Why is it that most Shonen manga/anime skip the important Dragon Ball phase of adventure and skip right to the Dragon...

Why is it that most Shonen manga/anime skip the important Dragon Ball phase of adventure and skip right to the Dragon Ball Z phase of power level wanking?

Most don't.

DBZ is more popular

Naruto really went to shit fast after the Zabuza arc because of this.
They should have had them go on at least 3-4 more missions like this so we could see more of the world and the main characters could have more chances to train and grow before just becoming absurdly powerful out of nowhere

>Naruto really went to shit fast after the Zabuza arc because of this.
What a contrarian faggot. Chunin exams are the series highlight

>muh generic tournament where every kid shows he stronk lol
Even some Shippuden arcs are better than that. Tsunade research arc is where it's good.

>muh generic tournament where every kid shows he stronk lol
Any arc where there's little to no Sasuke is good, and there was much more to the Chunin arc than just "strong kids". Most of the world building and story exposition was done during that arc.

>Most of the world building and story exposition was done during that arc.
Thats what I think is wrong though, there should have been so much more world building and story exposition prior to the tournament arc

Naruto would have seriously benefited from just a handful of other basic missions like the bridge builder one.

Yeah, there was some good story, but the main part is still muh tournament. It's good, but calling it the highlight when other arcs like Zabuza, Tsunade or Pain had more cohesive stories/mood/developments is a bit too much

Also this

>Naruto would have seriously benefited from just a handful of other basic missions like the bridge builder one.
That's what animu filler was for. I'm halfway through rereading the manga (I just up and quit around the start of the ninja war when I followed it originally) and I don't really see the series turning to shit until Sasuke becomes the secondary protagonist as opposed to the rival. It's minimally annoying but tolerable in the beginning but around the time Hebi is formed it's just painful

imo, manga is really cool up to the end of the Zabuza arc, then it starts to get a little less cool but its still not bad, and then it just gets so boring/stupid when Saucey is running away to be a bad guy and everyone is chasing after him that I can never bring myself to keep reading.

I've tried re-reading Naruto maybe 2-3 times just for nostalgia's sake since I liked it so much when I was a kid, and I always drop it when Sasuke decides to run away to be a bad guy, it just gets so fucking shitty

>I always drop it when Sasuke decides to run away to be a bad guy, it just gets so fucking shitty
yes
it gets better after that but then gets even shittier, read Shippuden until the end of the Pain arc and pretend it's the ending

>manga is really cool up to the end of the Zabuza arc
Like the part where Naruto gets diarrhea from drinking spoiled milk? Or the part where Sakura has her oh-so-quirky inner monologues? The series definitely turns to shit but I don't hold see how you could hold the Zabusa arc in such a high regard. Half of Team 7 is fucking awful, all the other teams are brimming with personality and I enjoy those arcs a lot more

Just started reading One Piece for the first time and it seems to have done a great job of not falling into this trap

How long does the fun adventure last before it just turns into power level bullshit fights where there is a new "strongest person ever in the universe for real this time" showing up once a week?

OP remains true to itself reasonably well.
The recent arcs a bit of mixed bag, but at that point you're already so far in that there is no longer a way out.

>How long does the fun adventure last before it just turns into power level bullshit fights where there is a new "strongest person ever in the universe for real this time" showing up once a week?
850+ chapters and that hasn't been too much of a problem. The boss man during the last arc was annoyingly "shonen" but in general the power levels have escalated properly IMO

OP is comedy so it doenst really matter

>OP is comedy so it doenst really matter
OP is everything

One Piece is really the only successor to classic Dragon Ball with its mixture of humor and adventure and with its development spread evenly throughout the cast.

>pain

Literally the DBZ arc OP was referring to. Shippuden was garbage.

>tsunade
Not enough in the way of interesting and likable character compared to the Chunin Exam which had Rock Lee, Gaara, Hinata, Neji, Shikamaru, Chouji, and the rest of the 12. Just very little in the way of world building in general;I came out of that arc knowing very little more about the Narutoverse than I did going in. Naruto should have had more of what the Chunin Exam gave us with a focus on array of clans and factions.

Dragonball almost got cancelled during its two adventure arcs (Pillaf, early Red Ribbon).

>Literally the DBZ arc OP was referring to. Shippuden was garbage.
Going "Shippuden is garbage but Naruto 1 is okay/good/great" just shows you lack nuance. Naruto 1 has garbage arcs and good arcs just as much as Shippuden.
Muh dbz isn't valid criticism too, you could easily say that for any other arc. Chunin tournament is muh dbz tournament. Sasuke retrieval is muh dbz fights (actually, it's true for this one, how hilarious it is that the good guy are 5 and the bad guys too just so everyone could have their own fight?).

Chunin arc had glaring inconsistencies (why the fuck was Jiraya doing ... stuff rather than protecting the third? Why are there so few new Chunins when they're actually all shitty?)

>Not enough in the way of interesting and likable character compared to the Chunin Exam which had Rock Lee, Gaara, Hinata, Neji, Shikamaru, Chouji, and the rest of the 12.
Only Shikamaru, Rock Lee, Gaara and if you really want to, Neji/Hinata, had time to be likeable. Didn't care for the other cunts.
Naruto and Jiraya going on a travel and doing stuff was a nice change and fit perfectly the mood after the end of the Chunin Exam.

Pain arc was great too, the rain village part had actually emotional flashbacks and death rather than gay friendship rehashes and the village invasion was the biggest HAPPENING (even though it was cheapened by the mass revival, it would've fit for an ending and it was the biggest character growth for Naruto)

All of One Piece is adventuring. It gets a little bit repetitive since most arcs follow the same formula but it's pretty fun.

Rain village would have been interestingif it had been anything other than just a flashback. I would have preferred for Naruto and Jiraiya to have gone there instead of to whatever non-memorable place they went to during the Tsunade Arc. But what ultimately got play wasn't the setting but the power levels. Naruto peaked early; almost all of its interesting world building, its redeeming feature since it sure as hell wasn't the writing quality, happened during the first two arcs.

All of that focus on power level advancement that should have happened during the timeskip. Naruto should have come back from his training with Jiraiya with the martial arts finesse and proficiency he had in The Last. Instead we got bigger rasengans.

>Didn't care for the other cunts
Jiraiya and Orochimaru? Those two were introduced during the Chunin Exam and the later doesn't get a scene equaling the Forest of Death in Tsunade.

>Pain arc was great too, the rain village part had actually emotional flashbacks and death rather than gay friendship rehashes

So did the Chunin Exam on top of giving us a glimpse of the politics between the multiple villages. Shippuden's the one that focused on the "gay friendship" rubbish; there should have been a focus on something larger and the Chunin Exam was a microcosm of warfare.

>Chunin tournament is muh dbz tournament
Classic Dragon Ball was the one with all of the tournaments.

>Why are there so few new Chunins when they're actually all shitty?

Chunin Exam was before the jobber hammer really hit. Guys like Ibiki were treated as serious ninja, and his speech made the jobs appear similarly so, disregarding the fact that in Part 2 he likely would have been a joke, which was part of the problem with Part 2.

>Rain village would have been interestingif it had been anything other than just a flashback
But there's more than that. Jiraiya goes actual ninja sneaking around and learning stuff for once, trying to figure out the mystery. The fight with Pain is easily top 5 and the Sage Mode reveal was one of the most interesting.

>I would have preferred for Naruto and Jiraiya to have gone there instead of to whatever non-memorable place they went to during the Tsunade Arc.
Wouldn't have fit the mood. I like it more the way it is, training with some comfiness added and more day-to-day moments.

>interesting world building
Nah it was pretty garbage. Well, it was entertaining for a while because modern ninjas and stuff but nothing made sense. The pic you post raises so many inconsistencies that it hurts. Nothing about Chunin Exams or village politics and management makes sense.

>Classic Dragon Ball was the one with all of the tournaments.
They weren't serious though. DBZ is the one with the interrupted tournament.

>Naruto should have come back from his training with Jiraiya with the martial arts finesse and proficiency he had in The Last. Instead we got bigger rasengans.
True. Maybe not with The Last proficiency but he should have come back with FRS and wind stuff. Skip the shitty Sasuke retrieval arc (which is essentially "LOL GO TRAIN NURUTU") and have him be competent.

Other than that, Shippuden pre-war is not really behind part 1. Gaara kidnapping set the tone well, Kakuzu/Hidan was great, Pain too, things started being shit at the Kage council when Danzo got shafted

>True. Maybe not with The Last proficiency but he should have come back with FRS and wind stuff

I'm not referring to the Last's power levels with giant chakra monsters on the moon; again, that was a major problem with Shippuden. I'm referring to the actual martial arts, as well as Naruto's general competency level.

>Jiraiya goes actual ninja sneaking around and learning stuff for once, trying to figure out the mystery
That part was nice. Sage Mode though is one of the weaker "Super Saiyan" transformations I've come across. It's like Kishimoto realized that he hadn't made Naruto strong enough and scrambled to do so right before his fight with Pain.

>training with some comfiness added and more day-to-day moments

Could have given that to us with some actual mythos and a setting that was visually interesting. Rain Village would have provided both while ultimately making the Pain Arc better as well; actual build-up. Maybe even hint at Danzo's involvement early on.

>The pic you post raises so many inconsistencies that it hurts

Such as?

>DBZ is the one with the interrupted tournament

Dragon Ball was the one with a villains former student entering the tournament to kill Goku, followed by the death of Krillin.

>Kakuza/Hidan was great
Kakuza/Hidan were almost as loosely developed as the Sound Four. They were fights. Gaara kidnapping wasn't so bad, but it really only had Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi. Why was there so little in the way of developmental focus on the siblings of the guy who died?

...

Dragonball was GOAT
Chapter 195 was a mistake.

>that was a major problem with Shippuden. I'm referring to the actual martial arts, as well as Naruto's general competency level.
That was a problem in part 1 too, Naruto was essentially a boxer and just went around punching people. He actually shows more Taijutsu proficiency in Shippuden, like when he caught that sword.

>Sage Mode though is one of the weaker "Super Saiyan" transformations I've come across. It's like Kishimoto realized that he hadn't made Naruto strong enough and scrambled to do so right before his fight with Pain.
It's an absurd power-up from "meh kinda Kakashi-tier but not really" to Kage+, but that's really because Kishimoto fucked up by making Naruto come back the same 3 years later.

>Could have given that to us with some actual mythos and a setting that was visually interesting
Again, it wouldn't fit. Rain village was supposed to be threatening, cold, lifeless, a city-wide religious cult where everyone wanted your blood and you couldn't hide from the master. The travel is the total opposite. Rain village is a good location but a horrible choice for this arc.

>Such as?
Hokage telling 12 years old kids about his political calculations for some reason, the political stuff itself (literally "go in an enemy village to show them the military weapons you have in you and huh maybe the few hundreds of people there will feel like you're strong and the village deserves clients and place contracts there or some shit?").

>Dragon Ball was the one with a villains former student entering the tournament to kill Goku, followed by the death of Krillin
That was after the tournament.

>Kakuza/Hidan were almost as loosely developed as the Sound Four
Just like nobody from the 12 was developped at all outside of Neji. Kakuzu and Hidan were threatening antagonists and started enough shit so that you'd care about them getting their comeuppance. Plus the arc is more about Shikamaru.

>That was a problem in part 1 too

It was acceptable in Part I because Naruto was still a rookie and a few months away from being dead last. But after spending three years training with one of the greatest ninja in the world? I'd expect more.

>Rain village was supposed to be threatening, cold, lifeless, a city-wide religious cult where everyone wanted your blood and you couldn't hide from the master

That's what would have made interesting; keep the element of danger that the Zabuza arc brought to the table, while having more going on than just the stuff with Tsunade. At the same time you could still have chill moments with Naruto and Jiraiya training in the wilderness.

>Hokage telling 12 years old kids about his political calculations for some reason

He was essentially telling them to take things seriously which was the same message Ibiki hammered in.

>That was after the tournament

The death of Krillin was after the tournament. The actual tournament involved Tien sadistically snapping Yamcha's leg.

>Just like nobody from the 12 was developped at all outside of Neji

Lee, Neji, Ino, Sakura, Hinata, and Gaara all received full blown flashbacks. Gaara became a completely different person as a result of his experience in the Chunin Exam.

One Piece is the same arc repeated for over 800 chapters.

Reach island, discover dark secret and people suffering. Crew separates they have individual fights, Luffy gets his ass kicked, Zoro gets lost and Sanji acts like a clown(the rest are irrelevant anyways), the strawhats except luffy beat their enemies, luffy asspulls a new transformation/power he never mentioned before but he has certainly trained because he says so in the same chapter before doing it, then punches the bad guy.
The arc ends with a party where they drink and eat meat


Repeat that for 20 years

>One Piece is the same arc repeated for over 800 chapters.
F-fuck, is it actually worth sticking with or does it just get super repetitive and annoying eventually?
I love the adventure parts of these kinds of stories, but if it drags on too long and the story doesn't go anywhere I end up getting burned out

Just keep reading if you are enjoying it. I would definitely say it is worth it. The manga manages to stay interesting and varied despite what said. Without going to far into spoilers. A large chunk of the middle of the series is actually dedicated doing the exact opposite of what he was talking about.

Just out of curiosity, how far are you into the series?