Congratulations to One Piece on their 700th episode:

Today featured One Piece episode 805, so why is today important?  Because when you take out the filler, it's actually episode 700.  700 eps of canon content, the first great series to ever reach this vaunted benchmark in length.

It's because One Piece is so crazily long that it manages to secure its 3rd place ranking.  This length isn't ending any time soon, either.  Expect One Piece 800 or even 1,000 to roll along eventually.

Pretty Cure will soon reach episode 700 itself, but Pretty Cure is not a continuous story.  It resets every year or two with a whole new cast, plot and setting.  One Piece, by virtue of its epic single continuity, surpasses Pretty Cure.

The Whole Cake Island arc is better than the previous Zou arc.  I feared the worst when this arc began but it actually turned out pretty well in the end.  Oda still has it.  I look forward to the day this story starts resolving issues instead of introducing more complications for the cast, but that could still be ten years away so I'm not going to get my hopes up.

One Piece will double in quality if it ever actually reaches its ending.  Because my rankings are prophetic, that 'double bonus' is already embedded in its current 3rd place status.  But actually getting to see the ending will be a delectable treat, it's one of the reasons I look forward to the rest of my life.

A more interesting question is how much better will One Piece get between now and the ending?  Will the fight with Kaidoh be interesting?  What about Blackbeard?  The Marines?  The revolutionary army?  Most of the Shichibukai are friends with Luffy now, but Kuma is supposedly a soulless agent of the Marines now and absurdly strong.  How will they deal with him?  Or the new guy Edward Weevil, when will he show up?  What about the new admiral, Ryokugyo?

Putting aside all the battle aspects of the manga, will something interesting happen in terms of character development for the crew?  We still don't know Zoro's past before he joined the dojo.  Is that ever going to be explored?  Will Usopp finally stop being a coward?  Will Sanji find a woman who appreciates him?  Will he find All Blue?  Will Nico Robin ever learn the dark history and read the Rio Poneglyph?  Will Nami ever make her map of the sea?  Will Luffy become the Pirate King?

What is the secret behind Crocodile's past?

700 episodes and there's still more questions than answers. . .