WARNING: Wall of Text ahead:
I certainly feel a bit down after reading so many people rightfully tear at the current state of the series. And seeing how a lot of people share some common complaints, and point the same things about the manga, it's quite clear that some stuff is going on that's definitely bugging a lot of OP fans.
Personally? I didn't think about much of it. I did feel something was a bit off. But I'm seriously enjoying A LOT of current OP: the Sabaody reunion with the fake-hats was clever and funny; the travel to FI worked really well; the post-FI arc, with revelations a go-go, was really exciting and revealing; and Punk Hazard, so far, has been great. The beggining was supremely good, and maybe then it slowed down, but right until the end of Law vs. Smoker it was pretty damn near flawless. And in the recent 4-5 chapters, it's again back at full form.
Then again, you can see I'm loving OP, except, maybe, for FI (which, btw, I didn't HATE as many people did, but I do think it's probably the weakest OP arc).
But, yes, something feels off, and seeing this many comments going on the same direction, I can kinda see what was that feels not as good as before.
One is the crew just chilling and doing everyday stuff. Remember that chapter right after Thriller Bark where Luffy, Brook and Robin are trying to reach FI with the submarine while, on board the Sunny, Chopper and Usopp are chilling in a swimming pool, and the rest are eating some Sanji desserts, and. . .well, I missed that. It happened during the trip to FI, but it's still not all there.
Second, is the emotional investment. PH is great, really. I love the arc. It's juggling with a massive ammounts of threads and plot points, and I'm amazed so far it seems like the only one that's hanging is the Frozen People (well, and the Yeti Cool Bros. being completely disregarded and thrown away, which is. . .odd). The rest, I predicted Oda would either forget or just disregard some of them. But almost everything is on the stage now, and sincerely, hats off to the man for doing it. BUT STILL, there's something that prevent PH, a really good arc, from being a new Drum, Alabasta or Skypiea. Emotional investment. The crew, sincerely, couldn't care less about what's going on. So far, the only SH's that are attached to the current situation are Nami and Chopper, and maybe Sanji because of his peculiar relationship with Kinemon and the way he saved those G-5 marines.
The most emotional scenes (and let's be honest, they were pretty damn GREAT scenes) came from the G-5 marines. And maybe the kids (and that also deserves some pretty fucking lot of credit to Oda for doing something as reckless as showing that some LITTLE KIDS are being drugged up with METH in order to make them ADDICTS to a drug that turns them into freaking VICIOUS GIANT WARRIORS and that, when in withdrawal, start hallucinating and wrecking shit left and right. Junkies, man. 5 year old junkies. Hard-fucking-core). But all of this great stuff is happening outside of our main group. And, surprisingly enough, Luffy right now is the MOST disconnected from all this stuff. That feels weird.
Specially when fucking DoFlamingo is coming, and I can't see an epic fight between them two if Luffy doesn't give two shits about him.
Then comes a third point that is something that is bound to happen. One Piece will end some day, and taking into consideration that there's maybe roughly 10 more years of manga if Oda doesn't get completely sick of it by then (it could very well happen), then let's just analize the situation. I'm going to throw some random names (characters, places or events) that must "appear" in the story no matter what; in no particular order and as they just come to my head: Buggy, Crocodile, the Gorosei, Big Mam, Kaido, Enel, Ancient Weapons, Raftel, Blackbeard, a second war, One Piece, the other Supernovas, the Reverie, the Lost Century, the Revolutionaries, Dragon, Sabo, Moriah, Mihawk, Kuma, Shanks, Garp, COBY, Sakazuki, Aokiji, the Level 6 Prisoners. . . . . . . . . .And I'm sure I'm missing stuff here.
Sincerely, that's just I N S A N E.
If we keep going at this rate of 30-50 chapters per arc, we have, what, 8 arcs left? 9? at most? There's just not enough time to keep adding all this stuff AND, at the same time, give us stand-alone arcs that have no relation to the "Bigger Picture". The Daz pointed that fear, and many subscribed it, and I agree, but, seriously, there's just NO TIME.
I know it's Oda's "fault" for wanting to create hype for the future (and he did), and now he has to "keep his word" and make all of this characters re-appear, give them another arc; make all of this promised events happen, and make them as epic as we expect; give us the supreme final riddles of the manga (OP and Void Century), and live up to the massive hype. . . . .
That's why, in the first New World island, in what looked like a stand-alone, apparently unrelated arc, we have: a connection to Vegapunk; Doflamingo and his crew; Smoker and Tashigi; Law; another Supernova alliance; a plan to take down a Yonkou; the creation of a Devil Fruit. . . . .and it's the first damn island of the New World.
This is gonna be frantic, that's the way I see it and I think it'll be SO hard to have some little breather arcs here and there, or have some fun in the land of Elbaf, or go sight-seeing in Wano, or have a second round against Foxy, or have the crew just chill on the Sunny while telling stories of those 2 years of training and experiences (BTW, are they not curious about what each of them did for 2 years? C'mon, someone must ask Robin about her 2 years with Dragon. . .)
So, maybe after being "pointed out" about the current OP problems, I might feel a bit down for the next days, thinking that maybe OP will slowly take the Naruto road. . .But then, hopefully, the next chapter will come and it'll be as good as the last ones.
You won't break my spirit!
(No, but seriously, it's sad to see so many people disapointed with OP and just accepting the fact that "it's no longer what it used to be!". To me, PH is as fun and engaging as a Little Garden, with less emotion but with a much more complex, intrincate structure. That's good for me as long as the emotional punch comes some way along the line, and it'll happen. You just wait.)