Ebony Void and Other Writings

Narrator waxes poetic about what happened in the previous episode

one uninterrupted minute of lore

person does thing

Everyone in the scene gets a dedicated reaction shot

Narrator waxes poetic about it for five uninterrupted minutes

The One Pace edit cuts approximately 361 episodes out of the 1000 episode runtime of One Piece (the most recent set of arcs is still being edited down, so this is somewhat approximate all around).

That's...significant but it's still a damn hard sell.

The best way I can tell you to watch the series is not like it's one long series, but several medium-length ones instead.

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, kind of like that. Consider each arc as a fully new series. This works more often than not, as each area has its own flavor.

Maybe in another post I'll describe each arc badly.

Regardless, One Piece is not about the destination, that is in fact one of the themes, and so if you try to watch it intending to "get through it" or "get to the good part" you're going to have a bad time.

One Piece, even at its worst, is still better than a lot of other anime at their best. There's a reason why it's Shonen Jump's golden goose.

My advice? Watch the live action. It cuts out about as much fat as can be cut from the first 30-50 episodes (I can't be assed to look up how many eps are in the East Blue Saga). If you like the characters, story, and general vibe of that, congratulations, you'll probably like the anime.

If you don't want to watch it, imo you'll figure out if you're on board for One Piece's particular brand of storytelling by about episode 5 (of one pace). If Chouchou's story doesn't move you, then probably don't.

Narrator waxes poetic about what happened in the previous episode

one uninterrupted minute of lore

person does thing

Everyone in the scene gets a dedicated reaction shot

Narrator waxes poetic about it for five uninterrupted minutes

The first thing to know: the average American, according to this video, has an 8th grade reading level.

Here's how the video broke those down:

At first, you sound out words, even if you don't know the meaning of them (some teenagers are still here).

At third, you can answer literal questions (who, what, where, when, how).

At sixth, you're starting to pick up on subtext, hints, foreshadowing. Things the writer implies, but doesn't explicitly say.

At ninth, you're understanding symbolism, metaphor, sarcasm, thinking about the motivation of the characters, and how perspective can change meaning.

At 12th, you're now going beyond the text into authorial intent. You can spot biased writing, and how different word choice can change the meaning of a statement.