u/Derantmk

The metanarrative surrounding media consumption for young adult and teen literature has undoubtedly changed over time since these two series ended. They were the watershed moment in how series were perceived at the time; that was the impetus One Piece needed to break into the West, where it had always been overshadowed by these two series, especially Naruto. And it was precisely under this metanarrative, with its stupid and misused words like "retcon" and "asspull," that it gained traction. It's crazy that it was only in the United States that Masashi Kishimoto was asked, "When did you think of Kaguya?" Functional illiteracy was clearly visible on that side of the Atlantic.

One Piece fans were further weakened by the claim that it was 4Kids' fault that One Piece wasn't as big internationally as Naruto. While this might be true in the United States, it's still debatable, as Naruto was king in France and probably China; its average sales volume outside of Japan was simply better.

Once the objective was achieved, and it was clear that people and karma would inevitably surface due to this consumerist metanarrative, this community decided to take the next step. This occurred after the Bleach and Naruto fandoms began making small missteps, arguing, for example, that Sasuke's flashback was just that—Sasuke's flashback, what Sasuke sees and hears, and not an omniscient narration—and that the Itachi defamation was considered a retcon. Start revisionism Now, they dodge these blows, each wanting to be a self-proclaimed exegetes, using key terms from literary theory to "show off" a higher level of understanding of their favorite series, since the retcons in One Piece are actually more obvious.

Content creators dedicate themselves to making two weekly videos of cultural references highlighted by Oda in his salad of symbols, to theorize and entertain his less experienced viewers. They also make two more videos summarizing the weekly chapter, and when the content runs out, they resort to tribalism due to the karma that, towards the end, everything somehow ends up resembling Naruto and Bleach, as happens in any generic fiction. They make callbacks to the old metanarrative and pretend that it never changed, but rather that their series is more intelligent.

Limits must be set because it's now a matter of metacriticism. In all generic and recurring fictions, especially in manga, where characters end their arcs with a sunk cost fallacy at the end of the first parts, they continue wanting to take this proselytizing step of exegesis on everything, locking up art and pretending that throwing that garbage on the wall is enough since, as already emphasized, the other fandoms are further behind, surpassing the old meta-narrative. All of this is a product of the inherent desperation that makes the sunk cost more noticeable in their characters.

And to get to the point of all this, finally an example: it's ridiculous to discuss and scal female characters and then have an Oda stan show up and say "Nico Robin is better".When the dialogue between this character and Rayleigh is enough to ask why you killed Robin's agency, then the sunk cost is no longer just for the series, but it breaks the fourth wall, like Oda saying, "Who cares about that? Buy me 100 more volumes and trust me." And the length of the series is actually a legitimate criticism.