Another discussion of a shounen manga?

So after doing some research, I have come to discover that One Piece is now officially the highest selling manga to come from Shounen Jump in history. It has sold 158 million volumes to Dragon Ball's 150 million, making it officially the most successful shounen manga of all time.

The manga has been around for over ten years now, and technically the crew has not even gotten to the half-way mark on their journey across the Grand Line, meaning that there is still much potential for this manga to grow in comparison to titles like Naruto.

My favorite saga is probably the CP9 Saga, but my favorite arc is easily the Arlong arc. The most powerful scene in the entire story, at least in my eyes, is when Luffy stops Nami from stabbing her tatoo, and when she wimpers to him, "Help me," Luffy hands her his PRECIOUS HAT, and wordlessly marches off to Arlong Park with the rest of the Straw Hat crew. I don't know about you guys, but when I saw, that, I only had one thought in my mind: "Arlong is fucked."

But yes, I just caught up with the manga today, and I must say that it has gotten quite claustrophobic with everything going on. Suddenly there are a ridiculous amount of characters showing up that Luffy currently cannot contend with, everybody has been scattered around the world, the Yonkou and the Marines are on the brink of war, and... wow.

So I know there are other fans of this series out there. What do you guys think?

It's probably my of all-time favorite anime.
It's one of the few Shonen series where I have never dropped reading the manga or watching the anime.

I like it because it's hardly ever drop dead serious.
Y'know serious, serious.
I also like how it's a very ragtag group.
I can't think of another series that has a skeleton musician.

Same goes for the antagonists.
They're so unusual and I love 'em.

Not too sure about my favorite arc.

Another thing I love about this series is that there are no characters that I truly dislike. There's not a Sasuke or Hitsugaya in sight.

One of my favourite anime series ever.
And,surprisingly the only anime i've watched and got really into without ever having read the manga.
What i love is the variety. I mean there are so many ideas involved it's amazing. All the different devil fruit powers and so many different types of characters. All with a unique look.
The very best about the series is the figthing imo, and what is one of the sweetest figthing styles ever created?

God only thinking about it puts a tear in my eye.
It was already sad but when it started talking....

Despite all the silliness and how nobody dies in the present time, the manga is still very, very engaging. The pacing, at least in my mind, is much better than other series to boot.

Well, it's been over a month, so let's recap my thoughts on what's been going on.

1. I'm pretty sure Magellan will be back again because he was never properly defeated.
2. Aw yeah, shit's about to get real.
3. Since Luffy has been constantly having trouble with opponents as of late, I wonder what sort of power boosts he'll gain to take on harder opponents in the Grand Line?
4. BON CLAY NOOOOOOO!

The lack of action in this thread depresses me as every single chapter since I last posted has been frikkin' amazing.

As for what just happened in the manga...

I'm loving this War/Impel Down arc going on

Whitebeard is amazing. His reaction to what happened in the last comic was heartwarming.

This is actually my next cosplay project!

I didn't get much into the series until a friend asked me to cosplay Luffy, so I started watching again. The animation isn't really anything special and the stories drag on to unnecessary lengths sometimes, but certain instances like or really tug at my heartstrings.

For this week's chapter, all I have to say is: Well, damn