@Kitsune:
It also doesnt help that the One Piece anime is a hot mess.
If you're so concerned about making your friends like One Piece, then go find friends that do.
Stop posting the same shit like clockwork.
Eh. I wouldn't say the anime being mediocre is a big problem. I mean… Naruto and DBZ's original anime are full of fillers and/or dragged out episodes with bad art and those do just fine.
One doesn't just venture to find friends who like One Piece. At least, to me, that's not natural. It should just happen by meeting people, like it does with other series. But it doesn't. Or if I do find one, they're annoying and trash the dub.
I'm expressing my opinion. If you don't like it and you absolutely can't stand it, then block me. Otherwise enjoy talking (or typing) to the air. I'm not going to suppress myself for the likes of you when I'm doing nothing wrong. This isn't an echo-chamber where everyone has to agree with each other and no one can express concern, and no the number of times said concern is given shouldn't matter, get off of that.
--- Update From New Post Merge ---
Not saying it got better. Just saying the story did become more detailed and intricate and that it's not just non-stop fighting with no plot like Dragonball Z. That's all there is to it. Shippuden in general slightly made things more complex than it's predecessor, for better or worse (I personally prefer OG Naruto to Shippuden, even if it was more light in the story elements because at least the characters had some personality and it didn't take itself as seriously).
Anyway, in the end, almost all shonen anime are junk food... and arguing which one is better or not is kinda pointless. They're not high-brow literature so bringing up story structure and criticism would pretty much strike them all out if we really want to get detailed with it, not just Naruto.