved.
Mysteries are not substance. In fact, they are the absence of substance. Oda made a decision to prioritize mysteries over substance and the result is that the vs Yonko saga suffered horribly due to it.
