East Blue is the weakest of the four seas. You are only 100 episodes in, in an adventure thats almost 700 episodes long now. You are watching episodes from years ago.

The anime isnt the best anime ive ever seen either, but One Piece is the best manga for me. The fact that im still reading it after more than 10 years says enough. The audience grew up with One Piece and most of its readers are adults.

One Piece is different in the aspect that Luffy goes out in the world with a clear goal. Hes not looking for meaning, or a place to call home, or parents, or whatnot. He trained to go out on the sea, become the Pirate King. The training sessions you are asking for will come shortly. And ofcourse the entire crew will have struggles in time.

The weird characters... Yeah, i have to agree with you there. They grow on you though!! I remember when i started One Piece i almost gave up when Buggy made his appearance. You are already passed the point of no return, you will finish the entire series and you will love it!

The pacing is different, and the pacing wont change. A lot of people think the pacing is terrible, but the anime makes it even worse. In the manga the pace doesnt seem to change, even though with the current arc a lot of people are complaining it drags out. I disagree wholeheartedly with that opinion.

What i like about One Piece is that Oda connects early chapters with new ones. We cant know for sure if he had it planned out, or is just a really good puzzler that can fill up holes in the story like a genius. Some information you already have, will come back hundreds of episodes later. I cant give examples unfortunately, because youre not up to date yet.

I watched Naruto too, ofcourse, but i have to say One Piece has a bigger place in my heart. I was an avid Naruto watcher, but One Piece just sticks with you, where Naruto's story slows down, One Pieces story only picks up pace.