Writing my review about Shin Angyo Onshi got me stumble on the fact that I hate One Piece. That was not always the case, however. I actually once thought very highly of this show but then changed my mind. Reason for that is rather peculiar way I got to watch/read One Piece. To explain why I will have to re-tell the whole story of how I got to read OP.
It was somewhere around 2010. The Impel Down War Ark just ended and Luffy was mourning death of Ace. Fans were all over the issue, some mourned Ace almost as hard as Luffy and others reacted to it in various ways. Seeing this whole affair got me thinking of giving One Piece a chance. At the time I knew few key characters from the show but nothing more.
I began not from very beginning but from where manga or anime currently were at the time, that is on flashback arc/Grey Terminal Arc, Polchemy Incident to be precise. That is where Sabo and Ace saved Luffy from some second in command in some small-time pirates, called Polchemy. Most people do not even remember this character, and I only remember him because he was one of the first characters I saw in OP.
Grey Terminal Ark had three main characters, Luffy, Ace and Sabo. Out of these three Sabo was by far the best one. I found him to be very relatable, and his sense of justice is similar to my own. Unlike Ace and Luffy he was from well off family on Sabody archipelago but hanged out with poor kids at the junk yard, called Grey Terminal. His family did not like Sabo, they thought he was stupid and preferred his younger brother Stelly who later went to marry a princecss and become a ruler of Sabody Archipelago. Sabo in turn did not like neither his family, nor the society they lived in, so he preferred freedom of his friends at Grey Terminal Luffy and Ace, together they dreamed to one day leave Sabody and live free as pirates.
Sabo got to leave first as one incident at Sabody high society pushed him to make a plunge. Some rich kid attacked Sabo with a knife and almost killed him. Sabo managed to defend himself, but the attacker called for help and police arrested Sabo. Sabo protested he was innocent and did it in self-defence, however on Sabody its status who determines who is right and who is wrong. Parents of knife guy were some high nobilities and per Sabody rules he could not be wrong as he is of higher status than Sabo. Sabo protested this rule and called it bullshit, for that Sabo's dad called him stupid and said Stelly is much better son than he is. After that Sabo had enough of Sabody Archipelago rules and hypocrisy so he decided to set sail as soon as possible and leave for good, even without Ace and Luffy. He did so but his small boat got in the way of an even higher status Saint who shot it with some advance weapon. Sabo was taken to die in this incident.
That is how flashback ended, after that we were turned back towards older, contemporary, Luffy crying over Ace, two of his brothers are dead now, it's up to him to fulfil their vision for the free life as they discussed it back after drinking sake at Grey Terminal. Just like that after Gret Terminal Arc One Peace appeared to be a dead serious high tragedy show about social issues that does not shy away from killing its main characters. It had strong Code Geass feel about it, the Grey Terminal Arc that is, certainly not the whole One Piece as I later found out. Sure, my favorite character, Sabo was dead, but I was certain a person who wrote such a character could manage more good characters.
Looking back at it, after I watched the most other One Piece Arcs, Grey Terminal Arc was rather uncharacteristic of OP as a whole. It was unwise to commit to watching the whole thing over such an uncharacteristic arc. However, since I did not know it was such an uncharacteristic arc, because it was the only one I watched, I decided to watch OP from the beginning and catch up on the whole story.
That said I liked Grey Terminal Arc a lot and if I were to rate it by itself, I would give it 8 or at least 7.5. Far above what I rate One Piece overall.
Grey Terminal Arc was the reason I stick with OP for as long as I did. In general, One Piece is nothing but a clown show more than 60% of the time. However various small elements of plot and world building occasionally made it seem more than it is. There is more to the story and Circus level weird antagonist and majority of Straw Hat crew. Remembering Grey Terminal Ark made me think that show certainly can be serious and profound if it wants too. So, I thought it will eventually stop its introductory arks antics and will get to the main storyline with full seriousness. Naruto too took several dozen chapters to grow into a show I could see as enjoyable.
In fact, closer towards Grey Terminal Ark, it did get more serious. War at Impel Down, Water 7 ark and even Barque Works vs Alabastra were clear improvement over early arks. One Piece was growing into a full scale good shounen show, like Naruto with large epic battles and cool abilities and diverse cast of epic characters. I thought finally it is getting there.
Then it ended. War at Impel Down ended, the only two characters to ever die in One Piece died there, a very small casualty rate for an equivalent of a World War in OP world.
From there it went back to silliness of early arcs. Underwater kingdom could be dismissed as transitional ark. However then came animal people ark, that was just meh, followed by Big Mom Pirates, Big Mom is more reprehensible than Germa Judge described her. She and her full clown show on steroids crew is where I decided enough is enough and dropped One Piece for good.
Also, they later brought Sabo back, but he was not the same principal, uncompromising and freedom loving Sabo from Grey Terminal Arc, far from it, he was pathetic and it was pain to watch him being bossed by some cunt.
So that is how I got to hate One Piece. Its brand of clown-show characters. Diehard loyalty of subordinates to underserving superiors who should have been couped instead, backstabbed and removed from power. Abusive unlikable women with bad personality. Abused men reduced to being jokes. Creepiness of many characters, particularly gay ones.
Speaking of women. I wonder if it were editors, who insisted Oda dropped Vivi for Robin as people who prefer submissive women would like her a lot more that spoiled self-assertive princess or orange head navigator. Taking Robin over Vivi certainly improved my opinion about the show. That said alas gradually Robin became closer and closer to nami's levels of spoil-ness. Aside from that there are many women in the show, but hardly any likable ones. Best girl of OP is of course Harpy-chan, who else but Harpy-chan.
By the Big Mom Ark it becomes abundantly clear to me that Grey Terminal Arc was an exception that does not represent what One Piece is and it's pointless to wait any further for the show to get back towards that diehard serious mood it had back then. That show is as gone as Sabo's little boat with S over the crossbones flag. Only clown show remains and I am not into it.
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