Forum:When does one arc become another?

Galaxy 9000 and I have been talking in the chat about where the line two between arcs occurs. This is difficult to distinguish for arcs such as Water 7/Enies Lobby and Amazon Lilly/Impel Down. It also affects things like manga cover stories in the anime, such as the SH Separation Serials.

I personally think the line should be when the SHs (or other important characters) arrive at the location the next arc occurs. So the Sea Train story, while no longer taking place on Water 7, should still be part of the Water 7 arc, because the SHs have not arrived at Enies Lobby yet. And the first part of the the SH Separation serial in the anime would still be part of Amazon Lily, because Luffy, Hancock, and Momonga are still shown in-transit to ID, and have not arrived yet. I believe this is the current policy we have, according to the anime episode guide.

Gal thinks just the opposite, and I can can see how he does. It is a hard definition to make, so we thought we would make a forum about it, since the consequences of a decision on this issue affects many arcs. JustSomeDude... 05:14, July 26, 2012 (UTC)

Little bump on this forum. Where do you think episode 457 and episode 458 stand? Personally, I think they belong in the Impel Down arc, since the title of the episodes say it's before Marineford (meaning, before the war, which is the arc), and since no pirate really made it there yet. No chapters start where these episode correspond, either, so I don't think it belongs on the Marineford arc. 01:52, October 5, 2012 (UTC)

No chapters correspond in the Impel Down Arc either. It fits better in the marineford anime episodes section. 02:00, October 5, 2012 (UTC)