Adding to this, I don't get why people are so bothered that the arc is seemingly ending now? Sure, action-wise not a lot has happened, but story-wise A LOT has happened. We've had the past/origins of several characters built upon, including Sanji's. This arc's been straight to the point, and that's been a much bigger breath of fresh air than the pace of Dressrosa.
Dressrosa was a fantastic arc, but I think Oda was having WAY too much fun with it and dragged it out longer than it should have been. The Zou arc is obviously an interlude for the upcoming Sanji/Vinsmoke arc, which I have no problem with. It's refreshing to not have story elementts dragged out over as many chapters as possible for once.
I agree with the top paragraph. This arc has been straight to the point, but didn't blurt out everything at once (with regards to Sanji or the Samurai), to at least keep some sort of tension while we see the entire group interact again, well.. Except Sanji. I don't need much action, but I need the set-up for the rest of the upcoming arc and it needs to be done just as well as the previous few chapters. By which I mean taking care of explaining the reason behind the Samurai's plight, which they were going to state when they were travelling up the leg of Zunisha, but Oda obviously left untold for dramatic purposes we'll find out in 1-3 chapters. If there's a clash, I'm pretty sure that another figure is going to show up as a surprise to show how the Samurai are on the SH's side willing to fight for the Minks. And with that, I'm willing to bet that the most likely candidate is
Weeble Jr. He was introduced and going after Luffy for a reason and I don't think it is to show up at Big Mom at the same time.
As for the lower paragraph, I agree that Dressrosa was fantastic, but I doubt Oda had too much fun with it. It seemed like a weird knot he had to untangle to get to the end (what do the other characters do while Luffy is in the Collosseum, which backstory to tell when and do I in liniear storytelling or parallel, etc), and by the time he did, he had spent way too much time. Clear case and point is in Luffy and Doffy's fight: "Twenty minutes later". You simply don't do that in the end of the big main fight unless you realized you've took
too long.
The problem with a mink fight is that it doesn't do anything for the story in the long run, all it's doing is adding more conflict to the already clusterf*** of a a set-up we already have coming.
•Tea Party/Sanji/Big Mom
• Beast Pirates
• Possible crew split up
And now you wanna throw in a fight just to hit the fan? Nah man. Obviously the very presence of a samurai isn't going to go well and there's definitely going at least be some verbal insults being thrown around, but what does this do?
The only thing I want from these 2 is more on Raizo and what he did to piss of Kaido so much, or rather what he is to him. The minks aren't even in a condition to fight right now, hopefully someone will have enough sense to talk things out so we don't spend a whole chapter or 2 with meaningless fighting.
I don't even get why they hate samurai, it should be just be Razio. The samurai as a whole did nothing to you, Raizo did. Raizo sure as hell had no business being there, but he couldn't have been sent there.
But who am I kidding? This is Oda, he loves doing this s*** lmao.
That's the last stage before the end of this arc, as when Oda toys with telling at the beginning, he'll tell at the end. I'm banking on Weeble Jr. to show up when tension gets high when the Samurai head into town. Samurai fight with Luffy against Weeble Jr. and the Minks see this and therefore remain on the SH-side eventhough they brought samurai into the country. That makes sense, as Weeble Jr. is heading to Luffy, and it wouldn't make sense for him to enter the story when Luffy is at BM or Kaidou as that is unnecessary clutter, but here it could be the low level endgame opponent that will end up tagteaming with Buggy or something (both are Shichibukai).
The Minks aren't in a condition to fight, but have you noticed how Nekomamushi simply refuses to rest? He's a selfdestruct-fighter. He'll fight till he isn't able no more. Though he may have fallen asleep due to bloodloss.. xD
And it has been hard. Just look at Brook, hasn't done s*** since Thriller Bark. And don't even get me freaking started on Chopper.
Nah, he has done quite a bit post-TS. Specifically in Punk Hazard when he was up and about with Zoro and Kinemon. Nothing major, sure, but I liked how he seemingly has developed his Devil Fruit in great strides. Probably the biggest development in terms of DF-usage we've seen in the crew, outside of perhaps Gear 4th.