There are two things that really bug me about One Piece

[DeadlyMessiah]

So I finally started to catch up on One Piece after nearly a yearlong break (I stopped at 285 back in Sept), and there truly are two things that really irk me.

1. What is up with the half of an episode recap? Do people really need to see the previous "23" minutes recaped for the first 5-8 minutes of the episode? I would be pissed if I was watching this on TV and could not fast forward through that stuff, especially when I just watched the previous episode 30 seconds ago. I can understand having a recap that long if they took a 3 month break, but come on, this is rediculous. You only get like 12 minutes worth of an episode.

2. WHY are they interupting mid-battles with pointless episodes dealing with the gang in feudal Japan??? That is also truly annoying. I mean episodes 291, 292, and 303 were all these episodes, which were aired right in the middle of a freaking battle. Please tell me these episodes are just specials and are not actually counted in the episode numbers.

[Quarkboy]

So I finally started to catch up on One Piece after nearly a yearlong break (I stopped at 285 back in Sept), and there truly are two things that really irk me.

1. What is up with the half of an episode recap? Do people really need to see the previous "23" minutes recaped for the first 5-8 minutes of the episode? I would be pissed if I was watching this on TV and could not fast forward through that stuff, especially when I just watched the previous episode 30 seconds ago. I can understand having a recap that long if they took a 3 month break, but come on, this is rediculous. You only get like 12 minutes worth of an episode.

2. WHY are they interupting mid-battles with pointless episodes dealing with the gang in feudal Japan??? That is also truly annoying. I mean episodes 291, 292, and 303 were all these episodes, which were aired right in the middle of a freaking battle. Please tell me these episodes are just specials and are not actually counted in the episode numbers.

The answers are pretty logical, actually.

1. Because the show is produced every week, all year round, large recaps help with the scheduling considerably. They just can't animate enough in time while maintaining the show's quality, so they use large recaps to cut down on the amount of work.
2. This is their new year's special, they do one every year. Most anime shows simply take the week off, but One Piece has always made a special episode that airs over the New Year's holidays and is designed to be a "special". The fact that they are given episode numbers is a bit confusing but they should be considered outside the normal show. Japan television always goes a little screwy over the holidays, because it's one of the few times everyone is at home watching TV, so most channels have all kinds of specials and events.

[DeadlyMessiah]

I find the long recaps to be more laziness than anything.

As for the feudal Japan thing, what holidays were around when 291, 292, and 303 aired? Not all of those could have been New Years since one of them is 10 weeks apart.

[Busaiku]

291 and 292 was New Years, but not sure what 303 was.
Maybe Golden Week (not sure)?

[untoldsorrow]

I find the long recaps to be more laziness than anything.

As for the feudal Japan thing, what holidays were around when 291, 292, and 303 aired? Not all of those could have been New Years since one of them is 10 weeks apart.

It was to stall!!! At that point, the anime was only a few chapters away from the manga. Instead of creating fillers ala Bleach at the current moment, they used a longer than normal opening, and recap. This way it would be slowed down by making the actual episode 10-15 minutes long.

[Suwako Moriya]

1. What is up with the half of an episode recap? Do people really need to see the previous "23" minutes recaped for the first 5-8 minutes of the episode?

*reads* Okay reading stuff like this does two things. First it makes me glad I'm not watching One Piece. Second it reminds me of why I "hate" endless series. I'm sorry, but that just sounds beyond pathetic.

[DeadlyMessiah]

I find the long recaps to be more laziness than anything.

As for the feudal Japan thing, what holidays were around when 291, 292, and 303 aired? Not all of those could have been New Years since one of them is 10 weeks apart.

It was to stall!!! At that point, the anime was only a few chapters away from the manga. Instead of creating fillers ala Bleach at the current moment, they used a longer than normal opening, and recap. This way it would be slowed down by making the actual episode 10-15 minutes long.

Honestly, I'd rather have longer filler arcs than rewatching what I just watched moments ago, which drag the episodes out longer than they should. At least the filler episodes you can skip as opposed to having watch it incase you miss where the episode actually starts.
If it weren't for the recaps, Water7/Enies Lobby would not be 85 or so episodes long, more like 50. NO story arc should ever be longer than 50 episodes. As much as I love Robin and Franky, this is starting to get a little rediculous, like Buu Saga rediculous. Only difference is is that everyone is fighting at the same time rather than one person at a time. Hopefully when Funimation releases these episodes, their marathon play feature will remove these long as hell recapped scenes, and if not, hopefully they will be their OWN chapter.

They could always do what was done to MegaMan and turn the show into 12 minute episodes. It would be much easier.

At the rate they are going, I fear this series will reach beyond 500 episodes, which is too damn long for any series like this. Even Final Fantasy has an end in each game. You can only go so far before it loses its appeal.

[Busaiku]

It will no doubt be beyond 500 episodes (closer to 1000 would be a better estimate).
Eichiro Oda stated that I think the start or end of Water 7 was the halfway mark.
And it's currently the most popular of the big 3 action shounen (by quite a bit), so it'll likely stick around.

[DeadlyMessiah]

If the serious reaches that many episodes, I'm jumping off the ship and over the sharks.