It's been many years since I watched any kind of anime. I watched a bit of Naruto and Bleach when I was around 15 years old and then around 200 episodes of One Piece while I was in the army at the age of 19. Earlier this year I watched a bit of Castlevania on Netflix as well as the 10 episodes of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners that they released.
Now, for no apparent reason I am completely consumed by One Piece to the point where I can barely stop watching it. I spontaneously started watching it after reading this post by 
The things that kept me coming back to watch One Piece in the early arcs was definitely the humor and the characters. This show can be damn funny at times. All of the characters are written in such a way that they compliment each other really well. The over the top exaggerated facial expressions they sometimes put on the characters all add to this.
Now that I'm deeper into the show I am completely consumed by the story. There are some huge plot points that are slowly unraveling over time that I just need to know how end. There's also a lot of exciting lore about the world that they slowly drip feed you over time. I love all of this.
Seasons and arcs
Even though One Piece numbers an impressive 1000+ episodes it is still split into seasons which again are split into arcs. A season can be 100+ episodes long at times split into several smaller arcs.
I'm currently working my way through what I've chosen to call the Thriller Bark Arc. I have no idea if the arcs have official names or what they might be. This is a horror themed arc that seems to lend a lot of inspiration from both classic and modern horror like Dracula, Frankenstein and A Nightmare Before Christmas. There's some solid and interesting characters being introduced in this arc and the comedy they all bring to the table is simply S-tier.
There's a ton of arcs before this and all of them are memorable in their own way. Some bring new crew members to the Straw Hat crew while some delve into the tragic backstories they have. Some are obvious filler arcs that don't really drive the story forward in any way. These are still very enjoyable to watch in my opinion. I see a lot of people recommending to skip these arcs but I have to say that I disagree. What I would personally call the Davy Back Fight arc is one of those that I personally would NOT recommend skipping. There's a lot of comedy gold in this one.
To help me get through all of this I got myself a subscription to the Crunchyroll service. It seems to be your one stop for all things anime. With this it makes it easy for me to watch One Piece on my computer, Apple TV and iPhone. I could probably have pirated the entire thing if I wanted to but it would bring me little joy to not be able to quickly pick up a device and watch this whenever I want. The Crunchyroll app for iPhone also allows me to download episode to view them offline which is perfect for flights. I've gotten through quite a few episodes on the flights I've taken these past months.
I've also bookmarked a few other animes that I'm going to watch when the time is right. NieR: Automata, JUJUTSU KAISEN, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Attack on Titen and Berserk are currently sitting in my watchlist. If there's any other animes that you recommend I watch then feel free to recommend them to me in the comments. I wouldn't mind adding a few more to the list.
All images in this post are courtesy of Funimation and other related companies who own the rights to the One Piece anime.