when I was younger my favorite parts of the stories would always be the parts that were the newest and biggest like for example The buo Arc was always my favorite in Dragon Ball because everyone had Super Saiyan 2 and there was Super Saiyan 3 and fusion and Super Saiyan 3 Fusion oh my God the war Ark was my favorite part in Naruto because all the characters were there Naruto had the Ninetails Powers they had nukes everything was just next level and the post time skip was my favorite part of One Piece everyone came back stronger with new cooler outfits and character designs and the stakes got up as we finally got to the new world now obviously I'm not 12 years old anymore so my tastes and stories have changed quite drastically and so have they with one piece in my last video I mentioned that I find it weird when people say that one piece doesn't get good before episode 10,000 or whatever because in my opinion one piece starts incredibly good and once we reach the halfway point in the story it never really reaches those Heights that it did in the first half at least not as consistently now I still really like the second half of one piece don't get me wrong it's still incredibly good but a lot of times I'll find myself reading and thinking man this used to be like better and for a while I couldn't quite tell why that was I mean the easy answer is that I simply like the arcs and the pre- time get better and yeah that's true but I think I finally been able to narrow down exactly what the first half did better with the first thing being the straw hats themselves the straw hats get nothing to do after the time skip I feel like in every Arc in the pre-time skip every Straw Hat had some sort of character moments often times several but after the time skip even in some of its longest arcs some of them just don't do anything or get any character developments like I love Nami I think she's a great character but what does she do Post Time skip like legit I can't think of a single moment she had that I was like damn that was really good I can't think of anything from any of these arcs a lot of people bring up the moment she has in wano when she never stops believing in Luffy but that moment basically already happened in skypia except it was way better there instead of being faced with one of the lamest characters ever she stands up to the main antagonist of the Ark enl and declares that she would never want to fulfill her dreams without Luffy even though he was just presumed to be Gravely injured or dead with no one to save her from Eno it's also a way more rewarding moment because it happens way earlier in the story and isn't as expected as it is in chapter 1,000 and something not that I'm against moments that are there to reaffirm something we already know about a character and remind us what type of person they are after all Luffy has like a million of those moments and they're all really good but the straw Hat's faith in Luffy has been reinforced again and again and again so there's nothing unique about this moment then you think about all her moments in the pre-time Skip and it's night and day I think one of the characters that fall victim to this the hardest though is Frankie now to be fair Frankie did join the story pretty late but even then I can think of so many moments he had that were awesome the moments he had in water seven alone is so many and when he builds The Stairway to Heaven in Thriller bark he's always really reliable in every situation and acts like the crew's big brother and the post times skip he basically has no character moments and also just isn't very involved in what's happening in the story or has a very minor role it's it's like he only shows up in the story because it's obligatory for him to do so it's weird that a story as long as one piece has me wanting more screen time for one of its main characters but someone who has an even more minor role in The Post Time skip especially considering how big of a role that used to have is Usopp Usopp does nothing now I do want to preface that basically all the criticism I bring up in this video are not present in the dress Ros Arc it's not my favorite Arc in one piece but that Arc just happens to not have any of the issues I bring up in this video because obviously usab gets a lot to do when dress Rosa in fact some of his best moments are from that Arc but then you look at the other arcs and uh H I actually cannot think of a single thing that usub does outside of the dress Rose Arc even in wano the longest Arc in one piece he didn't do anything remember how much Usopp Robin and Frankie had going on back in water 7 and not just them every straw hat had had at least one big moment in that Arc that I still remember and I also just don't like how a lot of the straw hats fight anymore a lot of the characters had very specific move sets and clearly defined powers and weapons before that they would try to improve between every fight to get stronger Usopp had very specific ammo he could shoot from a slingshot like lead explosives eggs rocks he also carried spikes that he could throw on the ground this makes us aware of how he can fight and what his limits are then we get to the the time Skip and he has like a million different types of ammo that all do different and very specific things that always just conveniently come in clutch and this makes it really boring like one of my favorite moments from Usopp is when he uses the freaking 10 ton hammer on perona this works because we knew he had this in his Arsenal and this happens in what's considered to be one of one pieces worst arcs even its worst Arc has so many character moments that I can think of off the top of my head in usopp's fight against Luffy we get to see all of his equipment that he has shown up to this point he even uses the dial from skypia that we knew he took with him I'm being serious when I say I don't remember any memorable attack that usab does Post Time skip actually I don't remember any fights he has at all the only one I kind of remember is when he fights ulti but that's way more Nami fight than Usopp and speaking of Nami this exact same issue applies to her it's not as bad as with Usopp but but still a big downgrade pre- time skip her pole is split up into three sections one can produce heat the second one can produce cold air and the third one can Electrify the area around it by using these three sections of the pole she can do so many different attacks that all makes sense when you think about how the pole works it's actually a surprisingly intricate system but after the time skip she just shoots lightning like in a really straightforward way she just summons some clouds and shoots away like the intricate climate baton is now just completely automatic and no thought is required I will at least say that her controlling Seuss was cool seeing as that is something that makes total sense for her to be able to do but it's a bit too little too late and this issue is very prevalent with other characters too like Frankie who just like Usopp gets a million new powers and gadgets and robots remember when he would just like do a strong right or his weapons left yeah that was nice you know what else used to be nice Chopper I miss the old chopper from the gold Chopper of the Soul Chopper just like the others Chopper gets absolutely nothing to do and whenever he fights it's just less entertaining like remember when the monster points had serious consequences and would go completely out of control meaning he could only use it as a last resort it was something that had a serious risk but that also offered a lot of reward as well but after the time skip all that risk is effectively removed moved and now he can use it without any worries he gets a bit tired I guess now I'm not saying that they shouldn't have made the characters stronger after the time skip but when you don't give them any ways to improve or get better they just kind of remain stagnant just like their character developments a lot of people don't like how formulaic the fights were pre time Skip and the way everyone got their own person to fight like Sor would fight the second strongest and Sanji would fight the third strongest and so on but at at least those fights always manage to develop the characters involved I would much rather take that than nothing you know I think one of the issues is that there are just too many characters in the straw hats like there is just too many to focus on either some characters are going to get all the spotlight and the rest get nothing or it'll have to be evenly distributed so that no one gets enough and this issue was sort of attempted to be fixed it seemed at one point in the story where the crew splits up one half goes to dress Rosa and the other one goes to hul cake but even when split into two the lack of focus on them is still felt I mean considering these are two of the longest arcs in the series and only half the crew are present for each Arc meaning both sides will have a large part of the story where they're just not in it at all You' think that every one of them would get a decent amount of development or some sort of unique moment but like a lot of them don't Sor is of course not an whole cake at all so dresser Roa would be his Arc but the only thing he does is cut a rock for like a ridiculously long amount of time that's it again Thriller bark is supposed to be the worst one piece Arc but it has a Sor moment that is better than anything he gets Post Time skip Robin also gets absolutely nothing in that Arc she was one of the more complex characters in The pre-time skip even after water 7 but she just kind of gets pushed into the background she had like a decent fight in wano but that's it it's like she's there only to read the poneglyphs and nothing else and dress Rosa she is only there for fan service but again dress Rosa isn't terrible in that regard and some of the straw hats do get a decent amount of shine but the whole cake Arc is way worse obviously this is sanji's Arc and he gets enough to do for sure but the rest of them once again Chopper is out here starving man my man is just here to be a cute pet Nami slaps Sanji and that's it Brooke does absolutely nothing not that he ever did anything in the series to start with but you know I feel like the Post Time skip would be his time to shine because he joined the crew just before the time skip you think that this will be when he finally gets focused on but no I mean I like that he stands up the big mom and breaks the picture those are pretty nice moments for him but that's purely just action moments that are completely expected from him he never gets any sort of character development I actually really liked Brooke when he first joined the crew he had like one of the most sad and depressing Back stories of all time and the connection he shared with Luffy felt really genuine now he's just an unfunny perverted skeleton I have no idea why the crew was even split up in this way in the first place like you think that if you were going to split up the main crew you would have a really good reason for which character is in which place but if you were to like change places with Robin and Brooke would anything really change there are many moments in the pre-time skip where the crew is separated for a short period of time and there is always a really good reason for it to bring up Thriller bark for the third time this video The Crew gets separated at the very beginning of that Arc there you have Usopp Nami and choer all walking into Thriller bark ahead of the rest of the crew the reason for this is because these are the three weakest and most scared members of the crew so they're going to be scared of everything they see whereas afterwards the rest of the crew are going to come in and and they're not going to be scared of anything that's one of the things that makes Luffy pushing the zombie down so funny in water 7 Robin and Frankie are board the train because they get captured USA boards the train to redeem himself Sanji also boards the train to show how willing he is to put his life on the line for his crew and of course the rest of the crew aren't there because they couldn't make it in time I have no idea what purpose it is to have Chopper and whole cake when he doesn't do anything and sure the straw hats all got a lot of character development in the pre-time skip material and you might say that they finished developing back then but if a character is done developing and doesn't actually have anything to do in the story anymore that character should not be in the story you know I don't even think this would be like a huge issue if the characters that take up the spotlight instead were actually good which takes me to my second problem the new characters every Arc in one piece we always get introduced to characters that typically only appear in the arc they get introduced and are a crucial part of that story in the pre-time skip we had characters like Viv seph noo Vier and coko just to name a few and in the Post Time skip we have uh Duke dog storm pudding carrot and Riso this [ __ ] is trash like they're not bad but they're all just so far from the quality of the characters from the pre- time skip I think it starts off fine with shiroshi she's pretty solid but then we get the punk card and there's these oversized children I bet you can't name a single one of them or even remember how one of them look like we get introduced to Canon in this Arc but he ends up being so disappointing like he is a part of the straw hats crew from that point all the way to the end of wano think about that that is like half of the series half of one piece one of the longest stories of all time and he and Manos have less memorable moments and development in 400 chapters than VI does in 115 when we finally get to wano which is supposed to be their Arc I was just so underwhelmed I do like everything that happens when Mom nocape but even that is kind of underwhelming considering how long that Arc is and how long it was built up to and once again Dre Rosa is an exception because the new characters introduced in that Arc kind of rock like Rebecca and the soldier that hit but the rest of the arcs just kind of stink in this department I don't want to see any of the whole characters ever again not because they're terrible but because they're just so mad I felt absolutely nothing when Pedro died because the story hadn't even tried to make me connect with him on a deeper level carrot cares about him a lot but like I don't care about carrot either another character that joins the straw hats for a pretty long time just because she never grows or develops when we leave her and wano she's just the same person she was before and speaking of wano I got to say that this was the case here for me too I get that this is a really long Arc but I think it introduced way too many characters even the aasaya 9 alone like you really expect me to care about nine new characters but that's not it there are like a billion other characters in this Arc that get crammed onto the pages and we're going to talk about cram Pages later but like do you really expect me to care about Ashera DOI who the hell even is that Luffy doesn't care nobody else really seems to care except for the aasay themselves so why should I care and you know who I also don't care about the villains Post Time skip they are all so goddamn lame except for do Flamingo but everyone else sucks the first Arc starts with one of one piece's weakest villains ever hod Jones I do really like this Arc but hodi is by far the weakest part of it I like the way he represents extreme racist M and is an example of what happens when you don't teach young people forgiveness but he has no personal experiences that would explain why he has this ideology like he hates humans just because and of course this is a real thing that happens today with kids being taught to hate people of different race since birth but from a storytelling perspective this is so boring because we have no way of relating to him and he never develops or changes his views like he stays hating until the very end he doesn't even have a standout personality he's just a big angry dude he's so Bland that I often forget he even exists hell wapple is more memorable than him I also tend to forget this dude from Fishman Island who was also like a pretty important villain in the ark then we have Cesar and punk cassard and I got to say I actually really like Cesar when he gets used for comedic relief he actually gives us some of the funniest moments in the show but I really don't think he's good as a main villain like he's just evil because he's evil and it's not really enough to carry the whole Arc I like Caesar in all the arcs after this because he's actually kind of hilarious and it's funny how like comically evil he is but like liking an incredibly evil villain because he's funny is probably not a great sign there is not a single villain Post Time skip that is better than crocodile or Arla n l is also better than all of them except for DOL Flamingo although I will say that even though I love though Flamingo his henchmen are all pretty lame except for senior pink of course everyone else are such cardboard cutouts even doflamingo's top officers the devil himself's finest soldiers you think that they'd at least be like a fraction as interesting as him but no we have this snot dude oh man what the [ __ ] man a rock and Diamante who I guess could have been kind of interesting but he isn't and there are just so many of them like remember how I said wano had too many new characters to care about on the hero side well this Arc has the same problem but on the villain side and again soros's fight with Pika is just so lame remember when he fought Mr one and felt like he had to be able to cut steel to prove that he was worthy to be Luffy's companion well now he's struggling to cut stone and for the last two big villains of the Post Time skip we have big mom and kaido and they are just so godamn mid the four Emperors we get introduced to before them was Whitebeard Blackbeard and Shanks like the bar was set pretty damn high for them and while I didn't expect any of them to be up to that standard I at least expected them to have something going for them big mom wants to create a Utopia as she calls it where every race can live but this goal never gets focused on in the story it's way more focused on showing how she loves food and destroys the city and r [Music] there could have been some cool ideological conflicts between her and Luffy as there are some similarities and contrast between their ideologies but that never happens and her reasons for wanting to accomplish this goal feels so shallow she wants to do it because those were the values taught to her as a kid or something and because she's kind of a crazy person that's just what she wants to do I guess it feels less like she wants to do it because of some genuine intricate and complex reason but more so like she has an IQ of 50 and we're just watching a dumb person do whatever they decide I will say that they're actually feels like something was attempted with big mom but ultimately the execution really didn't land which is way more than I can say about kaido kaido is the definition of mid and Bland truly the most disappointing character in all of One Piece there is just nothing to him even after having him as the main villain of one piece's longest Arc I still feel like I don't know anything about him he wants to die in battle fighting a strong enough opponent so why doesn't he go out and do that like every time we see him he's just relaxing and drinking if he really wanted to die in battle so badly you think he'd actually battle more lots of Shonen characters has this as their goal and they typically get a rush in battle even if their opponent isn't as strong as them but kaido seems like he doesn't even want to fight when Sor is about to hit him with the strongest attack kaido looks scared and Dodges it he doesn't fight Odin oneon-one he aages him and takes over the country instead even if he believe there was no one out there that could beat him surely he'd enjoy fighting more than just doing nothing his backstory is so short and limited that there's nothing to make me connect with him on a deeper level and the only thing that makes him a threat is his strength like the only thing that is so scary about him is how strong he is he's not really scary or smart and doesn't have a ique personality at all it's just another big Angry strong dude do Flamingo was [ __ ] his pants over this guy and look pre-time skip had a decent amount of villains that weren't that good or complex but at least those characters weren't the main antagonists for 150 chapters if a villain was Bland or uninteresting at least you knew that you wouldn't have to spend too much time with them and you didn't have to wait like 50 years before Luffy finally beat them it was actually pretty satisfying when Lu Luffy won against Kuro he's not that great of a character but at least the Arc in kuro's motivations were very clear and concise and didn't drag on forever so when Luffy won it felt like a satisfying enough moment when he won against kaido I was just kind of checked out at that point I just wanted to move on to the next Arc likeu was foreshadowed since the dawn of time and so was kaido to be honest and once we finally get there we get one of the most Bland characters of all time to care about for 15 50 chapters and it's not like kaido's crew is much more interesting either these guys just kind of suck King is I think one of the more popular characters among the crew and he has kind of a cool design I guess that's about it though kaido saved him when they were younger so now he's forever loyal to him wow that's so cool and interesting man and he also just doesn't do anything in the story he stops big mom's crew and loses the sorrow that's it then we have kaido's left-hand man Queen and he is just so [ __ ] whack dude and worst of all we have the Toby Roo I actually could not tell you anything about any of them they joined the story at the very end that just to all lose pretty easily man okay I've been really negative for a while so time for some positives I think the new Navy Admiral is pretty cool he seems like a pretty fun villain and now for my final criticism the art and paneling I mentioned at the beginning of the video that I really used to like the straw hats new outfits and the signs but again as I've gotten older I've come to realize that they're kind of a downgrade Luffy Soro and Sanji look fine I guess I mean they're basically the same but most of the other ones I think look worse again they don't necessarily look bad but just worse Chopper got rid of his dad's hat and replaced it with a freaking diaper like what I like the idea for usopp's new design and generally I think it's pretty solid but it's just not as good as the original one like when I think of Usopp I imagine this not this and Frankie got the worst downgrade of all of them I'm sorry but he looks [ __ ] ridiculous I mean Frankie always kind of looked a bit ridiculous but he definitely had a certain style to him that only he could pull off now he just looks dumb and Nai and Robin I I no no I I can't even be down bad right now they look so generic they were so recognizable before especially Robin with her hair now they look like they could be anyone I've seen several new one piece fans that can't tell the difference between Nami Robin and boa and one of the most important things when it comes to character design is how easy it is to recognize them and it's especially hard to recognize them when they've been pushed into the corner of a really small panel with 10 speech bubbles I talked about this a little bit in my last video but one piece has some kind of bad paneling Post Time skip most people are aware of this but it took me a while before I realized because it's a pretty gradual will change I have been reading both Dragon Ball and berserk lately so maybe I've been kind of spoiled in terms of paneling but the first half of one piece also has incredibly good paneling just like Dragon Ball you can kind of just Blitz through it because it's so engaging to read I open a new page and I'm glued to it and excited to read it after the time skip I turn a page and sigh because there is so much damn clutter and text and drawings crammed together as much as possible and what this does is make the p faing bad moments are not allowed to breathe and exist for more than 2 seconds without there being 10 panels next to it that are related to something completely different it's the equivalent of having fast pacing in an anime or TV show I mean it doesn't destroy your experience again I want to make it clear that I still very much enjoy the Post Time Skip and often time the paneling is all right but I can't remember the last time it was actually like good for more than two chapters I mentioned at the beginning of the video that I struggled to find one overarching reason as to why I don't like the Post Time skip as much and that I had smaller and more specific issues instead but as I'm writing this video I'm realizing that there is something that ties pretty much all of these things together my one main reason for not liking the Post Time skip as much is because the Post Time skip does too much the main crew has too many characters for all of them to get focused on there are too many new Side characters introduced too many villains allthough the signs are bigger and more detailed but the pages of One Piece simply do not have space for that anymore because of how many characters it wants to have participate in the story at the same time all the characters have more powers and stronger abilities but now they don't have any incentive to get stronger anymore and there's no longer any sense of progression between fights all the arcs are now ridiculously long and cover so many different things but one piece rarely has villains that can be entertaining for that long and one of the things that made East blue so fun was that it was an adventure one piece is all about the journey after all so when we stop at one place for too long I just end up wanting to go to a new place water 7 is the second longest Arc in one piece and it actually takes place before the time skip but at least there you go to a completely different location in the middle of the Ark the new big and flashy parts of the stories I really liked as a kid just doesn't mesh well with the story and it absolutely does not mesh well with the anime you would think that the second half of one piece which has way faster pacing would translate to faster pacing in the anime as well but for some reason the opposite happened but make sure to check out this video to hear why the one piece anime really sucks [Music]