Note:
A lot of this can apply to the manga as well, but this is mainly for the anime. My purpose here is not to "bash" the series, but I might share some of my less positive opinions. Some of those opinions may be exaggerated for humorous affect (effect? Whatever).
TL;DR:
Skip the "Introduction" section if it's too much to read.
If the first two sections are too long to read, skip to the TL;DR section at the very end.
--------------------------
I gave up on One Piece years ago, around the Punk Hazard arc. The pacing of the story is absolutely atrocious. I wouldn't subject my worst enemy to it. The majority of One Piece fans have already died and we're still far from the ending. Shit, odds are I'LL be dead before this series has concluded. I'm not a fan though.
It feels like the more critical story elements are drip fed to us from a low accuracy interstellar feeder.
When I first started watching OP, it was like a dream. It promised a legendary adventure in an unknown fantasy world with infinite possibilities. I forgot exactly how I first got into it, but most likely my cousin talked me into it.
I did watch some of the crappy "4kids" dubs on TV when I was a kid, but I didn't ACTUALLY start watching it online until I was about 15-16 years old. At that time, there were roughly 500 episodes. The great war was basically at an end and we were beginning to dive into the 2 year time skip. It was also the time when everyone could not shut up about Oda saying that the series was "half finished". I'm 28 years old now, and it still feels like that time skip was only a couple of months ago from the perspective of the characters.
Exactly how long has the Straw Hat screw actually been sailing together (time they spent actually living and pirating together)? 6-12 months?
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I binge watched the entire series at that time (again, about 500 episodes) in less than two weeks. It was fucking crazy. Needless to say, I was going through some shit back then.
My feelings towards this series back then were enchanted. It was almost literally my life. It was the only thing I had in this world. Don't get me wrong, it definitely wasn't all good. Many parts of Skypea and many parts of Thriller Bark were straight up boring. I had to skip a bunch of those episodes.
------------
--------------
What motivated me to write this thread now is my fatigue from reading subs on 1.25x speed and finger tapping the 5 seconds key.
I'm sure I will have a long term relationship in less than two years, and I'd love to introduce her to anime, and eventually One Piece. But I want her to be able to enjoy the series in many ways to how I enjoyed it in my teen years (but in a less edgy and obsessed way). And so I will also be able to enjoy the series again by riding her energy.
It is my opinion that the One Piece anime in its current state is unwatchable for new viewers, with the exception of those one or two people who will be paid millions of dollars making video reviews.
Therefore, I have a suggestion...
--------------------------
Why not make an unofficial definitive abridged version of One Piece? Allow me to explain, but first; if there is no way for this suggestion to be legal, consider this thread to be fan fiction or a thought experiment. Or just get permission from Toei, and then do it. Toei is the animation studio, right?
Once the anime series has concluded in 2035, some sad soul who has memorized the gist of every single episode, or is willing to re-watch every single episode can make an abridged version. This abridged version will consist of the original anime material, but edited to make it watchable.
The episodes can be 40 minutes long so that the pacing will be reasonable. ALL excessive repetitive scenes will be removed in editing. ALL instances of stupid tropes like, 8 characters saying one sentence by each character saying one word of the sentence, REMOVED!!! The majority of 5+ characters all saying the same thing at the same time or one after the other, REMOVED!!!
I think it took like 10 episodes of Luffy running through Kaido's castle before he reached him? REMOVED!!! Instead, we can have Luffy reach Kaido in less than two 40 minute episodes and trim the excess irrelevant nonsense. This happens in basically every arc BTW.
I think Zoro vs Pica lasted like 12+ episodes? REMOVED!!! That battle can now be resolved within two 40 minute episodes.
All fillers, REMOVED!!! Except for the G-8 arc when they land from skypeeah. That was lit.
All repetitive flashbacks, REMOVED!!!
This is the most important part. ALL battles can be trimmed down to be more watchable and memorable. Does anyone remember Goku VS Freeza in DBZ? I sure don't. Do I want to watch it? Hell no.
One Piece battles are arguably worse in some ways, because there are a lot less looped GIFs, but in its place there are so many interruptions between battles to show a bunch of other stuff that's going on.
Those are just some examples of the ridiculous asininity that can be removed from the series in editing. I estimate that the series in its completion can be trimmed down from 1435 episodes to about 600 episodes. Divide that by 2 since our smart episodes will be 40 minutes, and we will have a cool 300 abridged episodes to cover the ENTIRETY of one piece.
---------------
It looks like there have been attempts at something similar to this. But from my limited searching it just looks like some people uploaded edited One Piece episodes to Youtube, which have obviously been removed from the platform.
My abridged version will be different. Follow MY design and it will be brilliant. Well I'm sure it can be greatly improved on, but what is described here should be the baseline.
The reason why I suggest waiting until the anime series concludes is due to the benefit that hindsight can provide. For example, there are some flashbacks we see within the first 50 or so episodes of one piece, that were animated much better later on in the series.
A more specific example is Luffy's flashback with Shanks, when he first ate the Gum fruit. I think we see that flashback within the first 50 episodes or so, but we also see a much better animated version of that flashback during the second half of the series. In our abridged version, we can pick and choose the absolute best scenes to use. So among the 20+ different iterations of the Luffy and Shanks flashback, we can simply choose the best one. I'm sure they will play that flashback at least 30 more times before the series concludes, because we're so fucking stupid (sarcasm) that we forget that flashback every 10 episodes. Maybe they will make further improvements to that flashback.
Another example is Oden's flashback. Maybe we can start the abridged series with that flashback instead of starting it with Luffy? That might not be a good idea but it's at least worth thinking about. Unfortunately we don't really learn much at all with that flashback, so by the time the flashback concludes it feels a bit more like wasted time.
-----------------------------
------------------------------
I'll be honest, I don't know how this abridged series can be made or hosted. We can discuss this below. All discussion about the process should be under the assumption that there is a legal green light.
A lot can change by the time the anime concludes, in 50 years. Either way, consider it to be more ideas rather than instructions.
Obviously someone will need to download all relevant episodes from the 1435 episodes. One effective way to do this might be to download relevant episodes on an arc by arc basis. Let's be honest, some episodes can be straight up skipped entirely. Once all of the relevant episodes are downloaded for the specific arc, the editing can begin.
We can use Hitfilm 2035 or some other future video editing software for the actual editing.
We can discuss your thoughts about my idea, and your own abridged ideas. Feel free to vent if you're also frustrated with the series.
I found this 10 year old theory I watched long ago that I think still holds up fairly well. I'd say it could still be at least 90% accurate about how the series turns out. Feel free to check it out if you don't care about spoilers for the series. Although technically it's not a spoiler, but yeah...... It's accurate. The fact that in over 10 years we haven't received enough material from the series to either confirm or deny the majority of that theory is horrific.
A lot of this can apply to the manga as well, but this is mainly for the anime. My purpose here is not to "bash" the series, but I might share some of my less positive opinions. Some of those opinions may be exaggerated for humorous affect (effect? Whatever).
TL;DR:
Skip the "Introduction" section if it's too much to read.
If the first two sections are too long to read, skip to the TL;DR section at the very end.
--------------------------
Introduction:
I gave up on One Piece years ago, around the Punk Hazard arc. The pacing of the story is absolutely atrocious. I wouldn't subject my worst enemy to it. The majority of One Piece fans have already died and we're still far from the ending. Shit, odds are I'LL be dead before this series has concluded. I'm not a fan though.
It feels like the more critical story elements are drip fed to us from a low accuracy interstellar feeder.
When I first started watching OP, it was like a dream. It promised a legendary adventure in an unknown fantasy world with infinite possibilities. I forgot exactly how I first got into it, but most likely my cousin talked me into it.
I did watch some of the crappy "4kids" dubs on TV when I was a kid, but I didn't ACTUALLY start watching it online until I was about 15-16 years old. At that time, there were roughly 500 episodes. The great war was basically at an end and we were beginning to dive into the 2 year time skip. It was also the time when everyone could not shut up about Oda saying that the series was "half finished". I'm 28 years old now, and it still feels like that time skip was only a couple of months ago from the perspective of the characters.
Exactly how long has the Straw Hat screw actually been sailing together (time they spent actually living and pirating together)? 6-12 months?
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I binge watched the entire series at that time (again, about 500 episodes) in less than two weeks. It was fucking crazy. Needless to say, I was going through some shit back then.
My feelings towards this series back then were enchanted. It was almost literally my life. It was the only thing I had in this world. Don't get me wrong, it definitely wasn't all good. Many parts of Skypea and many parts of Thriller Bark were straight up boring. I had to skip a bunch of those episodes.
------------
I don't watch anime much anymore, but lately I've had the desire to introduce my girlfriend to the world of anime. I've spent so much time watching hundreds of anime. It all feels kinda pointless unless I can share that with the one I want to share my life with. Not to say that anime is an important part of my life, but I believe there can be a lot of value (especially entertainment value) in anime.
One Piece is one of the anime I'd love to share with her, but as the series is now, that's simply impossible.
Fortunately this particular issue isn't too critical due to my current lack of a girlfriend.
But I've been keeping up with the series. I believe it was about 3 years ago when I stopped watching it again. It was around episode 900-920, and Luffy and Zoro were in Wano. I started catching up recently and I'm on episode 1042 now. To my surprise, Luffy and Zoro are in Wano. NOTHING changed in 3 years.
I watch the episodes on 1.25x speed and frequently tap the key to skip 5 seconds further into the episode. I HAVE to do this because of the constant flashbacks, constant recaps, constant staredowns, constant smoke clearing. Like OMG it never ends.
I did watch in full and enjoy Oden's flashback. That was actually interesting, not only because Oden was actually a good character with a relevant story, but also because it provided much greater context to other characters and events which are critical in the story. Since I was rusty with One Piece pacing at the time, I actually thought we would finally see the secrets that Roger uncovered about the world, the void century, ETC.
But unfortunately they will keep us waiting 10 more years to uncover these secrets with Luffy.
One Piece is one of the anime I'd love to share with her, but as the series is now, that's simply impossible.
Fortunately this particular issue isn't too critical due to my current lack of a girlfriend.
But I've been keeping up with the series. I believe it was about 3 years ago when I stopped watching it again. It was around episode 900-920, and Luffy and Zoro were in Wano. I started catching up recently and I'm on episode 1042 now. To my surprise, Luffy and Zoro are in Wano. NOTHING changed in 3 years.
I watch the episodes on 1.25x speed and frequently tap the key to skip 5 seconds further into the episode. I HAVE to do this because of the constant flashbacks, constant recaps, constant staredowns, constant smoke clearing. Like OMG it never ends.
I did watch in full and enjoy Oden's flashback. That was actually interesting, not only because Oden was actually a good character with a relevant story, but also because it provided much greater context to other characters and events which are critical in the story. Since I was rusty with One Piece pacing at the time, I actually thought we would finally see the secrets that Roger uncovered about the world, the void century, ETC.
But unfortunately they will keep us waiting 10 more years to uncover these secrets with Luffy.
--------------
What motivated me to write this thread now is my fatigue from reading subs on 1.25x speed and finger tapping the 5 seconds key.
I'm sure I will have a long term relationship in less than two years, and I'd love to introduce her to anime, and eventually One Piece. But I want her to be able to enjoy the series in many ways to how I enjoyed it in my teen years (but in a less edgy and obsessed way). And so I will also be able to enjoy the series again by riding her energy.
It is my opinion that the One Piece anime in its current state is unwatchable for new viewers, with the exception of those one or two people who will be paid millions of dollars making video reviews.
Therefore, I have a suggestion...
--------------------------
One Piece - Unofficial Definitive Abridged:
Why not make an unofficial definitive abridged version of One Piece? Allow me to explain, but first; if there is no way for this suggestion to be legal, consider this thread to be fan fiction or a thought experiment. Or just get permission from Toei, and then do it. Toei is the animation studio, right?
Once the anime series has concluded in 2035, some sad soul who has memorized the gist of every single episode, or is willing to re-watch every single episode can make an abridged version. This abridged version will consist of the original anime material, but edited to make it watchable.
The episodes can be 40 minutes long so that the pacing will be reasonable. ALL excessive repetitive scenes will be removed in editing. ALL instances of stupid tropes like, 8 characters saying one sentence by each character saying one word of the sentence, REMOVED!!! The majority of 5+ characters all saying the same thing at the same time or one after the other, REMOVED!!!
I think it took like 10 episodes of Luffy running through Kaido's castle before he reached him? REMOVED!!! Instead, we can have Luffy reach Kaido in less than two 40 minute episodes and trim the excess irrelevant nonsense. This happens in basically every arc BTW.
I think Zoro vs Pica lasted like 12+ episodes? REMOVED!!! That battle can now be resolved within two 40 minute episodes.
All fillers, REMOVED!!! Except for the G-8 arc when they land from skypeeah. That was lit.
All repetitive flashbacks, REMOVED!!!
This is the most important part. ALL battles can be trimmed down to be more watchable and memorable. Does anyone remember Goku VS Freeza in DBZ? I sure don't. Do I want to watch it? Hell no.
One Piece battles are arguably worse in some ways, because there are a lot less looped GIFs, but in its place there are so many interruptions between battles to show a bunch of other stuff that's going on.
Those are just some examples of the ridiculous asininity that can be removed from the series in editing. I estimate that the series in its completion can be trimmed down from 1435 episodes to about 600 episodes. Divide that by 2 since our smart episodes will be 40 minutes, and we will have a cool 300 abridged episodes to cover the ENTIRETY of one piece.
---------------
It looks like there have been attempts at something similar to this. But from my limited searching it just looks like some people uploaded edited One Piece episodes to Youtube, which have obviously been removed from the platform.
My abridged version will be different. Follow MY design and it will be brilliant. Well I'm sure it can be greatly improved on, but what is described here should be the baseline.
The reason why I suggest waiting until the anime series concludes is due to the benefit that hindsight can provide. For example, there are some flashbacks we see within the first 50 or so episodes of one piece, that were animated much better later on in the series.
A more specific example is Luffy's flashback with Shanks, when he first ate the Gum fruit. I think we see that flashback within the first 50 episodes or so, but we also see a much better animated version of that flashback during the second half of the series. In our abridged version, we can pick and choose the absolute best scenes to use. So among the 20+ different iterations of the Luffy and Shanks flashback, we can simply choose the best one. I'm sure they will play that flashback at least 30 more times before the series concludes, because we're so fucking stupid (sarcasm) that we forget that flashback every 10 episodes. Maybe they will make further improvements to that flashback.
Another example is Oden's flashback. Maybe we can start the abridged series with that flashback instead of starting it with Luffy? That might not be a good idea but it's at least worth thinking about. Unfortunately we don't really learn much at all with that flashback, so by the time the flashback concludes it feels a bit more like wasted time.
-----------------------------
TL;DR
My idea is to make an unofficial definitive abridged version of the anime. If there's no way for this to be legal, consider this thread to be fan fiction or a thought experiment, but obviously I'm not suggesting that anyone do anything illegal.
This abridged version will be made by trimming ALL of the useless and redundant scenes from the original series, and using the remaining series to form smart 40 minute episodes. This can easily reduce the series from 1435 unwatchable episodes, down to 300 of our 40 minute smart episodes.
We will wait until the anime series concludes so that we can pick from the best of the best scenes for each arc. Since there are hundreds of repetitive flashbacks and recap scenes throughout the series, there may come some of those scenes in the future which can be used within the first 50 or so of our abridged episodes.
This abridged version will be made by trimming ALL of the useless and redundant scenes from the original series, and using the remaining series to form smart 40 minute episodes. This can easily reduce the series from 1435 unwatchable episodes, down to 300 of our 40 minute smart episodes.
We will wait until the anime series concludes so that we can pick from the best of the best scenes for each arc. Since there are hundreds of repetitive flashbacks and recap scenes throughout the series, there may come some of those scenes in the future which can be used within the first 50 or so of our abridged episodes.
------------------------------
Conclusion:
I'll be honest, I don't know how this abridged series can be made or hosted. We can discuss this below. All discussion about the process should be under the assumption that there is a legal green light.
A lot can change by the time the anime concludes, in 50 years. Either way, consider it to be more ideas rather than instructions.
Obviously someone will need to download all relevant episodes from the 1435 episodes. One effective way to do this might be to download relevant episodes on an arc by arc basis. Let's be honest, some episodes can be straight up skipped entirely. Once all of the relevant episodes are downloaded for the specific arc, the editing can begin.
We can use Hitfilm 2035 or some other future video editing software for the actual editing.
We can discuss your thoughts about my idea, and your own abridged ideas. Feel free to vent if you're also frustrated with the series.
I found this 10 year old theory I watched long ago that I think still holds up fairly well. I'd say it could still be at least 90% accurate about how the series turns out. Feel free to check it out if you don't care about spoilers for the series. Although technically it's not a spoiler, but yeah...... It's accurate. The fact that in over 10 years we haven't received enough material from the series to either confirm or deny the majority of that theory is horrific.
