

Rereading again because why not, gonna do a little section for each arc as I finish them.
THE EAST BLUE SAGA:
Romance Dawn 6/10:
I don't know if many people feel the same but back when I first watched this I was hooked from here, there's a sort of stigma around one piece and that it only gets good after like 100 or 300 chapters or whatever but I've never felt that. The arcs only 7 chapters but its pretty good, Luffy characterisation is shown from the start and Zoro is wicked and the shanks backstory is cool. Solid first arc. Not the best one piece or even the east blue has to offer but its still good.
Orange Town 7/10:
One piece has always been the same, yes the arcs here are much shorter and have way less characters but you can tell Oda knew where he wanted it to go from the start because even these early arcs are all about freedom and liberating the oppressed. This arc is pretty fire, for being 15 chapters it does everything it needs. Luffy and Zoro are both badass, Nami is properly introduced and her little arc happens, ChouChous backstory is great and Buggy is introduced. I also love the theme of treasures in this arc, how Buggy believes only gold and stuff is treasure but Luffy, ChouChou and the Mayor all have treasures outside of money is pretty cool. But Gaimon though.
Syrup Village 5/10:
Yeah its not very good still, for being more than double the length of either of the last 2 arcs it doesn't do anything interesting with that time. I like Usopp and he has a nice arc here but other than that everything else just falls flat. Also its incredibly lazy how they find out about Kuros plan, what are the odds of them meeting right below Luffy and Usopp. I don't know if this is blasphemy or something but I prefer how this arc was done in the live action.
Baratie 8/10
If Romance Dawn was the arc that sparked my interest and Orange Town was the arc that made me appreciate the story and Oda as an author then Baratie is the arc that solidified One Piece as one of my favourite pieces of media ever. It's not talked about all too much nowadays as much bigger and denser arcs have happened since but it's still so good. Sanji is my favourite straw hat so obviously his introductory arc was gonna be a favourite of mine and his backstory plus all of his interactions with the other crew members, Zeff, the cooks, Gin and even Fullbody are just so good, his backstory is definitely the darkest and most "tearjerker" One so far but it's also full of heart. Gin whole thing here is pretty interesting and i like him alot as a character, Krieg isn't that crazy of a villain, he's not as entertaining as Buggy or as interesting as Arlong but he gets the job done as being this 'unstoppable' guy. And then of course we have the Zoro vs Mihawk fight, still one of the best fights in the series both visually and thematically. It's not particularly long or overly flashy but it's choreographed well and is obviously one of if not Zoros biggest character moment (maybe other than the nothing happened). Obviously this arc also perfectly intertwines and leads into Arlong Park which is also peak but we won't get into that yet.
Arlong Park 10/10:
Oh hell yeah, there's a reason people be saying to atleast read or watch up to Arlong Park before deciding to commit to One Piece and it's because it's so peak, it's honestly still a top 5 arc for me it's just so good. It really ignited my love for one piece back in lockdown and that's a love that's still burning strong to this day. It's the longest arc so far at 36 chapters and despite its relatively short length (in comparison to later arcs) it does so much, it really does feel like a climactic finale for the east blue. The East Blue saga of one piece tackles 2 main things in my opinion, Treasure and Good/Evil. For treasure I did mention it for Orange Town where it takes the reigns but I believe it fits for all of the arcs in the east blue, Luffy's hat, Zoro's Wado Ichimonji, Zeffs Restaurant and Nami's village all fit this picture that different people have different meanings of what Treasure is. And then for Good/Evil Oda establishes early that not all pirates are bad and not all marines are good, Morgan, a high ranking marine who is feared by his own men and the town he is stationed at and has a man wrongly arrested and sentenced to death and pair that with Alvida who's a cartoonishly evil pirate woman who attacks her own crew with a gigantic bat. It's very cut and dry and it's also shown through Nami's own struggle during this arc, she holds this belief that all pirates are bad and she can't trust any of them but when she joins up with the Strawhats she starts to question it and with a Marine captain, Nezumi, gets bribed by Arlong to steal her money her world view is flipped on its head and that's why I feel those are the two mains themes of the east blue, I've never seen anyone else mention these so I don't know if I'm an idiot but it was just something I noticed. I,very rambled on for so long and barely mentioned the arc itself so I'm going to quickfire some highlights.
●Nami's Backstory
●Nami 'stabbing' Usopp
●All of the fights
●Usopp being the goat and beating the shit out of Chu
● Zoro scar reveal
●Nojiko and Genzo as characters
●Johnny and Yosaku being fire
●The whole chart room sequence
●And obviously the "Help Me" scene
It's all just straight peak from start to finish, Hilarious, Heartbreaking and Effortlessly entertaining.
Loguetown 7/10:
Short, sweet and to the point, it's basically just a series of lore drops and info dumps that we will need later but it's done in a fun way.
The chapter focusing on Zoro getting the Kitetsu and Ubashiri was my favourite bit but seeing more of how the Marines function, Luffy getting his bounty, Smoker and Tashigi being introduced and obviously Dragon showing up are all great moments aswell.
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