Genesis~! Your blasphemy on this matter shall not go unchallenged! I shall give you whatfor, slimey heretic!
...
No, but seriously, this is one of the few interesting topics that I actually feel competent in speaking about, so...I'm gonna go for it. Hey, this is the Love thread, and I do happen to love One Piece, so...it works.
- Lousy flashblack/fight ratio
For most other shounen series(cough cough, bleach naruto cough) I'd normally agree with you. Flashbacks can be a major nuisance, especially when they're placed right in the middle of an important battle scene. They are intrusive to the plot, they pull you away from the action, and more often than not, they add a sense of narm to an otherwise epic sequence.
But the way Odacchi(yes, I'm using his fan nickname, so I realize how this comes off) presents the flashbacks adds to the tension and the grandeur of whatever moment is occuring. This is a guy who is capable of info-dumping two to three episodes of flashback in the middle of the arc, and not only keep the pace of the story, but enhance the drama of it. Whether it was in Arlong Park or Enies Lobby, the flashbacks really put the situation in a perspective that grips the viewer(or the reader) and doesn't let go.
That being said, I think Odacchi does well on his flashbacks and back-exposition.
- Too many retarded enemies
Sure, mini-arcs have some pretty weak(in both senses of the word) villains, like Axehand Morgan or Don Kreig, but when you get to some of the more prominent story lines, you get guys like Arlong the Merman, Sir Crocodile, Spandam, Magellan, and to a far greater extent, Gecko Moria. All of these antagonists are not only interesting, but fun to watch, and the greatest of them can even invoke an almost visceral reaction in its viewers(this hasn't happened to me, yet, but I hear it's quite common). If that isn't good character design, I don't know what is.
- Zoro’s failure to fight anyone remotely interesting (except Mihawk)
Kaku...that is all.
- Somebody’s always crying for some stupid reason (and boy, do they cry)
Again, this is that very emotional aspect of the series. You learn during the Arlong Arc that not everything is careless adventuring in the world of One Piece. It has its share of sad and gripping moments that tear your heart out.
But then again, this is the type of environment that Odacchi
rules at. Through his artwork and his story telling he can combine the extremes of several different emotions and produce something that is nothing short of a masterpiece. There's one scene in particular that demonstrates this, but I'm going to avoid linking to it due to spoilers.
In all fairness, though, Luffy does a few things right. He’s got some sick moves when he’s fighting seriously. His destruction of Nami’s map room was reminiscent of Onizuka’s sledgehammer scene.
Dude, that's not even the half of it...
He slams Sir Crocodile through solid bedrock, decks Eneru off of a cloud and into a giant golden bell, and smashes Gecko Moria through the mast of the world's largest pirate ship; approximately the size of a small island.
And that's not even talking about the Enies Lobby Arc, which is by itself one Crowning Moment of Awesome after the next.
Conclusion? I can’t put up with Luffy’s stupidity and screwing around for 400+ episodes. Maybe you can, but I like to keep my anime series likings to at least 100 episodes or less (like RuroKen. Thank the heavens.)
Meh, true. The number of episodes is a bit daunting.
But my main problem with those types of shows(Ruroken included, unfortunately) is that they are ultra-compressed and don't tell the whole story. Claymore, Trigun, and Elfen Lied all have awesome stories that a 26 episode series simply can't tell. All of the three mentioned are good by themselves, otherwise I wouldn't have watched them, but unless you read the manga(which I'm not prone to do) you miss out on
a lot of good stuff.
I'm just thankful that they've kept up with One Piece as long as they have, although I will admit that they could probably slow production of the anime down just a bit so that the episodes aren't so squeezed together.
