@kljs:
Oh, believe me. He will stop…. when volume 99 is published in 2012.....
how the hell do you think he's going to produce 43 more volumes in just 3 years?
That aside…. As for being at the midpoint, locationwise, it HAS been at the midpoint for a while. I mean, after Skypedia was Water 7, and right after that, the red line, the physical half way marker in the world. (And thats not counting the trip across East Blue, so more like a physical 2/3 marker.)
Its just, Oda stopped doing 10-20 chapter arcs like he did originally. Skypeia was what, 80 chapters? Water 7 & Enies Lobby almost 150. Thriller Bark nearly 50. Shabondy was only about 20 though, Amazon Lilly was the length of an old arc at 10 chapters. Impel Down was the length of an old arc at about 20. The entire war looks like its going to be about 25 chapters. A much quicker clip.
So if Oda had kept the 20-30 chapter per story pace he did in the earlier material, then we would have been at the point in the story we're at now… 5 years ago. But the story grew. The strawhat cast is larger so it takes longer to showcase what every member is doing. The overall scale of things and subplots grew, so... it takes longer. I'm sure when Oda was first asked the question back in the middle of Skypeia that in Oda's head it went Skypeia-Water 7-Fishman Island.
Really, forward progression ISLAND wise, we're only 2 steps further than we were all the way back on Skypeia. Except we've also gotten Long Ring Island, Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark, Shabondy, Amazon Lilly, Impel Down, the War, distributed strawhats.... between Water 7 and Fishman Island. Except I'm sure Oda hadn't planned on Water 7 being a 3 year arc, it just turned out to be.
Location wise, we HAVE been at the halfway mark for a while. Plot wise though we've just been spending a lot more time in each location than we used to, so its just longer in some spots than Oda expects, and ALL stories grow in the telling.
So really it just boils down to how much time gets spent on each island in the New World. If he moves at the same clip he did for Mocktown, Lougue Town, Drum, Little Garden, and all of East Blue, then we could be almost done in just another 3 or 4 years.
Except of course, there will surely be at least one more mega arc that takes a year by itself, (and after all the years of buildup Fishman island pretty much needs to be)and we all have to assume the LAST arc will be the biggest most epic, and longest of them all… (and with Water 7 as comparison, thats kinda implying 3 years in and of itself...)