Now that Wano has ended and many people have voiced their pros and cons about the arc, I thought this would be an interesting thing to post here, because it gives an idea about where Oda concentrated his writing and drawing efforts while he developed this particular storyline.

THE TOP 50 CHARACTERS IN ALL OF WANO WITH THE MOST APPEARANCES

Monkey D. Luffy - 1689
Kaido - 989
Roronoa Zoro - 922
Kin'emon - 684
Kozuki Momonosuke - 674
Sanji - 573
O-Kiku - 484
Yamato - 479
Charlotte Linlin (Big Mom) - 471
Kozuki Oden - 458
Nami - 453
Kawamatsu - 431
Queen - 421
Trafalgar D. Water Law - 407
O-Tama - 400
Kozuki Hiyori - 357
Raizo - 353
Nico Robin - 345
Eustass Kid - 340
Kurozumi Orochi - 339
Usopp - 330
Denjiro - 320
Tony Tony Chopper - 319
Shinobu - 306
Franky - 305
Inuarashi - 302
Hyogoro - 285
Nekomamushi - 271
Ashura Doji - 270
King - 268
Kurozumi Kanjuro - 258
Napoleon - 253
Brook - 223
Komachiyo - 190
Jinbe - 188
Basil Hawkins - 187
Killer - 185
Marco - 169
Ulti - 149
Izo - 145
O-Toko - 144
X Drake - 142
Shimotsuki Yasuie - 141
Kozuki Sukiyaki - 131
Black Maria - 119
Thousand Sunny - 118
Sasaki - 118
Scratchmen Apoo - 117
Page One - 116
Zeus - 112
***RUNNER-UPS:***
Onimaru - 107
Who's Who - 105
Carrot - 104
Kozuki Toki - 103
Gol D. Roger - 96
Jack - 95
Prometheus - 82
Gama Pyonnosuke - 82 
Aramaki (Ryokugyu) - 80
O-Tsuru - 79
Fukurokuju - 78
(Eye-Scar CP0 Member) - 76
Speed - 74
Edward Newgate (Whitebeard) - 74
Babanuki - 66

The methodology is all explained in the reddit thread. Credit to Chris_Mic: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePiece/comments/wvkjan/a_comprehensive_breakdown_of_wanos_panels/

Personally, I was surprised about how well Kiku ranked, and that Aramaki managed to get that high despite being in just 3 or so chapters, to the point of surpassing Fukurokuju.

UPDATE:

I also found this quite old list from the now defunct Oro Jackson that includes panel time from chapters 1 to 908. If anyone wants to do the math with how it adds up with the above, be my guest.

Monkey D. Luffy - 15147
Nami - 7302
Sanji - 6636
Usopp - 6552
Roronoa Zoro - 6307
Tony Tony Chopper - 4638
Nico Robin - 3566
Franky - 2966
Brook - 1968
Nefertari Vivi - 1588
Trafalgar Law - 1476
Jinbe - 1084
Donquixote Doflamingo - 1031
Portgas D. Ace - 856
Crocodile - 830
Rob Lucci - 795
Buggy - 772
Charlotte Linlin - 660
Bentham - 656
Caesar Clown - 646
Kin'emon - 625
Kyros - 607
Enel - 600
Kaku - 589
Rebecca - 550
Carrot - 549
Smoker - 529
Arlong - 527
Charlotte Katakuri - 517
Hatchan/Iceburg - 508
Tashigi - 493
Kalifa - 483
Paulie - 468
Sabo - 425
Wiper - 422
Oars - 406
Galdino - 405
Hody Jones - 403
Shirahoshi - 400
Capone Bege - 394
Blueno - 385
Edward Newgate - 384
Charlotte Pudding - 376
Keimi - 373
Spandam - 369
Emporio Ivankov - 360
Pedro - 357
Don Krieg - 354
Gan Fall - 348
Boa Hancock/ Bartolomeo - 347

From here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePiece/comments/ae53et/top_50_characters_with_most_manga_panels_time/

@Deicide said in Chapter 1057: The End:

@theackwardstation said in Chapter 1057: The End:

As for the twist itself of Yamato staying, my opinion is that Oda did it too late.

I don't think it's too late, but that the lack of Yamato's perspective made it too jarring.

For a long time I thought we'd get an Yamato exploration chapter, in which we delve into his mind, past and dreams, he finds an epiphany about himself, and makes his final decision.

The thing is, that chapter was completely skipped. So his decision feels like a middle finger to the reader.

Still, I hope we get at least a flashback to his talk with Luffy and the others.

This is an annoying trend with modern Oda where he writes things with the intention of ending the chapter in a cliffhanger, so he may sacrifice some scenes that should be there in order to pump fans for the next chapter.

Reading older chapters, you can tell this was never a concern. He could end things with a bang or a whimper or even a laugh. Not trying to be nostalgic or anything, but it's one of the more noticeable changes you can point out in his writing along the years.

@Captain-M You forgot a small panel of the island right next to Vergo using Geppou.

It's very clearly a flat island, even though the finalized Dressrosa has large rocky borders that hide the island's interior.

@danie This is what I believe as well. Wano was not particularly kind to Carrot and she was mostly treated as a plot thread he had no idea what to do with, to the point he was comfortable ignoring her for large portions of the raid and letting one of the Mink Kings take over what should've been her struggle.

There's enough evidence that Oda just rushed and fumbled everything post-raid, so all payoffs ended up half-baked. Ruler Carrot would be just another one to that pile.

Copout defines the whole Wano post-arc.

Everything gets resolved in an unsatisfying, offscreen manner.

There was this very brief scene at the start of WCI that hinted at the need of a helmsman (Luffy and Brook didn't know what starboard meant, so they failed at understanding Nami's directions), but it was a very eleventh hour thing since Jinbe was already heavily set up to join in that arc anyway.

@Shift Arguably, Carrot being made Zou's ruler was a surprise in itself.

It was as a sudden and inexplicable as Yamato deciding to stay. And made as much sense.

Surprise, bitches.

Again, I don't really see the mood for a toast now. All the Straw Hats are in that "let's all do our usual routine" phase where they just fuck around and wait for the next story to start as we see what's going with other groups.

Toasts are used to conclude arcs. We are already in the next one.

@theackwardstation This is actually another problem Carrot has. Her fighting style is too undercooked and not particularly creative.

She only has two named techniques (Eleclaw and Electrical Luna, plus the combo move she used with Wanda that was just a double Eleclaw), whereas SH candidates tend to have numerous named moves by the time they join. People say Yamato was taking too much from Brook, but Carrot wasn't doing anything special either, especially now that Nami has a flying, homing lightning cloud. Even Law does more interesting things with lightning.

It was one reason I thought Yamato was set to join. She had a very impressive moveset in a series where secondary characters are lucky to get 2 or 3 moves. And the use of a club and wolf form made her different enough from Brook to stand on her own.

And that's not taking in account the incredibly situational circumstances behind Sulong.

So we just had news that Film RED has surpassed Film Z to become the most successful OP film ever. The reason for this success, from what I see, can be attributed to the following:

• Granting Shanks, a long-established character, primary focus and revealing some major info about him, which likely attracted older fans. Older movies, while they did include canon characters as well, it was never to the point of tying them so much to the movie's plot.

• Uta ended up being a massive marketing icon herself, being directly related to Shanks, voiced by Ado and something different from the usual OP Film villain. If Shanks brought in the older crowd, then Uta was a hit with the younger one.

• Oda's bigger involvement, something that wasn't seen since Strong World. As a result, Oda ended up promoting the film heavily, drawing some Uta-dedicated pages and even showcasing more of Shanks in the actual story.

So I'm thinking how next OP films could replicate such success. Will they attempt to focus in another established character like Shanks and reveal some of their background? Will we get another female character similar to Uta? Will Oda be greatly involved once more?

@Ivotas Shuraiya bascud, I think. The Ace-lookalike from Movie 4

Scotch alerted a break early on last week.

It's called transhumanism. It's been a staple of cyberpunk genre for ages now.

Naruto just uses the ninja magic version of it.

The only problem with NOT having Vegapunk as an antagonist is that we are already in their territory, and they're the only ones with any potential to actually challenge the SH because of crazy science shenanigans. We already saw a creation of theirs completely outclassing the Thousand Sunny simply because it was a vastly superior watercraft, so it's not difficult to imagine more robotic weapons akin to that. The Giant Robot alone is Oars-sized compared to the Franky Shogun.

Plus, Bonney considers Vegapunk her personal antagonist, and Luffy will likely side with her. It would be awkward for this whole thing to be resolved peacefully.

@Cockycent The Carrot ship has already sailed, or torpedoed going by the latest chapter's analogy.

At this point, i think Vivi is the favorite mostly because there was a clear focus on her situation just one chapter ago, so it's an issue we will tackle sooner or later.

@sandman Well, that would explain why Akainu hasn't literally and figuratively fired Koby, assuming Hibari is serious about the helping bit.

@Deicide I still don't see why this is an issue. Again, Capone Bege had access to paddleships, which renders the Calm Belt moot. And he was ready to cross the Red Line again, meaning he likely has some coating expert in his ship, but the Levely stopped him.

It's all a matter or resources. The average pirate will definitely struggle against those annoyances, but there's no reason to be surprised when Emperors and other experienced pirates have what's necessary to bypass stuff like that.

@Kurloz Vivre Card confirmed her crew was incarcerated, but she managed to flee.

I wouldn't take anything from Stampede as canon. Wapol has his elder brother from Movie 8 there, for example.

Bonney very much indicates a Vegapunk based arc. Finding him was highly implied to have been her pre-timeskip objective.

@Ivotas To be fair, Vivi doesn't need to be there for most of those things, the same way Brook and Jinbe missed going into a sky island or fighting through Enies Lobby.

Vivi also had her adventures. She adventured through Laboon, sailed through crazy weather in the Merry, escaped from assassins, met giants, almost died in an avalanche and took part in the effort to defeat a Warlord of the Sea. It may not be a significant chunk of the SH's adventures, but she was still there for nearly a 100 chapters in a central role.