One Piece Chapter 896 Discussion

RedRoseFring said:


Overall, I enjoyed the Luffy vs Katakuri fight just as much as everyone else seems to have, and I dread what Toei is going to do to it.

RedRoseFring said:

As for the complaints about the finale, I have a couple of thoughts:

1) I think a lot of people are complaining because they actually like Katakuri as a honourable character unlike Luffy's other big wins. For Crocodile and Lucci, you wanted Luffy to beat the snot out of them because they were evil, but Katakuri actually shows respect and honour.
So while the fights had similar elements, the characters themselves make a difference in the outcome people expect. My initial reaction was also a bit of disappointment to see Katakuri lose, but I've come to appreciate the fantastic job Oda did with Katakuri to create such a strong reaction.

RedRoseFring said:

2) I believe Oda made Katakuri too dominant for most of the fight. When I reflected on my initial bit of disappointment and re-read it, I felt that it wasn't as balanced as the Lucci fight. The blows they traded were too one-sided in Katakuri's favour while it was more even in the Lucci one.
Basically, I believe some of those complaining would not be so bitter if it wasn't portrayed so "one-sided"-ly.

Isterio said:


Since it isn´t exceptional and shot itself in the foot during this chapter,there isn´t much to destroy. Despite my qualms with the Toei adapatation in resent years I quite enjoyed the Zou arc and the Doflamingo fight, which was serviceable. My point being that Toei does deliver decent content when they have too. It´s everything around it that drags the adaptation down. Like the colosseum fighters repeated stock animation I gleefully skipped,

No one I heard about, had this complain. The most common similar complain people exclaimed was the lack of emotional investment. As someone who didn´t have any during the Rob Lucci or during the crocodile fight I found the Katakuri fight dissapointing regardles and overall poorly executed. Honestly the conclusion is terrible. It´s like a JJ Abrams Movie, it builds up and promises alot, but then ends up with a boring confusing
ending that satisfies no one and splitts the community. The pacing to this fight, like most of this arc was awful. Add a pointless inclusion and waste of panels on useless annoying characters like bug belly bitch sister king (I honestly forgott her name), and make the actual confrontation between the interesting people 15 pages long with several breaks inbetween. But this isn´t the worst offender to those who hated this chapter. I personally found it mediocre, but it´s the wasted potential promised last chapter that hurts the most. The setup from last chapter promised us the arguebly best fight in all of One Piece. And it´s gone! That´s where I see the biggest flaw.

People have thrown the term plot armor consistently around for this chapter. It´s because it was so blatant during this fight that only the most delusional hardcore fans will deny it, because of your aforementioned reasons. No tension = no mistery = no interest. Oda did a horrible job at blatantly telling us that Luffy will win this fight.
Remember the best parts of One Piece? That´s right, that´s when the Strawhats lost and we didn´t knew what would happen. This was an actual adventure. To quote Egoraptor. "This a tour to Disneeyland". This whole arc actually has nothing adventurous or suspenseful about it. It´s just a predictable mess, that cuts away whenver something exciting happens too forcefully keep us guessing. It´s the equivalent of having a kid go on a ride, but then take it down halfway and tell it that you prepared and even more amazing ride for it, rinse repeat. That´s whole cake island with the occasional character development sprinkled in.

TCRfanatic said:
@RedRoseRing

There is no point arguing with people like Isterio or this overly aggressive, rude and ignorant fellow harshtruth. They long lost interest in One Piece and instead of just dropping the manga altogether they just read it now to bitch and complain at every single trivial thing to convince themselves that the overall quality of the manga dropped instead of them just having grown out of it. The majority likes the fight and the arc as a whole. You just have to look at the ratings for this and pretty much every other chapter of this arc. At least 80-93% loved or liked the chapters and even in other places the people who say this arc is mediocre or sucks are in a very clear minority. That is also why they are so agressive most of the time and call everyone who disagrees with them a deluded fanboy.

NovaLord said:


I know this might sound shocking to believe, but yes it is different. Plus you assume I didn't complain back then. I don't look too highly on Alabasta for some reasons but am forgiving because it was a different time back then. The Crocodile fight was bullshit but wasn't even the biggest bullshit part in the arc (Pell living). Even then the Crocodile part holds nothing on this as there is a difference in context and knowledge that we knew. When Luffy fought Crocodile we knew nothing about haki. So the excuse that Luffy is a rubber man or Crocodile is a sand man held more weight then they do now. Crocodile was OP'd cause of his fruit then Luffy must be the same cause of his. It wasn't just this but it was also the fact Luffy found his weakness. The reason Luffy won is because Crocodile who was OP because of his fruit had been weakened by water and was no longer at his best. His fruit was no longer a factor. Sure Luffy should've died after the stab wound but the excuse that he's made of rubber (and his body works different) held more weight back then. This is no longer the case because we know haki nullifies DF and given our current knowledge Luffy should've died (he should've died back then but those excuses held more weight back then). So when Katakuri is smacking him around he is hitting Luffy without having to deal with Luffy's devil fruit. I still think crocodile fight was bullshit but the context from what we knew back then is much different. In the fight against Lucci, the context still fits. Lucci had just barely gotten his devil fruit so it wasn't like he was able to make the most of it against Luffy. Luffy had tons of experience with his fruit whereas that was his first fight with his. Of course he was gonna be at a disadvantage. Plus it wasn't a one sided beatdown like Katakuri.

Not too mention Crocodile and Lucci are no Katakuri. There's a huge difference in their strength relative to the series. Crocodile was a simple dictator whereas Katakuri is supposed to be Big Mom's first mate. The top commander to a younkou, who are supposed to be endgame in the series. In other words Crocodile and Lucci are villains of the week whereas Katakuri is nearing endgame. Only thing Crocodile had going for him in the fight was his devil fruit but Katakuri is much more then that. He had his insane haki, superior strength, and superior use of a fruit similar to Luffys that was awakened. There aren't many fighters stronger than him. If you remember Marineford Whitebeards commanders where able to hold their own against admirals (even if they did lose that feat is impressive). That's the level a top commander like Katakuri should be at so for Luffy to just beat him because "lol stamina" is simply insulting. So Katakuri despite being near the top lacks this stamina after smacking around some guy but the guy getting battered and bled out somehow has the stamina to keep walking. Two admirals fought each other for five days and while Katakuri may not be at their level are you telling me he couldn't even last a day? Really? That's ridiculous and terrible writing. I don't care that Luffy will reach the top, I expect him to, but if he's gonna be stronger give him a logical progression to the top, not just asspull his way there. And yes his magical stamina is as asspull as it gets.


Funny how earlier in your post you claim people miss the point yet here you seem to forget what even happened in this arc. Read the manga. Big Mom said Roger ran away after reading the poneglyph. He didn't stay and fight, there was no reason why Luffy couldn't have done the same. It would've mirrored Roger.



You're literally doing the "lmao luffy has max stamina! just turn your brain off XD" argument. Your post is ridiculous. So you really expect people to believe that the guy with more haki depleted their haki faster then the guy with less haki who is getting curb stomped and desperately trying to stay alive? Are you forgetting how much haki is used up by gear fourth which luffy used in the fight? So Luffy who used gear fourth throughout the fight had haki but Katakuri didn't, like really. Or are we just supposed to turn our brains off and ignore that? Likewise why are you only focusing on haki and not physical damage? The amount of haki remaining is irrelevant if you're bleeding to death with broken bones. Physical damage also depletes how much haki you have so Luffy getting destroyed would affect his Haki level. Going by the simple logic in the series Luffy should've lost. This level of plot armor is similar to garbage series like Fairy Tail.

You seem to be a One Piece fanatic, so getting you to see the obvious will be next to impossible. I love One Piece not because its One Piece but because of the great writing. This is not the One Piece I love. You might be okay with this but those of that actually care for the quality will gladly criticize it. I still love this arc although not as much. I hope its explained as if Katakuri just let him go because otherwise this is just downright insulting to the intellect of his audience. This whole fight has just left a foul taste in my mouth. No person who truly loves One Piece should be okay with this.