Quote Originally Posted by Kraco
One Piece style is certainly not the worst way to do it, but it has one weakness that bothers me: Every episode lately only has like 10 minutes new material with the huge recaps, the old Pirate King scene at the beginning of every episode, and constant flashbacks. It's kind of bothersome. They should just change the format to 15 minutes episodes (there are, after all, animes that have that format naturally though they are few). It would at least mean every episode was full of goodness you can actually watch and you didn't need to skip contantly.
Yes, I agree with you. It was great in this regard before the last arc and it's gotten better since the last arc ended. I think the problem was that the last arc was very long, and the anime's producers didn't want to take a break in the middle of it. And for very good reason. Bad timing made it so they would have had to take a break at the arc's climax (the tower __ _______ scene with ____ ____ burning the ____) Hopefully, that won't happen again.

Naruto wouldn't have this problem. There are plenty of natural spots to take breaks in the manga.

Still, I like the Pirate King scene. It helps sets the tone. One Piece has always used a lot of flashbacks, and they don't bother me as long as they're relevant and well done. The recaps before the last arc were fine by me too. They were short, used different dialog to summarize what's going on, used exciting music, etc. They really helped set an episode's pace.

So, I am serious about cutting Naruto Shippuuden down to size. Does anybody else have suggestions about what kind of anime format Shippuuden or even One Piece should have used?