General & Others Thoughts on Fishman Island Arc in retrospect?

[pg13]

Did a re-read and honestly this arc becomes more and more relevant as the series progresses. The content is actually pretty damn good.4 main reasons the arc gets criticized imo are

1. Hody as a Villain
2. The Strawhat fights
3. Sanjis gag
4. Lack of tension

And while it’s true those are the lows I’d argue Hody as a villain is the only major issue in retrospect. He definitely could’ve been a better , Sanjis comedy was hit or miss for some but his funniest moment in the series is undeniably that Shirahoshi scene of chopper telling him not to turn around (especially in the anime). Strawhat Fights is forgiven since a few of those abilities became relevant later on, and it ultimately was just a flex for the crew although actual choreography would’ve been nice.

But Leave Your Thoughts on this Gem of an arc. It’s no longer worst arc Post Timeskip for me, that goes to Punk Hazzard.

Spoiler: FISHMAN ISLAND

 

[Natalija]

My thoughts on it haven't changed, still consider it the worst arc post skip, and probably the worst arc overall.

 

[Juanpiz]

One of the weaker ones
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But was quite neat how Luffy talked with confidence to big mom

 

[Sir Yasheen]

Fishman island looks great on paper but was so horribly executed.

1. The lore
- Fishman Islands impact in the verse is just getting more interesting with Noah, Poseidon, and I’m pretty sure this was the introduction of Joyboy as well.

2. The racism
- Seeing the impact of the racism on the one Fishman nation was super important and seeing the two sides of those with hope for tomorrow and those who have become the very same as their oppressors was nice.
- I actually liked the ideology that Hody had nothing happened to him but the innate hatred for humans from him is important to establish to show the growth for the future

Now let’s talk about why it was poorly executed:
1. How Oda established the blood rule was so dumb. The nosebleed gag is fine in anime; but it was so overdid. I love Baka x Test which does a lot of nosebleed humor; and it works because the humor works for the vibe of the story. But seeing these jarringly poorly done nosebleeds in the middle of this serious arc about racial injustice and rebellion of the ignored class of the island made the bad jokes look worse.

2. Hodys character was fine; but he was such a joke of a fighter. I’m all for seeing villains use drugs to get strong since they weren’t all that strong; however, having Hody look like a joke of a fighter 90% of the arc meant that when we got to the end, there was just no taking him seriously at this point.

3. Vander Decken. If the two things above were the only problems, then this arc still wouldn’t be good, but Vander Decken single handedly makes the arc actual trash. His disgusting looking design and his stalking a 6 year old was so uncomfortable. And the worst part? Dude doesn’t even get his comeuppance instead we get this really awkward betrayal thing between him and hody then he gets knocked out cause he slipped? Like what the actual fuck…

 

[Loki D. Terror]

Worst long arc for me

 

[BoaHancocksHusband]

Did a re-read and honestly this arc becomes more and more relevant as the series progresses. The content is actually pretty damn good.4 main reasons the arc gets criticized imo are

1. Hody as a Villain
2. The Strawhat fights
3. Sanjis gag
4. Lack of tension

And while it’s true those are the lows I’d argue Hody as a villain is the only major issue in retrospect. He definitely could’ve been a better , Sanjis comedy was hit or miss for some but his funniest moment in the series is undeniably that Shirahoshi scene of chopper telling him not to turn around (especially in the anime). Strawhat Fights is forgiven since a few of those abilities became relevant later on, and it ultimately was just a flex for the crew although actual choreography would’ve been nice.

But Leave Your Thoughts on this Gem of an arc. It’s no longer worst arc Post Timeskip for me, that goes to Punk Hazzard.

Spoiler: FISHMAN ISLAND

I liked Hody as a villain
[automerge]1716684324[/automerge]

Did a re-read and honestly this arc becomes more and more relevant as the series progresses. The content is actually pretty damn good.4 main reasons the arc gets criticized imo are

1. Hody as a Villain
2. The Strawhat fights
3. Sanjis gag
4. Lack of tension

And while it’s true those are the lows I’d argue Hody as a villain is the only major issue in retrospect. He definitely could’ve been a better , Sanjis comedy was hit or miss for some but his funniest moment in the series is undeniably that Shirahoshi scene of chopper telling him not to turn around (especially in the anime). Strawhat Fights is forgiven since a few of those abilities became relevant later

[/SPOILER]

I liked Hody as a villain. I think his steroid gig was interesting to say the least.
[automerge]1716684357[/automerge]

Did a re-read and honestly this arc becomes more and more relevant as the series progresses. The content is actually pretty damn good.4 main reasons the arc gets criticized imo are

1. Hody as a Villain
2. The Strawhat fights
3. Sanjis gag
4. Lack of tension

And while it’s true those are the lows I’d argue Hody as a villain is the only major issue in retrospect. He definitely could’ve been a better , Sanjis comedy was hit or miss for some but his funniest moment in the series is undeniably that Shirahoshi scene of chopper telling him not to turn around (especially in the anime). Strawhat Fights is forgiven since a few of those abilities became relevant later

[/SPOILER]

I liked Hody as a villain. I think his steroid gig was interesting to say the least.

 

[Herrera95]

1. Hody as a Villain
2. The Strawhat fights
3. Sanjis gag
4. Lack of tension

1. He was pretty boring. Never saw nothing special on him. Relayed too much on roids to get less weaker.
2. Pretty boring as well. Only Luffy was somewhat cool because of how easily he was beating Hody and a few new moves using haki. Overall it was just to show off his new abilities and it seemed so dumb like when Chopper goes Monster Point and I guess Usopp freaks out and then he explains he no longer loses counsciouness. Just chat about it in off wtf.
3. I always hated how Oda turned Sanji that was suppose to be a gentleman into a fucking pervert. And it was pretty annoying how serious he was taking this gag. I mean if it was only gag then ok but he really gave was the impression he could have died because of it.
4. Like I said above the most tension to me was Sanji really dying from blood lost.

 

[Yoho]

Still remains a C tier arc

 

[Dickie D. Dick]

My thoughts on it haven't changed, still consider it the worst arc post skip, and probably the worst arc overall.

Because you hate fish, bigot

 

[Juanpiz]

Because you hate fish, bigot

Sometimes they are tasty

 

[Zaretball]

4/10

 

[Ainchiemi]

Overly bashed, but meh.

 

[Flodor]

A whole retcon now, there was not a single hint about ancient flooding from a KingDom just below the strange Reverse Mountain.
(Edit: im not good in OP geography lol).
Anyway, fishman have no clue of their story, part of all special races in OP.
Not a single word about it neither on poneglyphs.

The whole manga is retcon.
We can just wait 10 years and read the last 10 chapters to have in fact the real story....

 

[Dickie D. Dick]

A whole retcon now, there was not a single hint about ancient flooding from a KingDom just below the strange Reverse Mountain.
(Edit: im not good in OP geography lol).
Anyway, fishman have no clue of their story, part of all special races in OP.
Not a single word about it neither on poneglyphs.

The whole manga is retcon.
We can just wait 10 years and read the last 10 chapters to have in fact the real story....

Plot twist - fishman are descendants of humans who adapt to life under the sea because of the flood

 

[Djordje]

Nice but not amazing, worthy of re -read because its short.

 

[DJOMOLO]

I never actually disliked it on my first watch and I still don't

 

[dimitrios]

My thoughts haven't changed, I've always loved the arc and still believe it to be one of Oda's best in terms of themes and backstories.

 

[Longleg Larry]

I appreciate Fishman for the real world questions I got from it. I really liked seeing different fish species I'd never heard of (learned a lot bout the Oarfish).
Seeing a DF Fishman down there (even if it was Vander Decken ) was nice

Hody Jones is one of my favorite types of villains. They have no rhyme or reason, only hate. For a villain, I think that's needed
One of my few critiques is that Jinbe didn't take him down, also that Hody never called him Jin-Boy

That being said, Shirahoshi was/is a lowpoint in the series for me

 

[Rekien]

It was mid, it still is mid, it will forever be mid.

 

[NAMELESS]

Its definitely one of the less interesting ones.