General & Others Why is Oda taking so much break especially considering what he produces on average?

[Paperchampion23]

I'll give a couple of reasons based on what we know (and hopefully won't be called an Goda fanboy because of it).

- Oda got pretty sick in 2014, hospitalized, and at the time he was out for a month. Since then, Jump has offered him the option to have scheduled breaks to try and prevent him from getting into situations were he will get sick (being overstressed, no sleep with no breaks at all, etc). This is why, since 2014, we've had routine breaks after 3-5 chapters.

- Oda is one of the few Jump authors still working analog. This means he works entirely with paper/ink outside of Color Spreads/Volume Covers. Analog takes WAY longer to finish than Digital mind you. This is something Oda has not tried to shift to because he's been doing analog for 23 years.


- COVID. Because Oda works analog, this is why he has seen increased breaks this year, more than usual. A) Jump probably doesn't want him of all people getting sick, considering his sales (let alone anyone but you get my point). B) He still sends his work via manila folders and it takes time to edit/review and scan the chapters in. Digital quite literally removes this headache.

- His age and health. We've seen how other stories have ended (or not ended) because of this. Miura and Togashi are notorious examples of having health issues/not as motivated to finishing their work. Tite Kubo, while forced to end his story early, was already sick and depressed. We are lucky the serialization of One Piece has 990 chapters and the pace it has.

These next 2 I might get some flack for:

- Oda, pretty much more than any author in the industry at this point, has to deal with more characters and plotlines. We often talk about the sheer amount of shit he has left, let alone Wano. The scale of Wano in terms of tracking where every character is and what they are doing, let alone how the fuck you are going to template a 15-17 page chapter while dealing with this is NOT easy at all.

- Oda literally STUFFS his panels with characters and content. We compare them to Manhwa, but they do every thing digital and like 1 "page" on a webcomic is equivalent to one of Oda's panels. Art is entirely subjective, but I think its obvious many manwha or other manga can have better artwork than Oda's manga. That being said, you can't deny the level of complexity and detail in Oda's chapters, in HIS artstyle.



To answer OP's question about "not knowing" things about OP's universe, its because its all related. He can't really talk about anything related to the void century or the ancient kingdom or one piece directly because then there are people who may entirely guess what it is about. At the moment, we still only have (well constructed in some cases) theories.


Anyway, my point is you can have your opinions about the art, story, pacing, whatever, but you shouldn't really fault Oda like at all for taking breaks. The series has more than 20,000 pages. The volumes stack like 6-7 feet at this point together. The amount of content he does put out is still higher than most mangaka and he is still going and still motivated. Its just simply not comparable in a realistic sense at all.


We are ALL waiting for that ending and that final arc. It will come in due time, be 5 years or 10 or 15. It will happen, provided Oda stays healthy and people still like One Piece.

 

[zaman]

There should be many factors. First of all he was and is costantly delivering OP since 1997 then there is not only art and the number of words in a manga but also the plot and of course all the cured details in.. Everything (places, people, their characterization, interactions.. And make every single thing fall in the greater picture almost perfectly) you will never found in more blunt mangas like kingdom but even others.

Just to make a random example in the last chapter it was noted how Zoro switched the side of his swords from the right side (wgere he kept his swords for all of Wano pretty much) to the left one and that in Japan tradition means a samurai is ready to fight. Just a random small detail among an ocean of them you will never ever find in your averag manga.

Sure OP after all these years is bound to be somewhat redundant and Oda in the post time skip changed his preskip formula and gave way less space to the SHs to focus on other characters yet to say Oda is slacking is ridicoulous.

Then we don't know how he organizes his work, does he want to do all by himself, like he most likely does, or maybe he hires people to at least help to draw?
Then the manhwas are for sure long and have a lot of pages yet a page of a manhwa is paragonable to not a manga page but just a manga panel. And while there is for sure heavy cure of art detail and even color the stories are most of the time mediocre. Let's take Solo leveling, the most famous manhwa most likely: it has a great artist but the story which is based upon it is crap. So to do that you just need a great artist since the story to base it upon is already done, the dude doing that can not even be defined a proper manga/manhwa writer.

Anyway at everybody his own. There are a ton of manga/manhwas out there, enjoy them, even for me there are mangas I enjoy now more than OP but don't go saying Oda is slacking compared to other manga/manhwa authors. Or, who knows, maybe age is taking its toll on him but not forget he reached almost 1000 chapters and we are not talking about detective conan which every chapter is always the same soup..

Agree overall, it's just that you'r a not talking about the flaws that are beeing more redundant in OP these last years but well it's fine.

Yes i already said that most manwha are scenaristically super crap, and that even compared to mangas, who are not top tier in that aspect already too.
but about the one page in a mawha = 1 panel... Well i used to think like that but... Usually mangas are less detailed in their panels + the panel isn't a whole page big - this need more dedication, more detail, more work, you just can't stretch an image and sell it like you can do on google word - and it isn't colored. So no, it's not equal to a mere panel tbh.

 

[Balen]

I mean, take a look at most manwha writter. Them draw 100+ pages with color each week, and usually don't take a pause for years unless serious disease.
Oda is on the lower end even among mangaka when it's about what is the quality and the quantity of a chapter produced - take a look at Kingdom to have a comparizon, both more pages, and more text and better drawn. Not only that, but usually each two weeks he takes a break. Why is everybody pissing on hiatus masters but never on Oda who has against him his pace which is not the case for these hiatus masters - for example Hxh which never felt slow in the animation at least.


I mean, even the pace, even the publication's regularity, even the quantity of the chapter ( ie amount of pages drawn and amount of text ) and to an extent even the quality of the chapter - the drawing mainly which is at best very average - can be forgiven, if only Oda gives us enough food for the mind, enough suspense, enough interesting stuff, but for years, post time skip we yet know nothing about this universe that is going on for nearly 25 years, for example. He is seriously joking with us.


It's such a pain in the A to see this, and nobody does anything nor thinks about it.
Idk what you all think about this.

I guess getting old sucks

 

[Paperchampion23]

The last part is true, you'r right, but it's more about the sinceriity of an old fan that i'm talking about.

For the part about dressrossa, tbh, i didn't say that it was an useless arc per say, but that the duration of it was way too much;

There were very few important moment that were relevant to the plot in this arc, that certaintly didn't desserve to be the longest arc.

Arc length very rarely has to do with plot relevancy. Important arcs like Zou exist, and they answered way more questions about One Piece than DR ever did. DR is huge because of the number of characters and plotlines colliding at once.

- Oda wanted Luffy to have a fleet by the end of the arc. He had to characterize 7 captains and some of their subordinates, all in the same arc.

- Oda wanted to reintroduce Sabo and the revolutionaries to make it feel organic. He wanted to introduce CP-0.


- Oda needed to characterize Law and Doflamingo

- Oda needed to characterize Doflamingo's crew

- Oda needed to characterize Dressrosa and it inhabitants.


This frankly just took time to do. This is why Wano is 82 chapters so far and virtually has no end in sight yet, its 3-4 times bigger than Dressrosa just on a character scale.

 

[Jew D. Boy]

I think it's completely irrational, yes, and doesn't show a shred of empathy or even basic understanding of the writing process.

Complain about the work, fine, drop it, fine, but all this spoilt bitching about him taking breaks? Give me a break.

Pretty rude/inflexible stance to have, but hey, at least you’re not a mod on an OP forum

I don’t think you should give the author a pass on the basis of some feigned “empathy” for a man who gets to experience professional luxuries none of us will ever see, especially when the caliber of his writing continues to decline in full view of the audience. You know who deserves the pass? Legions or loyal fans who agonize over every detail in this work of art, and get rightfully irritated about more break weeks for chapters that feel weird when compared to earlier parts of this series. Don’t be so headstrong, and don’t claim people who criticize OP lack empathy.

 

[Veljko]

Ratings of manga are given by audience if audience is unhappy, disaspoiment, angry about Manga and rate it lower

If you watched Gintama, and you saw Sorachi scenes as a gorilla, you'd know the reason Lol

Just appreciate his work, and don't expect him to work for you... he's a man who's drawing for his own... if he wants to take breaks, it's his work, not your work!
You all get the chapter for free now on Mangaplus translated officially even, what more you all need!?

I don't even complain about Hiatus x Hiatus, I just troll but generally it's his god damn manga!

He can feel lazy from time to time, and want a break Lol, that's a normal human, not a machine

So Game of Thrones style?
Ruin/downgrade series at final Season

 

[zaman]

Arc length very rarely has to do with plot relevancy. Important arcs like Zou exist, and they answered way more questions about One Piece than DR ever did. DR is huge because of the number of characters and plotlines colliding at once.

- Oda wanted Luffy to have a fleet by the end of the arc. He had to characterize 7 captains and some of their subordinates, all in the same arc.

- Oda wanted to reintroduce Sabo and the revolutionaries to make it feel organic. He wanted to introduce CP-0.


- Oda needed to characterize Law and Doflamingo

- Oda needed to characterize Doflamingo's crew

- Oda needed to characterize Dressrosa and it inhabitants.


This frankly just took time to do. This is why Wano is 82 chapters so far and virtually has no end in sight yet, its 3-4 times bigger than Dressrosa just on a character scale.

That's why one of his main issue is to be paradoxical : Saying he wants to end it soon, yet adding characters and characters, who need a proper development...

 

[Paperchampion23]

That's why one of his main issue is to be paradoxical : Saying he wants to end it soon, yet adding characters and characters, who need a proper development...

He does make fun of himself for this. He has blamed the Shichibukai and Supernova for increasing the length of his manga, but its way more than that too.

I'm fine with him saying he wants to end it soon, it usually never means he will lol.

 

[zaman]

He does make fun of himself for this. He has blamed the Shichibukai and Supernova for increasing the length of his manga, but its way more than that too.

I'm fine with him saying he wants to end it soon, it usually never means he will lol.

If i had to make one real criticism, not about something really rational, but what i really want to see and know, rather than the pace, the break, or whatever is to sincerely get to know more of the void century and the mysteries. It's just too much, near 1/4 of a century and yet we know virtually nothing about the mysteries of the OP. The best arcs were definitively those were data were dropped.

 

[Paperchampion23]

If i had to make one real criticism, not about something really rational, but what i really want to see and know, rather than the pace, the break, or whatever is to sincerely get to know more of the void century and the mysteries. It's just too much, near 1/4 of a century and yet we know virtually nothing about the mysteries of the OP. The best arcs were definitively those were data were dropped.

I definitely wouldn't worry too much about that. It's all virtually tied together:

- One Piece
- Void Century
- Laugh Tale
- Ancient Kingdom
- Ancient Weapons
- Im
- The Gorosei
- The WG
- The National Treasure
- Rocks
- God Valley
- Joy Boy
- Noah


and much more are all inherently tied to some overarching plot about the past. The WG ties all of this together. We know the WG needs to be taken down before the end of the story, we know that is where the story is in fact heading.

I know its hard to have patience for something like this for literal decades, but I have a feeling the revelations will pay off eventually.

See how the Reverie Chapters and 956/957 were some of the most well received chapters in series history? That's because Oda definitely is onto something here. Once he starts actually focusing on those things, its just to be a big experience dealing with all of that.

I personally think he's saving it for the end because he wants his last arc to be regarded as the best arc in the series.


I DO however think Vegapunk/Elbaf will explain the nature of the world/sky/moon/devil fruits before we get to that point. There is also something big here that we are not seeing. That should be happening after Wano, unless Oda just introduces more plotlines.


Edit: Hell, Onigashima/Wano allegedly is tied to something we don't know about the world yet too. Wano SHOULD answer some big questions eventually.

 

[Just a member]

Agree overall, it's just that you'r a not talking about the flaws that are beeing more redundant in OP these last years but well it's fine.

Yes i already said that most manwha are scenaristically super crap, and that even compared to mangas, who are not top tier in that aspect already too.
but about the one page in a mawha = 1 panel... Well i used to think like that but... Usually mangas are less detailed in their panels + the panel isn't a whole page big - this need more dedication, more detail, more work, you just can't stretch an image and sell it like you can do on google word - and it isn't colored. So no, it's not equal to a mere panel tbh.

It depends for me yet I completely see your point. There are manhwas like solo leveling which has an average story at best (whichvis already dine since it is based on a light novel) but a godly artist (seems that now overgeared is trying to follow the same exact pact as solo leveling) so page of that manhwa requires a huge effort on the artisitc side (big, detailed and colored page) and you get a stream of these pages, it s like you see a few seconds of a movie then another few seconds etc. Sometikes I feel like I am looking at an awesome photography book (with solo leveling at least). But on the other hand with a manga it is very important how you chain panels in a certain way with each other to give motion. I remember Oda did in at least one Luffy fight (vs Lucci or vs Kata) the fighting panels so that the one having the upper hand was always attacking from the right and the other reciving was on the left and as the fight progressed he made Luffy switched progressively switch places intil he delivered the final jet hawk (another detail by Oda) while in manhwas you just put down your stream of pages/panels. It is not simple.

 

[AriadneWyvern]

Perfectly said tbh. I agree with it, i've been a fan since at least 2005 when it was on tv and ended at arlong park, the innoncence, the originality, the dealing with the major thematics, were brilliant. Now despite beeing the most sold author, the most bankable, despite taking more breaks, despite beeing way further in the scenario and thus for us to expect more serious matters to come, yet we have this feeling that he is actually literally playing with our feelings. And us, old fans, prefer by far that One piece literally ends tomorrow, that we consume it as any low class fast food manga, if he stays like that, with the same quality, and even quantity produced, sincerely....

What made us love OP was the universe, and the main driving forces of the protagonist and the thematics dealt with, not how it is now...

And yes, only non mature individuals believe that you can't appreaciate a work if you criticize it. But without well done criticism, well, are we anything else than lobotomised individuals.?

How does the Japanese audience react to this type of stuff? If they dont have a problem with how Oda is writing, he wont change anything

 

[Garp the Fist]

Pretty rude/inflexible stance to have, but hey, at least you’re not a mod on an OP forum

I don’t think you should give the author a pass on the basis of some feigned “empathy” for a man who gets to experience professional luxuries none of us will ever see, especially when the caliber of his writing continues to decline in full view of the audience. You know who deserves the pass? Legions or loyal fans who agonize over every detail in this work of art, and get rightfully irritated about more break weeks for chapters that feel weird when compared to earlier parts of this series. Don’t be so headstrong, and don’t claim people who criticize OP lack empathy.

Criticising the work itself is fine.

Criticism of the author for taking breaks is just ignorant whining.

 

[Fn Lucci]

I mean, take a look at most manwha writter. Them draw 100+ pages with color each week, and usually don't take a pause for years unless serious disease.
Oda is on the lower end even among mangaka when it's about what is the quality and the quantity of a chapter produced - take a look at Kingdom to have a comparizon, both more pages, and more text and better drawn. Not only that, but usually each two weeks he takes a break. Why is everybody pissing on hiatus masters but never on Oda who has against him his pace which is not the case for these hiatus masters - for example Hxh which never felt slow in the animation at least.


I mean, even the pace, even the publication's regularity, even the quantity of the chapter ( ie amount of pages drawn and amount of text ) and to an extent even the quality of the chapter - the drawing mainly which is at best very average - can be forgiven, if only Oda gives us enough food for the mind, enough suspense, enough interesting stuff, but for years, post time skip we yet know nothing about this universe that is going on for nearly 25 years, for example. He is seriously joking with us.


It's such a pain in the A to see this, and nobody does anything nor thinks about it.
Idk what you all think about this.

One Piece has been outselling your examples and running for longer. And unlike a Kingdom or Vagabond, it's an original story that has special needs in other media. The property is huge and Oda oversees it. That little bit more latitude is the bare minimum for a mangaka who wants to have a family and stay sane.

If OP is a little slower in release, in the age of Covid-19 and the fight against digital art, it probably won't be dealt with until someone actually has the nuts to talk to Oda about it.

 

[Paperchampion23]

How does the Japanese audience react to this type of stuff? If they dont have a problem with how Oda is writing, he wont change anything

Subjectively speaking, most people really don't have an issue with OP or its writing/art/characters. You can tell just from seeing how the majority of an audience reacts to the series on reddit or twitter or whatever (many of the critics here find that "cringe", but its the truth because there are vastly more fans on both platforms where their voices are heard).

Worstgen typically attracts the "harsher" critics from what I've seen, but it also seems to be related to a level of maturity because a ton of people here complain about the wrong things, like if an author takes breaks and not servicing them a chapter per week.

 

[zaman]

I definitely wouldn't worry too much about that. It's all virtually tied together:

- One Piece
- Void Century
- Laugh Tale
- Ancient Kingdom
- Ancient Weapons
- Im
- The Gorosei
- The WG
- The National Treasure
- Rocks
- God Valley
- Joy Boy
- Noah


and much more are all inherently tied to some overarching plot about the past. The WG ties all of this together. We know the WG needs to be taken down before the end of the story, we know that is where the story is in fact heading.

I know its hard to have patience for something like this for literal decades, but I have a feeling the revelations will pay off eventually.

See how the Reverie Chapters and 956/957 were some of the most well received chapters in series history? That's because Oda definitely is onto something here. Once he starts actually focusing on those things, its just to be a big experience dealing with all of that.

I personally think he's saving it for the end because he wants his last arc to be regarded as the best arc in the series.


I DO however think Vegapunk/Elbaf will explain the nature of the world/sky/moon/devil fruits before we get to that point. There is also something big here that we are not seeing. That should be happening after Wano, unless Oda just introduces more plotlines.


Edit: Hell, Onigashima/Wano allegedly is tied to something we don't know about the world yet too. Wano SHOULD answer some big questions eventually.

This is my feeling too. Anything after wano will drop lots of informations. I wish it could really start and end pretty soon, but oda is hiding from us something by not even showing Kaido fighting.

And yes, it makes sense they were the most well received. I have a feeling too that actually, well, everything will be linked with the last movement of the revolutionaries.
Do you recall ? attacking the tenruybito, and sabo beeing near dead... Luffy will just jump to save him. But he will probably won't know it until he reachs elbaf, meaning it will probably be a short arc and he will get the help of giants, then in his journey to save his brother he will have to face BB imo, and the final battle will starts at marijoie.

Post automatically merged: Sep 11, 2020

It depends for me yet I completely see your point. There are manhwas like solo leveling which has an average story at best (whichvis already dine since it is based on a light novel) but a godly artist (seems that now overgeared is trying to follow the same exact pact as solo leveling) so page of that manhwa requires a huge effort on the artisitc side (big, detailed and colored page) and you get a stream of these pages, it s like you see a few seconds of a movie then another few seconds etc. Sometikes I feel like I am looking at an awesome photography book (with solo leveling at least). But on the other hand with a manga it is very important how you chain panels in a certain way with each other to give motion. I remember Oda did in at least one Luffy fight (vs Lucci or vs Kata) the fighting panels so that the one having the upper hand was always attacking from the right and the other reciving was on the left and as the fight progressed he made Luffy switched progressively switch places intil he delivered the final jet hawk (another detail by Oda) while in manhwas you just put down your stream of pages/panels. It is not simple.

Never saw such details, well i totally agree. For example i tried to read the novel of Solo leveling, but... this is just so crap, that i nearly vomited, i'm actually amazed by the work of the artists because the very wrtining is just non inspirational and really garbage.

 

[Uncle Van]

Reminds me of all the people complaining about Togashi(HxH) and Kentarou(Bersek) and calling them lazy. Togashi suffers from severe back pain that flares up whenever he sits and Kentarou is 54 years old and has been drawing for over 30 years.

Just ungrateful and entitled some people.

 

[Ravagerblade]

I'd just rather Oda go on Hiatus, at least in Jump and do stuff in Volumes using many pages as to not be constrained. I think a Story like OP shouldn't have been reduced to a weekly 15-17 some odd pages, It deserves it, Oda shouldn't need to feel pressured to get pages out while skimping out the story points, CD characerization etc..

 

[Electricmastro]

There should be many factors. First of all he was and is costantly delivering OP since 1997 then there is not only art and the number of words in a manga but also the plot and of course all the cured details in.. Everything (places, people, their characterization, interactions.. And make every single thing fall in the greater picture almost perfectly) you will never found in more blunt mangas like kingdom but even others.

Just to make a random example in the last chapter it was noted how Zoro switched the side of his swords from the right side (wgere he kept his swords for all of Wano pretty much) to the left one and that in Japan tradition means a samurai is ready to fight. Just a random small detail among an ocean of them you will never ever find in your averag manga.

Sure OP after all these years is bound to be somewhat redundant and Oda in the post time skip changed his preskip formula and gave way less space to the SHs to focus on other characters yet to say Oda is slacking is ridicoulous.

Then we don't know how he organizes his work, does he want to do all by himself, like he most likely does, or maybe he hires people to at least help to draw?
Then the manhwas are for sure long and have a lot of pages yet a page of a manhwa is paragonable to not a manga page but just a manga panel. And while there is for sure heavy cure of art detail and even color the stories are most of the time mediocre. Let's take Solo leveling, the most famous manhwa most likely: it has a great artist but the story which is based upon it is crap. So to do that you just need a great artist since the story to base it upon is already done, the dude doing that can not even be defined a proper manga/manhwa writer.

Anyway at everybody his own. There are a ton of manga/manhwas out there, enjoy them, even for me there are mangas I enjoy now more than OP but don't go saying Oda is slacking compared to other manga/manhwa authors. Or, who knows, maybe age is taking its toll on him but not forget he reached almost 1000 chapters and we are not talking about detective conan which every chapter is always the same soup..

Evident by how many notebooks he keeps track of details in, with the Dressorsa arc having had him keep track of at least 15 notebooks. Wouldn’t surprise me if he had at least 100 more notebooks considering all the stuff he has hinted at, but has yet to elaborate on:

 

[Sadistic Senpai]

Ratings of manga are given by audience if audience is unhappy, disaspoiment, angry about Manga and rate it lower

So Game of Thrones style?
Ruin/downgrade series at final Season

I'm talking about breaks not freaking storyline lol