The anime started to get comparatively better when Luffy and Sanji re-united after the fight with the Cracker General. That's when the 'plot' kicks in again, and so far, it's certainly been better. I think that the director and the screen-writer are able to pad things better when there's dialogues, but they really, really struggle during battle sequences. In the latest episode, the photo was broken, and Mama didn't go full insane, and I imagine there's gonna be a major battle with Katakuri now. They've been building up to it for a few episodes. Ironically, I'm not looking forward to it even though One Piece is a battle Shounen. I don't want to watch 25 episodes of it.