One Piece: Wano Arc Review - Where It Ranks Among The Best

gamerant.com:

The Wano Country arc is, undoubtedly, one of One Piece's most important arcs. Having been teased way before the timeskip, it was pretty apparent that Wano would be a very important place for the Straw Hat Pirates to visit. Once the crew went through their two-year training and set foot in the New World, Wano was the place where every fan's eyes went immediately.

One Piece: What Will Happen To The Shichibukai?

Finally, One Piece entered its Wano Country arc in 2018 and, since then, this arc has well become its longest yet. With chapter 1057, One Piece finally concluded its Wano Country arc and now, fans can fully judge the arc and see where it ranks among the series' very best.

Wano's story is quite possibly the darkest seen in One Piece so far. With Oda hinting at it as early as the Punk Hazard and Zou arcs, it was apparent that Wano would be a masterpiece from a storytelling perspective. Once Wano began, Oda made sure to live up to these expectations. It wasn't hard to see that Oda had put extra care into this arc. Having teased this arc over a decade before finally starting it and, at the same time, tying the entirety of the post-timeskip of the story to this arc, Wano was special indeed. The arc was filled with despair, yet at its core were mighty samurai who held out hope for a better tomorrow. While Orochi and Kaido tried their best to run the country into the ground, the samurai held hope in their hearts. Loyalty was one of the main themes of the arc and the samurai had it in abundance, which was certainly unmatched. Crossing 20 years in time, the samurai accumulated capable allies, including Luffy, who ended up paving way for the freedom of the country.

At one point, the people of the country starved to a degree that