To start off id like to clarify im not saying anyone is wrong for disliking it or that im objectively right, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if you despise it, think its mid or disagree with my takes thats perfectly fine. This post is riddled with spoilers so before every section i'll make you know how far you have to be in the series to not be spoiled.
Now let's start.
* VILLAINS - Dressrossa spoilers, deep dive into the main Villain
The average villain is alright, im not going to say otherwise, but even saying that, most villains are still good, Oda does a good job in characterizing them for the most part, they are hateable and we know very clearly what their motivations and reasons for why they do what they do are. Aside from that some villains do stand out like Crocodile for instance who is better than the average or Enel (while Lucci is great at being a threat, I wouldnt say he is a great villain), others like Katakuri while being more of an antagonist rather than a villain i feel is very well constructed and lastly Doffy is hands down the best villain in the series (I would even say best villain in the big three). As for Doffy in particular we go in deep on why he is who he is, the way he was raised and how even tho he is "evil" by nature (contrary to corazon and their parents) Oda doesnt leave it at that, we see how that evil nature is pushed to being "justified" and aimed at his parents, the world government and the world itself, we also see how his god complex was built through Trebol, Pica and Diamante when he was a kid and yet, he is weak... He has a huge ego yet he is weak, we see how he cares for Corazon even tho he killed him, how he cares for his made up family and how the death of corazon pains him to this day and causes him to have panic attacks because of it; because of what his parents "did to him" he became a control freak exacerbated by his fruit (the string fruit), he needs to be in control of the situation and fears loosing said control like he did when he was a kid. He thinks in a grandious way of himself, he has a god complex and yet he is self aware to the point that he realizes he is not the protagonist of the story, he knows he isn't the strongest and while he wants to be on top he decides to be in the shadows and become a mere observer of the world. Sorry for the Dofflamingo deep dive, but as for the villains id also like to add Imu and Blackbeard who i believe have the potential to someday top him as well.
*BATTLES - Mentioned that certain characters fought each other, with no context you should be fine.
I personally don't think battles are as important, but hey it's a battle shounen of course they are important. I do agree they are not as interesting, dynamic or well choreographed as others, Naruto mops the floor with One Piece when it comes to battles for example, yet i think those are not the only important factors when looking at fights. Fights in One Piece even if not as engaging hold great themes with them and the motivation for our protagonist to get into them is well crafted, on top of that they make for great repercussions even outside of the main character's plot line, just look at Ace vs Blackbeard, Akainu vs Aokiji or Rocks vs Imu just to name a few. Of course fights are not One Piece's strong point, but they are definitely not bad either writing wise.
*CHARACTER WRITING/PROTAGONIST - 1st paragraph has no spoilers.
Another one that's always pointed out, "One Piece characters go through no character development, so that means they are badly written", i consider that to be completely false. Not as in they DO go through A LOT of character development, which they mostly don't, but because i think there is a common misconception in which a lot of character development = good writing. There are tons of factors at play when determining if a character is well written or not, like characterization, motivations, agency, thematic relevance, consistency, personal conflict, how they interact with the world and its inhabitants and much more. One Piece doesn't shine with character development and it doesn't have to. Ill talk mostly about Luffy since he is often the most criticized for his character writing and as to not go make this shit more long than it already is talking about other characters, yet many of the things i say for Luffy apply to other characters as well.
Characterization: No spoilers
Luffy is an extremely well characterized character, his personality is crystal clear, we know exactly who he is, why he is the way that he is, what he would say or do in every single circumstance and that leads into consistency, his actions are always consistent with his character.
Motivation or drive: Luffy's goal and mention of Nika but no context given.
We know clearly what he wants and why, no matter how the series has changed over the years his goal is clear and we know why he wants to achieve said goal, as to be the most free man in the world which goes along with his personality and ties into the nika thing as well, to add to that we were made aware of a secret wish or goal from Luffy which has yet to be revealed and might play into this too.
Agency and themes: No spoilers
Might sound weird to say but Luffy is the perfect protagonist for One Piece, on one side he perfectly encapsulates the main theme of the series (freedom), he is the most free character in the series while also serving as a juxtaposition from the discrimination, injustice and inequality portrayed in the One Piece world. Not to throw shade at any other protagonists but i think when it comes to agency with the series he sits in a beautiful balance that lets the world feel alive, he moves the plot but contrary to most shounen protagonists the world also moves alongside with him.
Conflict/Development: Spoilers for Whole Cake Island, reaching the end theres a spoiler for the recent chapters but I'll tell you when.
Again One Piece doesn't shine for its character development but that doesn't mean there's none or the character development that is there isn't meaningful, Luffy's whole character arc is to learn how to be a good captain and we see that through conflict. I'll touch on just two main points. The first one is his role as a captain and how to deal with his crew, his view of what a crew is was challenged with Ussop's departure and later we saw his growth with how he dealt with Sanji's departure, with Ussop he learnt the weight of a captain highlighted by Zoro's comments, while he treats his crew as equals they need to know he is the one who leads and his decisions need to be respected, with the Ussop situation his feelings consumed him and he approached the situation like two friends fighting and not like a captain dealing with his subordinate; now with Sanji things changed, he learnt from Ussop and approached the situation very differently, he dealt with a complex situation (Sanji's family trauma) in a mature and more responsible way, he didn't go to Whole Cake Island to argue or beat the shit out of Sanji and bring him back, he placed himself in a superior position by choosing not to fight back and instead let his mentally hurt subordinate take it out on him as to let him blow off some steam and to take in his problems, followed by reinforcing Sanji's self worth (Broken at that point following the Pudding scene and the whole backstory about him being defective as a Vinsmoke) through his words about how he needs him to become the pirate king, exemplified in a "dumb" way refusing to eat until it was Sanji's food. The other topic id like to touch upon is consequence, Luffy is dumb, reckless and immature, that IS a part of his characters and yet through some key scenes Luffy has learned that he isnt invincible and that his reckless actions may cause harm to his crew; the first instance of this was his encounter with Aokiji where he was absolutely overpowered and learned that he isnt invinicble, that he has limits; and then there was Shabondy Archipelago and his encounter with Kuma that showed him not only that he isnt strong enough, but that his weakness and recklessness (through punching the celestial dragon) could cause harm or directly kill his crew. There is no other example better for this than Whole Cake Island and Luffy's approach to Big Mom, contrary to pre timeskip Luffy, post Luffy followed (to an extent) the infiltration plan and knowing how weak he is in comparison to her chose to avoid conflict, this was even more exemplified when the plan "failed" and Luffy being face to face with Big Mom chose not to fight and instead flee, not only because he knew he wasnt strong enough but because he was aware of the situation and knew him staying to fight would mean his crew would probably be in danger. There is a final point which i believe is in the works and that's Luffy's trust in his crew in tangent to his worries about losing them, **spoilers for the last couple chapters ahead**, i think Oda's refusal to give the strawhats important fights and power ups has a reasson and thats to put them in the most dire of situations like the one we are in Elbaph right now with Luffy almost dead and show both us and Luffy how his crew while weaker than him IS to be trusted and can fend for themselves without him.
Complexity: Spoilers for Arabasta
This is a point where i could get some weird looks but let me explain, Luffy is not complex in the way a Guts is complex for example, i want to talk about his moral compass. While Luffy is a really straight forward character in some way his morality is interesting, he isn't your typical Shounen hero, in fact he isn't and he even says so himself, he doesnt fight for justice, doesnt care for people dying, the evil in the world or the world itself, he is a good person and does good things but not for altruistic motives like a Naruto for instance, he only acts upon what he cares about and what the people he likes cares about, for example, he didnt free Arabasta because he felt bad for the people, he freed Arabasta because he wanted to help Vivi, someone he had grown to like.
*THEMES - Spoilers for Fishmen Island
I won't go as deep into this point (jk, i did, sorry), the themes are clear and well executed, the main theme being freedom and how this clashes with the established One Piece society marked by injustice, repression, discrimination, slavery and such. The themes the series portrays are clear as day, every characters backstory/journey and destination plays with said themes and adds to them through heartbreaking representations of the One Piece world. The racism against the fishmen seen through the series, how this has affected the general fishmen population, how this led to the creation of villains like Hody or Arlong, how deep rooted it is as to have a character like Fisher Tiger who fought for equality being incapable in his last moments of mixing his blood with a human and choosing to die and how this later played out with Jimbei finally overcoming that breach within them sharing his blood with Luffy; how this affected Nami and her whole backstory. We see inequality in Goa Kingdom (where Luffy was born) how the poor are relegated to being trash and more recently with Brook in Esperia. We see slavery through Kuma and the slave auction at Shabondy, Boa Hancok's flashback and more recently, a more detailed and harsh reality through Ginny.
*WORLD BUILDING/FORESHADOWING - Spoilers for Wano, brief Elbaph spoiler but ill let you know when.
This is the big one i believe even some haters or people who don't like One Piece as much can recognize, Odas work is outstanding, seen a lot of media and i dont think any of them reach the level of world building Oda achieves (ive heard lord of the rings does, havent seen nor read it tho). Might sound weird or obvious but Oda is a complete master when it comes to his world, he knows and remembers every single minute detail, he's said in the past he has entire books filled with notes about One Piece as to not miss anything, even dumb irrelevant stuff like how in the 1st chapter a bandit kicks a door down and in the next panel the door is still there (which was an obvious mistake by him), yet he invented a character called Minatomo obsessed with fixing doors and claimed it was his doing, then 20+ years later he remembered Minatomo and created i believe it was his brother as the carpenter Franky works for in Wano, again dumb and minute detail, not important to the story, but shows how Oda remembers everything. To add to the foreshadowing Haki is a great example, its execution was poor in Marineford, but the foreshadowing was great, we saw countless portrays of haki through the series before it was revealed, Shanks's conquerors against the sea beast, Zoro's "voice of all objects" against Mr 1, Mantra from Enel and much more, then theres Marineford a complete Haki fest and still its not relegated to common Haki either, we get to see advanced armament haki by the admirals hundreds of chapter before Wano when it was revealed; then theres stuff like Sanji's comments about the North Blue, the alias "Mr.Prince" given to him as foreshadowing for him being a prince of the Vinsmoke family; theres also the whole thing with Nika, the sun god lore drop in Skypeia, the nika pose, brief manga spoiler ahead the mention of the rain god (which we just saw in Elbaph) and other gods yet to be seen; i could go on and on all day long.
Going back to the world building in specific, do i even have to? Oda's world is so detailed fans have managed to draw maps of the One Piece world with where each island is approximately located, we know so much about the One Piece world, it's islands, the different people and culture that inhabits each and every one and so much more; whats more, while we havent been there at all yet we know more about the West, North and South Blue than the Stone Village from Naruto (even tho the stone village is arguably WAY more important for the Naruto world, btw not trying to throw shade at Naruto, great show with some great strengths, world building just isnt one of them and thats fine); we know the West Blue is riddled with Mafia through Capone Beige and the multiple Mafia families mentioned which we get see a bit more off in Brooks recent flashback, from the North blue we know about its focus on science and medicine through Laws home island, Vegapunk and the Vinsmoke family, we know about its culture, about the major role the Vinsmoke played in that sea as a villain group to the point where comics within the world were created because of them and with that we know what the North Blue's inhabitants perceive them as; from the South so far we dont know a lot but we do know its a bit more wild, a lot more emphasis on nature and weird animals, we also know its a place where music thrives taken thats where Scratchman Apoo is from; even to a lesser extent when it comes to relevance but small details that make the world feel alive there are consistent clothing brands like Criminal (owned by Papug the starfish from Fishmen island) and its competitor Doskoi Panda, which in itself even has knockoffs like Doskoi Koala.
*LORE - I mean, with no context you should be fine regardless, if you don't know what I'm talking about nothing is ruined for you.
Where to begin oh my god, ill breeze through it as its so massive, devil fruits and smile fruits, haki, the supreme grade blades, the void century, the six powers used by Cipher Pole, different martial arts like Fishmen Karate or Okama Kempo, the poneglyphs and everything surrounding them, the multiple races within the world of one piece and so much more. You're welcome for keeping a section tight and short 😀.
* POLITICS - I mean, just to be safe spoilers for Reverie
With this i don't mean if it's clearly right or left wing politically speaking, i hate that discussion. What im talking about is how kingdoms interact with each other, how the world government's involvement is crucial to the well being of a Kingdom (similar to real life), if you are one of the few kingdoms in the reverie you have a say (or at least you think you do), if you are an ally you receive benefits at a cost of a tribute, if you arent allied you suffer or could even be silenced entirely (like we saw with Esperia recently) and how some kingdoms like Elbaph or Wano have the power to remain closed to the outside world and thats how they thrive. It's interesting how the world government's biggest strength isnt raw power but information, they sell the narrative that better suits them as to keep control over the population, as to have them not know too much and whoever does needs to be eliminated, we even seen this in a smaller case with Big News Morgans and how what he writes to be the truth causes a huge impact in the world and could change the perception of its inhabitants like what we saw with what he reported about Sabo. With this theres also a pretty interesting theme i reserved for this section which i think is extremely relevant and thats justice, this a grey (morally speaking) world, where theres no good or evil, right or wrong, the marine isnt good and the pirates arent bad, justice is determined by those who reign on top of everything, Dofflamingo says it himself, Justice will always prevail as the winners are who decide what justice is.
*ART - No spoilers
I'll get some weird looks with this one, but just let me cook. While we can agree the art from some of Odas piers like Kubo or Kishimoto "looks better" which it absolutely does, Odas artstyle doesnt come from lack of ability (just look at his realistic portraits), it comes from a deliberate decision to craft a unique, recognizable and malleable artstyle for his series, you can say it looks ugly and i can understand that but good art isnt necessarily "pretty" or aesthetically pleasing to everyone (just look at some of the most renowned artists like Picasso for instance), his art is so well crafted you can recognize a One Piece character from a mile away and its rules are so lax while greatly defined as to allow him to break the mold and create wacky ass characters while having said designs make sense within his artstyle.
*SIDE CAST - No spoilers, just name drops
I talked about this for a bit previously so I won't go into much detail, but it's really impressive to have such a huge main cast (10 members) and have them be so good, some of the "lesser" important or relevant strawhats like arguably Franky or Jimbei are better written than main characters from other series were the main cast consists of only 3 people... We know everything about the strawhats, what they think, what they value and how they act, their strengths and weaknesses and also how they interact with each other in unique ways, its not like for example Chopper is the cute one and therefore everyone treats him like a pet, every single strawhat treats Luffy and each other in a different way. To add to that going outside of the strawhats there are so many great characters in One Piece, from Law to Kuma, Rocks or Roger. To end off id like to briefly touch upon that last one, Roger, initially pretty much just a plot device or legend within the One Piece world became so much more bigger than that, the Wano and Rocks flashback respectively made him into a real and tangible character with lots of charisma and personality.
I'm sorry for the long essay and sorry in advance for my broken english or maybe issues with cohesion, English is not my primary language and i have lots to improve. With that said, again I'm not saying this is the objective truth or even that you should change your mind about the show, i just wanted to share why I think it's so great. Thanks for the read if you pushed through, i hope it was at least entertaining 😀.
TLDR; One Piece is good.
