 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. Last week on the Arc Review, we covered the final completed arc in the series thus far, the Reverie. And this week, well, we have to do something, so we are going to use all of our accumulated experiences to construct a comprehensive ranking of every arc in the series. That's right, we are going to be counting down all 30 arcs from worst to best and warning. This ranking will be extraordinarily subjective and entirely based on my own personal experiences revisiting the arcs over the past 30 weeks or so. This video will also be broken up into two parts, but this video examining how shall I put this, the lowest ranking 15 arcs. So things are going to start off quite negative and gradually get much better. But I really want to stress that this is one piece and I don't think that there are any bad arcs per se, but there are certainly some that are much worse than others and some that I just distaste quite a bit, despite their contribution to the greater story and the character pool. So just keep that in mind when typing your angry comments. But with that out of the way, let's begin. Welcome to the top 30 countdown of arcs in one piece. Number 30. Syrup Village. Alright, we're going to be starting off quite predictably. Syrup Village was always my least favorite arc and going through the entire series in detail has only solidified that feeling. Early Usopp is just complete cringe to me in every way and I honestly believe that his character is a huge barrier to entry for a lot of people wanting to get into the series. It also doesn't help that this arc is 20 chapters long, my god. That is far too long spent in this pretty plain boring location and focusing on Usopp. To put that into some perspective, by the time Syrup Village was over in the manga, that arc was over half of the entire series. The only redeeming feature it has is Kuro, who has a very cool design and fighting style, but his plan was ridiculous in retrospect and look yeah, Syrup Village is just a huge slog for me to get through. It takes legitimate work to read and that is why it is and will probably always be dead last in my personal arc rankings. Number 29. Amazon Lily. This was an addition that surprised me quite a bit. When I originally made my top five worst arcs list, I didn't even think about Amazon Lily and in retrospect, it's because it was just that forgettable. It's only 11 chapters long, which is a point in its favor actually. We get in and out pretty quickly, but the events of the island are just meh. I mean, Boa Hancock's introduction was pretty awesome, but the near instant switching personality to falling in love with Luffy is something that I still think plagues her character to this day, let alone this arc. All in all, everything in this arc played out like a typical Shonen harem story. It just didn't feel like one piece up until we were leaving the island and therefore the arc. So Amazon Lily, my apologies, but I think this is exactly where you belong. Number 28. Orange Town. Getting back to some more classic one piece, Orange Town was only the second arc in the series and as a result, it does suffer from the fact that so many other amazing arcs came after it. Orange Town tells a very competent story with the compelling theme of treasure, which is epitomized entirely within a dog. That's not a bad thing at all, in fact it's still a really touching tale, but there's not a whole lot more to it. This is also the arc where Buggy first appears in the story and... despite being the first Devil Fruit user we meet other than Luffy, he is quite an annoying presence here. To be clear, Buggy is an amazing character in the modern era, but here he's just a weird villain. So yeah, cool arc I guess, but we can do better. A lot better. Number 27. Long Ring Long Land. Now a lot of you may have been expecting this to be the last place finisher, but hear me out. Long Ring Long Land in the anime is a steaming heap of crap. If that's how you first experience the arc, I feel exceptionally sorry for you and I understand your hatred towards this portion of the story. But this arc in the manga is nothing short of brilliant. This is the height of comedy within one piece, with characters like Foxy, Porsche and Hamburg being used to perfection and I think it just gets better with every reread oddly enough. It's a piece of pure comedy, an enjoyable little adventure sandwiched between two mega long and serious sagas. In fact, the only reason why it lands so far down on this ranking is because it was butchered by filler in the anime and because being purely comedic it just doesn't stand up to most arcs in the series, which have masterfully crafted drama and action in addition to comedy. But make no mistake, in its original form, Long Ring Long Land is a fantastic little arc. Number 26. Drum Island. Alright I can hear the raging from here, but let me make my case. Drum Island is often remembered formally because it contains one of the greatest flashbacks in the series, belonging to the one and only Tony Tony Chopper. And it's a fantastic story on its own, but when you consider the greater context of the arc, Drum isn't so great. We're taken to an aesthetically flat location, forced to endure a villain that at no point is ever threatening and thus results in no tension. We also split the crew in half with only Luffy, Nami and Sanji getting anything to do, and the latter two spend an awful lot of time out of action due to sickness and injury. Other than Kuroha, the side characters aren't all that memorable either, in fact, including Dalton, aren't there any side characters? There's uh, the hiking bears I guess. And to the credit of Drum, Luffy climbing the mountain to get to Kuroha's castle is painfully glorious, but it's not an arc that inspires any sort of excitement within me. It's a story, a decent story with a gem of a flashback, but that's not enough in my eyes to be placed any higher than this. Number 25. Reverse Mountain. Here we are back at the very first arc after entering the Grand Line, and it's a great little adventure with a giant whale. I found it to be a wonderful introduction to what we can expect going forward. Essentially, this arc taught me to expect quite literally anything, and more so than that, that the Grand Line wasn't necessarily this terrifying pirate graveyard, and in reality, it was a beautiful marvel of the planet. Extraordinarily dangerous, but full of unlimited potential. Plus, there's Crocus, who is an awesome old man, and has some fantastic gags that were adapted really well in the anime. Honestly, I can't think of an immediate fault within this arc. The weakest aspect is probably the presence of Vivi and Mr. Nine, but even their passable villains with some decent comic value. The problem with Reverse Mountain is that I find it very difficult to compare it with more ambitious arcs in the story. Reverse Mountain may have no faults in my mind, but it also doesn't reach the glorious heights that other arcs do, even the ones that come with a large array of negative aspects. So Reverse Mountain, I love you for what you are, but I just wouldn't feel right placing you any higher. Number 24. Thriller Bark. There were a lot of arcs I appreciated much more after concluding the arc of you. Thriller Bark was not one of them. Sitting at a sizeable 48 chapters, this arc feels very drawn out and takes far too long to set up the events that make it memorable. In my mind, this arc doesn't even begin until the straw hats begin their conflict with Oz, which is a phenomenal piece of action, but I'm not really keen on trudging through the opening of Thriller Bark just to get there. What I will say is that artistically, this arc is one of the most detailed we have ever experienced, adopting a strong gothic style. Cast your eye to any page in this arc and you will see some beautifully detailed backgrounds and incidental characters like zombies. Sadly, there's also Gecko Moria. To be concise, he has a horrible design, a pathetic philosophy on life, and was an all-around waste of space in what could have been a pretty damn fine arc. In fact, it's not even Moria who saves this arc from fading into pure obscurity. It's the 11th hour appearance of Bartholomew Kuma, which resulted in some of the most memorable moments in the series. But by the time he arrives, it's just too late for Thriller Bark. Number 23. Punk Hazard. So, during my review, I came away from this arc pretty damn unimpressed. In fact, I'd remembered Punk Hazard a lot more fondly than I think it really deserved. Like Drum Island, the location of Punk Hazard is fairly flat. You got your fire wasteland, you got your ice wasteland, and you got your slab after slab of boring laboratory walls. What saves this arc is entirely characters. The presence of lore, smoke of Virgo and Monet are the absolute highlights, and thankfully they take up a good chunk of the action. Sadly, Punk Hazard also has a slew of characters who I'd go so far as to say are a waste of screen time entirely, the most profound defender being the Yeti Cool Brothers. Why do you exist? But the real issue with Punk Hazard is that it is almost purely a setup arc for the next major conflicts in the new world. Which is very, very important, but I don't think anywhere near 46 chapters was necessary to accomplish this, resulting in the fantastic moments this arc does have being found quite sparsely amongst the rest of the story. Although I do think this suffers especially in retrospect because this arc relies on the mystery and buildup to really involve you. The curiosity between the motives of characters like Lore and Virgo, and even the impending threat of Dolph Lomingo, were a huge source of excitement reading the Sark Weekly, but knowing how Dressrosa pans out really takes away that flavour upon reread, and Punk Hazard just becomes a bit bland. Number 22. Little Garden. Here we have an arc taking place at a very intriguing prehistoric location complete with dinosaurs and everything. Little Garden most notably introduces us properly to the giant race of the one-piece world, injecting a nice bit of Viking culture into the makeup of the series, and the idea of a century-long duel is quite compelling to me. Sadly, the main antagonist are a bit meh. I still despise this particular design of Mr. Three, although he did use his abilities in quite an intriguing way. Ms. Goldenweak also had some fun paint powers, but in the end she was disposed of by a duck, so yeah. But sitting at 15 chapters, the arc was concise enough that it didn't really matter. We got in, explored some cool ideas, and got out. So Little Garden was a pretty fine arc. Not the best, no we near it, but certainly not the worst. Number 21. Post War. I personally find this arc to be a bit jarring in the series primarily because of how dark it is, particularly in Luffy's flashback. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just not necessarily what I wanted to spend time on at this particular point in the story. However, the flashback is undeniably great if only for the fact that it takes the time to give Ace a bit of character development that he was sorely missing in my eyes. Too bad he was dead by the time he got it. And seeing how the world was starting to change after the death of Whitebeard was quite captivating, but all in all this arc just carries an incredibly somber tone, at least until the very end where we lead into the time skip. Once again, not a bad thing and some amazing story was told here. It's just not the particular brand of one piece that I love. Number 20. Fishman Island. Well damn, this arc is pretty high up on the list, isn't it? I definitely have a much better opinion of this portion of the story upon analysing it in the archivier. The tales told in relation to Otahima and Fisher Tiger are masterful, and two of the most memorable flashback figures in the entire series for me. Plus, the location of Fishman Island itself is a source of endless beauty, detail and creativity, which comes across particularly well in the anime. The only thing that tanks the arc is the villains. And yeah, I still consider Hoody Jones to be the worst antagonist ever put to page in one piece. He's just shit. With a more compelling set of villains, Fishman Island could probably break the top ten. But as it is, it's a mixture of fantastic elements with a couple of absolutely horrendous ones. Nothing in between. And that's a shame, but I don't think this arc deserves the hatred it gets from the fanbase. Although I don't think it deserves a lot more credit either. So here we are at number 20. Number 19. Whiskey Peak. All right, this nine chapter adventure was our first exploration of an actual island in the grand line, and it was just plain cool. The Straw Hats land and instantly fall into a nest of assassins leading to a fantastic action sequence of Zoro, absolutely wrecking the entire civilization worth of people. With that said, I think how much you enjoy Whiskey Peak is in direct correlation to how much you like Zoro, and I happen to like him an awful lot. So this arc was definitely my jam. It also contains the brief battle between Luffy and Zoro. A little gem that I think gets forgotten quite a bit in the modern era. But yeah, Whiskey Peak is your classical one piece adventure. A short stop on a weird island with a fun satisfying conflict and a bit of build up to something much greater. All in nine chapters. It is effective and engaging storytelling in its purest form. Number 18. Log Town. This arc is quite unique in the series as it acts as an epilogue to the East Blue Saga as well as a prologue to the Grand Line. As a result, it does a fantastic job of consolidating the East Blue Saga with an encore of past villains, while simultaneously introducing a whole new world of strength with characters like Smoker and an even more mysterious layer of the one piece world with Dragon. But my particular favorite moment of the arc is when Luffy goes to visit the site of Roger's execution. Because it's just a really nice touch to have the end of the former Pirate King's journey become the beginning of the future Pirate King's journey. And the arc is full of cool symbolism in regards to the idea of beginnings and endings just like that. Plus it's fun. It's just plain fun. It's a beautiful arc that sets us up for a fantastic journey to come. Number 17. Return to Water Seven. After going through a long and awfully dark action pack saga, Return to Water Seven brought us some much needed downtime and exceptionally well-deserved world-building. A hell of a lot of bombshells were dropped during this arc. Like the existence of the Yonko, the revelation that Dragon is Luffy's father, and the biggest one of all, the fact that Kobe is actually cool now. This arc also served as a resolution to the storylines of three straw hat members. Robin's struggle finally came to an end. Usopp owned up to his mistakes and Frankie embarked on a journey to make his dream come true. And each of these threads make the arc a pleasure to read. Well, except for one portion which happens to be one of the most heartbreaking moments of the entire series, the funeral of the Going Merry. To this day I hate reading or watching this scene because it brings genuine tears to my eyes. All over a ship which is an enormous credit to Oda as a storyteller and to this individual arc which masterfully concludes an entire saga. Number 16. Romance Dawn. And to conclude the first half of the arc rankings, we are heading all the way back to the beginning. Romance Dawn spans the first seven chapters of the series, managing to tell three individual stories that introduce us to Luffy, his dream, and the wonderful world of One Piece. The biggest criticism I have for the arc is its simplicity. By which I mean the locations are a bit bland and the villains lack, well, any element of depth. But that is such a petty criticism because it only appears in retrospect after experiencing the phenomenal characters and locations in future arcs, particularly post East Blue. What Romance Dawn does is provide a perfect launching ground, focusing on simple characters from out in the middle of nowhere relevant with incredible ambitions that would go on to shake the world. And that pretty much does it for the first half of our comprehensive arc ranking. Next week we are going to be counting down the top 15 arcs in the series and rather sad they bringing the arc review to a temporary conclusion. 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