I’m not liking where this is right now. Introduce a bunch of characters who will be irrelevent, spend an entire chapter on setup after ALREADY doing that…frankly the pace is too slow and we are introduced to things that are obviously going to slow it down more.
-:bluu:
"And then…
I’LL MAKE YOU STOP DOING THAT TOO!!!"
Lotsa people getting introduced just to be struck down might seem like a waste to some, but honestly, the whole purpose of it is to make the reader understand that a lot of different countries are vying for the fruit. Putting forth named characters with personalities makes you remember those characters and countries better… And you know how much Oda likes his Chekov’s guns/swords/banana peels.
Anyway, this kinda pace is nothing new for OP. It’s always, ALWAYS been a better read in chunks rather than week by week. I’m used to it by now, and don’t mind it.
Also, “Mr. Store” got a chuckle out of me.
Cavendish just ate his flower lmao.
EDIT: Holy fuck post formatting is balls.
Sorry, I had something written out but SRK formatted everything as one paragraph and wouldn’t let me fix the post.
A standard set up chapter for a tournament arc but still interesting regardless. I definitely wanted to see One Piece enter a tournament arc at some point and while I’m a bit disappointed that it’s only Luffy who’s entering the tournament it’s still nice that they are finally doing this.
You’re reaching extremely far to say that random gladiator girl is a rip off/jab/homage to Red Sonja.
They may get bopped during the tournament but it doesn’t necessarily indicate that they will be irrelevant during this arc. They may play some other role during the course of this arc (and maybe a future story arc) so I wouldn’t discount all of the character just yet. Obviously, some characters are just cannon fodder for the tournament while others, such as Rebecca the female gladiator and the pirate prince, will have more staying power.
Also, it’s always better to show characters with personality because it allows readers to identify the character in some way so when it comes to using them during the arc they’re not completely forgettable. In this arc you at least have some idea of the characters and may have something vested in them later on. For example, if Rebecca had to fight someone from the Chinjao family, Oda has given us enough information so that we have something vested into either character (in this example Rebecca) and that her opponent is not a complete throwaway thus providing a sense of tension prior to the battle. It could turn out her opponent is fucking free but until then it keeps things interesting for the reader.
C’mon bruv! Tournament arc! It’s going to be great!
Her design, costume, high skilled female warrior motto…
Yeah…
If we go by Fairy Tail, my expectations are as lowest as it can possibly be.
How about them Wrestling homages, like Terry Funk (Kerry), abdullah the butcher (Abdullah with the long hair and fork scar on the forehead, assuming that’s him and not Jeet).
“I’m Luffy!! The man who’ll be king of the pirates.”
Oh Luffy, how I love you so. Your honesty knows no bounds.
I’m surprised no one mentioned the Funk Brothers as an obvious homage to Terry and Dory Funk.
I like how even those battle-hardened gladiators started pissing their pants at the mere mention of Straw Hat Luffy… He’s got legit street cred now.
Poor Bellamy is jumping back up to get beat down again, I see. I really hope he’s in Luffy’s division so we can get that salty runback, lol.
Bellamy is gonna get his shit rocked again. Pre time skip nigga got bodied. You think that’d change now? he’s probably just there to figure out that luffy is lucy.
Anyone notice a slight similarity between armored Lucy and a certain other old armored character?
LOL Lucy is getting his Gan Fall on isn’t he?
Also, I forgot to mention- JESUS BURGESS!!
Can’t wait to see that dude wreck people in the tournament.
I understand why, but I’d much rather be introduced to them when they become ‘relevant’. Oda has a NASTY habit in his story telling structure of introducing almost everyone in the arc at one time, and force you to try and remember everyone, or go back and re-read ‘needlessly’. It made sense with the Supernovas…they were obviously a long term play, but remember anyone introduced at the begining of the fishmen arc? All the new rookies? Caribou and his brother were it, yet we were told several different people as though we should care…none of them even interacted with any of the SH. This is more than likely going to be the same thing…the chick will be relevant for this arc and more than likely - Lucy will have to fight one of the people who helped him not get kicked out. With the winner of Block A being shown, its become obvious who’s Luffy’s final fight or next to final fight will be…I wouldn’t expect the depth chart to be that much deeper…so all those guys shown are barely even fodder. I’d feel differently if I didn’t see them as slowing the story down - but they took up space that could have easily moved the story forward a bit…and for what?
Here is something I’m curious about. The new world is supposed to be super tough, and haki is supposed to be like a right of passage for it…but if Spartan was ‘that dude’…and he looked like pre-time skip Luffy could wreck him…is the New World really that tough?
-:bluu:
Hahah Unreal, you better stop trying to make sense of One Piece. You will be labeled a troll.
It’s literally for kids and is about fighting.
Luffy will punch everyone, there might be a new crew member, and then there will be a party. That is about it. One Piece is a shallow well my friend.
Edit - Remember Marineford Unreal, and they announced all of these cool new world ballers and none of them did anything? Lava man was like “My job in the plot right now is to unveil how all of you are sopping bitches, ENJOY!”
And then all of Blackbeards crew just shows up and kills Whitebeard while his captains are like “LETS ALL JUST STAND HERE AND MAKE FACES!” Marco was an enormous pussy for how amazing his fruit was. It kind of just served as a whole question mark for what the Marines are even doing. I mean they had three dudes who were handling a combined effort by the big wigs of the pirate world, same with Shanks. He just came told Blackbeard to leave and then let him leave.
WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST KILL HIM SHANKS, HE JUST KILLED YOUR BRO AND STOLE HIS FRUIT AND WAS SHOOKUP. GOOD JOB DUMBASS.
Getting curbpunched out of a bouncing session the same way as last time. The exact same way. Unmistakably.
“Wait, this knuckle imprint… It matches the previous one!”
It’s a shonen manga… Meaning, it’s specifically for the tween/early-teen demographic. But I’ll be damned if it doesn’t appeal to the inner kid in me 
It helps that Oda’s like a kid with action figures at times, bashing them together just 'cause it’s fun to see the cut-everything guy fight a guy who turns into smoke.
It also… helps that shonen stuff can be as violent as adult movie fare in the US, so you get that weird mix of “holy shit that was brutal” and childish sillyness. I mean, look at the latest few chapters of Toriko. If you take away the rapey aspects of Berserk, the two mangas aren’t terribly far apart in brutality. Juvenile stuff + creative violence = summer blockbuster action flick.
Uhh…Rebecca’s design is a skimpy barbarian outfit with spartan armor and the fact that she’s a skilled female warrior hardly calls for her being a rip off/jab/homage to Red Sonja. You’re grasping at straws to find a connection between Red Sonja with Rebecca when one doesn’t exist.
Okay, there’s obviously going to be some pros and cons on when to introduce these characters; however, I think if you introduce them too late it’ll back fire. There’s no time to develop the character properly, which only re-enforce the fact that the character is cannon fodder when that may not be the authors intention. Introducing them early on is part of the build up that can either create hype, suspense, and/or mystery based on the context of the story line. Personally, I think the timing of these character introductions is fine because we’re still in the build up phase of the arc. It can afford to take it’s time to properly set the back drop now rather than try to force it later on when we get into the meat of the story line. It’s like the beginning of the fish men arc when Oda takes the time to develop the world of the fish men rather than dive right into the story.
Oda wanted to end the chapter with that particular cliff hangar so there wasn’t a whole lot he could have done with those pages in the first place without rushing things or detracting from the main focus of the chapter. Even then, he still has to introduce those characters at some point so you’re trading those story pages later on with character introductions anyways. We don’t even know what role all of these characters are going to play anyways and are just assuming they’ll be cannon fodder. For all we know they have a bigger role later on in the story arc. While it seems unlikely at the moment, you never know,
Introducing the rookies had it’s purpose even though a lot of them haven’t even interacted with the Straw Hats. Oda wanted to introduce them up at that specific point in order to set them up for a future story line, which is made obvious with the rookie alliance among other things. Just because it’s not immediately clear why the characters are introduce at that time doesn’t mean it’s a waste of time. It should be clear that the author intends to reveal their relevance in due time but needs the readers to be aware of them at a certain point so that when they do become relevant to the story, it’s not viewed as being convenient or out of the blue.
The TL;DR version: stop questioning Oda’s brilliance.