"I'll hold my tongue on OP's success or failure in the US until it gets to Arlong. When readers see what kind of story-telling Oda really possesses and realize that he has a bigger picture, then we can say whether it's a win or lose situation."
I now present to you quotes from Naruto fanboy cauldron Toriyama World:
Same here. I'm almost tempted to look for scanlations of it. I've been realy getting into it alot recently, during the Arlong arc…but American SJ just wont cut it for me..and I don't really wanna watch the anime.
the american sj is fine for me, i cant wait to start buying the gn's. the arlong saga is so kick ass it makes me wanna know what else is gonna happen, since i dont really know. aaah i cant wait for the next sj
have they ever gotten to the grand line yet? whats so scary about this place?
I gave in and started reading the scans lol. I'm upto right after the whale part where they're gonna take Ms.Wednesday and Mr.9(?).
but dont you see that its those characters that you love that makes anything in the story interesting? if you like the characters then, thats pretty much all that matters, even though great stuff happens in the story and theres very emotional parts it all comes down to the charactes. and thats probably why i love one piece (im addicted too) its because the characters are so colorful and different from eachother. the way they play off one another makes the series so appealing. i aspire to make something great like this in the near future!
I kick ass.