Kuma had a very long build up all for nothing in the end, at least so far.
Emeth had arguably quite a lot of build up too.
They are definitely both firework dud misfires, worse than Atlas possibly.
Lmao perfect comparison! Dud fireworks summarises this arc and Wano so perfectly well. I was so hyped to see Kuma beatdown Saturn and give Saturn hell with his Devil Fruit but Oda seems to forget Kuma can use it or even S-Bear too? S-Hawk barely used his DF too, the anime made it far better with him at least too, not sure about S-Bear though.
Emeth was built up for over 80 weeks according to some people, idk if thats true but I wouldnt be surprised. Thats over 2 years if so with Odas pacing atm. Its definitely been over a year at least though. I would say 50-60 chapters maybe at least?
It makes me feel like different people are writing different chapters of OP and they alternate, like how tv series have different writers for each episode? Would explain the fluctuating state of quality in the story but its also probably just Oda losing control of the story, time and his own health and mind too.