Wano Country is the most important arc in One Piece so far, with Oda slowly having built up to it for years. With the goal of taking down the Yonko Kaido and liberating Wano Country in the process, the Straw Hat Pirates allied with the Heart Pirates, the Samurai and Ninja of Wano, along with the Minks of Zou. Luffy formed an alliance with Trafalgar Law on Punk Hazard after the two-year timeskip and with time, Oda slowly moved towards Wano Country. Eventually, One Piece finally began the Wano Country arc in 2018 and nearly four years later, the arc is still ongoing.
Before the Wano Country arc, Dressrosa held the record for the most number of chapters in any One Piece arc at 102. So far, the Wano Country arc already consists of 138 chapters, however, it is far from done, and by the looks of it, the arc will certainly cross the 150-chapter mark. While most fans of One Piece have thoroughly enjoyed Wano, the question remains, is Wano unnecessarily wrong?
The Factors Affecting Wano's Length
One Piece's Wano Country arc is special in more ways than one. For one, Eiichiro Oda planned this arc before the timeskip even happened. In Thriller Bark, fans got to meet Ryuma, a Samurai from Wano Country. The famed blade Shusui was also introduced to the fans and the terror of Kaido in the New World was set up by Oda through Gecko Moria. Without a doubt, Oda planned for his arc meticulously and over a decade before it even began. As such, the intricacies of the Wano Country arc hold great value in the overall plot of the story.
But that's certainly not all. Wano's structure also plays a massive role in why the arc is as long as it is. Often, narratives in storytelling are known to follow the 3 Act structure, where the first act slowly builds up to conflict and serves as a set-up, the second act tackles the main conflict of the story and the third act covers the resolution. With the Wano Country arc, Oda seems to have shaken things up a bit and lean more towards the traditional Japanese Kabuki plays which have three parts – Jo-Ha-Kyu. Generally, a Kabuki play has a 5 act structure and while Oda doesn't seem like he's necessarily going to introduce 5 acts in Wano, the structure certainly was influenced a lot by this.
Wano itself is divided into acts and with each act, the fans get closer to the resolution of the arc. In Act 1, Oda illustrated the plight of the Land of Wano, introduced fans to the wonderful world-building as he always does, and set up a massive conflict at the end where Luffy fought Kaido. This paved way for Act 2, where the main conflict of the Wano Country arc was focused on, and Luffy trained to fight Kaido again. At the same time, the plan of the Onigashima Raid went through quite a few ups and downs while Kaido allied with Big Mom, setting up the biggest conflict in the entire series itself.
As expected, Act 3, focuses on the resolution of the arc where the alliance executes their plan to take Kaido down and, finally, free the land of Wano. While none of this is too surprising to the fans, it must be noted that Wano is essentially a 5 act story concentrated into 3 acts, which certainly adds to its length. Looking at the way Oda set up the conflict and eventually the resolution of the arc, it can't be denied that the Wano Country arc has been set up masterfully well, and the stage is set for the arc to finally conclude.
Is Wano's Length Necessary?
In Oda's own words, the Wano Country arc is extremely important to the overall story and is deeply tied to the final chapter of the story. Given how the arc is Luffy's first step towards becoming a legendary pirate and taking down a Yonko, it's not surprising to see him and even his crew struggling a lot more in the war. For any storyteller, the progression of the character has to make sense in order for the story to flow perfectly and Oda did exactly that in the arc. Tied to that is the fact that the legend of Kozuki Oden and Gol D. Roger itself is deeply rooted in the arc, as is the legend of Joy Boy from the Void Century, which just goes to show how important the arc is in the grand scheme of things.
With Wano, Oda is finally delivering everything that he so carefully crafted for decades and he certainly isn't going to shy away from it now. The fact remains that the Wano Country arc is widely considered to be the greatest arc in the story by many fans already, despite not having reached its end yet. Wano's length is extremely important in the overall story as it tackles the biggest and the most important parts of One Piece that Oda wants to draw with full attention and care.
While certain sections of the arc, such as the long wait until Luffy reached the rooftop could've been shortened, Oda is a man who loves his details and so it isn't a surprise to see him slow down for a while as the plot builds towards its peak. The Wano Country arc remains to be one of Oda's most incredibly written arcs and with so much lore still to be tackled and events to be covered, it wouldn't be surprising to see the arc be widely considered the best in the entire series. To ensure that, Oda had to take all the necessary steps to make the arc flow as well as possible, even if that made the arc a bit too long in some eyes.