I don’t know if either of these people watched the anime or not, I know that I watched it staring in about 2001 or 2002 and liked the show but a lot of my unrest was hype from my then partner and some other fiends being super into it. One Piece has a specific style like Dragon Ball or many similar “battle to be the best and attain the ultimate goal” anime- you can call it filler or not, but OP is full of drawn out fights and plot tangents etc. that isn’t a criticism, “level up” anime where there is always a bigger badder threat, a new skill or power level to attain, plot devices like “will they won’t they” drug out romances and goals, these are all common and they all have places and genres. That said, not everyone who doesn’t have glowing praise for OP or anything else hasn’t seen it. Some people just don’t like Shonen or “battle of the week” or endless ark TV.
In anime there are certain concepts like the common “3 episode” or “7 episode” type rules (that vary by person and show length etc..), but even if someone hasn’t seen an entire series or isn’t up to date, they can generally form an opinion on wether they like it without finishing it. That’s a bit like going to a nice restaurant and the first three courses aren’t to your liking and someone says you can’t have an opinion on the meal until you finish the desert. I don’t need to get to desert to realize I don’t want to eat this food. With Anime like OP or Dragon Ball that are almost endlessly long, I especially don’t think someone needs to “just give it another 200 hours and you’ll be glad…” while I personally have enjoyed series like this that don’t “pay off” or where the late game is excellent but the early game is choppy but you can’t get the full payout of the late game if you skip ahead-
I will say I get that isn’t for everyone. Some people either have limited time or limited attention and regardless of how good entering gets or how the next ark after is better etc, they don’t want to or can’t invest 10,50,200+ hours into getting through the parts they don’t like to get to the foodstuff.
We all like what we like. Other people not liking our own favorites doesn’t diminish them.
I don’t understand why you always feel the need to respond with 3 paragraphs. Here’s the short and simple. I don’t expect everyone will like it. It’s got a weird art style and is a slow burn, so it ain’t for everyone. But if you call it trash then I know you didn’t watch it. There’s a lot of garbage anime, if you’ve seen enough you can tell the difference, and one piece ain’t even close to the garbage tier. So if you’ve called it trash I know you haven’t watched it.
And one extra note, one piece has very limited filler, it’s biggest sin is bad pacing, so if you also say it’s full of filler, you also clearly haven’t watched it.
I wouldn’t call it garbage, I would agree that the pacing at times is off to my tastes, but what is garbage is relative to the beholder, and for some the distinction between poor pacing and filler could come down to poor word choice, but I do agree with you that filler isn’t the word I’d say best applies. That said, one persons character development is another persons filler etc. I would not by any means call the story “tight,” but that isn’t a criticism since people have their own tastes on pacing and story. I don’t generally support calling things other people like garbage, especially just because we don’t like them or understand their value. To some people all anime is “garbage,” but again, how much of something does someone need to see in order to form an opinion?
That itself is a conundrum. I’d generally agree that criticizing or critiquing something you haven’t watched is not a position of authority to speak and probably a bit foolish, but I will also say that while there are times I’ve expected something wouldn’t be good or even been repelled by it and then watched/tried/read it and loved it or thought it was decent- there is also a zone where people can tell from just a brief glimpse or a few details that something won’t suit them or such. So I mean- everyone is entitled to their opinions, and I by and large agree with you and even if I don’t keep up (mostly due to demands and priorities in my free time), I think it’s a good show. I can’t agree that someone saying those things by default hasn’t watched it, but I respect your right to use that as a metric for generalization.
We all like what we like. Other people not liking our own favorites doesn’t diminish them.