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The Unique Curse of Watching One Piece
- myra dodd
- Sep 26
- 3 min read
The show that everyone's default reaction to is "that's too long, I could never do that". Well, you could, but should you?
Last summer, I made the life-altering decision to jump into the world of One Piece, dragging my sister kicking and screaming with me. This had a few unanticipated side effects. Consider this a guide or a warning, but this is how One Piece has altered how I interact with media. Quick disclaimer: Everything negative I say is out of love. You are not allowed to agree if you haven't seen it.
Everything is fast paced. You really never realize how much happens in the average episode of a show till you are subjected to a dozen episodes of a character warming back up from a ten-minute cooldown in a fight. It is brutal. It is truly remarkable. It almost tricks you into thinking other shows are better, but don't let it. You need to watch this character's backstory just one more time.
If there is one thing One Piece loves, it is to abuse a flashback. This has linked any flashback immediately to One Piece in my head and has gotten so bad that a flashback in any movie or TV show feels tacky to me. In fact, pretty much any scene will make me laugh. The term flashback may be generous cause it rarely happens in a brief manner, as we, of course, need to watch the same scene in its entirety. Again.
My most genuine critique of the story of One Piece is that, somehow, in this fantastical, battle-heavy, adventure entering its final saga, it has reached a point where it feels like there are no stakes. Early on, the story felt larger than life as we watched the characters become accustomed to the new scale of enemies on the grand line. They're fighting tooth and nail at every battle, learning how to work together, finding their own place within the world, and their crew. And this is all still happening. To an extent. Most of the narrative has shifted to the side characters. cycled between arcs instead of the main cast we have been following for much longer. The greatest flaw with One Piece is the narrative reliance on fake-out deaths. There is truly a ripple effect watching the show as the arcs progress. From Alabasta on (Roughly 150+ episodes in), there is an increasing number of minor characters just not dying. Characters that felt perfectly set up to die or make a certain sacrifice, or even just make the narrative more interesting by dying, just don't. And so many times they are thought to be dead with little reaction, only to be brought back later. This happens to some characters multiple times. And let me be clear, this is mostly an issue for side characters as the main cast feels established enough. Typically, a near-death experience will result in enough of a reaction or reason. But this over-reliance has led me to feel that there really are no stakes for most of the show. Even if a character dies, I don't feel anything because I'm so used to them not dying that I'm just left confused.
The ultimate curse of One Piece is the disaster you face when you catch up. The marathons of watching ten episodes at once are unbeatable, and the drag of certain arcs feels almost funny. Now the drag of certain plots over weeks into months is much less funny. And it does suck that you can never get that back.
This really makes it seem like I hate the show, so let me end on an extremely positive note. I really like the characters, and it makes watching other shows harder cause other shows don't have Robin. And why would I wanna watch a show without Robin? There are about 15 characters I could have said that about, and a billion more bozos that colorfully populate the One Piece world. I love it a lot.
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