Top TEN?! Yeesh, I may not have that many, but here goes…
1. Water 7/Enies Lobby - 10/10, Oda’s finest work before or since; tremendous story, sets up more of the series’s endgame than it seems at first blush, CP-9 were great villains, gave us defining moments for every single Straw Hat and saw Franky join the crew…hard to top, and most arcs afterwards fail to do so.
2. Reverie - 10/10, counts as its own arc to me as it’s not part of the ones before or after it; the most consequential arc in the series, more info dumping than ever before, and the Im reveal was Oda’s most recent twist that actually landed.
3. Arlong Park - 9/10, probably the strongest East Blue arc; introduced fishmen as well as the prejudices that caused a rift between them and humans, Arlong was ruthless and his commanders were perfect foils for the nascent Straw Hat crew
4. Marineford - 8/10, the most important arc in One Piece even if it’s not the best one; the only part of the series I would call an inflection point other than the moment Shanks gave Luffy his hat, we truly won’t see anything else like it (especially the current arc that it will always be compared to).
5. Skypiea - 8/10, was apparently viewed as the final arc at some point; Enel’s whole deal was pretty cool, and any cloud city is bound to be visually lush, gave Usopp a new weapon to help him keep pace before the timeskip (y’all remember Dials?? Good times…)
6. Dressrosa - 7/10, gets better every time I read it again; Doffy is possibly the best (NOT strongest) villain in the entire series, and although this was where the SHP split up for far too long, the action on this island kept me interested when it was weekly and gels together nicely on a binge.
7. Alabasta - 7/10, anyone who doesn’t have this on their list does not appreciate OP the right way; Vivi and Crocodile have endured as quasi-allies for a long time, and seeing the rain return to that place after the shit they went through was incredibly gratifying.
8. Wano - 6/10, which is higher than a lot of people think it deserves to be; even if he’s doing it very poorly, this is the story Oda’s wanted to tell for a long ass time, and it could be worse even as it’s not very good in a technical sense right now.
9. Sabaody - 6/10, a nice comedown from my spooky last choice; Brook got a chance to show out a little, but of course, this made the list because of what Kuma did (and how he did it) to save Luffy and friends from certain ruination, although it didn’t seem that way at the time…
10. Thriller Bark - 6/10, very underrated arc; the least dramatic recruitment of all time, I can remember every single person in the fandom realizing that Brook would be the next crew mate the second he appeared on panel, Moriah and crew were surprisingly entertaining and the creepy vibe was executed quite well.
Fishman Island/Punk Hazard were fine, the other East Blue arcs were funny and light, so pretty much anything that wasn’t WCI or Foxy’s bullshit are still good, just not as spectacular as the ones above.
1. Water 7/Enies Lobby - 10/10, Oda’s finest work before or since; tremendous story, sets up more of the series’s endgame than it seems at first blush, CP-9 were great villains, gave us defining moments for every single Straw Hat and saw Franky join the crew…hard to top, and most arcs afterwards fail to do so.
2. Reverie - 10/10, counts as its own arc to me as it’s not part of the ones before or after it; the most consequential arc in the series, more info dumping than ever before, and the Im reveal was Oda’s most recent twist that actually landed.
3. Arlong Park - 9/10, probably the strongest East Blue arc; introduced fishmen as well as the prejudices that caused a rift between them and humans, Arlong was ruthless and his commanders were perfect foils for the nascent Straw Hat crew
4. Marineford - 8/10, the most important arc in One Piece even if it’s not the best one; the only part of the series I would call an inflection point other than the moment Shanks gave Luffy his hat, we truly won’t see anything else like it (especially the current arc that it will always be compared to).
5. Skypiea - 8/10, was apparently viewed as the final arc at some point; Enel’s whole deal was pretty cool, and any cloud city is bound to be visually lush, gave Usopp a new weapon to help him keep pace before the timeskip (y’all remember Dials?? Good times…)
6. Dressrosa - 7/10, gets better every time I read it again; Doffy is possibly the best (NOT strongest) villain in the entire series, and although this was where the SHP split up for far too long, the action on this island kept me interested when it was weekly and gels together nicely on a binge.
7. Alabasta - 7/10, anyone who doesn’t have this on their list does not appreciate OP the right way; Vivi and Crocodile have endured as quasi-allies for a long time, and seeing the rain return to that place after the shit they went through was incredibly gratifying.
8. Wano - 6/10, which is higher than a lot of people think it deserves to be; even if he’s doing it very poorly, this is the story Oda’s wanted to tell for a long ass time, and it could be worse even as it’s not very good in a technical sense right now.
9. Sabaody - 6/10, a nice comedown from my spooky last choice; Brook got a chance to show out a little, but of course, this made the list because of what Kuma did (and how he did it) to save Luffy and friends from certain ruination, although it didn’t seem that way at the time…
10. Thriller Bark - 6/10, very underrated arc; the least dramatic recruitment of all time, I can remember every single person in the fandom realizing that Brook would be the next crew mate the second he appeared on panel, Moriah and crew were surprisingly entertaining and the creepy vibe was executed quite well.
Fishman Island/Punk Hazard were fine, the other East Blue arcs were funny and light, so pretty much anything that wasn’t WCI or Foxy’s bullshit are still good, just not as spectacular as the ones above.
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