One Piece: Longtime Fans Are Turning Into ‘Backlash Haters,’ 5ch Says — ‘Elbaf Is Just Awful’

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The story

A thread on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G board blew up over longtime “One Piece” readers growing so fed up with the story that they’ve become so-called “backlash haters” (反転アンチ — fans turned critics while still reading). Posters piled on criticism of the story’s direction since the Elbaf and Wano arcs, with some arguing “the first half was great, but it lost all momentum once it dropped its foreshadowing,” while others blamed an editorial system that can’t rein in the author anymore. Others pushed back, saying “of course you complain if you’re still reading it” — so opinion in the thread never settled into one camp.

What people said

2AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:27
I'm an old guy too, been watching One Piece since elementary school, but the current stuff is seriously awful.
4AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:29
What you're saying sounds exactly like every other nanG (5ch sports-chat board) poster — is that really the consensus among "backlash haters"?
6AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:31
[One Piece Spoilers] I seriously figured it out. #372
7AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:32
It's the editors' fault for not being able to control Oda-kun
Put Mashirito (legendary Shueisha editor Kazuhiko Torishima) in charge of him.
8AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:32
Infernape's pretty cool-looking honestly
Better than Nika-god anyway
9AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:32
Elbaf's genuinely awful, so yeah, can't blame them.
11AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:33
If you've come this far you might as well go down together
No guts at all.
12AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:36
The first half of this manga was seriously great
If they'd just dropped the minor foreshadowing once they got halfway round the Grand Line, wrapped up only the main plot threads, and ended it there, it would've been a masterpiece.
17AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:38
Re: #12
Yeah, it clearly went off the rails around the Shirahoshi arc.
13AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:37
It's basically turned into a different manga at this point
Feels like they're testing just how far the "One Piece" brand alone can carry it.
15AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:37
Nobody who was hyped for it expected the Elbaf arc to end up even more tedious and boring than the infamously dull Fishman Island arc.
32AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:42
Re: #15
Me (in denial): "It was just the Wano arc that sucked…"
↓
Everything since has sucked too
It's that same gut-punch as thinking a career .950 OPS player just hit a one-year slump, only to realize it was real decline and they never topped .800 again.
19AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:38
Think about Luffy's name for a second
It's "Monkey" D. Luffy.
23AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:40
Re: #19
WHOOAAA!!!! 👁👁 *boiiing~*
93AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:10
Re: #19
Garp and Dragon are both Monkeys too, you know.
20AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:38
The Marineford War arc was pretty good
I don't get why they brought back the "Mito Komon" formula (a solve-it-in-one-episode period-drama setup) once they hit the New World

Elbaf was decent too, around the part where the murals start unlocking the world's mysteries — I think they should just ditch the battle-manga formula altogether.
31AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:42
Re: #20
If you cut the battle formula, what's even left of this manga…?
21AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:39
Never would've guessed that Shanks losing his arm wasn't actually for Luffy's sake.
24AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:40
Honestly I'm kind of looking forward to seeing just how bad it gets.
26AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:41
The core fanbase is mid-40s
That overlaps hard with nanG users, which is why nanG's got so many true believers
27AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:41
If you've got complaints, just stop reading
Why can't manga fans manage that?
They keep reading and keep complaining nonstop.
65AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:57
Re: #27
I'm still reading it, so I'm allowed to complain
The real scum are the ones who don't even buy Jump or the tankobon and just bash it based on scanlated clips.
28AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:41
I don't think the Celestial Dragons were even necessary
They make Garp and Sengoku's behavior look weird.
29AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:42
This manga would be so much better if they'd just cut Nika and Imu entirely.
30AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:42
This really shows how much manga depends on having a good editor
Letting the author just do whatever he wants from some point on is exactly how we got the current state of One Piece.
45AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:47
Re: #30
The Kaguya-sama editor basically said, "My job as editor is to let the mangaka write happily (i.e., do nothing)"

That's the thing
Manga gets boring because editorial quality has dropped

Back when Mashirito — who had no problem giving Toriyama blunt notes — was editor-in-chief, everything in Jump was good.
62AnonymousNov 9, 2026 19:56
"I'm gonna keep bragging about partying with celebrities" — for some reason nobody ever calls him out on that part.
70AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:00
Re: #62
That part's fine though
He earned that lifestyle himself, so he's entitled to it.
78AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:04
Wait, does this mean the fake leak was actually right?
81AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:06
Re: #78
This version looks way more interesting.
85AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:06
Re: #78
This one's way easier to read lol
97AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:11
Re: #78
This is hard to follow
Like that panel top-left
Looks like there's Luffy plus one more guy in there
Yeah, it really has to be Eiichiro Oda's actual art.
83AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:06
Peak era




87AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:08
Re: #83
Guess "peak era" means something different to everyone.
90AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:08
Re: #83
There's no way Luffy even knows the word "Gear."
98AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:11
Re: #83
Honestly this one isn't even cool.
89AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:08
But Imu-sama's a genuinely awesome villain though
I've never seen a fight this cool in any other manga
101AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:12
Imu-sama is the kind of thing that should've been saved for a new arc after Luffy actually got the One Piece
Right now it doesn't connect to anything.
104AnonymousNov 9, 2026 20:15
Re: #101
There was an analysis video that actually put that nagging feeling into words
Basically arguing the story's already strayed completely from the whole "find the One Piece" process, just like you're saying.

Background and Key Points of This Discussion

One Piece began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997 and has run for nearly 30 years. As its readership has broadened over that time, this thread saw voices fondly recalling “the first half was great” clash with others harshly criticizing everything since the Elbaf arc. One point of debate is whether fans who keep complaining yet keep reading should be labeled “backlash haters,” or whether that’s simply an honest assessment of the work. Questions about the editorial system — specifically whether the editor assigned to the series can actually rein in the author’s direction — came up repeatedly too, with some posters contrasting it against past editor-author relationships. That said, the thread’s comments alone don’t reveal any actual shift in sales or popularity — this remains discussion built on impressions circulating on 5ch, so it’s worth reading with that caveat in mind.

*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] One Piece Fans Keep Turning Into Backlash Haters, One After Another wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww“.

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