One Piece Story Arcs With Barely Any Fighting

One Piece is a battle shonen series, so it only makes sense that most story arcs feature a ton of intense and exciting battles for fans to enjoy. However, this is a series also known for its incredibly deep and rich story and cast, meaning there are more than a few sections of the story entirely dedicated to providing new nuggets of lore and focusing on character development, while the fights take a bit of a backseat.

These sorts of story arcs provide a nice breath of fresh air after a consistent string of action-packed story segments, which ultimately makes them a lot of fun to return to for re-reads since they are also usually pretty short in length. These arcs tend to be where some of the juiciest tidbits of information about the wonderful world of One Piece are revealed, or on other occasions, they simply showcase the Straw Hats being able to relax a little before setting off for the next island in their grand adventure.

1

Drum Island Arc

This Early Arc Spends Time Introducing Everyone’s Favorite Humanoid Reindeer To The Crew

Because of how short Drum Island is, it means the arc can’t waste any time with filler fights and non-stop action. Instead, this early portion of the story hones in on Tony Tony Chopper, a reindeer whose heartbreaking backstory of being an outcast of his kind is explored in great depth throughout the story arc.

Drum Island would also be where the Revolutionary Army is mentioned for the first time, alongside being the first time a Zoan Devil Fruit is revealed in the story. While there is a big scuffle with the tyrannical Wapol near the end, much of Drum Island is dedicated to fleshing out the characters and giving fans a good idea of what this quirky newcomer to the Straw Hat crew is all about.

2

Reverse Mountain

Laboon Proves To Be A Pretty Friendly Creature Who Isn’t Looking For Any Fights

The Straw Hats would have anticipated that they would run into at least a few hurdles along their adventure, but it’s unlikely they thought one of their biggest obstacles would be a giant whale. This scar-covered creature turns out to be a gentle giant called Laboon, whose heartbreaking backstory is referenced again much later on in Thriller Bark.

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Laboon isn’t alone on the island though, as the crew also runs into Crocus, who gives Luffy a few bits of advice about surviving the harsh open seas during his adventure. He was also the one to gift Nami the Log Pose, which has been one of the crew’s most useful tools for moving between islands.

3

Long Ring Long Island

A Casual De-Stresser For The Straw Hats After An Intense Few Arcs

The Long Ring Long Island arc acts as a small break for the Straw Hats after the chaos of the Alabasta and Skypiea arcs. Upon running into Foxy, the crew is forced into a Davy Back Fight, a bizarre game where everyone involved takes part in all kinds of challenges and minigames to see who gets to keep their crewmates, and who will be forced to give one of them up.

Outside of Luffy’s bust-up with Foxy at the end, which is honestly barely a fight because of how one-sided it is, alongside the Aokiji cameo, the arc is largely devoid of fights. Instead, Long Ring Long Island is more of a lighthearted and carefree section of the story where the stakes never feel too high.

4

Amazon Lily Arc

Hancock Would Never Want To Harm Luffy, Let Alone Fight Him

After Luffy washes up on Amazon Lily after losing his entire crew in Sabaody, he’s given a pretty rude awakening when he’s suddenly thrown into an arena and forced to duke it out against the Snake Sisters. However, after he successfully proves his worth to Boa Hancock, who eventually falls helplessly in love with him, the rest of the arc is dedicated to exploring Hancock’s backstory, and laying out the path to the Marineford War.

What makes this arc such an intriguing watch or read is how Luffy manages to sit down and have casual conversations with a Shichibukai, one of the most feared pirates in the world of One Piece. Though Hancock may be presented as the villain of the arc initially, it quickly turns out that she’s a fairly tragic figure with, somewhat, of a good heart, so it was nice to see the arc leave the fights to the side to showcase these emotional moments.

5

Return To Sabaody

The First Post-Timeskip Arc Focuses On The Grand Reunion Between The Straw Hats

Return to Sabaody isn’t an arc known for its epic battles or intense fights. Instead, it’s simply a big heartfelt reunion for the Straw Hats after being separated for two whole years. The arc follows each crew member hopping back onto the island one by one, giving them all a chance to show how much they’ve changed. Then again, old habits die hard, as Zoro gets lost pretty much as soon as he departs his ship with Perona.

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Alongside the original Straw Hats are also the fake Straw Hats, who have been going around posing as the famous crew to gain some notoriety. While they do eventually get humiliated in a battle near the end, the main purpose of this arc is simply to show what these iconic characters have been up to all this time.

6

Zou

Zou Is A Story Arc Packed Full Of Intriguing Lore And Story Revelations

Outside of the flashback which showcases Jack’s relentless rampage across the land of Zou, this arc doesn’t contain any notable fights, but that’s certainly not a bad thing. Coming off the back of the long and action-heavy Dressrosa arc, Zou felt like a nice opportunity to get back into some good old-fashioned world-building, and it’s fair to say this arc has more than its share of lore dumps.

Not only do the Minks announce their alliance with the samurai to set the stage for the Wano invasion, but the Straw Hats also uncover a new Poneglyph, and Sanji begins to reveal his ties to the Vinsmoke family. Needless to say, there’s a ton to dig into here, and at less than 30 episodes in length, it makes for a very worthwhile re-watch.

7

Reverie Arc

A Passive Bit Of Political Downtime Before The Epic Wano Saga

Before the Straw Hats manage to finally arrive in Wano on their mission to take down Kaido, the story suddenly shifts to the Reverie, a meeting between all the of the world’s leaders and most prestigious individuals. However, what seemed like a fairly normal situation eventually turns much more sinister once Imu enters the scene, a character whose very existence has sparked a plethora of theories.

Considering the staggering number of fights that would be packed into the Wano arc that comes after, it was a welcome breather to enjoy a more low-key arc that still contains plenty of intrigue thanks to the revelations and underlying tension that is fueled by the mystery of Imu.

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One Piece

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Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

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Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Writers

Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

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• 

  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

• 

  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)

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