Despite the issues with Sasuke,
I feel that Kishi is at least doing, trying in part to make use of him. If you ask me, compared to some other mangas right now, the mess of the story, or sasuke himself, believe it or not this doesn't bother me as much kubo with bleach currently, or rather Oda with One Piece.
Bleach has always been well, downsloping after Aizen was beaten, no great battle. The story is more like a series of clashes, there was never any long term goal, for the good guys anyways, the bad guy azien wanted to become the soul king, but he is gone now, then we got a regain powers arc, then this sudden final arc with surprise, a group of quinces. I mean bleach is a good series but its just been here and there. Really I'm not suprised at all the stuff happening, its just a series of fights with others and yeah they all got stronger like Rukia getting Banki or Kenpachi finally getting his sword released. I mean there is development, but theres no connective overall plot, it all ended more or less back when aizen was dealt with. Its really just well disjointed, the series is more like dragonball z, theres no overall plot, its just a series of clashes, I mean there was a long story at first but it ended with the fullbringer and the thousand year war arc which is bleach's final arc. The final villian is sudden, its going to be not much to say, just Ichigo facing that Bach Quicny king.
One piece, oh boy, yes I criticize this manga a lot. I mean its good, the adventure is nice, Oda really fleshes out his characters. Among the things I hate in this series? I hate how all the women are drawn to be the same, and really, Oda just plain takes too god damned long with his story. No seriously, I mean at least Kishi I feel made a good balance between short term and long term plot elements, at least most of his stuff falls into place. Things were gradually revealed at a well put out pace, he didnt just sit on one story element for 5+ years and just leave it behind until it suddenly came up later. The stuff with the sage and eye of the moon plan, the akasuti, the aspect of sasuke leaving in part 1, all those elements went together. Same with naruto mastering Kurama or the rasengan, the fight with Itachi bringing more light to the story.
Seriously, for one piece, its been a mess. Long term story elements like the 3 superweapons, the void century, dr vegapunk, the revolutionary army, dragon, blackbeard, the 4 emperors. People want to see these things yet it has been years, freaking years since they were even mentioned! The story is still only in arc 3 of part 2! We were supposed to get some fight against one of the emperors soon, but that was mentioned about oh, 4 or so years ago. The only knowledge of these longterm plots? Only 1 superweapon was revealed, the mermaid princess. Everything else is still a big mystery, maybe we will learn more about the revolutionary army with Sabo back but its still just taking its time. Really Oda's style is simple, the gang finds an island, trouble is there, they cause a ruckus, they fight, they win and celebrate, they move on with tidbits of differences here and there, nothing for the long term focus. And they are going to head to the samurai's island or giants island at some point and sadly theres no telling how many years it will take for these to even occur! Its like 1 or now 2 years to finish 1 arc! Oda does nothing in the long term and well, this is going to leave people so lost they need to go plunging back into the material burried years ago. I mean anyone remember bellemy? A short term hardly worth anything of a mention character back before they went to skypeia? Yeah he spontaneously reappeared in the recent arc and just went away again. Really imagine kishi's infrequent use of Hinata but multiply it by 4, thats how often Oda touches on the long term plots.
The development personality wise isn't all that engaging on my opinion, its so slow, its just, I'd be ready to say, please Oda, get kitten done. These plot elements took so long to implement, its getting harder to imagine the payoff. I mean I honestly, I didnt cry when Ace died, we didnt know ace that much, we didnt see him that much, we learned more about him after he died. And thats suppose to make us sympathize with him more? Now Sabo suddenly came back too. Really, I know people complained about the war arc in naruto, but in one piece, from the time Kuma seperated the gang, it was nothing but luffy the entire time until part 1 ended, that whole cast, main cast shafted, put aside just so luffy had the spotlight. I honestly didnt like it.
I mean Kishi is no perfect writer, he has some continuty problems, otherwise its just screw the rules, madara's excuse is he is superpowered he has hashirama's healing powers and is part zetsu so he can just instantly repair himself. Other breaking the boundaries stuff is a bit annoying. But at least kishi set up plot elements, long term ones and is using them. At least as I see it he wrote for both the short term and long term which is good, Kubo doesn't have a long term plot in his story while Oda's is slower than a slug.
Personally I think Kishi at least has better pacing in his story than the other 2, because its going to be years, freaking years before anything interesting or big occurs in one piece again. That series wont end until I'm about 57 or so at this rate.
