Asking about the one piece anime is a good litmus test for potential friends. If they hate it, they have decent taste. If they like it, they’ll probably accept my extended, meandering tangents.
I used to read shonen jump when I was a child and I remember reading the debut of the English translation when it came out. I fell off anime and didn't start watching it again until a few years ago.
My mind was fucking blown that they were still making new episodes. It wasn't even a spin off, it's the same show.
Eta: when I say "child" I meant I was 8 or 9. I turned 30 last month.
The pacing is completely fucked most of the time, production quality varies over time (mostly because it's spanning a decade now) and I wouldn't recommend the show over the manga (which has none of these issues) aside from some key highlights, but I don't think I'll ever understand the disproportionate hate for the actual story of One Piece. Of the popular, long-running shonen series it has an original setting, a ton of world building and a romantic atmosphere. It's not for everyone, but it does take an edgy contrarian to act like it's dogshit with no redeeming qualities.
One summer in college I watched the first 500 episodes in an extreme binge session. Probably 18 hour days of nothing but one piece day after day. Then I ran out of episodes. I keep thinking I'll watch the rest someday, but I struggle up even remember most of what I watched back then. And now watching 1000 episodes feels like an impossible challenge
Just keep going from where you stopped. You might remember a few things you forgot and even if you don't it's fine. I've been reading the manga weekly for a decade and I've forgot a lot over time but it didn't make it any less enjoyable.
All they do for 99% of each episode is talk about how they gonna defeat this enemy who is standing on the other side of the screen staring menencly at the protagonists
Just a heads up I think you mean "social cues". A cue is an indicator. A queue is a line waiting for something.
Unless the main character has issues with queueing, I guess. I dunno, I've never watched One Piece specifically because of the bonkers number of episodes.