One Piece thread (Spoilers)

I'm pretty sure ALL of them are technically joining the crew

Pretty much. Without something resembling a fleet they won't be making it very far into the New World, and they definitely won't be fighting any of the Yonkou without one, simply because they will exhaust themselves fighting fodder long before they even get to the main ship.

Also, the latest episode of the anime probably had the animation budget of at least 10 normal episodes; much better drawing quality, huge increase in frames, much better lighting, etc.