General & Others Why Is Whole Cake Island So Hated?

Fiji

Fiji

‎
#1
#1
I've noticed that a lot of individuals on this forums hate Whole Cake Island. In the YouTube and Twitter communities of One Piece, Whole Cake Island is regarded as one of the best in the series. For me personally, it isn't even top 10 in One Piece, and I have a ton of issues with the arc.

Simultaneously, the arc has some dope highs that balances it out to a 5/10, average arc for me but definitely below Oda's average.

I made this thread to ask the people who love or hate Whole Cake Island as an arc, what are your thoughts on it?

What did you think of Luffy vs Katakuri? What did you think of Sanji's character in the arc? Was the ending satisfactory? Was Big Mom entertaining as an antagonist? Did you enjoy Luffy vs Sanji?

What would you rate the Whole Cake Island arc out of 10 and how does it fare against Water 7, Enies Lobby, Skypiea, Alabasta, Marineford and Dressrosa?
 
Elder Lee Hung

Elder Lee Hung

Conqueror of the Stars
‎
#5
#5
Whole Cake Island is a masterpiece compared to Wano, but WCI still has a ton of problems that cause it to fall short of the best OP arcs. Some examples:

-Sanji’s own character arc was boring, meaningless, and his role in WCI was complete trash
-Established Conflicts early on having absolutely no resolution (The Baratie/Crossdresser Island being in danger, Jinbe having to spin the Life or Treat wheel, etc)
-The arc was way too freaking long in comparison to how little actually happened

Etc..

But Wano is a complete dumpster fire in comparison. Wano is quite literally unreadable for me personally. I could go back and read WCI again because the good things about it were very entertaining, but Wano is so terrible that just reading past the spoilers is a huge ordeal for me.
 
Jew D. Boy

Jew D. Boy

I Can Go Lower
‎
#10
#10
The pace was garbage in the front half, and unforgivably slow in the back half (Linlin literally chased the Thousand Sunny for 20 fucking chapters). Wano hype fatigue made me ready to get there and leave Linlin behind, although what we’ve gotten since this arc started leaves a lot to be desired.

Sanji’s family reveal was fine, and I get what Oda was going for by writing a different story, but him not getting a fight AND restoring Big Mom to full health with the cake is trash writing - why make him learn Attack Cuisine for the entirety of the timeskip if he isn’t going to use it at the most crucial moment of the arc?

Jinbe not coming back with his new crew was infuriating, all the cockteasing we went through with him joining was stretched out another two years for little to no fucking reason.

Waaay too many side characters, I don’t need to know every single kid she’s popped out especially when only five or six of them merited focus.

It was just sloppily done throughout, the Cracker fight felt ancillary and the tilt with Katakuri would have ended in Luffy’s utter defeat without heaping doses of PIS. Brook was the only MVP candidate of the entire arc, and possibly the only thing I enjoyed about it even with years of hindsight now between my first read and today.
 
Xione

Xione

‎
#12
#12
It's top 5-7 for me. Dressrosa is the only post-TS arc that I didn't feel. The fact that it had such a huge amount of characters and it all happened in a tiny small city is what took me out of it, felt overwhelming and just all squished in. While on the other hand, Wano despite tons of characters feels chill because the locations are changing and such.

My only issue with WCI is the memory removal from Sanji that Oda did to keep Sanji the way he was. Felt like that killed a lot of potential development to his character and potential internal conflict regarding his gag he would have with himself.

Katakuri stuff was nice. Big Mom being an unstoppable Hulk was dope, though issue here is the strawhat confrontation she had but after that with her only 2 seconds away from burning Nami/Carrot/Jinbei/Chopper alive, can't complain much. The ending sequence is pure epicness to read for WCI when it comes to the narration.


Was Big Mom ENTERTAINING? Yes
Was it what I expected? No
Was it what I would've gone with? No, I personally would've focused on her empire building aspect more, her relations with other nations and such.
 
Last edited:
Natalija

Natalija

x
‎
#13
#13
I thought WCI was really fun.

It's the first time Oda tried to shake things a bit post time skip: inside crew drama I was yearning for since Usopp, Sanji's bounty explanation, Luffy not being able to defeat a powerful Yonko, separated SHs which allowed for more individual focus, giving Nami something to actually do, interesting country concept, cool crew etc. People complain a lot about Linlin, but her backstory actually made me a bit sad for her.

Also, in contrast to what the majority of this forum thinks... When they were chased by BM, I took a second to actually appreciate One Piece. I thought WEEEEEDDING CAKEEEE was a concept only Oda can pull off, and I like it :yasu:
 
Yuji

Yuji

‎
#16
#16
WCI was solid, it falls down a bit because a lot of straw hats weren't there and Sanji didn't get a chance to really shine in his own arc.

The Big Mom thing is overplayed, even after going through the nerfs and the screaming, she still managed to look like the most threatening thing we've ever seen to the Straw Hats since Kizaru at Sabaody.

Have to say Katakuri sucked as a villain though, it seems his entire role in the story was a training device for Luffy's observation haki, there was no real satisfying conclusion to that fight.
 
Natalija

Natalija

x
‎
#17
#17
Yuji said:
Have to say Katakuri sucked as a villain though, it seems his entire role in the story was a training device for Luffy's observation haki, there was no real satisfying conclusion to that fight.
Click to expand...
Because it was. Luffy needed a power up, but couldn't defeat BM yet. So.

BUT for me Luffy covering Kata's face was a very satisfying moment. I love Luffy for things like these. :sweat:
 
Buusatan94

Buusatan94

‎
#18
#18
I liked the first half of the arc until the fall of Whole Cake Chateau and then Big Mom's crazed rampage and the wedding cake storyline, combined to repetitive and annoying plot armor devices such as Brûlée being captured and used again or Flambée or the BMP not sending any heavy gun against the Germa 66 or how Nami got Zeus,plus the eternising and heavely plot armored fight against Katakuri and the poor use of characters like Smoothie, Compote or Snack gave a bitter taste to the second half of the arc to the point that I decided to make a pause with OP after the BM on the Sunny chapter.
 
ankama

ankama

‎
#20
#20
before the fall of BM castle, everything was interesting, the following events gathered all the worst that could be in OP: senseless pursuit, escalating intrigue without a visible result, stupid opponents of the main characters, constant skips of events without explanation, well, an open ending with incomprehensible the result, although with the arrival of BM the result should be obvious, but we still do not know anything about the outcome even now, with the appearance of Jinbe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top