The thread kicked off with a claim that Eiichiro Oda himself may be breaking the principle he set for One Piece’s Zoro — that to become the world’s greatest swordsman, he’ll only fight other swordsmen — through recent developments involving Luffy (Nika).
On 5ch, the discussion didn’t stop at that question and expanded into a full-blown “name a manga better than One Piece” debate, with posters throwing out titles like Chainsaw Man, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen. Interpretations of Zoro’s rule were also split, with some pushing back that there’s nothing wrong with him fighting non-swordsmen at all.
If you've got complaints, go write your own
Do something about that empty life where all you can do is nitpick
If this is what passes for garbage manga, I could do better
It's obvious you're just jealous of Oda's earnings
I wonder how many months it takes Oda to earn what these guys make in a lifetime
If I wrote it, I could make something more interesting than this boring manga
And your favorite moe slice-of-life 'Kirara'-style manga and web-novel isekai ('narou') adaptations don't count
So Oda-kun is losing even to Kirara and narou manga now?
Chainsaw Man Part 1 was more interesting than One Piece
Good at what, exactly?
Never read Jujutsu Kaisen so I can't say, but Demon Slayer's story is dark, gloomy, heavy, and reeks of introvert energy
And the female characters have no charm either
But Akaza is basically Katakuri, right? (a running comparison in this thread — Akaza is a villain from Demon Slayer, Katakuri a villain from One Piece)
Zoro: 'Without even fighting, I'm the world's greatest!'
This could totally happen
Zoro: 'Now that the strongest guys are gone, I'm the strongest by default 😁'
Yeah, that's so One Piece
The fact that someone would post that just proves they're a fanboy
Lol you can't even give a specific rebuttal
Shinobu Kocho is way cuter than One Piece's weirdly-proportioned Nami or Robin
Back in the day there was mutual respect among the crew, which made it satisfying to read
But now it's just a cult pirate crew
You already admitted Akaza isn't Katakuri
Give it a rest
Muzan's like a JoJo arc boss, and I admitted I don't get the standard by which Akaza's supposedly not Katakuri, but I never admitted Akaza isn't Katakuri
Re: #53
Sanji's the one who gave the word 'kuso' (damn/crap) the nuance it has today
JoJo references land fine at work, but
I sang the 'Binks' Sake' song (One Piece's famous pirate drinking song) and not a single person picked up on it
Never read Chainsaw Man, but it seems needlessly grim and gory
Sorry for judging off vibes alone, but it lacks that One Piece brightness of punching every bad guy out one by one for a satisfying resolution
It's a manga where Denji, who's even dumber than Luffy, satisfyingly chainsaws through everything
Creating a special-grade cursed object like this is way too sinful (borrowing Jujutsu Kaisen's term for a monster born of dark feelings)
Just end One Piece already and set these guys free…
If anything, the 'Z' crowd is dead center in the generation that grew up on One Piece
Right in the middle of the One Piece boom sparked by the show Hexagon, around the Marineford War to Fish-Man Island arcs
Akaza is NOT Katakuri
I mean, the way Muzan gets beaten and the way the 41-year-old gets beaten — Akaza's basically Katakuri
We're talking about Akaza and Katakuri here, so if you want to change the subject, settle this first
If you move on to something else, that means you've admitted Akaza isn't Katakuri
I just stopped reading because Nika is gross
One Piece was great back when Luffy still had some brains left
Same here
I still genuinely think it's great up through around the Grand Line
But past that it's a matter of opinion, and I don't think there's any point reading past the Nika stuff
Guess that makes me a flipped anti-fan
Did Oda ever actually say 'Zoro will only fight swordsmen'? Huh? Did he?
It's not that he'll only fight swordsmen — it's that he can't be called the world's greatest swordsman unless he fights strong swordsmen
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Within the story, Zoro has repeatedly been shown pursuing the dream of becoming the world’s greatest swordsman, a goal that requires defeating the world’s strongest swordsman (Mihawk). The claim at the center of this thread stems from readers’ sense that, in recent years, Luffy (Nika) has increasingly clashed with powerful enemies who aren’t swordsmen, making Zoro’s “only fight swordsmen” principle feel diluted by comparison. That said, it’s worth noting that Eiichiro Oda himself has never explicitly stated in the manga or in official materials that “Zoro will only fight swordsmen” — some posters in the thread pushed back, saying they don’t recall Oda ever setting such a rule — so the premise itself leaves room for interpretation. The comparisons drawn to Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Chainsaw Man are likewise subjective, personal-taste judgments rather than being based on objective measures like circulation figures or popularity rankings.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Image] Eiichiro Oda breaks another rule he made up himself wwwwwwwww.”
