Posts made by flyingpanman

@zeltrax225:

Translation didn't make me see how Hiyori family treated her in a better light.
Must be nice to be a backup plan and be knowingly put through suffering for years, hmm
Why couldn't she time flash them both and have her stay out of Kaidou sight and the entire war if she was to be a back up plan?
Instead she was put into danger in a situation of poverty and when she could die anytime.
Flash forward 20 years and I don't see a difference.
Current situation if she and Momo dies in this arc, it doesn't even matter.
How is she a back up plan if she is going to get involved in 20 years anyway.

There was no reason for her to suffer for 20 years.
Such a bad taste to an otherwise good flashback.

There is a difference because it isn't that straightforward.

It is probably the first time Toki is using her powers to send people into the future. She had only sent herself before.

So, it is not 100% that it would be successful. What if they somehow got stuck in a time-space reality. Or end up being 25, 30 years later instead of 20. Or if they time travelled 20 years but ended up being in some other place than Wano and could not find their way back in time or die before they find Wano. These are all the possibilities that could happen,and why someone had to stay back as a backup plan, just in case for some reason they do not appear after the 20 years.

so that she would be able to take the lead and tell the "someone who appears to take down Kaidou after 20years" what had happened and help them to take down Kaidou on her own with the remaining scabbards.

@Zeorn:

To be fair Kaido is the demon/ogre of this tale and lives on Demon Island and Kiku wears a demon mask.

Kaido and his demon island is reference to a famous fairy tale about Momotaro, but in this case I'd say Momonosuke. In the story Momotaro travels to the island of demons, picking up 3 companions along the way, a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant. They defeat the demons/ogres and save the day.

Now there are 2 ways I'm thinking this will play out.

Of course the original Admirals were named in reference to these 3. But maybe Momotaronosuke has his own Monkey D. Luffy, Inuarashi (Dogstorm), and now we only need a pheasant. As for who might be Kiji (pheasant), who has wings and a hidden identity? None other than the Calamities own King, and his name is written キング. In English King and Kiji look different but the n (ン) and ji (ジ) in katakana are only 1 stroke different if you ignore the dakuten (small quotation mark things). Under King's mask is a bird beak!

Or M****omonosuke + Luffytaro = Momotaro, in other words they work together to defeat Kaido because lets be honest, Momonosuke isn't defeating Kaido, that's Luffy's job.

Another side-note. The Kitetsu blades, Sandai Kitetsu which Zoro uses and Nidai Kitetsu which Luffy is borrowing are written 鬼徹 which means Demon Piercer.

Okay, I'm finished having fun.

pheasant could be Marco, it is highly likely he will appear even though he said he wouldn't since Cat has not appeared either

@MiyamotoMusashi:

Which is the point. Kaidou after Roger was more driven and not disillusioned.

I mean kinemon said it happened 20 years ago before they got sent into the future. So kaidou was already interested in one piece then. Whether he's more interested or driven after that is a different thing.

But ppl keep saying kaidou is just bored even now, that's why he is still in wano.

@MiyamotoMusashi:

20 years ago my man

20 years ago so what? Kinemon is also from 20 years ago and he's the one who said that.

@MiyamotoMusashi:

I will certainly agree that Oda shifted his focus towards the antagonists more beyond simply being symbolical contrasts to Luffy in comparison to pre-TS with Doflamingo and Big Mom getting a background, but Kaidou has completely played second fiddle to Orochi, with his main motivation being "i am bored", seems empty.

Kaidous main motivation is not he is bored. He is also interested in the one piece and knows oden knows something about it. It was stated by kinemon back in zou, I don't know why so many people forgot about it or overlooked it.

Roger could have been the first to reach lodestar but that was like twenty over years ago. More ppl have probably reached or known about it, especially Kaido and big mom. We know that both kaidou and big mom are also interested in becoming the pirate King and finding one piece but they don't seem bothered about following the log pose and are both sitting on one road poneglyph each, which means they also know about the "path that is beyond lodestar" as what dog told nami

@Captain:

I'm starting to get worried, I have faith in Oda but the fact that Kaido is pretty much invincible and that Orochi is dangerously wise to danger will reach the point of the Straw Hats running out of ways to win the day without any bullshit.

Ur not wrong, Oda had already hinted this will be a large scale war comparable to marine Ford war

And we already have hints that the marines will probably make a move to wano also

@Lucky:

This chapter was a decent "cool down" after all the action we had last chapter overall. I have no issue with this chapter.

However, it does touch on something that I feel is a missed opportunity with One Piece as a whole. I'm referring to the page where the prisoners are questioning if Luffy can really be trusted, due to his being a pirate. Only to have Momonosuke end that uncertainty immediately. Now, I understand why Oda downplays the fact that his protagonists are outlaws. But I often wonder what interesting directions this series could go in if that aspect of the story wasn't de-emphasized as much. Attempting to live as a wanted criminal isn't easy, having that as an obstacle for the main characters could present some intriguing conflict, like the example I mentioned before in this chapter. It's not a big deal, the page I cite from this chapter just brings up "what could have been" possibilities I like to think about.

no possibilities are required, because it doesnt matter whether the prisoners trust him or not. all along since the start, most of the villagers the straw hats have saved did not really trust pirates but they still went ahead and did their stuff.

Hawkins : tell me your plans, Law
Law: heh heh heh.. I will tell you everything.. tells everything
Law: but do you think that Luffy will follow the plan? You have no idea!

@Deicide:

I don't think this is just a memory loss.

Big Mom fell in the ocean and then lost her memory. As a devil fruit user, she should have sunk and died, there's something wrong in all this.

Why did we get all that backstory on Mother Caramel? Why was the portrait of Caramel important? Why damaging it affected Big Mom?

Why were Big Mom's powers shut down completely during her flashback?

I think Big Mom is actually a gestalt of Caramel and the young Lilin, and Caramel is in control most of the time. Falling into the ocean shut down the DF powers, so Caramel went dormant (I wouldn't be surprised if her soul is in the portrait or in the hat).

I'm betting on all that soulstone bindings not stopping Big Mom's, because she's not a real DF user. Her things will still have power, and she will still be strong as hell.

Big Mom's final defeat may not be a physical one, but Caramel's soul being exorcized or destroyed, and an amnesiac, caring (but dangerous) young Lilin personality remaining, with her sons having to take care of her.

I agree with you, I feel that Big Mom having dual personalities and suddenly falling asleep actually have been foreshadowed in the story before…. in the form of Cavendish and Hakuba. When Habuka tries to take over the main body but Cavendish is trying to prevent him from doing so and locked in a stalemate, he falls asleep, and vice versa.

Cant help but feel this is too similar with what Big Mom and O-Lin is facing - Queen's attack on the head allowed Big Mom (Hakuba) to surface temporarily, but O-Lin (Cavendish) is still sort of conscious and trying to prevent Big Mom from completely taking over - and thus the inner fight causes the main body to fall asleep.

@Captain:

M
The second arc, as established, begins with the Fujitora fight, and is, as with the last one, challenged in the very next major saga. Luffy comes up against a foe he can't defeat now, in the most literal way possible, and is forced to retreat. I don't think he's truly compromised on his decision not to back down from foes perceived to be above his level just yet, as he flung himself right at Kaido and is training to do the same thing again. I think he sees Big Mom as a lone exception to his declaration. We can see from the way Luffy reacts to her storming into the prison he's strongly associated her with the desperation and losses of Tottoland and still sees her as something totally unbeatable, that can only be run away from, even though he's just been training to face her apparent equal, Kaido.

And here, at the end of this current chapter, Hyo gives Luffy the push he needs to get back on track and face her, despite the pain she's caused. Luffy's expressions on the last page of the chapter are fantastic though and through, as he goes from retreat mode, to fighting down those instincts, to that perfect mix of determination and concern in the last panel when he fully commits to the fight. We've talked about great facial acting in Wano already, but it's not at all limited to the locals showing laughter and sadness at once. This is going to be a milestone fight for Luffy, however it plays out, and I cannot wait to see what happens.

Part of the reason why he flung himself against Kaido was he thought Kaido had killed his crew. He didnt even know whether they were alive or dead anymore, so he thought they might be dead and he he had nothing else to lose already anyway..

@fakescorpion:

Situation with Drake and Hawkins is hard to predict, but from a character design/theme standpoint, Drake has a higher chance to go down with Beast Pirates than Hawkins. I think people know how Oda created the supernovas in one day, right? He did that by incorporating a couple future characters into the lineup, along with a few new creations.

Drake is very obvious intended as part of Beast Pirates storyline from the start, just like how Bege is for Big Mom Pirates and Law is for Donquixote Pirates. Hawkins on the other hand, was originally intended to be Strawhat’s NW Warlord guide, before Law hijacked his job lol. This is why I see Hawkins as the biggest wild card, and the reason he seemed off-theme and out-of-place.

That being said, I don’t think Hawkins would be taken down as a villain. Hawkins is a pretty boy type character, they always get maimed by antagonists, not protagonists. (examples. Law, Cavendish, Ichiji etc.) I tried to think of an exception, but is coming up blank. They appeared to have a lower grade of certain plot immunity as beautiful women lmao

Problem with this is in one of the wano chapters, Hawkins hinted that drake joined Kaido because of something he wanted

@andre:

Knowing that would be nice, but I wouldn't mind if it came from an SBS or not at all. Not at all integral to the story in my opinion.

it is important to know at least how they knew about Raizou, as Raizou was also one of the people that got teleported 20 years into the future. them knowing the existence of Raizou and that they were so sure Raizou was alive meant that at least Jack or Kaidou knew the 9 scabbards were still alive, but yet the Shogun and his underlings seem to not know it yet.

@joekido:

I think Oda need to set up a time table here because if this takeover was 20 years ago, then we must look to Momonsuke who is supposed to be 10 years old so how does this fit? Oh and that roof must be a balloon but isn't the New World suppose to be a physic defying place?

At Zou, Momonsuke also said he met Roger before but Usopp said he was lying as he can't possibly have been born so early. so this is something that definitely will be answered sooner or later.

hopefully its not something like cliche like a time travel devil fruit or that time is longer in Wano due to the New World defying natural laws.

Nami's legs are super long this time and her dress is so fking short man !!!!!!

@Kdom:

do you think zoro incident is the reason why they are not responding the phone ?

It could also just be that luffy didn't know how to use the phone properly

@desa:

I think people tend to give Oda way to much credit about his planning everything so I'm not saying he planned the reverie to work that way. But I don't think that less kings in one meeting is inconsistent with those rule we were introduced to. It's not like Oda planned that those 10/20 kings were actually in the 5th day and the others were outside because the general matters were already discussed but rather that there's a perfectly valid explanation in those new rule even if Oda didn't think of it.

sometimes its because of random plot points that he suddenly introduced which there were not a need for that causes these inconsistencies..especially when it comes to numbers. for instance he didn't have to exactly specify "50" representatives, 170 countries and so on? he could have used more than 50 or something like that

@otakufan:

Since the vast majority of the Reverie participants not having been introduced, we don't know for certain that they are ALL kings and queens…

I would also note that only 50 out of 170 member nations actually get to send representatives to the Reverie, so some of the islands that don't have monarchs may simply not be influential enough to warrant a seat. Case in point, for all Water 7's current value as a shipbuilding powerhouse, it's also an island that was in a prolonged economic collapse until relatively recently (the completion of the Sea Train) due to the island gradually sinking into the sea.

this bugs me a lot, I think definitely not all the people who can attend are there

as in this old video about the last reverie though ,

around 34 seconds it shows there were only around 20 ppl max in a much smaller table during the last reverie, yet the table is much bigger this time round and have up to 50 ppl this time around

in this old video about the last reverie though ,

around 34 seconds it shows there were only around 20 ppl max in a much smaller table during the last reverie, yet the table is much bigger this time round and have up to 50 ppl?

I was just wondering, so if Luffy didn't Dressrosa from Mingo, wouldn't Mingo actually be the King representing Dressrosa at the Reverie? Would have been pretty cool to see that happening though.

Considering that Mingo took over Rosa 10 years ago, and Reverie happens once every 4 year, it would have been cool to see Mingo at an old Revere diking and laughing at the other kings

@Roronoa:

I was also surprised that Jack must have woke up underwater, cause - as you pointed out correctly - Zounisha took him out for good (with eyes gone White, etc.). Fishman or not, can a DF user awake underwater? Oda says "yes".
It just would be cool for top Tier fighters with DFs to not get defeated just by being tossed into the water. That is my whole thought behind that.

actually quite a few scenarios where top tier fighters with DF did not get defeated just by being tossed into the water. Of course, they were helpless in the water, but they didnt like just die for no reason. one example was Luffy during the Arlong fight, where Arlong threw him into the water with a big rock attached to his feet, but he ended up surviving. of course the way he survived is debatable as it was lucky he ate a rubber devil fruit, but if such cases happen there must be other ways for other df users to survive even after being tossed into the water.

definitely though, they wont be able to do much or fight in the water unlike Zoro vs Hody or Sanji vs the Arlong fishman guy in the water early in the story

I went back to read the flashback Big Mom had. She ate the very nice birthday cake and it was so delicious that she ended up eating Mother Caramel and her friends too (wasn't implied directly).

So this time she is saying the taste is the same - is Oda trying to show a parallel here? Big Mom may actually end up still eating the whole of Tottoland and everyone around her, just like how she did during the flashback?

If Bege's ship is destroyed, how are they going to get out of Big Mom's territory? It seems like Bege might end up joining the Straw Hats for a short while… if he hears that they are going to take down Kaido next he's probably gonna be interested too

@Kaido:

I think it's not really that, it's more about Oda wanting to write so many things about the OP World that he has to cut back in order to finish within a reasonable time. So it seems to me like his creativity is flowing more than ever now that the story has reached a bigger stage but he's having a bit of trouble tying everything together to fit a more strict frame.

yeah, I think he tries too much and the story just gets bigger and bigger and he has a hard time tying the loose ends up. for instance, was there really a need to introduce Edward Weevil into the story so late ? Unless he was really WhiteBeard's biological son ?

@Buggy:

I don't think even Oda cares about him.

He already lost face losing to the mad monk.

Also, was that the end of Smoothie? Lol we saw her get big for 1 chapter and now she's no where to be found. She probably got off paneled.

I wonder if we'll see the Germa in this arc or are they done? Would like to see again. But the arc seems to he going towards its end fairly quickly. I'm thinking 4-6 more chapters, we should have the SHs saying bye and on their middle of the sea chapter where we should see a newspaper or other world events.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the world's reaction and other events that transpired during the WCI arc. Hurryyyyy

Germa and the fishman pirates are probably the ones who also help to assist in their escape..

if ppl are pissed off at Luffy being able to defeat Kata.. what would they think if Sanji was actually able to get Luffy and escape from them from under such a huge army ?

Theres one more option that the Straw Hats dont have to come back to defeat Big Mom though… which is some other rookies in the worst Generation had teamed up and took down Big Mom while they are still weak after Luffy's time here, which isn't that surprising considering that Morgan would probably report this to the whole world. This way Luffy wouldnt have a need to take down Big Mom again in the future.

@kevo_koma:

Zoro and Pica fight confirmed that you can have more powerful armament than your opponent.

I think what he meant was, in Mangastream's version, he said that "There are things that surpass armament", but in Jamini's box version, it's "My haki is strong than yours too". so which one is it?

Also, this makes an opening for Straw hats to get out of Big Mom Pirates' island.. Luffy will probably defeat katakuri and then he will beg Luffy not to tell his true form to his family and he will speak up for Luffy and co to leave the island, but on the condition never to come back and challenge Big Mom again

@Strooger:

Early chapter + seemingly no break? God is good! I hope the Strawhats get on the ship next chapter, because although I like wholecake island, an even longer escape + rampaging Big Mamu would be pretty tedious.

I don't think that they would be able to leave so easily even if they managed to get onto the ship. Bege already said that it takes one day for them to travel out of Big Mom's territory by ship.

There's also a lot of things that could still happen. The Germa has disappeared, and Judge seems like the kind who would bring back his army of clones and army to challenge Big Mom again. As his "dream" of conquering is already over. If they really can get away in less than a day by ship, it would have to be because the fishman pirates are still around and able to ferry them out in a shorter amount of time maybe.

Plus Mr Bean Man was shown to have such powerful observation haki that he could see the future. It would be a shame if he couldn't do it like Enel - using his haki to detect where Bege and Luffy are on the island.

@LKratos:

Hi, didn't see this talked about much and wanted to weigh in.

If it ends up confirmed about the cannibalism thing with big mom as a child, this also confirms that eating a person with a devil fruit grants you its power, and explains what Blackbeard did to Whitebeard behind that veil. In that sense, I think that Caramel is a very important plot device in revealing that fact.

but whitebeard's body was shown to be still intact

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

One thing I was thinking about though - if Bege can transform himself into a castle then wouldn't he be able to have mirrors in there too to make use of Brulee's skill?

@blue-san:

I actually like the way she looks. In OP a lot of girl characters have too much of a Nami, Vivi etc faces, she is a bit different (older) looking and I am fine with that and actually find it attractive how Reju looks

she is attractive to me in the manga too but somehow the colored version doesn't look the same

@Kaizoku_Ou:

The anime is getting there

! http://i.imgur.com/ftEX78I.png

! http://i.imgur.com/zhegYYi.png
Next episode they'll meet Reju and Yonji

omg reju looks so ugly as compared to in the manga…..was looking forward to seeing a colored version of her, but guess nope now

@ARTEMlS:

Jinbe doesn't know about the bomb as well, does he?

hmm true.. went back to read and Jinbei wasn't around with the minister and Neptune when they were talking about it

@Seafarer33:

Nice chapter, things get in motion at last. Sanji struggling against his own perviness was definitely a highlight, and so is Capone's men taking care of every little detail including homie eavesdroppers.

Now I'm even more puzzled as to what part the Tamatebako will play, though, since the Pudding/Big Mom scheme will clearly have gone south before anyone even thinks of opening it. I also can't envision the Tea Party going on as if nothing had happened after the failed assassination, so unless some opportunistic thief -or Mama herself in a fit of uncontrolled pain - tries to open the box amidst the ambiant chaos, I'm not sure anymore when and where it will blow up. Hell, the famed wedding cake isn't even anywhere in sight yet.

all points towards Jinbei being the one to open the Tametebako or using something to open it. After all, he is currently the only one who knows what is inside the box at the venue and since Big Mom has said she would only open it after the ceremony

@G_soildier:

pedro from the minks would be my pick…. with fish Boss. but all three minks joining or none would not be bad imo. This chapter..... the excitement builds......

big mom future: not pretty for her..... i hope for once oda shows people suffer due to the actions of the strawhats; if an emperor falls akin to whitebeard all places under their protection n rule and its inhabitants should have a similar fate even for emperors with reputations like big mom and kaido

fun times ahead.

Oda did show people suffering due to the actions of the strawhats in Dressrosa - because Doflamingo was brought down, lack of weapons supply caused certain countries to lose the war they were fighting

@Nycprodigy:

Franky had no redeemable characteristics a few chapters after his fight with Usopp. He literally beat Usopp, stole two million from the Strawhats, and became the reason(as Usopp perceived) why they couldn't fix the Merry, starting the whole fight between him and Luffy. I still don't know how Franky made it into the crew, but I guess giving them a ship and helping Robin escape is sufficient atonement for how he disrespected the Strawhats.

he didn't really disrespected them, he was just doing what normal pirates would do. Stealing from other pirates? why wouldnt you? i mean, to normal people, normal people would think pirates got their money through illegal and dubious means, so whats wrong with stealing from them?

And he wasnt the one who started the fight between Luffy and Usopp, Kaku was the one who checked out the ship first, and Iceberg was the one who scolded Luffy for not caring about his crew's life if they continued on Merry, leading Luffy to tell the crew to give up on the ship and then the fight happened. Franky only met the ship and Usopp after by himself.

And Franky was originally a kind hearted guy as shown by the Franky family, he found those homeless guys in Water 7 etc and took them in

maybe Oda originally planned to have Luffy remove the handcuffs like Rayleigh, but then decided against it as it would drag the story even longer

mangastream's version is out: http://mangastream.com/r/one_piece/851/3913/1

@The:

And now after this chapter I don't think there is any room that Pudding will get redeemed, with the fact that she changed memories just like that. With her evil side showing her expressions are great, especially with the third eye playing a role as well. Also shout outs to Brook once again, being just plain awesome and facing Big Mom so that whatever happens in the end no regrets are made.

Still I wonder what plans Brook has up his sleeve.. he seems pretty confident that he will not die from the 1v1 with Big Mom, what's more with Sweetie and co waiting outside for him

the transation seems like they just copied it from spoilers and fill it in…

@Riddler:

2. Her having that little flashback of Lola leaving and Lola telling her not to worry about her. We don't have any context for that flashback though. Maybe Lola didn't know her sister's true nature either. That would be quite believable to me; after all, Lola also assumed that Big Mom would forgive her for running away and she certainly was dead wrong on that front, lol. Who knows, maybe right after that sweet little flashback scene, little Pudding actually went straight to Big Mom and betrayed Lola with an evil grin on her face.

There could be another alternative to this. In the flashback where she thought of Lola leaving, Pudding was drawn as a little girl. Which means maybe at least 5 - 10 years have passed since then. Maybe Pudding was a nice girl at the start but something happened in these 5 - 10 years which caused her to have this twisted personality. Maybe we would get a short flashback (like half a chapter to one chapter) on Lola's marriage and what happened to Pudding since then and then everything might become clearer and makes more sense.

actually I was one of those who thought Big Mom would want the wedding to go well until I went back and re-read the chapters. In Chapter 827, page 17s onwards when Big Mom was talking to her homies about the tea party, some of the lines said by them were "It's the tea party from hell!!!" and "It will be a sweet day with a perfectly devilish sacrifice", which had already seem to imply that Big Mom was going to kill or sacrifice someone at the tea party already

@SuburbanErrorist:

That's true.

If anyone, Zoro might have some CoC

considering that there were 3 person on the Pirate King's Ship that had CoC (Gol D. Roger, Rayleight and Shanks), having Sanji, Zoro develop CoC wouldnt be too surprising either.

@Phoenix:

Yeah and? It's still an extremely lame way to end that fight. Doesn't help that Cracker jumped right into the attack.

what about doflamingo too. its just a matter of luffy's opponents underestimating him throughout the series already.

doflamingo also jumped right into the attack thinking that he would never lose in the air, end up he lost, if not doflamingo could have won if he played safe till gear 4 was over a 2nd time

@muhammad:

yay…biscuit man..how lame. it's so broken it's kind of funny, every biscuit he makes is the equivalent of a yonkou commander... one on the upper end of the spectrum at that. whitebeard had 13 division commanders as his main force? Cracker can produce 13 in a single minute that would only lose out to marco, jozu, vista, and likely ace from the crew. He can make soldiers stronger than most NW captains in an instant. not only that makes the whole idea of the pacifista very out-dated and useless but that also make the new world very weak.

the power of biscuits lets you create lifelike armor that is simultaneously incredibly strong yet malleable enough to bend and express your emotions and is also indestinguishable from real skin. also you can make an infinite army of biscuit soldiers and control them all

i understand the series's surreal inflences, but this is beyond even that scope. it's not even inventive.
basically any power associated with creating any material becomes an infinite army of giants. it's the opposite of creative fighting, it's too pragmatic.

cracker should not be able to make such strong soldiers infinitely, it's just stupid. if it weren't for oda writing this stuff, everyone would have say how stupid this power is. and oda purposely picked "biscuit" to fit with the sweet theme.

theres bound to be some weakness or drawback to the power. Remember when everyone first saw Law's fruit and thought it was hax and overpowered as shit? After that it was revealed there were some drawbacks to that power, and when he fought Doflamingo alone on the bridge he still lost even with that hax power

@Kishido:

Awesome chapter… Damn awesome... But still no clue if he is using hardening or not.

obviously he is, didn't his father comment on that ? that he didn't expect somelike like Sanji to be capable of using haki

@Razh:

NOOOOOoooooooo~~~

Another break. Sanji's brother? Different direction of the eyebrow?

I love how clingy Vito is. Wonder what Lola's role is. Finally got married? With Capone? Nothing else would make that much sense.

Good old "Luffy indisposed" plot device, though.

that isn't Lola, it was discussed in the spoiler thread. Lola's hair is long and in plaits while this Lola look-alike has her hair shorter and in 2 lumps, plus Sanji and Lola would have recognized each other

@SuburbanErrorist:

Sabos story makes sense. What doesn't make sense is how people can't add 1+1.. E.g.

Monkey D Dragon

Monkey d luffy

Monkey d garp

Hmmm I wonder if they're related…..... I'm surprised no one said "oh we didn't notice the name"

because they aren't the only 3 persons with the name D in the world? E.g Blackbeard also had the name D, Law had it too,etc

@epoch:

Oda should leave somethings to the imagination. This flashback seems over-done. Given the amount of pages that can be released per-week and the whimsical breaks he continues to take, the drag is almost wanton. A predictable story is stalling; at this rate, we're in for the longest manga ever; ever. Naruto is closing without a hiccup, thank God. The grace with which the writer handles a very complex story that has become a bore is respectable. In a world where G.R.R. Martin and a quantum of literary works remain to be read, this suffers the excuse of becoming an exercise amongst the humongous aegis that seduces our attention.

I do not predict the script of stories because I respect the imagination of writers and because I leave the complexity of story writing to the writer. It cheapens the authenticity of fandom when you know what the author will write next and kills the wow factor that makes every good story special. I wonder how Oda will feel with a million-and-one persons trying to predict his story? It might be sport for a soccer league that thrives on a population of gamblers but here it is just rank imho.

One Piece can become Bleach, Claymore or Naruto sooner than we know and we could all drop it like a lousy topic sooner than later. I pray it it never gets to that.

are you sure you can predict the story ? even though Naruto has became a bore, could you honestly have said you predicted Naruto would have turned out this way ? for naruto it was all along obvious that obito/madara would be defeated, but its the manner in which its supposed to be done, could you really have predicted it ? same goes for One piece, will Bellamy assassinate Luffy or become his friend ? Is Luffy goin to abandon the mera mera fruit just to help his crew or continue with the tournament? what is Sanji n co going to do when they reach Zou ? What is the outcome of Law & Doflamingos fight ? What is Fujitora going to do when he reaches Dressrosa ? will Rebecca or Cavendish win block D or will the fights be interrupted? will Luffy & all the other tournament winners be turned into toys or not ? how did the dressrosa ppl actually lose their memories? what is Violet trying to do when she returned back to the palace? who was Hack actually talking to? how are all these questions room for imagination and predictable questions ?

It might seem like Violet was telling a lie at first but when you keep thinking of why she blew up the coliseum fight TV with her gun and later what happened to the dropouts - it all make sense - she probably remembered about what was going to happen to the dropouts and went back to see whether she could save them, or to at least tell someone who was going to face Doflamingo about it