User blog comment:Fliu/Opinions on the Wano Arc so far/@comment-24850639-20181004181337

I've really enjoyed the beginning of  Wano as well, the only thing I haven't liked so far is the feeling of the stakes at this point in the arc. During Whole Cake, Oda made it clear during the first chapter that the Sunny docked on Cacao Island that Big Mom was already aware of Luffy's presence. It made things that much more exciting that our protagonists thought that they were being sneaky, when in fact Big Mom and several of her subordinates had already identified them. We haven't even seen Kaido (or Orochi for that matter) since Wano started, and Luffy's taken down a headliner, fought another headliner, turned another headliner into his personal steed, beat up the country's strongest sumo wrestler, stolen an entire ships' worth of food from Orochi/Kaido's garden, defeated 3 Gifters at once, and for some extra gravy, gave his name as the person to see if someone has a  problem with it. Zoro has become a national criminal by cutting down some of Orochi's magistrates, and then proceeded to slice up several gifters and pleasures in Bakura Town. For whatever reason, Law's biggest concern is JACK finding out. Not Kaido, Jack. While he's certainly strong, no one who's seen Luffy beat Katakuri is gonna be worried about him not being able to handle Jack. So just wondering where the 2 main antagonists are in all this.

Aside from that, I've been really really enjoying the bits of Japanase lore that Oda is giving us, even little things like those karp trying to reach the top of the waterfall, or the Ukiyo-e style that he's using to draw so many details of Wano and it's people. As far as Kiku is concerned, I was a bit frustrated by her ditzyness as well, but a part of me understands she probably wasn't anticipating Luffy and Zoro being as strong as they are. For someone who's likely seen the strength of Kaido's forces, I don't think she imagined ever meeting someone who could fodderize them the way those 2 have been doing. I mean they entered Bakura town and Luffy immediately catches double digit bodies with a haki glare. They frankly didn't even need her there, and I think that's why she was a bit confused on what to do exactly. She just wanted to be out of their way. I'm much more supportive of a strong, clueless type, than weak and winy. Rebecca was actually physically weak, Kiku is far from it.

The thing with time travel is that if you allow people to go back in time, you can potentially create a slew of time paradoxes and plot holes. I was glad Oda relegated it to just future travel. It's still a bit dicey that its a Devil Fruit power so the wielder of it immediately becomes someone of importance, but that's more tolerable than being thrown into inevitable situations where you say "well why didn't ___ travel back in time and do ___ ?". Glad Oda addressed that immediately.