While there were many amazing moments this year I think I found myself enjoying the manga the least this year more than any other.
"WHAAAAAAAT DID YOU SAAAAAAAAY!?"
Oda spent an entire year setting up his story.
He has never done that before.
This entire year although enjoyable, didn't feel like we were moving ahead. I KNOW it's all for the greater good and I know many essential mysteries were resolved, characters were revisted and we found out stuff that we simply could not have imagined (reason behind the Fishman Pirates' tattoo anyone?)
Some of the best and most surprising chapters in the SERIES have been during the setups. This was true in his last big setup which ran from roughly summer 2004 to late December of the same year. I think this time around as well. Again, not talking chapter by chapter, I'm talking about big picture.
That said, the potential the story NOW holds with Oda having used an entire year to establish what APPEARS to be a multi-tiered story-arc is simply incomprehensible. When Oda laid out his gameplan in 516, the weight of the story that was just beginning to unfold left me speechless and I remain so to this day. We are going to be taken for a ride that none of us can imagine and I think this is going to be THE best year to two years of OP ever.
And we're only half-way through my friends…..if that ;)