What If Eiichiro Oda wrote Dragon Ball?

[The Monkey King]

The only thing saving Naruto atm is Madara Uchiha. Naruto and Sasuke have taken nosedives as characters in Part II, the Konoha 11 is pretty much useless, Tsunade sucks as a Hokage, Yamato is forgotten, Obito is one of the worst villains ever......yeah Naruto isn't as good as One Piece imo even though I like them equally, though Part I is really good. Ever since the declaration of the 4th World War, Naruto just hasn't be as good. Plot isn't near One Piece's right now, but pace is most certainly better.

Yamato is straight up dead, apparently, according to a recent interview. So not forgotten, his "death" was just given absolutely no focus. Kind of sad, I liked him.

I don't know why but this makes me suprisingly sad
Oh yeah and how could Kishimoto

Spoiler:

first sideline Neji for 100s of chapters then get him killed off by a flying piece of wood!!?

[Saiga]

I think that given how

Spoiler:

Neji was treated in Part II, he should have just died against Kidomaru of the Sound Four. It was a far better death scene than his actual death ended up being.

[DBZAOTA482]

The only thing saving Naruto atm is Madara Uchiha. Naruto and Sasuke have taken nosedives as characters in Part II, the Konoha 11 is pretty much useless, Tsunade sucks as a Hokage, Yamato is forgotten, Obito is one of the worst villains ever......yeah Naruto isn't as good as One Piece imo even though I like them equally, though Part I is really good. Ever since the declaration of the 4th World War, Naruto just hasn't be as good. Plot isn't near One Piece's right now, but pace is most certainly better.

It's not her fault that she's a female in Naruto.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Yamato is straight up dead, apparently, according to a recent interview. So not forgotten, his "death" was just given absolutely no focus. Kind of sad, I liked him.

What interview?!

[SaiyanZ]

The only thing saving Naruto atm is Madara Uchiha. Naruto and Sasuke have taken nosedives as characters in Part II, the Konoha 11 is pretty much useless, Tsunade sucks as a Hokage, Yamato is forgotten, Obito is one of the worst villains ever......yeah Naruto isn't as good as One Piece imo even though I like them equally, though Part I is really good. Ever since the declaration of the 4th World War, Naruto just hasn't be as good. Plot isn't near One Piece's right now, but pace is most certainly better.

Yamato is straight up dead, apparently, according to a recent interview. So not forgotten, his "death" was just given absolutely no focus. Kind of sad, I liked him.

Really?! Could you send me/link that interview? That's actually kind of funny and sad at the same time

The only thing saving Naruto atm is Madara Uchiha. Naruto and Sasuke have taken nosedives as characters in Part II, the Konoha 11 is pretty much useless, Tsunade sucks as a Hokage, Yamato is forgotten, Obito is one of the worst villains ever......yeah Naruto isn't as good as One Piece imo even though I like them equally, though Part I is really good. Ever since the declaration of the 4th World War, Naruto just hasn't be as good. Plot isn't near One Piece's right now, but pace is most certainly better.

It's not her fault that she's a female in Naruto.

[DonZ]

Naruto has turned into complete SHIT since the 4th shinobi war. i can't believe anyone could enjoy such a boring, never-ending war. and all the fight sucks, we didn't get anything like "Naruto vs Sasuke" or "3rd Hokage vs Orochimaru" or "Jiraya vs Pain" or "Lee vs Gara"
i can't believe the guy -Kishimoto- who wrote the first part is the same guy who's writing this shitty arc. talk about downgrade !

[Kid Buu]

Neji and Choji should have both died in the Sound Four arc. Neji doesn't really do anything noticeable in Shippuden anyway. Chojis role in the Immortals arc could have been taken by Temari, and the Asuma battle could have been changed to Shikamaru & Ino Vs. Choji & Asuma.

[thatdbzguy]

So is this a Naruto thread now, or what?

[Kid Buu]

Of course it is!

In more seriousness, if Oda wrote DB, the artwork would be a lot worse and too sentimental.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

Naruto has turned into complete SHIT since the 4th shinobi war. i can't believe anyone could enjoy such a boring, never-ending war. and all the fight sucks, we didn't get anything like "Naruto vs Sasuke" or "3rd Hokage vs Orochimaru" or "Jiraya vs Pain" or "Lee vs Gara"
i can't believe the guy -Kishimoto- who wrote the first part is the same guy who's writing this shitty arc. talk about downgrade !

Kishimoto knows how to troll his readers, surprised we haven't seen the ramen guy swoop in and end the war. Wishful funny thinking though

[dprez]

The lore of the Dragon Ball universe would've been greatly expanded upon if Oda were the author. We all love Dragon Ball because it's so carefree and doesn't take itself to seriously, but at the same time is epic and intriguing. This is because Toriyama really is a great mangaka and knew what he was doing. His personality shows in his work, as well as Oda's in his, but you can tell the guy ( Oda ) cares more and puts way more thought into his story. Some say the emotions in One Piece are to overblown and the art is suspect, but I love the art and the interactions with the characters and the situations that cause such emotional outbursts. Both series are loved for different reasons, but at the same time both series are great for similar reasons.

When I honestly think about it, if I had to only watch/read one shonen series for the rest of my life, it would be Dragon Ball. There's just so much to love as a Dragon Ball fan.

[Saiga]

Yamato is straight up dead, apparently, according to a recent interview. So not forgotten, his "death" was just given absolutely no focus. Kind of sad, I liked him.

What interview?!

Jump Festa 2014. The information is taken from 2chan, so might not be true, but:

JFの岸影発言
ヤマトは死にました
生き返ったりもしません

Kishi (Jump Festa 14): "Yamato is dead and he isn't coming back."

[cpuguy18]

That's because it's overrated as all hell. It's never been able to top Water 7 - Enies Lobby, which is about 9 years old now.

edit: I didn't even like Fishman Island DBZGTKOSDH. Too much time spent hyping up villains who went down too easily.

Marineford was better than Water 7 - Enies Lobby in my opinon.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Jump Festa 2014. The information is taken from 2chan, so might not be true, but:

JFの岸影発言
ヤマトは死にました
生き返ったりもしません

Kishi (Jump Festa 14): "Yamato is dead and he isn't coming back."

Sounds too weird to be true. Why would Kishimoto spoil such an important thing? And why is he even dead when the point of his capture was to stay alive? And why would he even die? Until it's confirmed as legit, I take this statement as a fake.

[Jodaku]

It's interesting reading the debate on how much of a chance you should give a series before deciding that if it's worth proceeding with in the long run. I think of the Django Unchained quote from DiCaprio "...you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention".

If something I was curious about checking out is able to hold my attention, then I'm good to go along with it to see where it goes. I'm not looking for greatness, just something to hook me in to hold my attention and keep me interested, even if it's just the basic premise.

In some ways One Piece and Breaking Bad are similar in that they're very, almost severely hyped franchises, touted as one of the all time greats in their respective mediums. The strength of that hype combined with friends recommendations led me to checking out both of those series. With One Piece I didn't last more than 4 volumes of the manga. It just didn't hold my attention long enough to get to the supposedly good parts. I didn't find it bad, I just didn't find it particularly interesting. From what I've gathered here and elsewhere, it seems like it's roughly volume 8 or 9 where One Piece really gets going, but for me that's way too long for something to supposedly hook you. Am I missing out on some great stuff for not persevering longer? Most likely, but I don't actually feel like I'm missing out based on what I read, even if what I read was not the best representation of One Piece, it should have done a better job of keeping my interest before getting to that point.

In comparison, Breaking Bad had me hooked from the first episode. No, I wasn't seeing early signs of the greatness that was being touted (which really didn't start to become evident until season 3 at the earliest) , but it did more than enough to hold my attention, to keep me entertained and to keep going with it. It earns its trust from the audience in the early episodes to stick with it while not necessarily blowing you away , whereas I feel like I have to trust One Piece to get better while being apathetic getting there, which is not something I'm prepared to do.

To bring this back to Dragon Ball, and for a more direct comparison 4 volumes in, while the Pilaf/Hunt for the Dragon Balls would have definitely fall into that apathetic territory, Master Roshi's training/Krillin's introduction/21st Tenkaichi Budokai would have more than saved it for me if I was reading it first time round without knowledge of what's to come.

[rereboy]

From what I've gathered here and elsewhere, it seems like it's roughly volume 8 or 9 where One Piece really gets going, but for me that's way too long for something to supposedly hook you. Am I missing out on some great stuff for not persevering longer? Most likely, but I don't actually feel like I'm missing out based on what I read, even if what I read was not the best representation of One Piece, it should have done a better job of keeping my interest before getting to that point.

Like I said before, if I had done as you did, I would never have ended up considering One Piece as one of my favorite manga (and one of the best manga I know). Like you, I wouldn't have considered it all that great.

There's really no way to actually properly judge One Piece without at least reading most of it. Its a long series that fulfills itself in the long run. You stick with it and the more you read, the more you know of it, you will love it more. By the time you've read all of it or most of it, it usually is one of your favorites and you are in awe with the capacity of the author to create that world with all its complexities.

[Flame Dragon]

I agree with the sentiment that it's a significant flaw if a series takes multiple volumes to get interesting. And Water 7 starts at volume 34, it is waaay to much to expect someone to wait over 30 volumes before they see something interesting.

So no, for anyone who dropped the series before than, that's being fair. It's up to the work to keep people interested enough to continue reading.

I watched the end of the Alabasta Arc, and i must say that you guys are overblowing this.
It's not like One Piece is AWFUL until Volume 34!

To me, the show started becoming awesome at the Arlong Arc, and it keeps getting better!
It was pretty good before Arlong too. I found the Captain Kuro arc pretty interesting.

[helsinkirocks]

Kuro is my favorite of the pre-Grand Line villains (Kuro, Buggy, Kreig, Arlong).

[DonZ]

Enel easily is the best villain in One Piece. he's freaking scary!
and his background story is amazing.i like Doflamingo too.

[helsinkirocks]

My personal favorite villain is Rob Lucci, but at this point it's just getting SUPER off topic.