@Long:
Can't believe foxy arc is getting so little hate on this list. Maybe it's because of it's length but on a page by page basis it was pretty bad, I found myself trying to finish it all ASAP.
My favorites are Skypiea, reasons already have been mentioned
- best storytelling
- awesome flashback character
- great designs ( priests, villain, shandorians, skypians )
- lovely setting and authentic adventure feel
I also love Saobody and Ennies Lobby.
Fishman island and punk hazard don't bother me that much although they're not t the top. I did like the backstory more than most here it seems and the pawning of them was interesting as well. I'm also a sucker for good scenery.
Punk hazard was kind of drab but actually a lot of things happened in a shorter arc. Dragons, giants, smiley, gas, SAD, doffy being revealed,
! law and his Yonko plans, the alliance, vegapunk foreshadowing, smoker and tashigi returning, underrated humor of a body swap, samurai and his son, monet and Caesar having cool logia powers ( two logias one arc lol ) , luffy finally decking said logia, Vergo being a beast himself and the smoker Vergo fight is underrated ( I disagree that it makes smoker look bad ) giant experiments, shinokuni, underworld being introduced
All things considered it was one of the faster paced arcs, with amount of content introduced per chapter.
Impel down is one I flip flop on whether I like it or not. I like the idea of a prison break but some of the escape feels draggedout on my mind. There's also the great return of baroque works, and Magellan and hannyabal are like able antagonists.
Yet part of me will always feel a bit that them being unsuccessful in rescuing ace at MF made this arc a waste of time, I know that the content of a future one shouldn't effect my judgement but I still have that bit on my mind even when I can state how I love certain features.
As I was reading your post I felt like I could have written it myself :)
I truly hate Foxy arc. Doesn't really matter if it was short. The new characters were annoying as hell and Strawhats seemed like weaklings. I'm always surprised when people say they wish Foxy to come back in the story.
I kinda understand why people don't like Fishman Island arc but for me it wasn't that bad. Maybe because I read it in one go, and I didn't have to wait one week for a new chapter. I really liked the fact that the fights were relatively easy to Strawhats and I didn't mind even if New Fishman Pirates seemed little weak.
Nowadays Skypiea is one of my favorites, but it wasn't always like that. Up until Skypiea I thought that pretty much every new arc was better than the last, but for some reason at first I didn't like Skypiea that much. I can't even remember any reasons why anymore and now after I have visited that story several times again I feel that it's one of the best ones. Everyone have said all the reasons to like it so I'm not gonna repeat all that.
But if I had to choose the best arc I would probably say Jaya. Yeah, it's also short and kinda part of Skypiea but it just is so damn perfect the way Luffy beats Bellamy.
Edit:@hosemisnuba:
As far as crap arcs go, I would say Amazon Lily (why is nobody mentioning this complete crap hole of an arc- screw Boa Hancock; it has no redeeming qualities) is horrible
Yeah, I didn't like Amazon Lily that much either, but mainly because of Hancock. After I reread it and somehow ignored the shittyness of Hancock it seemed little better.