Discussion One Piece - Breaks and Hiatus

[weixiaobao]

So this was a chart for Hunter x Hunter

-2013: 46/48 issues, 95.8% hiatus, Note however that the two chapters were the Kurapika Oneshots in issue 1 & 2 of the 2013 WSJ publishing year.
-2014: 39/48 issues, 81.3% hiatus.
---------------------------------------------

This inspire me to do one for One Piece
1997 - 21 chapters ? hiatus/ One Piece begin this year.
1998 - 48/?? 0 hiatus assuming
1999 - 48/48 0 hiatus
2000 - 48/48 0 hiatus
2001 - 48/48 0 hiatus
2002 - 46/48 2 hiatus
2003 - 45/48 3 hiatus
2004 - 45/49 4 hiatus
2005 - 45/48 3 hiatus
2006 - 45/48 3 hiatus
2007 - 44/48 4 hiatus
2008 - 43/48 5 hiatus
2009 - 42/49 7 hiatus
2010 - 40/48 8 hiatus timeskipped 1 month Hawaii vacation/ the chapter that he came back with was like 2 chapters in one.
2011 - 42/47 5 hiatus
2012 - 43/48 5 hiatus
2013 - 39/48 9 hiatus was hospitalize
2014 - 39/48 9 hiatus was hospitalize

There maybe hospitalization in earlier years that I don't know about. 2009 is a strange case of 7 hiatus. Up to 2001, it seemed Oda work nonstop. Begin with 2013, the trend is 1 week break after 4 chapters and that probably the norm going forward. Earlier chapters is not as complicated as later chapters. Way less panels and details. Story is also much simpler in the first few years.

As you can see, Oda was a work whore for the first 5 years then he took probably the normal mangaka breaks for 6 years. In later years, a combination of hospitalization and because he is no longer a struggling mangaka/artist that he can afford more break time to spent with his family. Even then, the content in each of his chapter is much more than the chapters in the first 10 volumes. So is the trend of working for a month then 1 week break annoying? Perhaps, but when you found yourself on the verge of complaining ask yourself the following questions.

1) What is the quality and content of each chapter of One Piece compare to Bleach, Naruto, Claymore in later years? How much time do you spent reading Bleach chapter a week?? 10 seconds? 5 seconds?

(even if one complain that OP quality went down, Oda had made it that each arc doesn't really have to correspond with each other in term of quality. Unlike Claymore or Naruto went deep down to the path of no return. If you feel Punk Hazard is mediocre, Wano or the arc after don't have to be. But the 4th war part 2 or the 4th war part 3 or the 4th war part 4 are all depended on each other in term of qualities).

2) What happen to Hunter x Hunter, D. Grayman, Berserk??? Look at the track record of Vagabond in term of hiatus. Look at the art of Hunter x Hunter weekly.

The fact is that Oda is a multi millionaire. He still can make million (from all sort of shit) even if he produce no chapter a year for the next year (lol Togashi made quite a bit even on his long hiatus). A normal person with a normal occupation could chose to retire right now without feeling like they are owing anything. And frankly Oda doesn't owe you anything, especially many western audience who read only online Edited Manga instead of buying. Oda get extremely famous and was the most popular mangaka in shonen jump way before the series caught on in the west anyhow. And base on the sbs, he is extremely grateful of his fans. He once apologize that he had to take a break.

The whole trend of 1 week break every month was during the 2 years Oda was hospitalize. You already know the story about how he was drawing even in the hospital. Although, I can't confirm, some said the people at shonen jump force him to take this current break schedule.

Anyone has the freedom to criticize Oda. But I hope this post showed that with each chapter release, one should be grateful that there are even a chapter. And don't goddam dare put Togashi before Oda in a conversation with me (even though I love Hunter x Hunter anime a million times more than the trash One Piece anime that they cook up at Toei). To be honest, One Piece fans are pretty good but here and there I still hear some unfounded complains so I am putting this straight. Beside there are plenty other manga to read while waiting on that one week hiatus, so really this is like a 1st world problem.

 

[catagon87]

So this was a chart for Hunter x Hunter

-2013: 46/48 issues, 95.8% hiatus, Note however that the two chapters were the Kurapika Oneshots in issue 1 & 2 of the 2013 WSJ publishing year.
-2014: 39/48 issues, 81.3% hiatus.
---------------------------------------------

This inspire me to do one for One Piece
1997 - 21 chapters ? hiatus/ One Piece begin this year.
1998 - 48/?? 0 hiatus assuming
1999 - 48/48 0 hiatus
2000 - 48/48 0 hiatus
2001 - 48/48 0 hiatus
2002 - 46/48 2 hiatus
2003 - 45/48 3 hiatus
2004 - 45/49 4 hiatus
2005 - 45/48 3 hiatus
2006 - 45/48 3 hiatus
2007 - 44/48 4 hiatus
2008 - 43/48 5 hiatus
2009 - 42/49 7 hiatus
2010 - 40/48 8 hiatus timeskipped 1 month Hawaii vacation/ the chapter that he came back with was like 2 chapters in one.
2011 - 42/47 5 hiatus
2012 - 43/48 5 hiatus
2013 - 39/48 9 hiatus was hospitalize
2014 - 39/48 9 hiatus was hospitalize

There maybe hospitalization in earlier years that I don't know about. 2009 is a strange case of 7 hiatus. Up to 2001, it seemed Oda work nonstop. Begin with 2013, the trend is 1 week break after 4 chapters and that probably the norm going forward. Earlier chapters is not as complicated as later chapters. Way less panels and details. Story is also much simpler in the first few years.

As you can see, Oda was a work whore for the first 5 years then he took probably the normal mangaka breaks for 6 years. In later years, a combination of hospitalization and because he is no longer a struggling mangaka/artist that he can afford more break time to spent with his family. Even then, the content in each of his chapter is much more than the chapters in the first 10 volumes. So is the trend of working for a month then 1 week break annoying? Perhaps, but when you found yourself on the verge of complaining ask yourself the following questions.

1) What is the quality and content of each chapter of One Piece compare to Bleach, Naruto, Claymore in later years? How much time do you spent reading Bleach chapter a week?? 10 seconds? 5 seconds?

(even if one complain that OP quality went down, Oda had made it that each arc doesn't really have to correspond with each other in term of quality. Unlike Claymore or Naruto went deep down to the path of no return. If you feel Punk Hazard is mediocre, Wano or the arc after don't have to be. But the 4th war part 2 or the 4th war part 3 or the 4th war part 4 are all depended on each other in term of qualities).

2) What happen to Hunter x Hunter, D. Grayman, Berserk??? Look at the track record of Vagabond in term of hiatus. Look at the art of Hunter x Hunter weekly.

The fact is that Oda is a multi millionaire. He still can make million (from all sort of shit) even if he produce no chapter a year for the next year (lol Togashi made quite a bit even on his long hiatus). A normal person with a normal occupation could chose to retire right now without feeling like they are owing anything. And frankly Oda doesn't owe you anything, especially many western audience who read only online Edited Manga instead of buying. Oda get extremely famous and was the most popular mangaka in shonen jump way before the series caught on in the west anyhow. And base on the sbs, he is extremely grateful of his fans. He once apologize that he had to take a break.

The whole trend of 1 week break every month was during the 2 years Oda was hospitalize. You already know the story about how he was drawing even in the hospital. Although, I can't confirm, some said the people at shonen jump force him to take this current break schedule.

Anyone has the freedom to criticize Oda. But I hope this post showed that with each chapter release, one should be grateful that there are even a chapter. And don't goddam dare put Togashi before Oda in a conversation with me (even though I love Hunter x Hunter anime a million times more than the trash One Piece anime that they cook up at Toei). To be honest, One Piece fans are pretty good but here and there I still hear some unfounded complains so I am putting this straight. Beside there are plenty other manga to read while waiting on that one week hiatus, so really this is like a 1st world problem.

In response to your questions about Bleach / Naruto? I stopped reading Bleach a long time ago. (After Aizen arc which I considered generous even getting that far on my part). Naruto I painfully read out of pure commitment. I loved Naruto for a long time. Once they started reviving people and the whole war / spent two years on a single fight I found that every week I was finding myself to be more and more disappointed with the manga.

I think Oda has his right to produce manga at the pace he wishes. He has worked hard to earn this. He is in a culture where this kind of thing is extremely frowned upon as well. I think if anyone were to have a right to complain about breaks, it would be the animators. Many people complain that the show is complete shit now and I somewhat agree with that. They have one of the most stressful jobs in Japan, though, especially when there is a small gap between the latest manga chapter and anime episode. It's not uncommon to finish animating an episode 1 minute before it airs. Lack of content from the manga causes the animators to have to throw in things we hate like the 8 minutes of recap at the beginning of an episode.

 

[M3J]

Togashi takes hiatuses for selfish reasons, Oda is usually forced to take breaks. Let's not evaluate him until he starts being lazy and focuses more on video games than the manga like Togashi. And unlike HxH, OP is still good. Or rather, it's good.

 

[SharkBait]

Oda has been confirmed lazy in both his art (all characters are basically rehashes from the first 100 chapters) and dragging out his storylines.

His comments imply he is living life to the fullest so I think he is being lazy. If he was truly sickened then he wouldnt be going to tons of movies and concerts all the time.

 

[weixiaobao]

His comments imply he is living life to the fullest so I think he is being lazy. If he was truly sickened then he wouldnt be going to tons of movies and concerts all the time.

First off, I said he was hospitalized that contributed to the number of break that year. It meant that he didn't took that 1 or 2 break to see a movie. Second if you want to play the conspiracy card that Oda wasn't really sick in the hospital but spending time masturbating over Britney Spears. You don't even have to stop there. You can made up any fantasy you want. Like Oda, took out that 1 week he was in hospital, but secretly he was visiting you.

Who is the equivalent to Barto? Vergo?? Caesar Clown?? Sai? Pica? Kyros? Fujitora?? I usually don't engage people who put out unfounded statements without anything to back up. But I will made an exception for you. Maybe it appropriate to criticize him that he doesn't handle the sheer amount of new characters in this arc well. That is a valid criticism. But all characters are rehashes base on design?? on personality?? on back story?? on how they serve in the story?? Come on, man.

Also, I am glad that you brought up he is going to TON of movies. Which is good, more inspiration for him. You ain't got no inspiration sticking in a room for years. I am glad that he able to balance out work and enjoyment. With a creativity job like him, going to a movie can be part of work.

I am mad when people discuss about George RR Martin's mortality, much less talking about Oda being lazy. He also has work like designing for some One Piece movies, etc. There are other things that also work outside of releasing chapters.

There are authors that work harder than Oda. I am super impress with Fairy Tail's author. That guy is a beast.

EDIT: I realize why there was that one year with 7 hiatus. It was the Marineford Arc. I think the story was too complicated with too many moving parts. It definitely not the same as other story arcs he had done before that. Consider how it went, we are glad it not the 4th Ninja War or Bleach's invasion of Karakura Town Arc. All 3 was about the same time and about large scale war.

Creativity is a huge issues for many artists. Some mangaka are really strong out of the gate. But once their ideas (that built up through out their lives) ran out, the manga usually went to shit. We see it happen all of the time. When Bleach author took like a month break, I was overly happy. The chapters once he got back was better.

 

[BernieCrane]

I think if anyone were to have a right to complain about breaks, it would be the animators. Many people complain that the show is complete shit now and I somewhat agree with that. They have one of the most stressful jobs in Japan, though, especially when there is a small gap between the latest manga chapter and anime episode. It's not uncommon to finish animating an episode 1 minute before it airs. Lack of content from the manga causes the animators to have to throw in things we hate like the 8 minutes of recap at the beginning of an episode.

It doesn't help that Toei insists on the show being a weekly fixture. literally all of their pacing problems would be solved if they animated the show by arcs rather than doing it weekly.

 

[weixiaobao]

It doesn't help that Toei insists on the show being a weekly fixture. literally all of their pacing problems would be solved if they did animated the show by arcs rather than doing it weekly.

Many series like Kingdom, Silver Spoon, even Fairy Tail (once it caught up), Tokyo Ghoul etc. They do certain number of episodes per year (hence a season), then they took the rest of the year off. The people at Toei is just really greedy. I don't know what role Oda played in all of this. But GRRM for example don't really have all the power over Game of Thrones. Or for another example, the The last Airbender creators didn't got much said in the Last Airbender movie. Sometimes, the people in the business side of things just sold their soul for profit. And not every single decision they made are correct either.

 

[BernieCrane]

Many series like Kingdom, Silver Spoon, even Fairy Tail (once it caught up), Tokyo Ghoul etc. They do certain number of episodes per year (hence a season), then they took the rest of the year off. The people at Toei is just really greedy. I don't know what role Oda played in all of this. But GRRM for example don't really have all the power over Game of Thrones. Or for another example, the The last Airbender creators didn't got much said in the Last Airbender movie. Sometimes, the people in the business side of things just sold their soul for profit. And not every single decision they made are correct either.

It seems that Oda has creative input on the anime (considering how he often designs characters for fillers) but all of the business side is handled between Shueisha and Toei (since Shueisha, as the publisher, will hold the copyright for any type of licensing). So ultimately, Oda deserves no blame for the state of the anime, even from the animators because even if he didn't take any breaks, they'd still be in the same shitty position of trying to extend every chapter to 20 minutes.

 

[Ace4]

In response to your questions about Bleach / Naruto? I stopped reading Bleach a long time ago. (After Aizen arc which I considered generous even getting that far on my part). Naruto I painfully read out of pure commitment. I loved Naruto for a long time. Once they started reviving people and the whole war / spent two years on a single fight I found that every week I was finding myself to be more and more disappointed with the manga.

I think Oda has his right to produce manga at the pace he wishes. He has worked hard to earn this. He is in a culture where this kind of thing is extremely frowned upon as well. I think if anyone were to have a right to complain about breaks, it would be the animators. Many people complain that the show is complete shit now and I somewhat agree with that. They have one of the most stressful jobs in Japan, though, especially when there is a small gap between the latest manga chapter and anime episode. It's not uncommon to finish animating an episode 1 minute before it airs. Lack of content from the manga causes the animators to have to throw in things we hate like the 8 minutes of recap at the beginning of an episode.

Haha it was the same for me. I felt that Bleach was trying to milk the cow and that he used his ideas that he should have used for a new manga instead. Hunter X Hunter was such a pain in the ***. No wonder it was called Hiatus X Hiatus. And I stopped after the very silly ant arc ended with the ant king becoming nice etc. (some may call this art but it was f***ing bullshit)

However with Oda, despite having had many mediocre or boring setup chapters in the last arc I enjoy One Piece more than I ever enjoyed Bleach/Naruto etc. So hope that Oda can keep the pace of only a week break per month (during the War arc it felt like forever when he made a chapter every 2 weeks.) because I couldn't handle a Hiatus of unknown length

 

[SharkBait]

First off, I said he was hospitalized that contributed to the number of break that year. It meant that he didn't took that 1 or 2 break to see a movie. Second if you want to play the conspiracy card that Oda wasn't really sick in the hospital but spending time masturbating over Britney Spears. You don't even have to stop there. You can made up any fantasy you want. Like Oda, took out that 1 week he was in hospital, but secretly he was visiting you.

Who is the equivalent to Barto? Vergo?? Caesar Clown?? Sai? Pica? Kyros? Fujitora?? I usually don't engage people who put out unfounded statements without anything to back up. But I will made an exception for you. Maybe it appropriate to criticize him that he doesn't handle the sheer amount of new characters in this arc well. That is a valid criticism. But all characters are rehashes base on design?? on personality?? on back story?? on how they serve in the story?? Come on, man.

Also, I am glad that you brought up he is going to TON of movies. Which is good, more inspiration for him. You ain't got no inspiration sticking in a room for years. I am glad that he able to balance out work and enjoyment. With a creativity job like him, going to a movie can be part of work.

I am mad when people discuss about George RR Martin's mortality, much less talking about Oda being lazy. He also has work like designing for some One Piece movies, etc. There are other things that also work outside of releasing chapters.

There are authors that work harder than Oda. I am super impress with Fairy Tail's author. That guy is a beast.

EDIT: I realize why there was that one year with 7 hiatus. It was the Marineford Arc. I think the story was too complicated with too many moving parts. It definitely not the same as other story arcs he had done before that. Consider how it went, we are glad it not the 4th Ninja War or Bleach's invasion of Karakura Town Arc. All 3 was about the same time and about large scale war.

Creativity is a huge issues for many artists. Some mangaka are really strong out of the gate. But once their ideas (that built up through out their lives) ran out, the manga usually went to shit. We see it happen all of the time. When Bleach author took like a month break, I was overly happy. The chapters once he got back was better.

All characters are rehashes. You can take the same base model, add some bells and whistles and we get characters of today. Every female character is built from the same base just with some body part of odd size. there hasnt been any male character introduced since the first one hundred chapter that is different at all from previous characters. Its just been repeat for all chapters. Every swordsman is a Zoro clone, Rebecca is a clone of the female character from alabasta, theres many more example. He just doesnt know how to design unique characters which is lazy.

 

[weixiaobao]

All characters are rehashes. You can take the same base model, add some bells and whistles and we get characters of today. Every female character is built from the same base just with some body part of odd size. there hasnt been any male character introduced since the first one hundred chapter that is different at all from previous characters. Its just been repeat for all chapters. Every swordsman is a Zoro clone, Rebecca is a clone of the female character from alabasta, theres many more example. He just doesnt know how to design unique characters which is lazy.

ahhh, so you like to pick your own battle. Tell me again, how are these characters a clone and stay on topic this time (don't address things I did not ask). Who is the equivalent to Barto? Vergo?? Caesar Clown?? Sai? Pica? Kyros? Fujitora?? Allow me to explain what you are doing there are A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P. I ask for A to O, instead of addressing A to O you put up an easy strawman of P to beat. Once you are done beating the strawman known as Rebecca. Address my question properly or else, I just gonna ignore you from now on. I wonder if I can add "mangahelper" titled member on ignore list. Also name your top 5 favorite series, do all 5 of your top series fail or pass this standard that you had set up for One Piece and explain.

EDIT: SHONEN series.. Seinen is a different beast altogether.

 

[jaymizzo]

ahhh, so you like to pick your own battle. Tell me again, how are these characters a clone and stay on topic this time (don't address things I did not ask). Who is the equivalent to Barto? Vergo?? Caesar Clown?? Sai? Pica? Kyros? Fujitora?? Allow me to explain what you are doing there are A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P. I ask for A to O, instead of addressing A to O you put up an easy strawman of P to beat. Once you are done beating the strawman known as Rebecca. Address my question properly or else, I just gonna ignore you from now on. I wonder if I can add "mangahelper" titled member on ignore list. Also name your top 5 favorite series, do all 5 of your top series fail or pass this standard that you had set up for One Piece and explain.

EDIT: SHONEN series.. Seinen is a different beast altogether.

You are attacking his opinion of the manga/mangaka. It is fair to question his opinion but you cannot force him nor give him ultimatums.

You obviously feel strongly about the manga, I advice you to be ready for people who dislike it or aspects of it.

 

[M3J]

ahhh, so you like to pick your own battle. Tell me again, how are these characters a clone and stay on topic this time (don't address things I did not ask). Who is the equivalent to Barto? Vergo?? Caesar Clown?? Sai? Pica? Kyros? Fujitora?? Allow me to explain what you are doing there are A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P. I ask for A to O, instead of addressing A to O you put up an easy strawman of P to beat. Once you are done beating the strawman known as Rebecca. Address my question properly or else, I just gonna ignore you from now on. I wonder if I can add "mangahelper" titled member on ignore list. Also name your top 5 favorite series, do all 5 of your top series fail or pass this standard that you had set up for One Piece and explain.

EDIT: SHONEN series.. Seinen is a different beast altogether.

You're far too aggressive over this... SharkBait is allowed to have his own opinions and thoughts.

 

[weixiaobao]

You're far too aggressive over this... SharkBait is allowed to have his own opinions and thoughts.

2 things. I have limited time. When I type a post, I gave concrete evidences and I expect the same standard of others. Opinions are one thing. Accusations without evidences are another. I could said M3J is an abusive person and leave it at that. That is disrespectful and that is intellectually dishonest. I have no time for that. I hope you see where I am coming from.

Let take a look at Sharkbait's claim

Oda has been confirmed lazy in both his art (all characters are basically rehashes from the first 100 chapters) and dragging out his storylines.

His comments imply he is living life to the fullest so I think he is being lazy. If he was truly sickened then he wouldnt be going to tons of movies and concerts all the time.

He claimed Oda had been confirmed as lazy. Evidences?? None. Oda had been going to tons of movies. Evidences?? None. He gave a cavalier at the end that it was his opinion. But his first statement of "confirmed" meaning it is a mainstream confirmed fact.

All characters are rehashes. You can take the same base model, add some bells and whistles and we get characters of today. Every female character is built from the same base

Again, he stated. ALL ONE PIECE characters (not some, not a few, ALL) are rehashes. Hence Oda is lazy. Evidences?? Nope, he refused to address my point. I have a problem with this. I respect him enough to waste time to think, to type, to respond to his initial wildly baseless claim with no provide evidences. If I was disrespectful, I wouldn't have engage with him in the first place and took it as just another crazy opinion. For this person, to not even look at what I wrote. Completely ignore it. Completely ignore the time/effort I put into responding to him, and give me bullshit answers. I don't have time for that.

Opinions are variety. There are valid opinions, there are reasonable opinions, there are opinions that are unreasonable but still perhaps could be true, and there are opinions that are out of this world. If you are not using reason, then why stop there. Why not just said Oda is a pedophile. And call it, just my opinion. You don't agree with it then it your problem. I respect people enough to held them to a higher standard.

Also, if this person think it is okay to slander another person without evidences then this person should be able to take it.

I acknowledge that he had allow for his freedom of opinion. Hence, I didn't tell him to stop typing. I said I will exercise my freedom not to read nonsense by add him to the ignore list.

You too, M3J. If you ever got into a conversation with me in the future, respect me enough not to bullshit right in front of me. With mods, I cannot add them to ignore list. So I will have to see your posts either way.

---------- Post added at 08:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:42 PM ----------

You obviously feel strongly about the manga, I advice you to be ready for people who dislike it or aspects of it.

You are wrong. I feel strongly about slander, bad logic, hyperbole. I pick on supersonic a lot. But I haven't participate on one piece forum for the past months due to some really bad chapters. Because those are valid opinions that I will have a hard time refuting. But with people like supersonic, who called Oda a giant hack and that Konosuke Uda is the genius behind One Piece. That is not opinion. That is a slander, that is something beyond any shred of logic. If this person just use Rebecca as an example. Then it is fine, I could argue from that point. But how do you have a proper response to. ODA is CONFIRMED as lazy. ODA went to ton of movies and live life to the fullest hence he is lazy. ALLLLLLLLLL of Oda's characters are the same reharses.

 

[shionoro]

I very clearly Put togashi above oda..... Also the mangah are conpletely Different.

Oda could Not Do all thestuff togashi does in hxh (and does not want to) because a Lot of the side storylines took a great effect and time. Noone can write thats with Almost no creative breaks

 

[Core D. Roy]

As a reader of comics east and west (and hopeful creator), I fully support a two-week schedule minimum. One week is borderline exploitation, at least with what typical mangaka are expected to push out. It's either going to be crap, or it's going to erode the creator's passion for his work.

 

[Freid]

Lol gotta love weixiaobao's passion for this.

Anyway I agree with the original post. I love One Piece just as much as the next guy but I can never get why some people get so mad when there's a break. Like stfu and find something else to do or read. It's a minor inconvenience to your weekly schedule at most. There's nothing wrong with being annoyed or frustrated but when you start calling the dude lazy cause your entitled ass can't wait another week or two for the next chapter, then you need to chill. I think readers have been spoilt after years of getting chapters frequently all year round. I tend to feel priviledged that I at least get to read One Piece, whether it's 4 chapters a month or less. So let Oda write at his own pace so that he keeps enjoying his work. We don't want OP getting the Naruto syndrome.

On another note though, lol at "all characters are basically rehashes from the first 100 chapters". Cool story bro.

 

[shionoro]

I dont understand that either.

I do not think anyone who says that actually works harder than Oda (and i say that as someone who stopped reading onepiece because i stopped liking it after the timeskip).

Oda does incredible feats in his run.
For someone who has almost no time to break and think about the bigger picture and direction of his manga, he kept the wheel steady and actually managed to make foreshadowing several hundred chapters before the foreshadowed event happened.
He manages to put incredible detail and attention to the small things into his manga.
He manages to keep most of the fights and abilities fresh.

I personally know that if i had to do creative work at the same project with no pauses and no creative breaks, i would burn out really quickly.

And it happened to others.
It happened to togashi when he wrote yu yu hakusho, it happened everytime someone in th eshonen weekly genre just stopped caring and dished out bullshit arcs (and we know that happens a lot).
Doing creative work itself is not easy, let alone at the level of what Oda delivers with one piece.
Doing it without breaks is almost the work of a robot who does not need sleep or love.

There are drawbacks.
As i said, there are certain things oda could not do in his work which other mangaka who have more time for pauses and thinking can do (if they are good).
It would be a lot harder for him to include little symbolik sidestories or metaphorical pictures into his arcs, because those types of things needs time to think about if you want to do them right(think of the farmland saga sin vinland saga and vagabond (or honestly most later arcs of vagabond)).

In fact, you can clearly see how most shonen detoriate after the first 2-3 major arcs.
Even things which were good at some point get bad endings or progressingly contrieved and forced storylines.

As i said i dont like one piece anymore, but saying oda is lazy is just wrong.
If oda was lazy, he absolutely could be.
He has enough money and people would keep reading one piece anyway if he keeps pulling the right triggers by focussing on liked characters.
There is also noone who can force im to keep working. You think someone would dare to shut one piece if oda says 'biweekly or no deal'?
I really do not.
By the effort he puts into the islands and characters he creates you can see he clearly still loves what he is doing and cares for his work, and after so many years, i honestly find that quite touching.

 

[Aizen]

Gotta say i love the post, You obviously have passion for the series and that's commendable, As far as Oda taking breaks i have no issue with it at all this guy has made one of the most legendary shonen manga of all time imo as he gets older it's only natural he be allowed time to himself and to rest, The guy has a family i don't get how people are pissed about this. As far as the comparison to other series i have to say i like Bleach,Naruto and Claymore they all have amazing moments and i accept that they have faults as well, perhaps more breaks would have helped them but we will never really know, All in all i don't really hate the endings of those series like others do but that's just me. Great post overall though.

 

[ProGoddess]

It is a very good analysis. Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

I personally have no issue with the author taking breaks for his personal life. He has a family after all. Moreover, even if it is not for his family, it is also good to take breaks to rest. Writing stories aren't an easy task. It takes a lot of time to think through and sometimes one needs to be inspired to write. Besides thinking of the story, he needs to think about the drawings. I guess with a number of assistants, it has helped him a lot.

One Piece has been going on for a long time now. Our author has also grown older. Unlike when he was younger and new in the manga industry where he was more energetic and had more drive. At that point, his goal was different. Making money (or earning a living) was probably the main course. However after so many years, he has made a name for himself and has a very good income. I guess he can relax for a bit. I can reckon when one has been working for all his/her life, the feeling of exhaustion would be quite substantial.

One of things that I'm happy of, is that Oda is still able to deliver good story line after all these years. He is also full of surprises.