I’m caught up on the manga but I just got to Water 7 in the anime. I liked the arc in the manga but now I’m in love with it in the anime. It’s by far my favorite arc I’ve seen animated and I’m really excited to see what else hits different in motion. Thriller Bark is my favorite Manga arc but I’ve heard anime fans don’t like it.
What’s your favorite anime/manga arc and WHY?
Pre-Time Skip: Water 7/Enies Lobby - entirely for the full package of great story (crazy lows and highs!), worldbuilding, and character development.
Post: Whole Cake and Wano (*Wano would win for me if pacing at Onigashima didn’t detract so heavily.)
I’m all about having as many possible avenues of goodness as possible, so good in-arc characters, worldbuilding and lore, and story intrigue come first for me.
Next is uniqueness of presentation style. This is high in both WCI and Wano in particular. It’s the least important to me, but all else being equal (or better), the higher animation budgets and special soundtrack additions for both arcs definitely didn’t hurt.
Egghead has its own cute style (and colour palette) too but it’s mostly just like the manga and only the animation stands out for me, so not much to say there yet. Even for someone like me who hasn’t cared to pay close attention to animation quality in the past, I’m starting to feel spoiled by the attention to detail at a lot of key points, though.
(I would have liked to include Dressrosa as there’s much to love there, but its downsides are too strong for me.)
*edit: I thought you were only asking anime, lol. For manga, my fave is Egghead for now. Wild situation and insane stakes!