I've been watching this loveable train wreck for almost twenty years, and I have to admit, I don't understand people who decide to watch this now that it's over 1000 episodes in. It takes 17 uninterrupted days to watch this, who has the time?
Toei may be the bain of my ability to watch anime. Slam Dunk and Dragonball, both are great manga with terrible adaptions. One Piece is a pretty good manga with an even worse adaption then the aforementioned Toei disappointments.
And what are the shared issues between all three, that cause them to be poor adaptions? The horrible weekly schedule, which leads to poor direction, bad pacing and terrible production values.
Arcs get dragged out for ludicrous amounts of time, deflating the tension week by week as we wait for something to happen.
Story: it's One Piece, it's looney tunes lord of the rings for kids and their families. I'm generally fond of the story, I mean I haven't stopped watching it yet.
Characters: due to its length, One Piece characters do tend to feel very static, but they're charming enough to usually get you through whatever meandering plot thread is being covered in the episode you're watching (and the subsequent 20 that plot will run through).
Themes: don't trust the government kids, treasure your friends and help out when you can. Good simple themes to teach kids and remind adults about.
Animation: AHAHAHAHAHA.....it varies wildly, arc to arc, episode to episode... shot to shot.....
Overall, it's pretty bad.
Music: It's an anime by toei, you're going to hear the same 5 pieces of incidental music so many times that they will be permanently etched into your brain.
Pacing: Luffy fought Kaido on the roof on Onigashima for over a year....... as a child, I thought those five minutes it took Namek to explode felt like forever, but that was only five episodes. Why is toei doing this to us? (So that TV tokyo's ad revenue isn't devalued during One Piece's time slot)
In the end, do I think One Piece is worth it? I guess, if you've been watching it for decades, or if you want to share it with your particularly patient offspring. But it feels like a cheap product, made to broaden the reach of One Piece's market saturation, allowing the production committee to make even more money.And that just feels hollow. I'm looking forward to the remake, hopefully it addresses my issues and let's people who are intimidated by the length try out the series. But in the mean while, if you want to try out One Piece, just watch the live action show or read the manga.
