Quote Originally Posted by shadowfox View Post
That could be the situation, and you can only hope (I don't watch One Piece so I won't comment). My main problem with fillers, especially where it involves anime that try to follow the manga, is that they can't make to many assumptions, so as to not be completely off-kilter when it returns to the main story line.

Which means little, if any, character development, plots that often seem contrived - basically, it adds nothing to the story. And then later, any events that may have taken place (in the filler) that could have an effect on later story developments can be (and usually are) effectively ignored - leaving the viewers with a very odd sense of dislocation. And then when the story returns to the proper plots, a lot of things get completely reset.

Bleach happens to be a very good example - especially the Bount Arc. Taken on its own, it was actually pretty good - although Ichigo, having come off just kicking complete ass in Seireitei, is suddenly powerless in the face of enemies, which, when you get right down to it, are not that powerful.

Mind you, its not limited to the fillers, it happens periodically throughout the series. And its one of my main gripes with long-running series like this. Once again, I have no idea if this applies to One Piece.
More QFT.

This will apply to every anime where the manga is "ongoing" unfortunately. One Piece manages it better than others IMHO, but fillers are fillers at the end of the day. It's better than Naruto and Bleach (Bleach being the all time worst), but I think One Piece is very lucky in one respect.

Since the story, basically, is about pirates who are travelling from one island to the next it's very easy to splice in a couple of small island adventures in-between the main story arcs. It doesn't alter the flow much. What I haven't enjoyed is when the they try to extend certain parts of the manga.

One small arc in the manga pits the main characters against another pirate crew who challenge them to a series of.... well challenges. In the manga there was only 3...... whilst in the anime there was 6 or 7. They dragged it out waaaaay too much. Also in one of the best arcs of the manga, the Enies Lobby arc where the crew are hell bent trying to save one of their own, was also dragged out too much.

At the end of the day, unfortunately, fillers will be with us whether we like it or not. We'll just have to grit our teeth and push on through. I'm just sorry that the Bleach watchers have to sit through what they do.......

PS: You should absolutely start watching/reading One Piece. Best character development I've seen in a manga. With the exception of maybe Beck. But then Beck is my all time favourite manga....... and it's finished as well.