A while back I made a post about how/why/etc I started and was continuing to watch One Piece. A lot of what I said then still applies, I have no intention or reason to drop a show that has hit me emotionally enough to shed tears. After a while you also get enough lore tidbits you just really wanna know more or what will finally be revealed.

At this point in time I’ve just gotten to the very start of the Wano arc. This was the arc that was airing the _entire_ time I was watching this show. I believe it started in 2019 and only ended recently in 2023. At the least, until what feels like 2024 Crunchyroll had the same Wano cover image on the show page so it’s just what I was used to seeing this entire time. Looking ahead, it’s crazy that this arc alone is most of the 200+ episodes behind I am.

Being nearly 900 episodes into this show, it’s just incredible how far I’ve come. I remember being in the first half of the show, the especially around Skypiea and Enies Lobby arcs and seeing how far behind I was. How the turns table, as I approach <200 episodes to go to current. I’m currently not in any rush, as I’ll be sad once I can’t binge 10+ episodes at a time and instead have to wait months for the episodes to pile up again.

I mainly wanted to write this just so I had a personal milestone here, most of my shower thoughts for this are in the original post I made. Why I like this show compared to any other shonen, sticking with shows that make me cry, etc.

I’ll end this with just a few things that the second half of One Piece has done that I really like (and in some cases, accidentally makes me dislike).

  • Music – it’s the same, always, all 1000+ episodes I’m sure. I exaggerate, as there are actually a number of new songs that come in to play but it’s so few and so little that when they do it’s _super_ noticeable. Almost distractingly so. I’m hoping/expecting Wano goes out of the way to utilize more unique tracks.
  • Openings -During the Whole Cake arc it finally became obvious that I’ve completely left the copyright hell of the earlier episodes. A lot of people who have been watching the show for a long time may not realise that a lot of openings lost their copyright permissions, so there would be stretches of 100+ episodes where the exact same opening was used because the next 3-4 openings were no longer allowed to be used. Whole Cake made this very obvious because I’d watch the arc, get a new opening, then what felt like a snap of some fingers I’d be getting another new opening. Is nice and refreshing and makes me feel like I don’t have to skip them as often anymore. I know sometime in the Wano arc they will _finally_ be dropping the extended opening bit and add back ending songs, so my time of skipping intros may be coming to an end soon.
  • Luffy – Up until and even during Dressrosa, Luffy was as aloof and thoughtless as he always seemed to be. But in the events after, and especially during the Whole Cake arc, he’s gotten much smarter and his attitude and actions feel like they have more more clear and concrete reasoning put into them. He also makes deductions without anyone else’s input, to the point where a lot of the crew actually come off as less observant and smart now. I don’t like how the crew apparently hasn’t gotten wiser with Luffy, but it is very nice that Luffy himself is a much stronger character all around now. He’s really become a captain of a crew.
  • Lore – Robin has been my favourite character most of the show since her being is driven by the history and lore of the show. Recent events have made it very clear that the pre-history of the show will be growing in importance. Likewise, the arc after Wano seems to focus on more modern lore. It all feels like a lot of explanations will be coming more often. If the first 700-ish episodes were all about presenting the world and its lore, what’s coming now and later has been answering and seems to be continuing to answer more.
  • Inspiration – Oda continues to inspire my own vision of writing. I’ve been struggling to write my novel, but through college and up to now I’ve learned how to “steal” and make it all easier to write. I can take from other media, my own life, the calendar, ingredients in my fridge — you can take anything and turn it into anything else. His twists on fairy tales and fables are also very intriguing (Whole Cake arc having a lot of Alice motifs was very fun). The important bit I wanted to actually touch on here is how Oda started One Piece without all of his ideas in place. A lot of skills and lore didn’t exist until after the fact in a lot of situations. Why could Gary punch Luffy? Hundreds of episodes later, we learn about Haki. Why could the people in Skypiea predict moves? Hundreds of episodes later we rename it “observation haki”. Why is the straw hat important? Well, now there’s a giant one?? The point I took away from this is that I can write my story now, and if I come up with concrete ideas later I can just come back and rewrite those aspects. Or even better, twist my existing chapters into a good reason why things were mislabeled or explained differently. It makes it easier to just write. Worry about the little details for later, when your brain connects the dots and you go “oh now this is a good idea!” you’ll know you finally have your final idea.

I’m excited for what’s to come, but sad my binge watching journey is nearing the end. I hope the end is near so we can get all the answers that have remained a mystery for the last 25+ years!

PS~ I’ve skipped most filler, aside from the filler tied to Film Gold and I also read most of Dressrosa (up until Gear 4) which helped speed along my progress. Not much filler remains so smooth sailing ahead!