This is one of the worst arcs for a lot of reasons. For one, the story of this arc is terrible. Oh, Sanji needs a blood dono but fishmen can’t donate to humans? Oh look it’s Arlong on steroids, literally. Don’t even get me started on how little this arc actually impacts. Hody Jones doesn’t appear later and Shirahoshi is a kind of important character in Reverie but other than that kind of irrelevant. I get that this was an arc to show off the Straw Hats new abilities developed over the Timeskip but I just thrill it was done poorly. The New Fishman Pirates are really weak and I think that the arc was kind of boring and stereotypical. Hody Jones was incredibly weak enough that I think that if it was Sanji in Zoro’s place in that underwater fight in the palace then he would easily win (as it was shown earlier that Diable Jambe functions even underwater and he can user Blue Walk). And the fact that Hody had to use drugs to still be easily defeated by Luffy just shows his weakness. I also think that the setting is kind of bad and ugly. I really think this arc is worth skipping and reading the wiki article for it because it is very uninteresting and has a small bit of story impact. I get that this was to show off the past of Jimbei and the Straw Hats new abilities after the Timeskip but again, it was executed poorly.
What do you think of Fisher Tiger's flashback?
6/10, Koalas backstory is never really elaborated on in Dressrosa
I'm also not the biggest fan of fishmen island but saying it had no Impact in the main story is factually wrong, here we meet shirahoshi who is a ancient weapon and find Noah, the ark that joy boy was supposed to take to the surface so that the fishmen could live on the land. This arc was also the first name drop of Joy boy if I'm remember correctly also making the new fishmen pirates weak were kinda a given since we just got back from a two year time skip so to see the crew struggle at the first island would be kinda strange, And the Sanji nose bleed thing set up the law of fish men not being allowed to share blood with a human so when jinbei gave blood to Luffy it just made the scene that much better.
I liked it, but Hody wasn't as good of an antagonist as Arlong, and the Sanji blood loss plot point was really dumb.
Interestingly enough, the only arcs people don´t say they really hate are Arlong Park, Enies Lobby, Sabaody, Marineford, Whole Cake Island, Wano and, as of now, Egghead. So every Arc in which the WG is heavily involved, +Jonko Villains and then also Arlong Park. I think a lot of the hate the other Arcs get comes from the misinterpretation that Arcs can only be good with a big fight. But personally, I think that, if you delete all the "bad" Arcs - like Orange Town, Drum Island, Skypiea and even Long Ring Long Land - the "good" Arcs would only be half that good, because all the build up, character development etc. for the fights happens mainly in these Arcs. And that´s the case with Fishman Island too, I think. It´s still the first adventure after the timeskip. I don´t mean to say that the Arcs I listed at the top would be overrated, and I neither want to insult anyone. But I just don´t get why there are people who skip Skypiea, call Thriller Bark a Filler or say that the only good things about Punk Hazard was the Punch into Ceasars face. (Of course, It´s not like I think that you are one of these people just because you don´t like Fishman Island, but I think It´s the same argument at last.)
Punk hazard is one of my favorites and LRLL is literally canon filler
Worst arc: fishman. Best is tie between punk hazard and ennies.
Controversial take, but I kinda like Hody as an antagonist. Yes he was weak, and he had no real relevance to any greater larger threat like an Emperor on first glance. But the line that made me love him as an antagonist and seperates him from Arlong is that when asked why he hates humans so much, what humans ever did to him, he responds with. "Nothing".
He's generational hatred, he looked up to Arlong and the other Fish men that fought the human because humans were horrible to them. But he didn't want equality, he wanted to force them to submit to become lesser, Arlong did too but Arlong had a direct reason. Hody didn't, which shows he fills a very different role. Arlong is a story about victims becoming abusers, Hody is what happens when generational hatred festers. Which is the entire point of Fishman Island, how to break that cycle, Hody had potential, he was young and with training he might have become the Fishman Fisher Tiger wanted to be. But instead he drugged himself up to burn down everything in the name of hate, a hatred he doesn't even have a personal reason to have, and it leaves him rotting as an old man at the end.
What do you think?