This fact alone leads to the inevitable question of what separates the show from lesser works. The Arabasta arc, which has just recently concluded, is one of the best segments of the entire series. However, although during these moments the show seems like it might finally go the way of Inuyasha, the creators always bounce back to deliver more of what everyone loves. There are scattered filler episodes that really don’t belong, and the dragon puzzle arc is some of the most boring material that I’ve ever willingly watched. Granted, the storyline is not without its weak moments. Put simply, One Piece seems almost limitless in its capacity for entertainment. Just as other shows of similar length are running out of creative steam and tormenting their fans with shamelessly shitty schlock, One Piece draws from a seemingly infinite well of creativity to deliver time and time again. According to the hypothesis, the series should have died off episodes upon episodes ago, and yet continues to succeed well beyond any possible expectations. Even when I’m at my most eloquent, I inevitably find myself forced to tag “…except One Piece” onto the end of every sentence. Of course, my theory has an annoying, irrefutable, and ultimately fatal hole in its logic. I could rant on this phenomenon for hours, and probably will someday.
Prince of Tennis, Slam Dunk, Galaxy Angel. Naruto was actually fairly fun until Gaara and his whiny, sniveling flashbacks slowed the series down to a monotonous crawl. Kodomo no Omocha was brilliant until the series drowned itself in the utterly craptastic New York arc. Kenshin was excellent until some genius decided to deviate from the manga. As evidence, a myriad of lengthy anime can be cited that begin excellently and then slowly degenerate into recycled material and filler. According to the theory, no matter how awesome the original premise, no matter how charming the cast of characters, no matter how competent the studio, every long series will tank after about 75 episodes. For series of this length, there’s a fairly intriguing piece of conjecture that I occasionally enjoy trotting around.
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