I know this opinion doesn't really jive with a lot of what I'm reading here, but I have been, and still am immensely enjoying the past 5-10 chapters, Oda seems like he's genuinely excited for what he's drawing, unlike the last stretch of Onigashima, where you can easily tell that all he could care about is G5 and the rest is basically homework he has to deliver.

In this chapter, Luffy's dream for the future may not have been told explicitly to us*, but it is almost assuredly better than the OP world's current state, where entire countries are now getting wiped off from history in service of whatever dream or vision Im has for the world. It's interesting to me how one immediately follows the other, this has been a trend in the past few chapters, where certain scenes of Luffy are placed right before some of the darker or more off-beat characters in the world to compare and contrast how much they differ even when they are in similar positions.

Jewelry Bonney arrives at the perfect moment imo, Oda is rebuilding his story engine (since the Yonko saga is pretty much what drove the majority of post-skip OP, and it's.. done now), and given her Kuma connections plus being one of the more appealing Supernovas to me (I just can't bring myself to care about Urouge tbh, maybe Oda will change my mind like he did with Bege tho?).

• While I like the dream scene, I personally think it would be far better appreciated by physical readers, since the unseen moment where he talks about his dream is placed between two pages, essentially on the page flip, this is less than a millisecond for us digital readers, so the impact is just far less by definition, the anime will probably do better as well because of editing).

I know this opinion doesn't really jive with a lot of what I'm reading here, but I have been, and still am immensely enjoying the past 5-10 chapters, Oda seems like he's genuinely excited for what he's drawing, unlike the last stretch of Onigashima, where you can easily tell that all he could care about is G5 and the rest is basically homework he has to deliver.

In this chapter, Luffy's dream for the future may not have been told explicitly to us*, but it is almost assuredly better than the OP world's current state, where entire countries are now getting wiped off from history in service of whatever dream or vision Im has for the world. It's interesting to me how one immediately follows the other, this has been a trend in the past few chapters, where certain scenes of Luffy are placed right before some of the darker or more off-beat characters in the world to compare and contrast how much they differ even when they are in similar positions.

Jewelry Bonney arrives at the perfect moment imo, Oda is rebuilding his story engine (since the Yonko saga is pretty much what drove the majority of post-skip OP, and it's.. done now), and given her Kuma connections plus being one of the more appealing Supernovas to me (I just can't bring myself to care about Urouge tbh, maybe Oda will change my mind like he did with Bege tho?).

• While I like the dream scene, I personally think it would be far better appreciated by physical readers, since the unseen moment where he talks about his dream is placed between two pages, essentially on the page flip, this is less than a millisecond for us digital readers, so the impact is just far less by definition, the anime will probably do better as well because of editing).

@Bugs said in Chapter 1059: The Matter Involving Captain Koby:

Overall, I found this chapter... lacking. For the second time in a row, we've got a chapter that splits between a small Strawhat focused bit, over topics related to Wano, and a larger "while the Strawhats were on Wano, this happened" development. But unlike the last one, where the similarity of both new Emperors, Luffy and Buggy, being brought low by their "subordinates" united the two pieces while providing quite a bit of humor, this one just doesn't click for me.

There is one thematic bit in common where both Luffy and Teach's are acknowledged for their strength by a former crewmate of a great pirate, but with contrasting sentiments (affection from Marco contrasted with dislike from Rayleigh), but the majority of the chapter was focused on exposition.

In general, it seems that Luffy has been compared and contrasted with two of the current Yonko in each of the last two chapters.

@wolfwood said in Chapter 1058: New Emperors:

seemed based on little more than a whim to do something based on Japanland legends.

I mean Oda really did want to amalgamate as many of those old Japanese legends into Wano's tapestry, and in some measures he succeeds (Wano does really feel like a place with its own culture and history, distinct from almost every island), but when graded with the yardstick of what OP is largely being read for (an entertaining shonen adventure series starring likeable leads), it kinda flops in some areas too.

Part of me thinks this might be the last elaborate island arc we get for a while though and that may be why he over-indulged himself there.

I think in general, Oda had it right when he had Big Mom get her defeat here, and not via Luffy's hands.

The execution wasn't the most graceful, but I think having Luffy defeat all the emperors himself (as appealing as that is from a traditional shonen lens) would dramatically reduce the world's size and its capability to surprise the viewer. You simply have to give some of the Supernovas some kind of feat to make whatever surprising off-screen things they do actually credible.

I also think Oda's not done yet with her crew at least, and I think some interesting things can be done with them, even if Big Mom herself doesn't continue on.

@Ivotas said in Chapter 1058: New Emperors:

There's not only super powerful guys out there in the world. I'm sure that with everything going on right now, there's missions fodder can actually take care of and be it something simple as crowd control. Sending those guys out expecting they would capture Warlords is just a dumb move. To quote the man himself "If you're doing it, do it thoroughly". God I love non-bureaucrat Sakazuki.

They almost did tho, look at Buggy! Was only saved by his Yonko-tier luck!

@danie It's legitimately the most brutal arc in OP, even if you don't count Big Mom and Kaido as dead.

@Deicide:

That’s why I have my stance: I don’t think Yamato is joining. The story is not moving in that direction.

Oh, he can join, but, as you said, it’s a cheat. This arc is full of disappointing conclusions, it would just be another one. I just still think Oda is better than that.

So it's gonna be "I either have it correct or the writing is bad because I connected the pieces incorrectly"?

Yamato would certainly be an awkward inclusion to the SHs if it happens (the usual formula just isn't in place here), he is a last-minute idea from Oda after all. But I don't agree with the idea that his inclusion would be a cheat on the reader, or even a "disappointing conclusion" when all the evidence was (clumsily placed) right in front of our eyes all along..

@Kfunk:

Page One and Ulti vs Usopp and Nami sucked because at no point it felt they had any agency in their "victory".
-Big Mom OHKOing Page One : Big Mom protecting Tama
-Big Mom dropping most of Ulti's HP : Big Mom reacting to Tama getting hurt
-Zeus merging with the climat tact : technically happened due to Nami's action, but completely accidental as she never planned for that to happen
-Zeus finishing wounded Ulti : Nami's mostly clueless at what's going on, Zeus doing the strategy (notice Ulti's weakened state and that one lightning bolt would finish her) and going autopilo when Nami's sole initiative ended up getting dodged…

I guess reading it weekly had the positive aspect that it was unpredictable, but once the surprise is past I find it more frustrating than satisfying at the reread, even more considering the last time they had an actual fight was over a decade ago.
I never liked the argument about them not being fighters so it's fine (and what memorable navigation moment or sniping moment do they even have in this arc?), as similar arguments were used to justify Robin never getting fights or being Rebecca's babysitter...
Yet what happen when Robin gets a good fight? (almost) everybody love it.
In the end One Piece is still a battle shonen, most readers will prefer protagonists getting a good battle over playing second fiddle.

I don't know if you were referring to my post or commenting generally.

But I feel that Nami's fight was severely derailed by Oda's realization that with Big Mom on-site, Zeus obeying Nami over her is still unjustified, that relationship had to be built for Nami to "earn" her weapon.

The Ulti fight is bad if you view it as a shonen fight, but as set-up for Nami finally getting the upgrade locked-in no matter what Big Mom does, it's actually more enjoyable than expected. P1 essentially had his fight with Sanji in Act 2, so I don't mind .

What's weird about Wano arc is, it's clearly very flawed, but most of its flaws lie in places I genuinely don't care much about, so I guess maybe I'm uniquely disposed to like it more than most?

Like maybe I'd have more Perospero moments or remove a few of the unnecessary KOs (Luffy's off-screened KO right after he managed CoC coating really didn't do anything at all for the plot, nor did Oda ever expand on how it happened, Kanjuro's snow fight with the scabbards was also super weak), but that's really about it.

@Robby:

I don't know how anyone could be dissapointed in the Sasaki fight… every one of the dinosaur fighters with their "this is just what dinosaurs do!" chunk of insanity were brilliant. Flying triceratops had me cracking up.

It was fun enough, and miles ahead of the Senor Pink fight for me, but it didn't really have me clamoring for more. I personally think that Oda took the correct decision with the enemy players not really outlasting their welcome, I can easily see the F6's moves and visuals quickly becoming old hat if they were revived for a round 2.

@Robby:

because then you're lulled into the false sense that the heroes have won, and then you get the "oh shit!" moment when all their hard work turns out to be nothing.

If you do it during the first fight you're then obligated to do it every following fight and it stops being a surprise by the fourth or sixth time. Do it all at once and it s sudden huge reversal. (Same for the "big mom's troops arrive" theories.) Similar to the way everyone was waiting for Kaidou's hybrid form. There was no shock or awe when it came because we KNEW it was coming.

The trick to those twists is of course the generals would have needed to be defeated much earier in the raid to not be fatigued by it all. By the time they started actually dropping it would have been even more burn out and drag… the story would have needed to pace differently for it to work.

Like back on Fishman Island it was clear the crew had powercreeped way past normal fishman so the fishmen were given super steroids to power up.

I get the complaint, but why would you ever pull that move after over 2 volumes of fighting? In Marineford the reversal resonated because Luffy essentially accomplished what he wanted (Ace was freed), it's just that Oda managed to find a way in which Luffy both "wins" (meaning volume buyers don't feel cheated) while still suffering a terrible personal loss.

I don't think that idea can be pulled off twice, and it especially can't be pulled off when Kaido is as uncharismatic as OP villains can be, he's basically just an HP bar we're all waiting on to go to 0 (with some people weirdly hoping that it doesn't forever).

Also the FI fights had the underlying theme of legit sweat and tears (each of the SHs had 2 years of training under their belt) beating steroid users, aside from it being an opportunity for Oda to showoff his cool new move ideas.

@Robby:

Eh, if zoan awakenings can be forced through drug use, and they lose their minds when they do it in trade for the raw strength, it would have been fine.

But obviously since the big final payofff was Law, Kidd and Luffy awakening, yeah the minions had to hold back.

If Oda had ended Nami and Usopp's fights better I don't think the issue would have been speculated much at all.

Nami/Usopp's sequence was basically an Uncharted level in manga form, I personally enjoyed the spectacle, unpredictability and rollercoaster nature of it, even if it was terribly, terribly built by shonen fight standards.

I just feel that the solution really came down to making the fights better in the 1st place? Which is a ship that sailed at this point. But honestly, a lot of the ideas that are being thrown around to extend the shelf life of the arc villains just aren't appealing to me (I would have taken more Queen tho, that guy is great and probably my favorite Yonko henchman).

@DatYute:

except sasaki and whoswho were next in line to challenge for a position against the calamities, implying they were at least in the ball park(though obviously not there yet)

them being absolutely destroyed by franky and jinbei makes them seem like no big deal, but they were pretty much the next strongest on the crew after the calamities

Based on what we've seen of all 4 characters, King and Queen would wipe the floor with the other 2. Especially King.