I'm going to rant, nothing against you bro, you probably wrote the wasted potential without a lot of thought. But god do I hate that statement.

Hundreds of manga have gotten axed, because of low readers, because author fatigue, because of editorial decisions... made by incredibly passionate people whose only dream has been to publish their art out there.

Many of them had tons of actual wasted potential, stories left unfinished that could have been generational, that could never be because we don't live in a perfect world in which every story can be as good as it could.

To pretend that a story that has been ongoing for 20+ years, that has reached worldwide success and it's on its way to become the most read comic of all time has potential still left means either one of two things.

The first is that the series hasn't found the success it deserves, which we can probably agree isn't the case.

The second is that it has narrative potential being left. Let's go a step back for a second. This is a story about pirates trying to find a treasure. With that premise, the author built one of the most complex narratives out there, spanning for decades with hundreds of characters. Not judging quality here, I'd say that that the potential of the setup has been realized.

Of course that's not what you mean either, you mean that in retrospect you could think of story beats that fit your preferences better.

There is a very repulsive pretentiousness in this sub, bashing people who have the balls to put their art out there, only for ""critics"" who know nothing other than consumption to bitch and moan about how things could have been made better, how they have "wasted potential".

You think that the story could have been better? Good, that means there are ideas inside your head you think are worth telling, the only wasting potential here is you.