I'm one of the newer fans. Been one since 2015.
My first exposure to One Piece was through the 4Kids dub as a kid and just like everyone else, showed no interest in the series and kept watching TMNT, Kirby, and Sonic X. Years later, I discovered the Dragon Ball Z x One Piece x Toriko crossover and watched it just for DBZ (I was a big fan at the time). I didn't know who anyone was other than the Z Fighters, but it was at that point I learned that One Piece is super popular in Japan.
I asked one of my friends (when I was still in high school) about if One Piece is a good series to watch. He gushed over how it was one of the best series of all time and how it will leave you in tears more than once and even though it's a long series to catch up to (it was around the 650's when I showed interest in the series), once you start, you can't stop. I eventually heeded his advice and began the marathon of marathons that is One Piece.
You're reading the post of a man who marathoned through 18 years of the series straight and didn't skip a single episode regardless of if it was filler or not (the Ocean's Dream Filler Arc and the Thriller Bark Arc were struggles to watch through) from Ep. 1 to Law's flashback (when I caught up) which took me three months and I only cried 6-7 times for 20 minutes each.
I didn't start reading the manga until towards the end of Law vs. Mingo in the anime back when I was waiting weekly for it. I'll never forget how surprised I was to see Gear 4th Luffy for the first time ever, good times. Then I caught up to the manga around the tail end of Dressrosa when the SHs were leaving, thinking to myself, "This arc still isn't finished?!". I lurked in AP for about 3 months before I decided to make an account, which was during the Zou Arc.
Now that I look back at it, I had a lot of patience for the anime, almost too much patienceā¦ :blink: