General & Others Why can't Oda & other shonen mangaka write a great main cast ?
- Thread starter JoNdule
- Start date
He wrote a great main cast up until I’d say Zou, other will just say pre-skip and has struggled with pushing the plot on to finish the series, dropping to easily to tired caricatures of the SHs and the sheer weight of characters he’s introduced ever since.
This is Oda’s fault, don’t get me wrong, but we can’t forget that he did write a great main cast for longer than all other series I’ve seen mentioned here have even been running.
This is Oda’s fault, don’t get me wrong, but we can’t forget that he did write a great main cast for longer than all other series I’ve seen mentioned here have even been running.
Why do people just can't be critical of the work? For some reason people need to add fan theorys that attack oda as a person that has no proof behind it, oda is overwhelmed by how much stuff he wants to put in one piece that takes away panel time for character moments for the strawhats it's a problem but it feels petty for attacking as a person with no proof.
As much as I love Leorio (one of my favorite characters in fiction) and HxH this is sadly true
He's relevant in the Hunter Exam and the Zoldyck Mansion arc -> isn't in Heavens Arena -> barely does anything in Yorknew compared to the other 3 -> isn't in Greed Island or Chimera Ant at all -> gets a decent bit in the Election Arc -> basically nonexistent in the latest arc
The idea that HxH evenly splits screentime between it's diverse cast of characters is a myth
Gon and Killua are the only characters that get consistent screentime
Kurapika isn't in half the arcs
Leorio... we didn't even get to see him learn Nen or develop his Hatsu onscreen
He's relevant in the Hunter Exam and the Zoldyck Mansion arc -> isn't in Heavens Arena -> barely does anything in Yorknew compared to the other 3 -> isn't in Greed Island or Chimera Ant at all -> gets a decent bit in the Election Arc -> basically nonexistent in the latest arc
The idea that HxH evenly splits screentime between it's diverse cast of characters is a myth
Gon and Killua are the only characters that get consistent screentime
Kurapika isn't in half the arcs
Leorio... we didn't even get to see him learn Nen or develop his Hatsu onscreen
The formula for one piece right now(and for a long time) is not characters. Oda knows his limits I would say. He can't handle character and its a long running shounen. He doesn't want to take risk of potential plot holes and inconsistency(there already are though) if he tries to do something because these things most probably oda has not planned at all.
From what I see, his formula is create hype and show case....basically have 10 mid setup chapters at best then show one panel of new info which makes readers hooked and the repeat the process. Anime does have to deal with that shit too so they try to add some depth but we feel its dragging a lot(yeah its dragging too but I don't think they have much choice, the original content is not good enough tbh now compared to early days), like you can see how well Anime did with the Hype moments with Introducing Imu much better than oda did in manga.
And I won't blame him on that too. As I think right now his main objective is to finish the series while printing money. If one piece was not selling well...we probably would see more effort put in the series by oda and editors too.
For that right now he is mainly concentraing on Luffy the MC to have more screentime(though people are not liking it for obvious reasons) and the only focus.
Other than that he tries to write story around side characters to try to keep the story telling going on and interesting which is again just a hit and miss.
Unlike initial days where its easy to manage plot, story and characters. He can't do it now or wont prioritize it. Plot will proceed, story may not be present and he has to sell Luffy as the MC as end is near.
From what I see, his formula is create hype and show case....basically have 10 mid setup chapters at best then show one panel of new info which makes readers hooked and the repeat the process. Anime does have to deal with that shit too so they try to add some depth but we feel its dragging a lot(yeah its dragging too but I don't think they have much choice, the original content is not good enough tbh now compared to early days), like you can see how well Anime did with the Hype moments with Introducing Imu much better than oda did in manga.
And I won't blame him on that too. As I think right now his main objective is to finish the series while printing money. If one piece was not selling well...we probably would see more effort put in the series by oda and editors too.
For that right now he is mainly concentraing on Luffy the MC to have more screentime(though people are not liking it for obvious reasons) and the only focus.
Other than that he tries to write story around side characters to try to keep the story telling going on and interesting which is again just a hit and miss.
Unlike initial days where its easy to manage plot, story and characters. He can't do it now or wont prioritize it. Plot will proceed, story may not be present and he has to sell Luffy as the MC as end is near.
They all have the depth of a fishbowl.
I like kill
I like money
Father gone
My family is kill
sooooo deeeeeeeeeppppppppp
"a manga is good when the characters (grow)"
Hellsing is good and there is zero growth for Alucard. He went from vastly overpowered and undefeatable to vastly overpowered and undefeatable while keeping the same personality traits from start to finish.
Some manga are story driven, some are character driven, some are a mix. Complaining about this serves no purpose, really.
If its not for you then its not for you and thats fine. Oda will not change.
I like kill
I like money
Father gone
My family is kill
sooooo deeeeeeeeeppppppppp
"a manga is good when the characters (grow)"
Hellsing is good and there is zero growth for Alucard. He went from vastly overpowered and undefeatable to vastly overpowered and undefeatable while keeping the same personality traits from start to finish.
Some manga are story driven, some are character driven, some are a mix. Complaining about this serves no purpose, really.
If its not for you then its not for you and thats fine. Oda will not change.
I don't think anything changed from pre TS to post TS about the main cast. The focus on each memebers seems to be the same.
The thing that changed is the overall story, I think Oda retconed his story the moment he had Nika in mind, now every plot revolves around the savior Nika, some god we never heard about before Wano but is suddenly the awaited savior.
Now we have the feeling that Oda is treating the crew and Luffy differently which he isn't, it's the world building that changed.
If anything I think Luffy's treatment is worse post TS than pre TS because of that.
The thing that changed is the overall story, I think Oda retconed his story the moment he had Nika in mind, now every plot revolves around the savior Nika, some god we never heard about before Wano but is suddenly the awaited savior.
Now we have the feeling that Oda is treating the crew and Luffy differently which he isn't, it's the world building that changed.
If anything I think Luffy's treatment is worse post TS than pre TS because of that.
Nami got sick during the Wapol arc and Luffy and Sanji took her to the witch doctor. During the climb up the mountain, Sanji tells Luffy to NOT fight because that might injure Nami and Luffy agrees. Contrast that with how Luffy refuses to listen to anyone post time skip and there is no sense of comradery. At some point, near TS, Oda decided that he would flanderize every character.
