One Piece Mega Convo Thread

[Shinsatsu]

Yes here, just two posts above yours.

xD I was talking about these because they aren't in SHen's post:

Spoiler

---------- Post added at 08:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 PM ----------

It could still become harder to find the scans early...

I hope not! That additional week we had to wait for OP is more than enough if you ask me.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

xD I was talking about these because they aren't in SHen's post:

Spoiler

---------- Post added at 08:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 PM ----------


I hope not! That additional week we had to wait for OP is more than enough if you ask me.

Well I don't see what we can do. Let's all hope that all these Edited Manga groups have different sources, that it's not this one, or else the chapter will really be pushed back.

 

[Eigengrau]

This might sound like a dumb question, but why don't the manga magazines (such as Shonen Jump) release their chapters on a digital platform, perhaps on their own website? Would that hurt the (local) sales?

I guess Viz is doing something like that (or is it just for full volumes?), so I wonder.

We now there are lots of people that do these translations for free, and there always will be, but instead of looking at it as a "weakness" that drains their income, why not make it a strength?

If magazines worked with such people, they could get a single chapter translated in a lot of different languages (of course this would need to be overseen) in a short amount of time, and those chapters would be up for sale/download the same day they're released, for like, 1$/1 euro or something (maybe a bit more).

Granted, it would be almost the same as going to read on mangastream or any other website, but for such a small price I think a lot of people would do it, not to mention that having it translated right away - by that I mean the day chapters are usually out on the web, if that's feasible - in a variety of other languages could pull in a lot more readers that until then always wished to have a translated, readable version for them but never had/found any.

There would be, of course, a lot of things to consider, but I for one would do it, I'd rather pay once every week and have chapters I paid for on my very own "manga library", if you could call it that (or just download them if that were possible).

Maybe they just don't have that much cash for such an operation, but if Edited Mangas remain such a threat, does that mean that there's a chance the printable issues will become obsolete, and they will turn to the digital platforms?

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

This might sound like a dumb question, but why don't the manga magazines (such as Shonen Jump) release their chapters on a digital platform, perhaps on their own website? Would that hurt the (local) sales?

I guess Viz is doing something like that (or is it just for full volumes?), so I wonder.

We now there are lots of people that do these translations for free, and there always will be, but instead of looking at it as a "weakness" that drains their income, why not make it a strength?

If magazines worked with such people, they could get a single chapter translated in a lot of different languages (of course this would need to be overseen) in a short amount of time, and those chapters would be up for sale/download the same day they're released, for like, 1$/1 euro or something (maybe a bit more).

Granted, it would be almost the same as going to read on mangastream or any other website, but for such a small price I think a lot of people would do it, not to mention that having it translated right away - by that I mean the day chapters are usually out on the web, if that's feasible - in a variety of other languages could pull in a lot more readers that until then always wished to have a translated, readable version for them but never had/found any.

There would be, of course, a lot of things to consider, but I for one would do it, I'd rather pay once every week and have chapters I paid for on my very own "manga library", if you could call it that (or just download them if that were possible).

Maybe they just don't have that much cash for such an operation, but if Edited Mangas remain such a threat, does that mean that there's a chance the printable issues will become obsolete, and they will turn to the digital platforms?

They do release it digitally, even in the US, but it's supposed to come out on the same day as the magazine in Japan which is Monday.

I feel there is always a need to explain this. Weekly shonen jump come out on Monday. But thanks to piracy we're able to get the chapter featured on that issue early, on Thursday. So for example the next issue comes out on 11/16(November 16) as seen here

This is Shonen jump's english site:http://www.shonenjump.com/e/weeklyshonenjump/next.html

If you look at the bottom left page you should see the number of the issue (51) as well as the date it's supposed to come out on (11/16).
That's the Monday of next week. Normally because of the early leak if there's an OP chapter it will be available 3/4 days earlier, that should be around Thursday 12.OP isn't featured in this issue, so no early chapter this week.
This is how it works, we are extremely lucky because we get the chapters before they're supposed to come out, and for free.
So if there's no more of this, then we'll simply have to wait till Monday, like the Japanese(depending on your time zone) to get the chapter.
As to how it's possible, well some can get their issue early because of the shipping. That applies more to people who live in the US or Europe who get their issue early because of how shipping works,and who give us early spoilers(not scans related).And last year Japan tried to halt that, at least in China, so instead of the chapter coming out on Wednesday a few years ago, it became Thursday(GMT).Each Edited Manga group have their own source, so they're able to get the raws early.
And It's actually pretty easy to subscribe to Shonen Jump, even if you don't know Japanese. And there's also the translated chapter on Viz site I believe, which comes out on Monday.
So there are different ways to counter this problem,even legal ones.

 

[hokageji]

This might sound like a dumb question, but why don't the manga magazines (such as Shonen Jump) release their chapters on a digital platform, perhaps on their own website? Would that hurt the (local) sales?

I guess Viz is doing something like that (or is it just for full volumes?), so I wonder.

We now there are lots of people that do these translations for free, and there always will be, but instead of looking at it as a "weakness" that drains their income, why not make it a strength?

If magazines worked with such people, they could get a single chapter translated in a lot of different languages (of course this would need to be overseen) in a short amount of time, and those chapters would be up for sale/download the same day they're released, for like, 1$/1 euro or something (maybe a bit more).

Granted, it would be almost the same as going to read on mangastream or any other website, but for such a small price I think a lot of people would do it, not to mention that having it translated right away - by that I mean the day chapters are usually out on the web, if that's feasible - in a variety of other languages could pull in a lot more readers that until then always wished to have a translated, readable version for them but never had/found any.

There would be, of course, a lot of things to consider, but I for one would do it, I'd rather pay once every week and have chapters I paid for on my very own "manga library", if you could call it that (or just download them if that were possible).

Maybe they just don't have that much cash for such an operation, but if Edited Mangas remain such a threat, does that mean that there's a chance the printable issues will become obsolete, and they will turn to the digital platforms?

http://shonenjump.viz.com/

There is an official copy, and its pretty cheap, 25$ a year...

Now the only reason I subscribe honestly, is to support the industry and since its quite affordable for me. However, it actually gives a better experience. So I end up reading 3 versions of the same chapter
MangaPanda version, cos I cant resist...
Mangastream version, to undo the errors made
Official version, which confirms the most accurate translation.

Additionally, the purchase will extend to mobile devices and allows you to read all the previous issues as well, from the time of your subscription. I also got some Yugioh! stickers and cards sent by post which I instantly discarded....

If you don't want to subsrible yearly, it is available for a dollar per issue... Right now I am only reading one piece, but it is getting me interested in other issues as well, like Black Clover and One Punch Man, making it memorable.

Now the model of selective reading on the basis doesn't help Shonen's cause, but they can come up with a model that allows you to buy digital content over volumes, something amazon already offers...

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

The final of this year's One Piece tournament has just started. You can decide now who will win this edition of the OP tournament.

---------- Post added November 16, 2015 at 01:32 AM ---------- Previous post was November 14, 2015 at 01:06 PM ----------

Japan.

 

[Shinsatsu]

Today, I've read so many theories about Zoro's eye. But I didn't like or agree with any of them.
I always thought that Zoro cut up his own eye as payment for the training he received from Mihawk. Because he doesn't want to owe him anything when they fight for the throne in the future. Something like: You trained me, now I give up this eye, so when I defeat you, it won't be thanks to your training.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

Today, I've read so many theories about Zoro's eye. But I didn't like or agree with any of them.
I always thought that Zoro cut up his own eye as payment for the training he received from Mihawk. Because he doesn't want to owe him anything when they fight for the throne in the future. Something like: You trained me, now I give up this eye, so when I defeat you, it won't be thanks to your training.

Ehh doesn't really makes sense to me tbh. I'm more of the mind that he(Zoro) lost his eye during his training with Mihawk, because of his own limits. Say he wasn't able to predict Mihawk's movements, and he got injured in the eye because of it. So it's always there to remind him of his failings.
Plus there's a good chance it's just a design choice from Oda(that could have an explanation but still). You'd prolly noticed it by now, that he greatly ressembles Rayleigh with this scar, although it doesn't look like the latter lost his eye.Both are the first mate of Roger and Luffy , and those two are so close physically, especially when Roger was young. So why not make Zoro the first mate of the future pirate king, similar physically to the first mate of the late pirate king?
Also it is kinda similar to Guts from Berserk, who is blind from an eye.And he's an amazing swordsman, the black swordsman. So it is somewhat similar to Zoro who wants to be the strongest swordsman.

 

[Shinsatsu]

Ehh doesn't really makes sense to me tbh. I'm more of the mind that he(Zoro) lost his eye during his training with Mihawk, because of his own limits. Say he wasn't able to predict Mihawk's movements, and he got injured in the eye because of it. So it's always there to remind him of his failings.
Plus there's a good chance it's just a design choice from Oda(that could have an explanation but still). You'd prolly noticed it by now, that he greatly ressembles Rayleigh with this scar, although it doesn't look like the latter lost his eye.Both are the first mate of Roger and Luffy , and those two are so close physically, especially when Roger was young. So why not make Zoro the first mate of the future pirate king, similar physically to the first mate of the late pirate king?
Also it is kinda similar to Guts from Berserk, who is blind from an eye.And he's an amazing swordsman, the black swordsman. So it is somewhat similar to Zoro who wants to be the strongest swordsman.

Yes I noticed the similarity between his current design and Rayleigh's. But I doubt that Zoro actually dueled Mihawk. If he did and lost, then he would've broken his infamous oath of never losing to a swordsman ever again.
Also, I don't think that Oda would make a character lose a limb or an eye in something basic as training. I think that scars in One Piece always have a meaning behind them. Sometimes as symbols of growth (Luffy and Zoro chest scars) and other times as sacrifices (Like Shanks arm)...
Anyway, it's not easy to come up with something solid at the moment
Thanks for discussing it with me anyway.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

Yes I noticed the similarity between his current design and Rayleigh's. But I doubt that Zoro actually dueled Mihawk. If he did and lost, then he would've broken his infamous oath of never losing to a swordsman ever again.
Also, I don't think that Oda would make a character lose a limb or an eye in something basic as training. I think that scars in One Piece always have a meaning behind them. Sometimes as symbols of growth (Luffy and Zoro chest scars) and other times as sacrifices (Like Shanks arm)...
Anyway, it's not easy to come up with something solid at the moment
Thanks for discussing it with me anyway.

No not a duel, more just like regular sparring. If it's part of the training then it's not really losing....and he did lose a few times or at least he could win against Kuma. It holds a significance if it's constant reminder of him not being alert enough, or not taking things seriously, I don't know.
No problem, that's what this place is for.

 

[Hannibal Psyche]

Re: One Piece Chapter 801 Discussion / 802 Prediction

But Portgas D. Rouge never dropped her name... I went back and re-read the chapter where Sengoku reveals Ace's father, because I was pretty sure he had said "Gol D. Roger", but that wasn't the case, yet he did accurately say his mother's name.

Maybe they just stopped paying that much importance to the Ds at the time.

They only hid the D. in Roger's name because people will associate the D. initial with Roger and become curious about it in general.

The WG try as much as possible to hide the existence of the initial or its significance which is why people never knew Luffy was related to Garp despite his Bounty poster saying "Monkey D.".

Even now, people still haven't seen much significance between Ds despite how much they've impacted history in the last 30 years within OP timelines.

If people realized Gold Roger was a D, people would become more curious of Luffy, Ace and Blackbeard and possibly realize these people are somewhat special and this curiousity brings us back to Ponegylphs which is a taboo in OP; since Portgas D. Rouge is not that significant of a character in terms of no impact to history, they had no reason to hide her name so people wouldn't associate much importance with it.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

It's the moment we've all been waiting for. The result for the One Piece tournament's final are in!

---------- Post added November 21, 2015 at 08:20 PM ---------- Previous post was November 20, 2015 at 12:32 PM ----------

Moderator Notice:
Moved some posts to this thread.~ ladylola

---------- Post added November 27, 2015 at 02:21 AM ---------- Previous post was November 21, 2015 at 08:20 PM ----------

Moderator Notice:
This is the only article who attempts to make a prediction about when the chapter will come out. It could be either late Thursday, early Friday. We don't know yet if this will be permanent, nor do we know why it's happening. The usual sites haven't explained why there is such a delay. It could be related to the arrests at MP. But either way we got the spoilers so at best the chapter will be late a day or two.
And please there is no point in asking when the chapter will come out,there is simply no concrete info on that. Nor is it ok to spam the discussion thread just because the chapter is late. The chapter discussion is closed for now~ ladylola

 

[hokageji]

I was just thinking about it, Eustass Kidd is a lot like Shanks, some similarities

Red Hair
Scar on the same side of the face
Left hand missing

Its almost like Kidd wants to get rid of Shanks to claim himself as the Red Hair title...

 

[Drakrami]

Re: One Piece Chapter 808 Discussion / 809 Predictions

I think people over-hyping too much Jack and the calamities !
To read some writer, Jack is Doflamingo lvl, even to Admiral !!! No way ! Doflamingo is the guy who was toying Jozu in the War of Summit, playing with Crocodile !

Jack must be as strong as Jozu, at most !

It's not strange that some Supernova could claim this level after 2 years !
Luffy is a bit weaker than Doflamingo, but may be in battle capacity above Jozu (if haki allow the break Diamond, if not Jozu's fruit give him the edge)

So Drake being a Calamities is not impossible, as I don't think Jack is stronger than Luffy.
Being Insane to fight 2 Admirals don't make you stronger, It just make your lifespan shorter...

Doflamingo wasnt toying with Jozu... A panel was shown where Dofla stopped Jozu's charge with strings. Hardly means jack.

Eg. Does Mr 3 hand cuffing Luffy with his wax power means Mr.3 is toying with Luffy? Cause I can totally picture that happening.

Also, don't know how you are reading the manga. Pretty evident by now Luffy > Doflamingo. Doflamingo can't handle Gear 4 period.

 

[Eigengrau]

Re: One Piece Chapter 808 Discussion / 809 Predictions

Doflamingo wasnt toying with Jozu... A panel was shown where Dofla stopped Jozu's charge with strings. Hardly means jack.

He didn't just stop him, he was restricting all of his movements. Jozu not only didn't sense it at all, he also couldn't break away from it. What would've happened if DD had decided to control him and turn him against the rest of the pirates? Jozu would've likely become nothing more than a puppet.

If that's not toying with someone I don't know what is... Jozu was bis b*tch for a moment, that's for sure.

Eg. Does Mr 3 hand cuffing Luffy with his wax power means Mr.3 is toying with Luffy? Cause I can totally picture that happening.

That's completely different. If Luffy has just his wands waxed he can still move around, he's not being completely restricted and controlled against his own will. That's one of the things that makes DD so dangerous.

Remember when Zoro almost cut his legs off because of Mr.3? Does that mean Mr.3 is stronger than him? Of course not, but it would've been Zoro's loss for sure if he had gone through with it entirely.

Also, don't know how you are reading the manga. Pretty evident by now Luffy > Doflamingo. Doflamingo can't handle Gear 4 period.

Uh, he clearly could handle G4, and then some. If it weren't for the citizens, DD would've won.
Luffy is the one who needed a "break", which in the NW is the same as dying. He had to flee on someone's back until he got his strength back.

Until we have a rematch where Luffy is at 100%, I'll consider DD to be the strongest and the one who should've "won".

Anyways, this has been debated to death already.

 

[chitgoks]

Re: One Piece Chapter 808 Discussion / 809 Predictions

He didn't just stop him, he was restricting all of his movements. Jozu not only didn't sense it at all, he also couldn't break away from it. What would've happened if DD had decided to control him and turn him against the rest of the pirates? Jozu would've likely become nothing more than a puppet.

If that's not toying with someone I don't know what is... Jozu was bis b*tch for a moment, that's for sure.



That's completely different. If Luffy has just his wands waxed he can still move around, he's not being completely restricted and controlled against his own will. That's one of the things that makes DD so dangerous.

Remember when Zoro almost cut his legs off because of Mr.3? Does that mean Mr.3 is stronger than him? Of course not, but it would've been Zoro's loss for sure if he had gone through with it entirely.



Uh, he clearly could handle G4, and then some. If it weren't for the citizens, DD would've won.
Luffy is the one who needed a "break", which in the NW is the same as dying. He had to flee on someone's back until he got his strength back.

Until we have a rematch where Luffy is at 100%, I'll consider DD to be the strongest and the one who should've "won".

Anyways, this has been debated to death already.

true. but in every fight luck also plays a part. dd could have won if the citizens did not give luffy the 10 minute break that he needed.

like luffy vs rob lucci. if it weren't for that marine ship when luffy blasted lucci with gear 3, he would have been a goner and the fight would have ended instantly. but luckily, the marine ship was there to catch lucci, and the fight continued, which luffy almost lost if it weren't for ussop's words

 

[Drakrami]

Re: One Piece Chapter 808 Discussion / 809 Predictions

He didn't just stop him, he was restricting all of his movements. Jozu not only didn't sense it at all, he also couldn't break away from it. What would've happened if DD had decided to control him and turn him against the rest of the pirates? Jozu would've likely become nothing more than a puppet.

If that's not toying with someone I don't know what is... Jozu was bis b*tch for a moment, that's for sure.



That's completely different. If Luffy has just his wands waxed he can still move around, he's not being completely restricted and controlled against his own will. That's one of the things that makes DD so dangerous.

Remember when Zoro almost cut his legs off because of Mr.3? Does that mean Mr.3 is stronger than him? Of course not, but it would've been Zoro's loss for sure if he had gone through with it entirely.

Any way, back to the original argument. You guys were saying that Jack is overrated and even Dofla is stronger than him. That is logically false. Just consider the power structure.

Any Yonkou, who attacks the Marines (White Beard Great War); the marine needs to respond by recalling all their major powers AND summon the Shichibukai. Kaidou is a Yonkou. If his 3 strongest crewmates are weaker than just 1 Shichibukai (Doflamingo) than it does not make sense.



Uh, he clearly could handle G4, and then some. If it weren't for the citizens, DD would've won.
Luffy is the one who needed a "break", which in the NW is the same as dying. He had to flee on someone's back until he got his strength back.

Until we have a rematch where Luffy is at 100%, I'll consider DD to be the strongest and the one who should've "won".

Anyways, this has been debated to death already.

Sorry, the above is so much nonsense to me I hardly want to reply.

- We werent shown a Jozu vs Doflamingo scene. All we saw was 1 panel in which Doflamingo stringed Jozu, doesn't mean Jozu cant break out of the strings. My example explains that any character can cast an ability to a strong character in 1 panel; it doesn't mean the strong character is losing.
- Clearly Doflamingo could handle Gear 4? In which panel does it show Doflamingo being able to counter Gear 4? It was an absolutely one-sided fight where Doflamingo could not succeed in either offense nor defense. In fact, he deduced that Gear 4 had a drawback which was a time limit and was clearly waiting for it. Which exactly concludes that Dofla can not handle Gear 4.

Anyway, back to the original argument. You guys were saying Jack is overrated and is weaker than Dofla. Any Yonkou who attacks the Marines, the Marines will have to respond by recalling their major forces AND summon the Shichibukai (White Beard Great War). Kaidou is a Yonkou. If Kaidou's 3 strongest crewmates are weaker than Doflamingo (1 Shichibukai) than it does not make sense to the power structure.

 

[Eigengrau]

Re: One Piece Chapter 808 Discussion / 809 Predictions

Sorry, the above is so much nonsense to me I hardly want to reply.

Well, thanks for still replying, I guess...?

- Clearly Doflamingo could handle Gear 4? In which panel does it show Doflamingo being able to counter Gear 4? It was an absolutely one-sided fight where Doflamingo could not succeed in either offense nor defense. In fact, he deduced that Gear 4 had a drawback which was a time limit and was clearly waiting for it. Which exactly concludes that Dofla can not handle Gear 4.

What you're saying is pretty much this:
Doflamingo can't handle G4, therefore Luffy is stronger than Doflamingo.

When in fact Doflamingo took everything that Luffy threw at him while in G4, and he was still kicking after all that, and would've killed Luffy if it weren't for the others, seeing as Luffy couldn't even move.

Had there been no one to help him, G4 the first time around clearly wouldn't have done the trick on DD.

According to you;
Doflamingo vs. G4 = G4 wins (even though DD tanked it all and got up everytime no matter what Luffy threw his way, even use his DF's awakening and clean house, but whatever I guess?).

But that doesn't change the fact that;
Doflamingo vs. Luffy = still an overwhelming victory by DD.

If G4 was a permanent state/form, sure, Luffy would easily overpower him, but that has never been the case. Luffy used G4, and it wasn't enough. He had to transform a 2nd time, and he only got to do so because he had help. Otherwise, it would've been DD's victory.

Doflamingo wasn't fighting against "G4", but against Luffy.
G4 is a form/technique, it was used once and it clearly wasn't enough to put an end to Doflamingo.

It doesn't matter if DD wasn't able to "counter" it, he still took it all and was still able to do something about it afterwards.

How can anyone say that G4 won against him? Luffy needed a break to win, DD didn't.

 

[Notice me Escanor senpai]

I was just thinking about it, Eustass Kidd is a lot like Shanks, some similarities

Red Hair
Scar on the same side of the face
Left hand missing

Its almost like Kidd wants to get rid of Shanks to claim himself as the Red Hair title...

Hehe that's pretty obvious. There can be only one (red hair pirate)!

I think I agree with Shengao who accurately predicted that Kidd was after Shanks and not BM like everyone thought. The reason is simply because Shanks is strong, and maybe Kidd sees BM as weak. So there wouldn't be much merit in taking her down. So he could be aiming to take down the stronger Yonko, because it's entirely possible that they're not equal in power.
I also wonder if Shanks or someone affiliated to him is the one who took Kidd's arm, and gave him those scars. Killer also has some terrible scars so it could be they fought some formidable opponent, and lost to him. Either way it looks like Shanks could be one of the strongest Yonko, simply because if we look at the Kidd alliance, it has 3 pirate crews join their forces to take him down.Iirc Hawkins is only after Luffy ,Kidd and Law in terms of bounty(although we don't have all of them atm).While it is not representative of one's strength, it just shows that he's one of the more influencial Supernovas.
So it could be a matter of Kidd wanting to take out a strong opponent, which Shanks can be seen as. But with them meeting Kaido I wonder if it won't change their priorities, and instead set their sight on Kaido after receiving a thorough beating from him. I'd really like to see the bigger pirate alliance take place, with both pirate alliances joining hands temporarily to take down Kaido.

---------- Post added December 03, 2015 at 03:35 AM ---------- Previous post was December 01, 2015 at 04:13 PM ----------

Oricon released it's top 10 best selling mangas of 2015 , and can you guess who's number 1? Yep it's One Piece with 14,102,521 copies sold.
Here's the list:

Spoiler

1 - One Piece (14,102,521 copies).
2 - Nanatsu no Taizai (10,304,112 copies).
3 - Shingeki no Kyojin (8,778,048 copies).
4 - Assasination Classroom (8,605,861 copies).
5 - Kingdom (8,569,215 copies).
6 - Haikyû!! (6,531,508 copies).
7 - Shokugeki no Souma (4,321,830 copies).
8 - Terra Formars (4,188,158 copies).
9 - Prison School (4,058,119 copies).
10 - Tokyo Ghoul:re (3,758,541 copies).

And One Piece also comes first in the top 50 highest selling volumes of 2015

Spoiler

1 - One Piece 76 (3,185,018 copies)
2 - One Piece 77 (3,020,137 copies)
3 - One Piece 78 (2,977,466 copies)
4 - One Piece 79 (2,810,583 copies)
5 - Shingeki no Kyojin 15 (2,000,137) copies)
6 - Shingeki no Kyojin 16 (1,920,780 copies)
7 - Shingeki no Kyojin 17 (1,807,155 copies)
8 - Naruto 72 (1,324,693 copies)
9 - Tokyo Ghoul:re 01 (1,017,871 copies)
10 - Assassination Classroom 12 (1,012,500 copies)

This pretty much confirms that One Piece is as popular as ever, and that relatively new series like NnT are gaining in popularity. Since I like both series I couldn't be happier. Thanks to redon from Apforums for sharing this information first.

 

[kkck]

Re: One Piece Chapter 809 Discussion / 810 Predictions- Break THIS WEEK

In terms of strength, Ancient Zoans; and in terms of special abilities, Mythical Zoans like Marco with the ability to regenerate; end of it all, each has their individual strengths and I'd personally say how powerful a fruit depends solely on the strength of the uesr.

I'd say this is half true. Thing is, the fruit thing doesn't seem to be structured in a way which is fair. As in fruits are balanced in regards to one another and skill is the one thing that matters. All fruits are made different. To put that in a little bit more context, look at BB and his crew. BB's strategy, which has been terrifyingly successful, literally revolves around him collecting powerful fruits. He bet his entire future on the odd chance of him running into a very specific fruit to begin with. The one which he deemed as the strongest and most evil rare even among logia. He got his fruit and the set of events set in motion because of that has literally shaped the world.

Also worth noting... Look at the strongest people in the world. WB was insanely strong however oda himself made the point that WB's fruit was the strongest paramecia around. The admirals all have insanely powerful fruits, akainu even made the point that his fruit was stronger than ace's and ace's fruit was regarded as powerful enough to warrant the colloseum fighters mobilizing to get it along with god knows what else. Basically, if you look at the stronger people around the implication so far is that in most cases the strongest people usually (not always, this is important) have the particular combination of being insanely powerful by themselves along with having powerful, perhaps even exceptional, fruits.

BB is aware of this, that not all fruits are made equal. And not only extended his strategy to himself but his crew as well. We know for a fact that BB and his crew are collecting powerful fruits. They are aiming specifically for the strongest fruits they can find to give to their strongest members. BB is basically aware that giving his crewmembers fruit is not enough, he is aware that he has to give them the strongest fruits and have them properly master them. Imagine you have two people with comparable physical capacities and skills. So equal that if they fought they'd consistently tie. Then give them different fruits. Who would win? It'd be the one who gets the best fruit. Either the one that enjoys the most synergy with his original skills or the one that simply gets the strongest. Say, you give one fighter buggy's fruit and the other WB's fruit.WB's fruit user would probably have the advantage.

In the end it comes down to a fruit not being merely as strong as the person using it because there are many factors to consider. Remember enel? He was as far as we saw a more powerful and skilled fighter than luffy at the time in almost every regard. And yet luffy eventually got the upperhand simply because his fruit was the perfect counter. Luffy's fruit was not necessarily more powerful or versatile and yet it simply countered enel's fruit completely (save for metal manipulation and whatnot).

So its not just that a fruit is as powerful as the user because, well, the manga has made the point that this is not necessarily the case. A strong fruit is not enough either. Mastery of a fruit is not enough to be the strongest either simply because fully mastering a weak fruit won't make it overcome it's limitations. It it is up against a sufficiently developed stronger fruit it will loose. And with that in mind just having a powerful fruit is not enough, the manga has shown people with pretty insane fruits falling to fighters with lesser or no fruits. Take buggy, he can't be cut but odds are he would loose to mihawk.

In the end the actual strength of a person would be the sum of the following:

Physical capacity. Basically speed, strength, stamina and so on...
devil fruit power. Basically the inherent capacities of the fruit in question.
devil fruit mastery. Beyond the inherent capacities of the fruit, simply how good you are at it.
martial arts mastery. Pretty self explanatory.
synergy with fruit. This could go in mastery of DF but I would rate it independently. It's not the same just using a fruit as it is being able to use it in perfect sync with how you know how to fight. There are cases where synergy wouldn't be an issue (say, zoan folk as it is the closest to a generic boost in physical strength there is) however in others it would be more of a thing. Imagine ussop. He is a sniper, he fights from a distance. Giving him the leopard fruit wouldn't be of much use to his snipping for instance (except perhaps pulling his slingshot harder so to speak). In turn giving him viola's fruit would be more than exceptional, he'd exponentially increase his already insane accuracy.