On Why One Piece Is too Darn Long doesn’t Really Matter
With Wano closing the curtain, One Piece series which has been going on since 1997 finally shows sign that it’s going to end soon. By soon of course I mean it’s going to end in 5 years or even more. Being serialized for so long has it’s own perks but it’s also not without disadvantages.
For those who are probably new to manga or anime, One Piece is probably on their top 10 list of series that they are going to avoid. I can’t really complaint, One Piece has over 1000 episodes and that is 25 minutes per episode (if we include opening and ending). It means to binge watch One Piece from the very first episode, you are going to need at the very least 25.000 minutes, and that is about 400 HOURS OF YOUR LIFE WASTED ON SINGLE ANIME.
It is so not worth to spend 400 hours of watching one anime (with 400 hours you can learn two languages and cooking), and I get that. However as comparison that unlike newer manga like Boku No Hero Academia or Black Clover, One Piece comes from a different era and that is the era where Internet is not yet a thing. The era where entertainments are not as many as what they are today. The era where we have a lot of time to watch TV because that is our only entertainment.
Boku No Hero Academia and Black Clover is already on their final arc on around 300 chapters and One piece is not even on it’s final arc with the gigantic 1000 chapters. However if we look back on the era where One Piece were first written. Dragon ball ended on chapters 519, Naruto ended on chapter 700, Hajime no Ippo has around 1300 chapters and Jojo Bizarre Adventure has around 900 chapter with part 9 coming soon, even cr*p like Bleach has almost 700 chapters.
The plan for One Piece has been laid down for long term. Even Oda himself wanted to end One Piece as soon as possible. When he was asked what devil fruit he wanted to have, Oda said he wanted to have Nico Robin’s Hana hana no mi that will allowed him to have more arms to draw more chapters. He already has the ending planned in his head and it’s to going to take time to get there.
However for those who has been following the series since day one, they grow up watching or reading One Piece and One Piece also grows up following the fans age. One Piece is not just about being strong with the power of your friends anymore (i’m looking at you Fairy Tail). Darker and more mature theme were introduced as the series progress, government’s corruption, underworld criminal, slavery, police brutality, discrimination and etc. One piece who were supposed to be targeting younger market has widen it’s market to reach more a mature audience segment, the fans who grows up with the series.
In conclusion, I absolutely agree that spending that much time of your life to watch only one series is indeed too excessive but for those who are willing to try I promise you an amazing journey that you won’t forget. Lift the anchor and let’s set sail together.
