Sometimes I wonder why I get so analytical about this, because in the bigger scope of things that are more important things to mull over... but then again I'm like this with pretty much anything else I'm into anyway. There are better series out there than the big three, but I've been preoccupied with them enough over the past decade that they still stand out pretty significantly for me.
around the beginnings of each, for me: naruto > bleach > one piece.
- I actually was turned off by the artwork for one piece (I think my first look at it was seeing the 3rd opening on an anime openings site when I was looking up detective conan clips) and almost didn't start reading it until one of my friends in high school started raving about it in the same sentence as naruto.
- most people I know prefer naruto or bleach to one piece also, which makes sense. honestly, one piece is just harder to get into at the beginning (which is when most people drop it) because it has a lot more childish humor and cartoonish-than-usual graphics, and it doesn't really start shining until the 5th major arc (arlong park), which is about ~40 episodes/8 volumes into the anime/manga already. on the other hand., the haku arc is one of the first things you're exposed to in naruto, and by some standards is one of the best arcs in that series. or at least the elitist manga readers would so say lol.
- as a shounen series, one piece actually shares quite a bit in common in terms of the way its plot develops as naruto, and you can see the influence that dragon ball [including Z] had on both series pretty easily. luffy and naruto have similar happy-go-lucky personalities, and even the same kind of life goal - become the pirate king/hokage.
around the time the rescue sasuke arc was happening (2003-2004?): bleach > naruto = one piece
- because there was once a time when bleach was just really cool and awesome looking. the soul society arc was fun, even if the females were a little too overdramatic or useless for my tastes. (and Ryan won't stop gushing about how much he loves orihime whenever I talk to him. that and freaking tenten, ugh.)
- but this is more of a superficial comparison, and I hadn't caught up with one piece by this point so I couldn't really make a fair comparison at the time.
- in retrospect I'd say one piece >> bleach >> naruto, because luffy had an afro in davy back (it was awesome), but more seriously because eneru, kuzan, and cp 9 were better villains than aizen, and I was really growing tired of orochimaru and sasuke by this point.
as of the last few years: one piece >>>>>>>>>>> naruto (and I stopped reading bleach because I don't care anymore)
on naruto recently:
- I actually went for a period where I stopped reading naruto (around the time where Sai appears) because I stopped caring as well. but recent developments have made me start reading again- namely, the fact that the series is supposed to end soon, and also because I still had unresolved things I wanted to see, since there was a time that Naruto was my favorite manga after all. I think this is more of my high school self looking for closure.
- reasons I still read naruto:
1. to see sasuke dead (likely won't happen if the author does some kind of redemption crap. ugh, all sasuke does is let himself be manipulated by other people anyway)
2. to see naruto physically turn into the 9-tails (8-tails, chakra, and miniature forms don't count. this is one of the reasons I started reading the series)
3. to see tobi's face unmasked (as of the last couple of months this one has been done)
on one piece:
1. the childish humor still appeals to me. and it doesn't quite get old because there's always new ways to bend even the old jokes or character personality quirks to fit the current arc's context or situation, which I find really amusing to see.
2. the series has a better sense of its own scope than naruto does. I mean, I find it really hard to appreciate someone like gaara becoming kazekage at such a young age, and all of the other characters went from rookies to surpassing their mentors within two years while still being teenagers, which doesn't strike me as very realistic. on the other hand, despite becoming a major force to be reckoned with, luffy still has a long way to go even after the time jump to achieve the same kind of status as shanks or whitebeard did in the new world.
3. world building. the series reached the halfway point of grand line two years ago, and the other half (the new world) seems even more expansive and endless at the current rate it's going. the nature of the entire series comprising a voyage through multiple islands allows for a lot of creativity (every island has something unique about it), and we never really know what to expect next. this also applies to the characters, and the lore/backstory behind the world that's established as each island is visited, which plays a huge part in the overall direction of the series (see the foreshadowing point).
3. world building. the series reached the halfway point of grand line two years ago, and the other half (the new world) seems even more expansive and endless at the current rate it's going. the nature of the entire series comprising a voyage through multiple islands allows for a lot of creativity (every island has something unique about it), and we never really know what to expect next. this also applies to the characters, and the lore/backstory behind the world that's established as each island is visited, which plays a huge part in the overall direction of the series (see the foreshadowing point).
4. one piece is still actually refreshing to read, and I can't really predict anything right now, whereas naruto has always struck me as somewhat predictable (case in point - the tobi reveal. it almost felt like something that you'd only see in fan fiction.).
5. on that note, subtle foreshadowing. one piece is full of it. the will of d; ace's vivre card; almost all of blackbeard's story over the course of the series; the spirit fixing the going merry; the first encounter with kuzan warning everyone about robin's history, and the siege of o'hara; the poneglyphs; the void century which we still know nothing of yet; anything involving rayleigh; kuma's willed regression into a robot; any scenes involving the world government; the shichibukai or the 4 emperors; the repeated references to characters we haven't really seen yet but who have had a major impact on the story, such as dr. vegapunk and big mom. elements that are mentioned in passing in the early volumes suddenly become prominent 40 volumes later. it's well planned.
6. this is more of a personal preference, but with the possible exception of the most recent war arc, naruto has been very much oriented around successive/sequential 1 on 1 battles. by contrast, one piece feels more chaotic and complicated in a sense when major events are happening because it jumps around between a lot of events and battles happening simultaneously in different locations, to the point where a provided map is necessary to visualize where everything is happening. each arc in itself is its own war.
7. because of the main cast size (luffy's 9-man crew so far), one piece has historically lent itself more easily to strategic and varied teamwork-oriented battles. a lot of the time it will still end up reducing to 1-on-1 at some point (luffy, zoro,and sanji being the team heavy-weights means that they almost always will get 1-on-1 battles), but you can take a look at any character's page on the one piece wiki and see all of the battles they've taken part in, and it's noticeable how often you have different combinations of people in the battles taking place. I use the list of most recent battles from Robin's page as an example:
- Robin, Monkey D. Luffy, and Chopper vs. Sentomaru
- Robin vs. Ammo Knights
- Straw Hat Pirates and Jinbe vs. New Fishman Pirates
- Robin vs. Hammond
- Robin and Luffy vs Centuars
- Robin, Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp vs. Brownbeard and the Centaur Patrol Unit
- Robin and Franky vs. G-5 Marines, Centaurs, and Satyrs
- Robin, Smoker (in Tashigi's body), Tashigi (in Smoker's body) and Franky vs. Caesar Clown
- Robin, Kinemon, Nami, Usopp, and Brook vs. Vegapunk's Dragon
- Robin, Zoro, and Nami vs. Monet
8. in the case of the weaker characters, it's interesting how the author's managed to utilize their abilities creatively in spite of being overshadowed by their stronger team-mates. the alabasta arc was the first place where I really recognized this - in particular, nami figuring out how to use the clima-tact for the first time while trying not to be killed by ms. double-finger, and usopp+chopper's first major battle against the mole woman and the guy with the gun-dog.
9. if the previous point didn't make it obvious, the characters in this series are ridiculously random and it's kind of amusing to see who appears in each arc. Take the current on-going arc: a poison gas man, artificial centaur soldiers, giant children suffering from candy withdrawal, a living poisonous blob, a snow harpy, dragons, a samurai head, and a double-agent vice admiral working for an ex-pirate that also happens to be an underworld broker. and trafalgar law (the guy who can control space and split people apart into floating body parts), smoker, and tashigi coming back as temporary allies. all on an island whose weather system changed because ice-man and lava-man had a geographically catastrophic duel there.
9. if the previous point didn't make it obvious, the characters in this series are ridiculously random and it's kind of amusing to see who appears in each arc. Take the current on-going arc: a poison gas man, artificial centaur soldiers, giant children suffering from candy withdrawal, a living poisonous blob, a snow harpy, dragons, a samurai head, and a double-agent vice admiral working for an ex-pirate that also happens to be an underworld broker. and trafalgar law (the guy who can control space and split people apart into floating body parts), smoker, and tashigi coming back as temporary allies. all on an island whose weather system changed because ice-man and lava-man had a geographically catastrophic duel there.
10. so I actually put off reading one piece for weeks at a time and then read a bunch of chapters in one session, whereas I do a better job of keeping up with naruto each week. this is because one piece tends to cram a lot of things into each panel so I actually can't speed-read it and have to pay attention to what is happening in each panel, where naruto's panels are more straightforward and easier to skim cause the author takes up more space with simple pictures.
11. naruto is one year younger than one piece but is most likely ending within the next couple of years. one piece climaxed at its halfway point about two years ago now, and is still going strong with no end in sight.
12. with that said, the one piece anime is kind of not as fun to watch because it feels a lot more drawn out than the manga does (which is true of naruto also). you can also tell that the animation is lower quality because it gets churned out weekly and has fillers to make up for time. one thing I noticed about the anime is that it makes it more apparent how often the author uses the plot device of random generic characters (soldiers and other battle participants) providing commentary on the major battles going on, or being amazed at some new ability being demonstrated. it's a little annoying.
aside about fairy tail:
- a lot of comparisons have been made recently between one piece and fairy tail, which I also like. both have similar art-styles and are very teamwork-friendship oriented, considering the similarities in structure between the pirate crews of one piece and the guilds of fairy tail.
- having caught up with both mangas though, I'd have to say one piece is still better than fairy tail. technically, one piece has the advantage of having been around longer, but at this point fairy tail at its peak doesn't really compare with the heights that one piece has reached over the course of its running- although to be honest, it's really hard for anything to compare with the build-up that led to one piece's marineford arc. I'm starting to feel like fairy tail is running out of ideas also, having just started another tournament-style arc after a time jump, of all things. tournaments in shounen series are getting pretty old now.
- I think the one thing that fairy tail does a better job with is balancing its female characters; one piece mainly has nami (who acts like stereotypical fanservice sometimes) and robin (who's always been quiet), and then a handful of extended characters, whereas fairy tail has lucy, erza, wendy, carla, mirajane, cana, etc. and the guild's founder was a female. one piece has a very male-dominated world in comparison.
11. naruto is one year younger than one piece but is most likely ending within the next couple of years. one piece climaxed at its halfway point about two years ago now, and is still going strong with no end in sight.
12. with that said, the one piece anime is kind of not as fun to watch because it feels a lot more drawn out than the manga does (which is true of naruto also). you can also tell that the animation is lower quality because it gets churned out weekly and has fillers to make up for time. one thing I noticed about the anime is that it makes it more apparent how often the author uses the plot device of random generic characters (soldiers and other battle participants) providing commentary on the major battles going on, or being amazed at some new ability being demonstrated. it's a little annoying.
aside about fairy tail:
- a lot of comparisons have been made recently between one piece and fairy tail, which I also like. both have similar art-styles and are very teamwork-friendship oriented, considering the similarities in structure between the pirate crews of one piece and the guilds of fairy tail.
- having caught up with both mangas though, I'd have to say one piece is still better than fairy tail. technically, one piece has the advantage of having been around longer, but at this point fairy tail at its peak doesn't really compare with the heights that one piece has reached over the course of its running- although to be honest, it's really hard for anything to compare with the build-up that led to one piece's marineford arc. I'm starting to feel like fairy tail is running out of ideas also, having just started another tournament-style arc after a time jump, of all things. tournaments in shounen series are getting pretty old now.
- I think the one thing that fairy tail does a better job with is balancing its female characters; one piece mainly has nami (who acts like stereotypical fanservice sometimes) and robin (who's always been quiet), and then a handful of extended characters, whereas fairy tail has lucy, erza, wendy, carla, mirajane, cana, etc. and the guild's founder was a female. one piece has a very male-dominated world in comparison.
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