One Piece
Because of wusan awhile back I started reading One Piece. The basic premise is you have a world with a ring of land (called red line) going north/south across the globe. At the equator you have a strange strip of ocean called "Grand Line" going east/west, which divides the ocean into 4 segments - East Blue, West Blue, North Blue, and South Blue. To date only one pirate, Gold Rogers, has managed to travel all the way around Grand Line. Eventually the World Government captured and executed him. Gold's last words were, "My treasure? I left One Piece where I left it. Feel free to come and get it." This started on the Age of Pirates.
Our hero is a young man (about 16?) named Luffy D. Monkey. Inspired by a pirate he met in his youth, he wants to become the Pirate King and obtain One Piece. He starts with nothing but his rubber powers, which he obtained by eating a devil fruit (there are many such fruit in the world that grant various bizarre powers to the one who eats - the only rules are only one person in the world can have a power at any given time and a person who tries to obtain more than one power from a devil fruit will die.) He gets into many adventures, in the process obtaining a ship, a crew, and an infamous reputation with the World Government.
Here's my opinion of the various manga arcs:
To the Grand Line arc - overall, a necessary but so-so arc. Most introductory arcs are, so I forgive it.
Alabasta arc - the fights at the end dragged on a bit too much, but overall an enjoyable arc
Skypiea arc - this arc really drags, especially near the end. Until One Piece is over I can't be certain, but I suspect you could totally rip this arc out of the manga and loose very little in terms of overall plot. To me this is the worst arc in the manga to date.
Davy Back Fight mini-arc - I didn't like this one much either, but luckily it's just 20 or so chapters and functions mainly as a bridge from the Skypiea arc to the Water7 arc. So, I don't rate it as badly as Skypiea.
Water7 arc - hands down the best arc to date. Luffy vs Lucci was a LITTLE long, but otherwise the climax was just pure awesome.
Thriller Bark arc - I thought this one was a little stupid, but funny. It's also not too long. Not a bad arc, but a bit of a letdown after Water7.
To Mermaid Island arc (?) - this arc is still going, but from the way it's building so far it seems like it will be one of the more awesome ones. I suspect the scattering of the crew will result in most (if not all) of them "leveling up" so to speak. I'm interested to find out how exactly Robin and Chopper manage to meet back up with everyone else, though, since it'd be a long way for them to get back if they go via the entrance to Grand Line.
In short, One Piece is insanely long (I mean, it's been going 11 years!!) and its still going (in fact I think it's roughly at the half-way point in the story), but it is definitely worth the time and effort to read. I don't particularly like the art style, but the artist is very good at drawing facial expressions and the characters are fun and quirky (especially Sanji, who's my favorite). What's more impressive is the story doesn't feel like it's getting old or tired, although both Naruto and Bleach (which aren't as old as One Piece) both have lost steam in terms of plot. If anything One Piece's plot has been getting better. Part of it is probably the fact that One Piece doesn't waste time showing the characters training, unlike Bleach and Naruto. Another big factor is the chapter cover pages - probably about half of the chapter cover pages tell short stories (over multiple chapters) which don't have anything to do with the events going on at the time, but often tie into later events in the main manga. Probably the other thing that keeps it fresh is One Piece is a lot wackier and funnier than Bleach or Naruto.
I haven't watched any of the anime aside from episode 1, but what I did see tells me it's probably pretty different from the manga since there's already quite a few changes from the manga in episode 1. Still, the character of One Piece and the plot probably makes it a little more resilient in the face of anime filler episodes, which I am certain it has run into since the anime has been going a long time now.
Our hero is a young man (about 16?) named Luffy D. Monkey. Inspired by a pirate he met in his youth, he wants to become the Pirate King and obtain One Piece. He starts with nothing but his rubber powers, which he obtained by eating a devil fruit (there are many such fruit in the world that grant various bizarre powers to the one who eats - the only rules are only one person in the world can have a power at any given time and a person who tries to obtain more than one power from a devil fruit will die.) He gets into many adventures, in the process obtaining a ship, a crew, and an infamous reputation with the World Government.
Here's my opinion of the various manga arcs:
To the Grand Line arc - overall, a necessary but so-so arc. Most introductory arcs are, so I forgive it.
Alabasta arc - the fights at the end dragged on a bit too much, but overall an enjoyable arc
Skypiea arc - this arc really drags, especially near the end. Until One Piece is over I can't be certain, but I suspect you could totally rip this arc out of the manga and loose very little in terms of overall plot. To me this is the worst arc in the manga to date.
Davy Back Fight mini-arc - I didn't like this one much either, but luckily it's just 20 or so chapters and functions mainly as a bridge from the Skypiea arc to the Water7 arc. So, I don't rate it as badly as Skypiea.
Water7 arc - hands down the best arc to date. Luffy vs Lucci was a LITTLE long, but otherwise the climax was just pure awesome.
Thriller Bark arc - I thought this one was a little stupid, but funny. It's also not too long. Not a bad arc, but a bit of a letdown after Water7.
To Mermaid Island arc (?) - this arc is still going, but from the way it's building so far it seems like it will be one of the more awesome ones. I suspect the scattering of the crew will result in most (if not all) of them "leveling up" so to speak. I'm interested to find out how exactly Robin and Chopper manage to meet back up with everyone else, though, since it'd be a long way for them to get back if they go via the entrance to Grand Line.
In short, One Piece is insanely long (I mean, it's been going 11 years!!) and its still going (in fact I think it's roughly at the half-way point in the story), but it is definitely worth the time and effort to read. I don't particularly like the art style, but the artist is very good at drawing facial expressions and the characters are fun and quirky (especially Sanji, who's my favorite). What's more impressive is the story doesn't feel like it's getting old or tired, although both Naruto and Bleach (which aren't as old as One Piece) both have lost steam in terms of plot. If anything One Piece's plot has been getting better. Part of it is probably the fact that One Piece doesn't waste time showing the characters training, unlike Bleach and Naruto. Another big factor is the chapter cover pages - probably about half of the chapter cover pages tell short stories (over multiple chapters) which don't have anything to do with the events going on at the time, but often tie into later events in the main manga. Probably the other thing that keeps it fresh is One Piece is a lot wackier and funnier than Bleach or Naruto.
I haven't watched any of the anime aside from episode 1, but what I did see tells me it's probably pretty different from the manga since there's already quite a few changes from the manga in episode 1. Still, the character of One Piece and the plot probably makes it a little more resilient in the face of anime filler episodes, which I am certain it has run into since the anime has been going a long time now.