One Piece is currently 890 chapters into its overall story. I thought I’d take a moment to look back and talk about some of my favorite arcs in One Piece (manga only, canon arcs). The narrative can be divided into 9 larger Sagas with smaller arcs that make up a Saga. For example the Alabasta Saga is made up of five arcs in total: Reverse Mountain, Whiskey Peak, Little Garden, Drum Island and eventually the Alabasta arc. All these smaller story parts make up the entire Saga. So, let’s hop right in and talk about my favorite arcs in the series.
Honorable mention to Marineford and Alabasta. The Summit War was absolutely incredible with tons of payoff, I loved it, it’s just not one of my personal favorite arcs though it does have some of my favorite moments. Alabasta I love because I like when each Strawhat gets a fight and this arc properly introduces two of my favorite characters: Crocodile and Nico Robin.
Honorable mention to Marineford and Alabasta. The Summit War was absolutely incredible with tons of payoff, I loved it, it’s just not one of my personal favorite arcs though it does have some of my favorite moments. Alabasta I love because I like when each Strawhat gets a fight and this arc properly introduces two of my favorite characters: Crocodile and Nico Robin.
Zou – This arc is only 23 chapters long but I feel like a lot happened. It’s one of my favorite parts of the New World. We are introduced to the Minks, Jack the Drought (first billion berry bounty), we learn more about Rio Poneglyphs and we get visual conformation of Momonosuke’s important. First of all he’s the son of the previous Shogun of Wano and he can also hear the “Voice of All Things”. This allowed him to understand and control Zunisha. We learn that Nekomamushi and Inuarashi along with Kozuki Oden (the late Shogun) sailed with the Pirate King himself. SO much information was dropped on us during these very few chapters. The Minks are extremely loyal and if you know me, loyalty is a trait I very much admire (this is why I love Jinbei) because Jack came, raised hell and tortured the living crap out of the Minks looking or Raizou and they never gave him up. Lastly is Sanji is forced to leave.
Arlong Park – This is a part of the East Blue Saga so this takes place really early, right after Baratie. Here we learn about an entire different species in One Piece, the Fishmen and this arc is inherently very One Piece. A town in danger, sad backstory, nakama that needs help, a seemingly undefeatable foe and a heroic finish. There’s obviously more to a lot of the arcs, but to me this is what One Piece is all about a lot of the times. The flashback about Nami, Nojiko and Belle-Mere is sad as hell. How Arlong completely subjugates Cocoyashi village to do fund his ambitions and kidnap Nami. Forcing Nami to roam the oceans for years trying to raise 100,000,000 Berries in order to free the village. So much crap happened. The moment everything falls apart, after she seemly had betrayed the SHs and starts stabbing and clawing at the Arlong tattoo on her shoulder, Luffy shows up and stops her. And initially she’s angry he’s there, tells him to leave that he doesn’t understand anything and Luffy doesn’t move. She finally breaks down and asks him to please help her and he puts his hat on her head, yells of course he will, walks with the crew to Arlong Park and STEPS ON THAT FISH.
Skypiea - This arc is amazing to me because of the grandness and scope of this section of the narrative. It greatly expands the lore and universe of OP. The setting is so unique and absolutely breathtaking. It takes place MILES above the ocean, in the clouds, it’s so surreal. The pure adventuring aspect of a whole new world like this just grabs you and makes you want to explore with the crew. The historical importance of this arc that lies in the background (Calagara and Norland), we see Observation Haki for the first time (called Mantra) and this arc hammers home one of the most important aspects of Devil Fruit battles: matchups. Enel, a powerful Logia who ate the Goro Goro no Mi has a god complex with good reason. He’s essentially living lightning and pretty much invincible because he can lay waste to entire ISLANDS with his thunder. Luffy’s rubber body completely negates just about all of that, rendering Enel’s main way of fighting ineffective. Amazing stuff. The various Sky Island items such as the Dials are also really cool and one particular scene that sticks in my mind is Enel restarting his own heart after taking a Reject Dial from Wiper right to the chest. Underrated arc.
Sabaody – Can you believe that the concept of the Worst Generation or the Supernova is something that Oda came up with just one chapter before introducing them? This stuff was crazy, we’re reintroduced to Hachi (in the MAIN story, he had cover page arcs) and we learn about the discrimination of the Fishmen. The Celestial Dragons are introduced here. Luffy has the SECOND highest bounty out of the Supernovas which is insane when you think about Luffy’s accomplishments. Eustass Kidd also has another member of his crew that has a bounty over 100,000,000 Berries like Luffy and Zoro. We’re introduced to another Marine Admiral, the Pastifistas, the PIRATE KING’S RIGHT HAND MAN…are you guys starting to understand? I haven’t even talked about some of the abilities or how Luffy punches the FUCK out of a Celestial Dragon (incredibly satisfying). Of course we can’t talk about this arc without mentioning the fact that Bartholomew Kuma separated the entire crew. This was heartbreaking and if you were reading this around the time it was first published like I did, One Piece went on a two week break after that chapter. I was in real life pain.
Impel Down – This arc is just something else man I love this jail break. Luffy finds out Ace has been defeated and puts getting his crew back together on hold in order to save his brother. Here we are reintroduced to Buggy, Crocodile, Betham, Galdino and even Daz Bones. Here we meet Jinbei, Knight of the Sea and even Ivankov who’s part of the Revolutionary Army (works with Luffy’s dad). The jailbreak team is impressive, I like all the action and Magellan is the MvP of that arc. The entire, the entire jail ran from this man, THAT’S how powerful he was. He basically killed Luffy as a matter of fact, he poisoned him so badly Luffy is currently very resistant to poison. Luffy running into the man, the myth, the legend himself Teach who beat Ace was also a powerful moment. From a chapter to chapter basis, page to page, panel to panel, I just enjoyed this arc very much.
Enies Lobby – Undisputedly my favorite arc of the series, the Water 7 Saga is just absolutely amazing. The World Government has taken Robin to the judiciary island of Enies Lobby. She willing gave herself up because she wanted her friends to live and the SHs learn this and go after her. Knowing they’d have to defeate Cipher Pol Number 9 otherwise known as CP9. The get to the island and Luffy immediately just RUNS through HUNDREDS of Marine fodder looking for Robin. He runs into Blueno, and for the first time he uses Gear Second and demolishes this man. Not even close. It’s such a great moment see Luffy use a power up form. The SHs catch up and epically walk to where Luffy is standing. Around this time get the flashback with Robin and Ohara. How she suffered for 20 years running from the WG, heartbreaking stuff. She doesn’t at all value her life and insists she wants to die. Luffy screams out to Robin “SAY YOU WANNA LIVE”, she remembers the words of Jaguar D. Saul, her friend from the past and finally in that moment, she values her life enough to fight for it. Enough to loudly scream ,“I WANNA LIVE, PLEASE TAKE ME BACK TO THE SEA WITH YOU.” I was in fucking tears.This is easily the most emotional moment in the series to me, this scene is my all-time favorite scene and every time SINGLE TIME I watch it, I get CHILLS. Everyone else gets their respective one on ones (minus Sogeking), show of their power ups and showcase their abilities resulting in some of the best fights in the series. Luffy defeated Rob Lucci, the crew saves Robin; they give Merry a Viking burial and proceed to wrap up the arc. Garp, Coby, Dragon name drop, new bounties for everyone, a new ship and a new member.
What are your favorite One Piece arcs, hit me up on twitter and let me know or tell me in the comments here.
What are your favorite One Piece arcs, hit me up on twitter and let me know or tell me in the comments here.