This is my third and last appreciation and tribute towards the world famous manga and anime franchise known as One Piece. My first one was back in 2010, my second one was in 2015, and I figured that wrapping up things in 2020 is the way to go.
To be completely honest, I have said everything I wanted to say in the previous two blog posts already. 5 years later, and the story still hasn't ended, and numerous more characters, arcs, lore and plot developments have been shown. Eichiro Oda is keeping true to his words as to when the story ends.
Humor wise, I do notice that this has lessened, I guess because of the ambitious arcs and of jokes running out, but this is just my observation. Once in a while, the Japanese humor about the fictional pirates still can be effective.
Admittedly, I miss that it has been a long time since the Strawhat Pirates were truly re-united, as they have been separated so many times by now while hopping between the islands in the New World of the Grand Line.
That might explain why something is missing from the latest arcs if you ask me, which is for me the personal battles each member undertakes mentally and physically with worthy opponents, and not just Luffy, Zoro and Sanji cleaning up.
But One Piece still manages to uphold it's quality in general. There's always a new interesting and different plot playing out per discovered island, new characters can be interesting, old ones can surprisingly return, and plot twists can still happen now and then, while other characters are plotting.
I will be glad when the story is finally over, but not before Oda manages to end with a huge bang, larger than any Buster Call, giving each of the members one last satisfying battle, making their personal dream come true, and then ending it in the best way possible.
Thanks for this amazing distraction from real life! Perhaps one day, maybe through virtual or augmented reality, we can all role play as pirates again, real or with enhanced super powers, and then see what happens next.
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