Arc length?

Um, I have been wondering about this for a long time, not just in One Piece perhaps generally in manga, but One Piece seems to follow some rules even in this category. I noticed after Thriller Bark the arcs got smaller, but Oda threw in a lot of information in them, a lot of twists and the story seemed to be moving faster. Like SA, AL, ID, the war and post war, they did not exceed 30 chapters in length. Was Oda rushing with the war saga?

And well if we look at all important arcs before that, they were over 40 chapters, 50 chapters even. Alabasta, Sky island, Water 7 and Enies Lobby were all major arcs and over 40 chapters. And well I know Oda has mini arcs, they are around 15 chapters at most, Jaya, Davy Back, Drum island. It seems the war arc was made with a lot of "medium" arcs, and Oda seems to have gotten back on track with long arcs in the current one, with FI almost at it's 40th chapter it seems we are in for a long ride again, more adventure and more fun. Personally I prefer longer arcs, how long do you thing arcs from now on are going to be? I mean major arcs, and do you prefer them longer or shorter? Maybe start of with long do you expect FI to be?

Well, the difference between arcs before SA and after the war is that they are more contained plot wise IMO. The events in SA were a direct influence to the events in ID and the events in ID had a direct influence in the war. In turn, the alabasta events in themselves were not directly influential upon the events in skypeia and the events in skypia hardly had an influence on the water seven plot.

As long as they are good I don't care how long they are. Hopefully, if they are long they will keep the readers attention. I can't really say how long arcs are going to be...maybe there will only be one arc that goes on until the end. Main thing I care about is quality.

@ kkck

Yes, but Oda delivered a good plot with longer arcs in my opinion, Enies Lobby was well done and it was long, water 7 did influence Enies Lobby, it seems when one saga is connected directly it's more fun, all sagas were connected in some way to the smaller arcs, at least the ones after the GL. So my best hope for FI is that it's part of a larger saga.

@ janemass

Well SA was shot and sweet, too bad something like that happening seems low, but something close to an arc like SA might just reappear in the NW once more.

I remenber the whole Alabasta and Skypea sagas were around 100 chapters. counting from whiskey peak (when the enemy id was revealed) and jaya... Triller Bark was around 60. Shabondy, Kuja, Impel Down and Marinford war were kind of the same saga too... How many chapters were that in total?

My guesss is this arc will have around 60 counting from 601.

^

There is a difference between saga and arc though, and sagas are connected via many arcs, like the CP9 saga was from Foxy the silver fox till the end of post Enies Lobby, and one saga is connected between it's arcs, though surely davy back saga had not much if nothing to do with what was to come in water 7 and onward. But WB saga began even form thriller bark, do counting form there, it was more then a 100 I think. Thriller bark at the end was connected with the events that were about to come, like Kuma showing up there.

I usually prefer mid arcs with no more of 30 arcs.
I first liked this arc (Fishman Island) for example but being THIS long started to bother me a bit. I just want it to finish and to move to the next thing (Although now I want some things to get properly resolved, of course) and being a long arc is just a torture.

This arc with at least 10 chapter less would not be as unpopular as it is, I think.

The arc hasn't been that long though. Barely over 40 chapters in fact which is not long at all for a OP arc. I guess we have had shorter arcs but overall I think it is standard. All the important arcs at least have been at least 50 chapters long at least. Take alabasta arc, it started in chapter 155 and ended in 216. The skypeia arc:
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/one_piece/v25/c236/1.html
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/one_piece/v32/c303/1.html
Well over 70 chapters and it would be longer if we count the part with the pirate town as part of the arc.

CP9 (I consider the whole thing one arc, I don't think a location change is enough to consider it different arcs if they are fighting the same enemy and the plot follows the same line).
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/one_piece/v34/c323/1.html
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/one_piece/v44/c429/1.html
Well over 100 chapters.....

Thriller bark
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/one_piece/v46/c442/1.html
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/one_piece/v50/c489/1.html
almost 50 chapters.....

Even if we divide the CP9 bit into water 7 and ennies lobbie arc we still have 50 chapters arcs...

ID
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/one_piece/v54/c525/1.html
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/one_piece/v56/c548/1.html
This was a bit of a mini arc and it still went well over 20 chapters. It would be much longer if we consider the arc/sage to be a rescue ace thing and it started when the strawhats vanished and ended with the end of the war).

Looking over this though, I get the impression oda has no specific arc length and he makes longer arcs or sagas based on plot. Other authors like kishi or mashima do have a 1 year thing going on for each arc but with oda it does not seem to be quite the case as there are many arcs and sagas with significantly different lengths.

I like longer arcs, but not if it's means the plot moves at a snail's pace and seems to get stagnant. It's the reason I dropped OP ~6 months ago, I find FI to be extremely boring. I'll pick it up again when this arc ends.

1 year per arc? Wow that would be predictable to read...

Sabaody was short because it was cut off unexpectedly by the crew getting annihilated, but surely everything from then until after the war was she same arc? And it had to move too fast otherwise there'd be no sense of urgency. That's one of the most impressive things about the war, had an entire cast of monsters together in one place without it descending into pointless fanservice duels; massively rare for a shounen.

Fishman Island seems to be growing legs and subplots and random details just for the hell of it though, but he's gotta have some fun after that, right? I just wish they wouldn't call it 'the New World', because clearly they won't be there for months..

I'm just a lazy bum, so could someone with free time and good will look and tell here... how many chapters were there from Luffy's first punch on Crocodile and Enel to the end of their respectives arcs?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ErosVp

I'm just a lazy bum, so could someone with free time and good will look and tell here... how many chapters were there from Luffy's first punch on Crocodile and Enel to the end of their respectives arcs?

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Enel's WTF face was in chapter 279, the knockout punch was 19 chapters later in ch.298, and the merry touched down on the blue sea again after another 5 chapters. So about 24 chapters from the start of the main fight till the end of the arc.

I can't be bothered looking through the Crocodile fights, but I know Robin joined the crew in chapter 218 and I think that was the end of the arc, so if you find Luffy's first punch you can work it out.

Well, Luffy's strange fight with Enel fit more to the atual situation.... So Luffy's punch in Hodi to save the king was at 633? Maybe more 15 chapters till the party they always give after a battle!

I don't think the arc in itself is terrible as many people seem to believe. My problem is that it has been 3 years since the strawhats have been in the very edge of the new world and they still are not there. I want to see the new world! My only issue with fishman island itself is that the location itself is not as visually spectacular as I would have imagined. It is cool to watch but not as much as I would have expected for 500 chapters of buildup since the arlong arc.

i wish i was motivated to explain this better. i like this FI its not the best but its still good. we will for sure get something out of this arc by the end of it. even if its seems to be longer than we all thought.
i think Oda somehow screwed himself by having to finish up the War Arc quickly[for whichever reasons] and somehow got stuck with having too much time for this FI arc. or Oda simply needed time to work on the coming up New World arc which would explain him taking too many break of recent. anyways oda is just dulling up the things to set up the new world arc. i for one will have faith.