Erhm... am.. am I the only one seeing the obvious flaw in even having this threat in the One Piece section of a Naruto forum?
That is just.. inviting trouble.
Picking favourites often are, or forcing people to pick favourite.
Here's the thing, both mangas/animes are highly popular, both are run longing so both have some beloved history, and both have flaws in them.
And both have people emotionally attached to them.
And especially having a title indicating. "Naruto is best! No arguing." is inviting trouble.
I don't know which one is better! I don't feel like I am in a spot to just decide that.
I do have a personal favourite though, and that is my own personal opinion.
Well, erhm, actually. I was into Naruto looooong before I got into One Piece, One piece didn't even catch me on my first attempt, I put it on a shelf only to try again years later.
Naruto was one of the first mangas I collected and one of the first animes I ever watched and followed, my first cosplay was a Sakura cosplay, I spend lots of time drawing Naruto fanart when I was a kid and making Naruto AMVS.
.... I personally prefer One Piece.
As I gave One Piece its second chance, at a time where I got a crick in my back and thusly couldn't move... at all.. I was confined to bed, and thought.. what the hell, i'll give one piece a go, and then when I finally got into it.. man I couldn't stop again! At all! And right now, I am still living on that hype.
While Naruto.. though I loved it ones, and I actually remember when the time-skip happened! I was a reader back then.
It just.. kind of.. lost its air with me. I have honestly, given up on the manga. I stopped reading, it just, lost me underway, in spite of my early adoration for it.
In my opinion, early Naruto is very strong, and wins because of the heart, imagination and had the battle be very imaginative and intriquing because it was just as much about what tactics they used as it was about the strenght.
I thought the character stories was very strong and emotional, and I still think, early Naruto is very solid and quite good.
But.. then I feel like.. it lost it. To me it feels like the author of Naruto had noooo idea where to go with it, so he kind of just, added and added without it making a lot of sense.
Lots of the stuff that made the manga smart and different early on just.. went lost, and as the manga lost its heart and smarts, as well as its direction, I lost interest.
That is my personal take on it..
One Piece though, is a very clever manga, because it has a set-up that invites new adventures, and can indeed go to new places all the time, thus keeping itself fresh, because we are not stuck nor restricted with an old plot-line the author can't get rid off neither know what to do with.
Giving One Piece a closer look, it also seems like Oda has a very specific plan with it, he knows exactly where he is headed, so the Manga never becomes directionless, in spite of its mayham nature.. and that's what I fell Naruto lacks now.. direction, it feels directionless. And it feels old and tired, like, it should have been alowed to retire a while back.
One Piece though, some-how.. and with 742 chapters so far that is an insane accomplishment, still feels fresh and alive! And not at all like it's time for retirement yet, it feels like it still has stuff to do and goes for it.
Yeah, the Punk Hazard arch was kind of a.. sorry guys, it was a bit of a dud, stuck in between two neccesary key archs, not knowing what it should be.. But! the current arch is making up for it by bringing One Piece back on track, just the latest Chapter had the emotional value back, as well as the excitement.
There is a great childish excitement in One Piece I can't help but adore, and it keeps having it, it both got darker and kept the childish excitement for adventure.
While.. Naruto wanted to get darker and serious.. and thus lost its own excitement on its way, so now it feels.. well.. I am not a fan of reason chapters as you can hear.
And I did in fact try to give Naruto a second go, for old times sake I tried to read some of the latest chapters.. and.. erh.. gosh, I litterately remember being in colleague, four years ago now, sitting with a friend whom was a fellow Naruto fan saying. "I think Naruto is going to end soon, it feels like it's building towards the end, and now would be a pretty good time to end it with one last grand climax."
And now.. it's four years after and it's still there.. just stepping in water as far as I am concerned.. if it had endedback then with a killer end stand off, I would have regarded Naruto as an all-ready really good Manga, but now.. it just.. it has gone on for far to long as far as I am concerned, the format of Naruto, or the format it took with one linear war story line, just isn't fitting for that long a run time.
While One Piece, that has the ability to constantly renew itself, by putting the crew into new stories and bring new things to the table, just manages to keep itself fresh.. which is both insane and amazing.
i don't really know how Oda does it.. it shouldn't be possible.. but he just do.
Naruto is not the only Manga I feel like have been dead in the water for far to long and should just have ended long ago on a high note.
Bleach and Case Closed are in the same boat as far as I am concerned.. they started out being great, now.. they are just tratting in water, barely keeping their heads up.