Arc length?

[Josef]

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?

 

[kkck]

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.

 

[janemass]

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.

 

[Josef]

@ 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.

 

[ErosVp]

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.

 

[Josef]

^

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.

 

[Uriel]

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.

 

[kkck]

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.

 

[White Silver King]

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.

 

[Ratatosk]

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..

 

[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?

 

[Old_Mate]

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?

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.

 

[ErosVp]

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!

 

[kkck]

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.

 

[BlindMunkey]

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.

 

[jorped]

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.

That's exactly the problem. When Oda makes long arcs, they end being pretty boring because he drags a lot the story. Skypea,Thriller Bark and FI. These are the worst arcs imo. If i would read the chapters of these arc all in a row without much problem ? Yeah i would ... but reading chapters like this weekly is just lame .... this arc should have already ended, or if not Oda should had made a better work.

 

[MaiSiaoSiao]

I wish OP would air 2 episodes together weekly...

 

[Anduren]

I thought it's already been mentioned that the arc is 1/3 the size of fishman island....but I guess the 150km problem caused a lot of confusion about arc length .

Putting jokes aside, I'm very happy with the way Oda manages his arcs. They have always had a building up to a climax: whether it be a battle (Arabasta, Ennies Lobby, Thriller Bark, etc.) or a resolution to a long awaited change (Skypea, Impel Down, Marineford War, etc.). He always paces his storytelling in a way that gives just enough info to make the story meaningful but leaves enough out that we have to see the arc to the end to find out why some of the things happened the way they did or the true effect of what happened.

I started watching One Piece in its anime form until I caught up to the current episode (Thriller Bark at the time) and from then on, I got into reading the manga out of sheer impatience to wanting to know what was going to happen next in the story. But by doing this, it made me notice an apparent change in pacing which was not really the actual pacing of the story but the pacing of the chapter/episode releases. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if a person watches the anime or reads the manga starting from the beginning, the pacing doesn't seem particularly slow or fast. But once the person is caught up to the current chapter, the one (and sometimes two) week wait for the next chapter or episode to come out can make it seem like the pacing is way too slow. Simply put, fans just cant get enough.

 

[Blue Lotus]

I also started reading weekly around the same time as you Anduran. But I switched to reading the manga after Chopper's fight with Kumadori at Enies Lobby. I’m happy with the way Oda has structured the arcs and the story as a whole as well. Of course it’s had a few problems, but overall it’s been great.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if a person watches the anime or reads the manga starting from the beginning, the pacing doesn't seem particularly slow or fast. But once the person is caught up to the current chapter, the one (and sometimes two) week wait for the next chapter or episode to come out can make it seem like the pacing is way too slow. Simply put, fans just cant get enough.

Rather than the fans not being able to get enough, I think the biggest problem is that somehow the series managed to attract the attention of the wrong type of readers. After Sabaody and the war it’s gotten an influx of narrow minded idiots who only care about strength and fights despite the fact that those elements have only been the focus of 25-30% of the series.

One Piece is also structured to have vastly different settings, characters and goals for the protagonists in each arc, which is great for those that actually care about the story; but with so much variety between arcs, it gives “the rest” a reason to dismiss them in favor of the next (while somehow deciding that their predictions for future events and arcs are law) once they’ve gotten a glimpse of the setting and categorized the arc’s characters into meaningless classifications of strength.

Worst of all, these readers are the most vocal and declare their desire to move on to the next arc over and over 10 or 20 chapters into the current one just to repeat the process. In that sense, Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter and many other titles are lucky because they don’t have to contend with much of this type of criticism. Due to their lack of variation, regularly recurring cast of characters (or in Hunter x Hunter’s case, long and unpredictable hiatuses) their readers either have no choice but to develop an interest on some level in the current storyline, or just give up hope on the series. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) One Piece doesn’t have that luxury, so we’re stuck with them.

 

[MangaPage]

I personally prefer shorter but more contained arcs so the story can keep its freshness, but I don’t mind long arcs at all when they are well-structured and interesting, and in general Oda does it very well. I think a good combination would be an alternation between one short separate arc, but which hints at a longer arc, and then that longer arc, and again a short arc. But of course it’s better when the arc length is irregular to keep the story unpredictable, so as long as the quality is good I don’t really mind the length a lot.

Well, in OP it’s quite easy to introduce new arcs since it can be just going to another island and so having another separate story, and that’s a good point about it because with each island shift there is a new side-setting, new characters, etc., so while it can keep a similar pattern (going to an island, then going to another, then another) it doesn’t need to worry about repetiveness and not having much variation, like Blue Lotus mentioned for those other series. Each new arc is fresh thanks to the location change, so in general OP arcs are quite good.

By the way, what length do you think the current arc (Punk Hazard) will have?