One Piece: Forced to Enjoy?

DISCLAIMER: I've only completed around 1/3 of the show, I finished the Enies Lobby Arc and can't bring myself to continue the show for now, so please consider this while reading my review.

Only a few years ago, when someone mentioned One Piece be it online or in real life, most people usually joked about it and referenced its extreme length and didn't take it seriously. This was until a few years ago, specifically during the start of the pandemic when people we're locked in their homes, when recently it has become immensely popular and probably one of the most notorious shows. This is around the time I decided to start it out and see how it was.

Disappointingly, I can not say that it lives up to the hype.

First, I'll go over some of the positives of the show:
Firstly, I'd like to say that some of the characters on the show are extremely iconic and likeable, and definitely have left an imprint on anime culture more than characters from most other series, this is mostly due to their iconic designs and personalities, this is especially shown on characters like Luffy, Zoro, or Chopper who most people can recognize as characters from One Piece even if they've never watched the show.
Another part of the show that is well done is the worldbuilding, I'd say that its some of the best in any anime, every part of the world feels so beautiful and every location stands out and is unique in its own way.
Lastly, I think that the general themes and messages of the show are very pleasant and enjoyable, it expresses messages about freedom and living for yourself among other things and I personally can get behind that a lot.

Now, for some of the negatives of the show:
First of all, obviously the pacing of the show is terrible, even early on in the show, where the arcs are much shorter than the arcs later on, everything still feels incredibly drawn out. And the portion of the show that I've watched so far is the most lenient and normal when it comes to pacing for the rest of the series, which is a part of the reason why I stopped watching for now. The fact that there there is an arc later on which is literally 100 episodes is genuinely baffling and absurd.
Secondly, the battles themselves aren't good. Most things aren't well animated or smooth, its usually attacks being used back and forth like an RPG, and not things that are entertaining to watch, like hand to hand combat. It's usually just the bad guy attacking, Luffy getting hit and powering through it and hitting the enemy back, and this goes back and forth until the enemy loses usually. Similarly to the rest of the show, the fights are awfully paced as well, to the point where it makes any fight in a decent newer Shonen look like a godsend.
Another thing that bugs me is the shows humor, while it may appeal to some people just based off of the slapstick stuff which can be funny to some people just based off how goofy it is, it just gets old after hundreds of episodes, and I think that goes for most people, since a lot of these jokes are really repetitive.
While I did mention that some of the characters are iconic and distinctive, this has its downsides sometimes too, where the characters are too distinctive and different, by this I mean basically is that they have one personality trait. Like for example Nami's entire personality most the time is that she's greedy and rude and that gets insanely old after hundreds of episodes.
Lastly, one small issue I have is when moments are too deep for no reason and seemingly out of nowhere. A good example of this is when Choppers upset that he has to join the Foxy pirates during the Long Ring Long Land arc and then Zoro just calls him out for literally no reason and its chopped up to be this deep moment about Zoro's manliness solitude, and dedication to his crewmates, but to me it just seemed like Zoro was being a hardass.

With some of the annoying characters and horrible pacing it genuinely makes you wonder how so many people love this show so much unconditionally and consider it a complete 10/10 masterpiece when that obviously isn't the case. It genuinely feels like people feel obligated to like this show and put it on a pedestal when they don't have to. I have many friends who watch this show and it when they talk about it it genuinely seems like a chore to me, its like they're forcing themselves to watch it so they can say they've watched it and pay their respects to the 'Greatest Shonen'.

In Conclusion,
One Piece isn't a horrible show, it has a decent somewhat likeable main cast, a really well made world that has been built over the years, and has some of the most iconic characters in anime. Though despite this, the pacing and annoying characters can completely obliterate this and make the show almost unwatchable past the first few hundred episodes. If you haven't even watched an episode of One Piece yet even after its resurgence in popularity, don't even bother at this point, there are many other shows that are much more worth your time.