Naruto vs. One Piece worldbuilding debate is "so bad it’s honestly hilarious"

Modified Dec 31, 2024 09:30 GMT

Naruto vs. One Piece debates continues with world-building claims (Image via Toei Animation and Studio Pierrot). — Naruto vs. One Piece debates continues with world-building claims (Image via Toei Animation and Studio Pierrot)

Naruto vs. One Piece is a debate that has been ongoing for decades and will likely continue for years to come. Recently, a discussion emerged about the world-building in both franchises, with some describing the comparison as "so bad it's honestly hilarious."

This is because One Piece is notorious in the anime community for its strong world-building and multiple engaging elements, while Naruto tends to struggle in that area. This struggle is likely due to author Masashi Kishimoto's limited exploration of many villages in the story, making the last few arcs feel a bit hollow compared to earlier ones.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the series. Any opinions expressed here belong to the author and the people quoted, not Sportskeeda as a publication.

Worldbuilding becomes the basis of the Naruto vs. One Piece debate online

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There have been claims online that Naruto has one of the best world buildings in the history of anime, a statement that has outraged many. This is because author Masashi Kishimoto has a lot of virtues as a writer but struggled to give other elements that aren't the Hidden Leaf Village the focus and development that is required.

This issue was particularly highlighted by One Piece fans, who argue that the Fourth Great Shinobi War arc showed the series' lack of solid world-building and proves that Kishimoto didn't develop these concepts quite well. The fact that other villages rarely received time in the spotlight makes this contrast particularly notable when compared to Eiichiro Oda's series.

Another example of the issues faced by this manga is how the Jinchuriki were handled, with only Gaara and Killer Bee receiving significant importance. In contrast, the other six Jinchuriki barely received any attention, which is a disappointment considering how important they were for the main conflict during the final third of the series.

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Another example that highlights the contrast is the fact that Eiichiro Oda has taken the time to develop the culture and structure of most places in his series. Islands such as Skypiea, Alabasta, Marineford, Wano, and many more have a lot of variety, cultures, and laws, making this manga quite unique in terms of how that is executed.

While Kishimoto did a lot of great things in his series, perhaps some of them even better than One Piece, the constant focus on the Hidden Leaf Village and making most of the conflicts come from that place makes the story a bit smaller in terms of scope and reach. This limitation was evident in the final arc, where most conflicts are connected to Konoha and the main cast, instead of providing a more varied world.

"I can name 3 locations and the (for lack of a better word) magic system. No. No it does not. It has some of the best fight choreo but its world building is 2nd to most," someone said.

"This is true until you stop and think about it with more scrutiny. A lot of it is held up by suspension of disbelief, and doesn't actually make sense when you really think about it," another person said.

"They had 9 jinchrikis vessels, and kishimoto deleted 6 of them from the story. We don't know s... about anyone except naruto, gaara and bee," someone else said.

This highlights how any series can have a lot of strengths but also some considerable weaknesses.

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Edited by Shubham Soni