One Piece started as a somewhat grounded fantasy adventure with pirate themes.
It’s no longer grounded and is barely pirate themed.
The changes in visuals add to the feeling of watching an entirely new show.
It’s weird and a bit sad to see it so utterly different from the first arcs.
It’s very, very disheartening when a show makes one first impression, and then turns and goes in a completely different direction immediately after. Day 1 controversies are an intended, malicious example of this issue, though more often than not, it happens due to writing issues.
Little Witch Academia has a fantastic first half — and then goes through an enormous tonal shift in the second half of the series. Death Note is infamous for just how jarring and rushed it felt after L’s death, and Dragon Ball manga was so different before and after Raditz’ arrival to Earth, that the anime made Dragon Ball Z its own show.
And, well, One Piece has a similar issue.
The Pre-Time Skip Ship of Theseus
One Piece started out as a somewhat grounded fantasy show in a pirate setting. Sure, there were Devil Fruits and weird old men bushes, and the strongest swordsman in the world could cleave a giant ship in half — but it still felt grounded enough.
Ships required actual maintenance, both navigation and food management were big issues, the stories were about marines and pirates — ah, and women wore somewhat sensible clothing. The fact that the show was cell animated only added to this warm feeling of fantasy.
Though past a certain point and with each consecutive arc, things shifted somewhat. The minutiae of the pirate life slowly disappeared from view, the stories slowly grew to a much larger, only tangentially sea-related political arena, and the womens’ fashion turned rather nonsensical.
The first signs of this happening began back in Water 7 arc. It’s a good story, mind you, but you could practically FEEL Oda starting to shed all the unnecessary pirate junk from One Piece’ carcass the very minute he introduced Franky (and while Franky is one of our favorite Strawhat, you can’t deny that his inclusion instantly rendered ship management plotlines irrelevant).
It continued onwards through Thriller Bark (with which the series began its significant visual shift) and Summit War Saga — until the series emerged as something entirely different post-Time Skip.
Post-Time Skip is a different show
It might’ve started long before the Time Skip and Fishman Island arc, but you can’t deny — at this point, the show had an entirely different feel, atmosphere and even priorities than it did at the beginning of the series.
Sure, we are still traveling to new locales and meeting new people — but the show is less interested in them, and more interested in setting up these cool fighting sequences that are mostly about Haki and other Dragon Ball-inspired nonsense (well, at least until Gear 5). The visuals bear minimal resemblance to the first arcs, and every woman is treated as a walking pinup poster one wrong move away from a wardrobe malfunction — even 16 year old teens like Shirahoshi and Rebecca!
Back in the day, we fell in love with the first arcs of One Piece. They were heartfelt, they felt warm and funny, and they didn’t cause us to roll our eyes whenever a woman was on screen. Nowadays… Regardless of whenever you like it or not, it’s just not the same. One Piece feels like an entirely different show nowadays — and it’s kinda sad.
The (pirate) Ship of Theseus.
Summary:
One Piece started as a somewhat grounded fantasy adventure with pirate themes.
It’s no longer grounded and is barely pirate themed.
The changes in visuals add to the feeling of watching an entirely new show.
It’s weird and a bit sad to see it so utterly different from the first arcs.
It’s very, very disheartening when a show makes one first impression, and then turns and goes in a completely different direction immediately after. Day 1 controversies are an intended, malicious example of this issue, though more often than not, it happens due to writing issues.
Little Witch Academia has a fantastic first half — and then goes through an enormous tonal shift in the second half of the series. Death Note is infamous for just how jarring and rushed it felt after L’s death, and Dragon Ball manga was so different before and after Raditz’ arrival to Earth, that the anime made Dragon Ball Z its own show.
And, well, One Piece has a similar issue.
The Pre-Time Skip Ship of Theseus
One Piece started out as a somewhat grounded fantasy show in a pirate setting. Sure, there were Devil Fruits and weird old men bushes, and the strongest swordsman in the world could cleave a giant ship in half — but it still felt grounded enough.
Ships required actual maintenance, both navigation and food management were big issues, the stories were about marines and pirates — ah, and women wore somewhat sensible clothing. The fact that the show was cell animated only added to this warm feeling of fantasy.
Though past a certain point and with each consecutive arc, things shifted somewhat. The minutiae of the pirate life slowly disappeared from view, the stories slowly grew to a much larger, only tangentially sea-related political arena, and the womens’ fashion turned rather nonsensical.
The first signs of this happening began back in Water 7 arc. It’s a good story, mind you, but you could practically FEEL Oda starting to shed all the unnecessary pirate junk from One Piece’ carcass the very minute he introduced Franky (and while Franky is one of our favorite Strawhat, you can’t deny that his inclusion instantly rendered ship management plotlines irrelevant).
It continued onwards through Thriller Bark (with which the series began its significant visual shift) and Summit War Saga — until the series emerged as something entirely different post-Time Skip.
Post-Time Skip is a different show
It might’ve started long before the Time Skip and Fishman Island arc, but you can’t deny — at this point, the show had an entirely different feel, atmosphere and even priorities than it did at the beginning of the series.
Sure, we are still traveling to new locales and meeting new people — but the show is less interested in them, and more interested in setting up these cool fighting sequences that are mostly about Haki and other Dragon Ball-inspired nonsense (well, at least until Gear 5). The visuals bear minimal resemblance to the first arcs, and every woman is treated as a walking pinup poster one wrong move away from a wardrobe malfunction — even 16 year old teens like Shirahoshi and Rebecca!
Back in the day, we fell in love with the first arcs of One Piece. They were heartfelt, they felt warm and funny, and they didn’t cause us to roll our eyes whenever a woman was on screen. Nowadays… Regardless of whenever you like it or not, it’s just not the same. One Piece feels like an entirely different show nowadays — and it’s kinda sad.
