General & Others Why is Wano hated ?

[MD Zolo]

Personally the following things were disappointing for me:

1. False hype: Holdem and Kawamatsu were unnecessarily promoted by Oda. This is specially true for Kawamatsu, when Oda kept him in silhouette for 10+ chapters only to break him out after BM was taken away.
2. Inefficient use of characters: I think most people will agree that Oda has used BM and BMPs very inefficiently.
3. Slow pace: The Udon arc was very poorly done. What could be done in 3 chapters were stretched to 10+ chapters. Even if it was important, it was dragged too much to be enjoyable.
4. Raid Suit: Okay, this is probably nitpicking, but the way Oda introduced Stealthblack and the circumstances surrounding it wasn't well done considering Sanji's distaste for Vinsmoke technology.
5. Page1: I still don't understand the reason behind the cliffhanger in Sanji vs. Page1. It served no higher purpose as far as I am concerned.
6. Toki: When you get a character that comes from the void century and gives an ominous prophecy, you would expect this character to be a centerpiece of a story. What happened was really disappointing, though there may be time to redeem it!!
7. Inconsistencies: The inaction of WB, Ace and Shanks is baffling. Oden dancing like an idiot for five years is idiotic. Oden having his swords with him when he was captured was idiotic.
8. Oden's story: Usually the story of tragedy in an arc illustrates the struggles of that island. But in Oden's story, Wano's struggle felt like a backdrop to Roger and WB. The story didn't correctly portray Wano's decline, it was rather used to narrate a much bigger picture. For example, Moria vs. Kaido could've been a more central piece of the story, but it was finished in two panels.
9. False advertising: Oda wanted readers to feel that Marco wouldn't come, so that readers are surprised when Marco makes sudden appearance. But he didn't execute it properly. A better way would've been to show Neko heading for Wano without Marco. That would've convinced the readers about Marco not coming and would've given more surprise when he appeared.
10. Powerscaling: Oda has pushed himself into a corner. When Luffy and Zoro was able to overcome Fujitora, I thought that these two will be able to battle top-tiers with some training. But then Oda decided to give Luffy a horrendous show against BM and Kaido. He created too big a gap and now he is trying to push Luffy to that level with power-ups that have been criticized as flashback power-ups. Although considering Lucci situation, I don't have any big issue here.
11. Too many characters: When Oda is introducing new characters like Yamato at this late stage, you start to question if Oda is suddenly changing his storyline. There are already too many characters for Oda to jumble around.

In any case, these are my complaints with the arc. I consider them to valid criticism. Your milage may vary.

 

[kurwa]

70 chapters of set up, Wano was already getting so much set up since Punk Hazzard yet Oda still decided to throw set up chapters equivalent WCI length

Oden- this dude was hyped so much yet when we got to see him we saw almost nothing from him, he was just "generic badass".

Roger flashback wasted- This was probably our only way to see how Rogers crew was, how they fought, how they interacted from newcomers perspective (Oden) , yet Oda skipped everything yet again...

Characters acting dumb just that Oda could progress the plot

Introducing irrelevant characters like most of smile headliners, they wasted sooooo many chapters

 

[Balen]

Because some people thought it would be Ennies Lobby 2.0 and it was not.
And because it seems that a vocal minorities in the western audience is more interested in « fights » than in « story ».

I do not say that fights are a bad thing, but when you just read a chapter just to see side characters fighting and are totally oblivious or do not care about the story and the thematics of the arc, you just can be disappointed.
It is sad to me that for some people, One Piece should be a feat’s dictionary rather than a compelling story.

They should read two piece there's lotta fights there

 

[Charlotte Horchata]

Important inconsistencies and plot holes (Kaido never showed any intention during the flashback to get information from Oden in spite of being the reason behind his execution according Zou; Orochi knew that Hiyori was alive but recently acted like he didn't; Oden was stated to be the only man to tame Enma, none before, none since, but the "before" part makes no sense because the sword was later retconned as a birth gift to the Kozuki heir).

Idiotic baits like Marco's message (you don't need to write Luffy a letter with such an irrelevant information if you can just tell Nekomamushi to pass it; the letter was obviously meant for us to theorize on the basis of nothing). Or Zoro saying he'd gather the samurais. Or Franky looking for Kaido's blueprints. Or Sanji taking Page One out for good. Etc.

Poorly managed plot lines (Udon had a lot of potential with Luffy and Kid fighting each other as a way to get significantly stronger, for example, and I'm still hopingTama to actually do something that tops an hypothetical scenario in which the first part of the arc actually led to something and she was ultimately taken to Denjiro because he was aware of Kin'emon coming back, of her powers, and wanted her to fill the feast of the festival with her taming mochi in order to control the gifters from the start).

I'm waiting for the Numbers, although Hacha was disappointing, but as of now I feel like there are way too many gifters, too little non-Ryu RYu ancient zoans and, more importantly, common zoans. How can we explain this, exactly? Wasn't Kaido trying to fill his army with zoans before he started working with Doflamingo and Caesar?

Personally I'm not too fond of an scenario that copycats Japan nor of the aesthetics of Wano overall. I have a lot of ukiyo-e art if I want to see (better) artistic depictions of the country in ancient times. Design wise I'm not too convinced either, coming from the Donquixote Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates, the Beast Pirates seem to have way less thought put into them.

Too convenient that Luffy ran into Zoro; that Zoro ran into Hiyori; that Sanji and company "somehow" ran into Kin'emon; that Luffy was put in the same cell as Kid; that Kanjuro was acting all along so any inconsistency can be easily addressed; etc.

Oden is a fanfic character and Oda made him way too big to handle.

And I'm probably forgetting things, but this is enough.

 

[Jew D. Boy]

Scorching hot take - I don’t hate the Wano arc. Every single criticism leveled at it in this thread is totally and completely justified, but I am enjoying it more than expected with all its many flaws. Then again, I’m still suffering from WCI PTSD two years later as I stated in this thread’s sister piece, so that could be coloring my opinion.

In fact, this arc suffers from a lot of the same issues I had with the major saga preceding it - too many unnecessary characters hogging the spotlight, shitty pacing that makes it hard to follow the action, Big Mom is in it - and yet, I can’t bring myself to view it in a similar light. Really think it all has to do with the knowledge that ALL the Straw Hats are finally in the same place for the first time since halfway through Dressrosa, even though their reunion was muted in favor of other bullshit.

 

[Garp the Fist]

Because some people thought it would be Ennies Lobby 2.0 and it was not.
And because it seems that a vocal minorities in the western audience is more interested in « fights » than in « story ».

I do not say that fights are a bad thing, but when you just read a chapter just to see side characters fighting and are totally oblivious or do not care about the story and the thematics of the arc, you just can be disappointed.
It is sad to me that for some people, One Piece should be a feat’s dictionary rather than a compelling story.

Funnily enough I'd say Wano is quite like EL in a lot of respects. More so than maybe any other arc we've had.

The mainland part of Wano was W7. Onigashima is EL. This part of the arc is the part where Luffy and the Strawhats ran amuck in EL while Spandam was under the impression that Luffy has only managed to defeat five guards before being defeated- imagine the bitching about plot holes in this place that would provoke. The fights that everyone wants haven't started yet.

The difference, and where Wano falls short, is that W7/EL was the strongest character writing Oda has done in the series. The Strawhats there were the driving force of the arc, and every one of them was given a good amount of focus and development. And that hasn't happened here for the most part. And I can sympathise with Oda here- it must be hell of a difficult to keep that going for a main cast of character over twenty years almost weekly.

But his problem is that in place of the Strawhats the Scabbards are mostly lacking. EL had years of buildup with the Strawhats as our main characters, and that's why we felt so strongly about them when we saw them crumble and then have their greatest achievement. The Scabbards don't really have that. Kine'mon does, and I'd say Denjiro has been a success, but on the whole they don't really compare to the Strawhats. We saw Luffy and the Strawhats adventure so W7 hit hard. The Scabbards bond sort of got rushed through in maybe ten chapters? They've been there, but they've not really been focused on.

Take Kanjuro. I had a pretty good idea that he was the traitor purely because he hadn't really done anything in all the time he'd been in the series. That's not great writing. I was able to work out that Kanjuro was the traitor, but I didn't really care. He's the Scabbard we've known the second longest- his betrayal should have been a gut wrenching moment, not just a "aha, I was right!" one.

And Oden has been incredibly divisive, and there's not much else you can say about that. I liked him, but I can see why others don't, and given the motivation for the arc is mostly "avenge Oden" then, if you didn't like a Oden yeah, why should you really care? I feel Oda should move away from that focus in the future and go for the Strawhats being angry at all the sins that can be laid at Kaido's feet that the Strawhats care about. This is the guy that's the reason for the PH kid's, tontatta slavery, gassing of Zou, starving of Wano etc- focus on that. Then the conflict can seem personal for most the main cast, while we can also have the Scabbards avenging Oden as just a part.

Also I don't buy that Luffy cares about Oden. I don't think that's really in character. Luffy's thing going back to Nami and Arlong was he didn't care about why his friends were crying, all he cared about was that they were crying. That was enough for him. To this day I don't think Luffy has a clue who Bellemere, Saul, Tom, Hiriluk et al actually are. He should care about Momo, Kin'emon and Tama, and Oda has shown that- even the bit where he's watching Yasu die and got pissed, not knowing his story, but just because people were laughing at him, that was peak Luffy. But when we had stuff a few chapters ago where Luffy was trying to stop Kid because he didn't know about Oden, I didn't like that.

 

[Fn Lucci]

Wano is frustrating because the cast of significant characters dwarfs any other arc's by far. It'll read a lot better when said and done but right now it's like questions get tossed to the side for more questions.

And that was just too much Oden, decompressed story for sure.

 

[Paperchampion23]

70 chapters of set up, Wano was already getting so much set up since Punk Hazzard yet Oda still decided to throw set up chapters equivalent WCI length

Oden- this dude was hyped so much yet when we got to see him we saw almost nothing from him, he was just "generic badass".

Roger flashback wasted- This was probably our only way to see how Rogers crew was, how they fought, how they interacted from newcomers perspective (Oden) , yet Oda skipped everything yet again...

Characters acting dumb just that Oda could progress the plot

Introducing irrelevant characters like most of smile headliners, they wasted sooooo many chapters

There are plenty of other chances to see Roger in flashbacks. We have no idea Shank's past and his relationship with Rogers crew yet. We have no idea what he told Shanks before he died. We have no idea what Roger discovered on Laugh Tale.

Better yet, we have yet to see the Rocks flashback which should give more context to how Roger and his crew won with Garp.


That said, I get peoples problems with this arc. It's nearing 80 chapters without any major battles lol and even when it's finished, it only resolves a 300 chapter samurai/Yonko plot. It propel us ever closer to the myriad of endgame plotlines that have yet to even be touched on or started.

 

[Albino 👑]

Idk how we've been in wano for 70+ chapters...

 

[CaptainJackSparrow]

This arc has to be one of the best arcs in One Piece :

- Multiple Supernova fights
- Luffy vs Kaido
- Luffy learns advanced COA
- Sanji shows off the RS
- Zoro gets a new sword (possibly 2 by the end of the arc)
- Oden Flashback
- Seeing prime WB and Prime Roger adventures
- Finding out the Yonko bounties
- Finding out WB and Roger Bounties
- Yasu Death
- Meeting the stronger scabbards (Denjiro, Ashura and Kawamatsu)
- Learning more about Ryuma past
- Marco coming back and joining the alliance
- Kaido’s crew revealed and their D.F’s revealed
- Finding out the warlords are at war with the Marines
- 2 Yonkos clashing then allying with one another

ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE THE START OF THE WAR. THERES STILL PLENTY MORE TO COME.

 

[Olimaat]

I love it lmao

 

[Natalija]

There hasn't been any sense of danger and nothing that makes me feel like I want to read the next chapter.

Mainly this at this point.

I'm not going to judge it yet before it's over, but it feels like smooth sailing for the crew. I get that they're confident and stronger now, as they should be, but they don't seem fazed by anything. "Oh Luffy's defeated and captured? Yeah whatever, Luffy will be fine" ... We know Luffy will be fine, but the attitude is too nonchalant. The only moment they were moved was when they heard about Oden... Why would they care about that? No one cares about Oden, stop Odenising us.

 

[Kami Burn]

Truely said the Wano arc brought me back for One Piece after I abandoned it for 6 years,disappointed by the more low quality story writing. For me,there was no tension in the OP story,but now its pretty interesting to read.

 

[Natalija]

Honestly if no one dies in Wano... That will be the breaking point.

 

[Momoheechulkabe9000]

Personally the following things were disappointing for me:

1. False hype: Holdem and Kawamatsu were unnecessarily promoted by Oda. This is specially true for Kawamatsu, when Oda kept him in silhouette for 10+ chapters only to break him out after BM was taken away.
2. Inefficient use of characters: I think most people will agree that Oda has used BM and BMPs very inefficiently.
3. Slow pace: The Udon arc was very poorly done. What could be done in 3 chapters were stretched to 10+ chapters. Even if it was important, it was dragged too much to be enjoyable.
4. Raid Suit: Okay, this is probably nitpicking, but the way Oda introduced Stealthblack and the circumstances surrounding it wasn't well done considering Sanji's distaste for Vinsmoke technology.
5. Page1: I still don't understand the reason behind the cliffhanger in Sanji vs. Page1. It served no higher purpose as far as I am concerned.
6. Toki: When you get a character that comes from the void century and gives an ominous prophecy, you would expect this character to be a centerpiece of a story. What happened was really disappointing, though there may be time to redeem it!!
7. Inconsistencies: The inaction of WB, Ace and Shanks is baffling. Oden dancing like an idiot for five years is idiotic. Oden having his swords with him when he was captured was idiotic.
8. Oden's story: Usually the story of tragedy in an arc illustrates the struggles of that island. But in Oden's story, Wano's struggle felt like a backdrop to Roger and WB. The story didn't correctly portray Wano's decline, it was rather used to narrate a much bigger picture. For example, Moria vs. Kaido could've been a more central piece of the story, but it was finished in two panels.
9. False advertising: Oda wanted readers to feel that Marco wouldn't come, so that readers are surprised when Marco makes sudden appearance. But he didn't execute it properly. A better way would've been to show Neko heading for Wano without Marco. That would've convinced the readers about Marco not coming and would've given more surprise when he appeared.
10. Powerscaling: Oda has pushed himself into a corner. When Luffy and Zoro was able to overcome Fujitora, I thought that these two will be able to battle top-tiers with some training. But then Oda decided to give Luffy a horrendous show against BM and Kaido. He created too big a gap and now he is trying to push Luffy to that level with power-ups that have been criticized as flashback power-ups. Although considering Lucci situation, I don't have any big issue here.
11. Too many characters: When Oda is introducing new characters like Yamato at this late stage, you start to question if Oda is suddenly changing his storyline. There are already too many characters for Oda to jumble around.

In any case, these are my complaints with the arc. I consider them to valid criticism. Your milage may vary.

Indeed all your complaints are valid. However, if Oda ends act 3 in an Infinity War fashion while using the next interlude to bring characters central to the straw hats like like Smoker, Tashigi, Coby, Hancock, and Vegapunk would make the story a lot more engaging imho.

I do hope that Hiyori is actually Toki pretending to be her daughter to get some revelations on the void century.

 

[OmegaPsyche]

This arc has to be one of the best arcs in One Piece :

- Multiple Supernova fights
- Luffy vs Kaido
- Luffy learns advanced COA
- Sanji shows off the RS
- Zoro gets a new sword (possibly 2 by the end of the arc)
- Oden Flashback
- Seeing prime WB and Prime Roger adventures
- Finding out the Yonko bounties
- Finding out WB and Roger Bounties
- Yasu Death
- Meeting the stronger scabbards (Denjiro, Ashura and Kawamatsu)
- Learning more about Ryuma past
- Marco coming back and joining the alliance
- Kaido’s crew revealed and their D.F’s revealed
- Finding out the warlords are at war with the Marines
- 2 Yonkos clashing then allying with one another

ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE THE START OF THE WAR. THERES STILL PLENTY MORE TO COME.

Yeah, this arc had many highlights, but people don't care about them, it's all about the inconsistencies with them, which I agree to a certain extent.

 

[Albino 👑]

Luffy getting one shot and imprisoned was used for a gag...even the enraged army was taken more seriously

 

[Jorden625]

A lot the highlights that people like to bring up have very little to do with the story of this arc. Things like Roger vs Whitebeard, the Yonko Bounties and Rocks information are amazing, but I don't give this arc credit for those things though, if that makes sense. For example, Usopp knocking out Sugar is a great Dressrosa moment. A lot of the moments people bring up for this arc feel like they could have been put into any arc, so they just feel like fanservice. Like imagine if we randomly got to see a Shanks vs Mihawk in this arc. Everyone would agree that would be amazing, but should we really say "oh Wano's amazing for making this happen", because it has nothing to do with the story.

As far as the actual characters introduced in this arc go, I can't think of anything cool they have actually done. Everything that's been a highlight for me so far has involved Supernovas or Yonko. Like what's the coolest thing that a Scabbard has done in this arc? Ashura cutting Jack is the only thing that comes to mind for me, there's nine of these assholes (maybe Denjiro cutting Komurasaki but who cares about that in the grand scheme of things). And that's just the scabbards, I don't even want to mention people like Yasu & Gyukimaru, who written out of the story almost as soon as they were introduced. I have more to say, but I'll have to come back later.

 

[OmegaPsyche]

A lot the highlights that people like to bring up have very little to do with the story of this arc. Things like Roger vs Whitebeard, the Yonko Bounties and Rocks information are amazing, but I don't give this arc credit for those things though, if that makes sense. For example, Usopp knocking out Sugar is a great Dressrosa moment. A lot of the moments people bring up for this arc feel like they could have been put into any arc, so they just feel like fanservice. Like imagine if we randomly got to see a Shanks vs Mihawk in this arc. Everyone would agree that would be amazing, but should we really say "oh Wano's amazing for making this happen", because it has nothing to do with the story.

As far as the actual characters introduced in this arc go, I can't think of anything cool they have actually done. Everything that's been a highlight for me so far has involved Supernovas or Yonko. Like what's the coolest thing that a Scabbard has done in this arc? Ashura cutting Jack is the only thing that comes to mind for me, there's nine of these assholes (maybe Denjiro cutting Komurasaki but who cares about that in the grand scheme of things). And that's just the scabbards, I don't even want to mention people like Yasu & Gyukimaru, who written out of the story almost as soon as they were introduced. I have more to say, but I'll have to come back later.

Scabbards are the Wiper/Kyros of the arc, fans should have never hyped them as much as they have

 

[Shuyaku]

This is the kind of arc where the climax makes or breaks it. The build up to it being mediocre is fine imo.