One Piece stands as one of the most influential anime in history, captivating fans for 26 years with its expansive storytelling and world-building. As such, many fans consider it the greatest anime of all time. Unfortunately, Toei Animation’s adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s magnus opus is far from reaching that stage.
As anime fans must know, while One Piece’s production quality has improved recently, it faced several problems over the years. Although the studio decided to push through these problems previously, with the story inching closer to its conclusion, Toei Animation has now decided to prioritize quality over quantity.
Hence, One Piece anime will be switching to a seasonal release format starting next year. Unfortunately, this was too late, as Toei Animation’s mismanagement made it so that One Piece can never be the greatest anime of all time.
One Piece Anime is Just the Worse Version of the Manga
The One Piece anime is great in so many ways. However, it is difficult to deny that the anime is mostly just a worse version of the manga. Notably, the show has very poor pacing and is riddled with filler content that doesn’t add much, and ruins the audience’s viewing experience.
Unbeknownst to many anime fans, while most animation studios adapt anywhere between three to four manga chapters for a single episode, many One Piece episodes notably adapted only a chapter each despite releasing canon-only content.
While a good deal of anime go through such issues when airing its episodes in a long-running release format, the problems with One Piece were so persistent that there is a dedicated fan project called “One Pace” that edits the show’s episodes, removing all unnecessary filler and pacing issues.
Not to mention, animation quality hasn’t been the strongest suit for One Piece for the longest time. While the show’s production quality has been exceptional recently, especially during the Wano Country Saga and Egghead Island Arc, the same cannot be said for the story arcs that came before.
One Piece Remasters Will Not Help the Anime Become the Greatest
There are several periods during One Piece’s production during which the show went through poor spells of animation. These spells are especially evident during the Fish-Man Island Arc and Dressrosa Arc. Although Toei Animation has already released a remastered version of the Fish-Man Island Arc, fans are still looking forward to any details about a remaster for the Dressrosa Arc.
The fact that fans are willing to rewatch an entire story arc despite already watching it once before speaks volumes about the anime’s poor production quality in the past. In contrast, One Piece anime has now gone through a massive overhaul. The animators are now not only able to honor the source material but also enhance it with their bold artistic and directory choices.
As such, there is no way that Toei Animation’s One Piece anime can ever become the greatest anime of all time. While the animation studio can still release a remastered version of the story arcs that had production problems, it still wouldn’t heal the damage that has been done as several fans switched to the manga, while others altogether dropped the series.
WIT Studio’s The One Piece Could Become the Greatest Anime of All Time
Although there is no way Toei Animation’s One Piece anime could become the greatest anime of all time, it does not mean the franchise can never achieve that status. If one were to ignore the production problems of One Piece, its story is arguably one of the best, at least when it comes to shōnen. Therefore, as long as there is a version of One Piece anime that has been produced well from start to finish, there should be no reason why it cannot be touted as the greatest anime of all time.
Fortunately, WIT Studio has already announced a full remake of the franchise, called “The One Piece.” First announced in December 2023, during Jump Festa 2024, The One Piece will be a complete remake of One Piece anime from the beginning. While the anime has yet to release any teaser, it has released some stills, indicating what the anime might look like.
From the looks of it, WIT Studio is set to completely reimagine One Piece in the best way possible. This is not just because they have ample content to animate over the years, but also because they aren’t the first ones doing it. Toei Animation has already animated the show, so all WIT Studio needs to do is to observe what the animation studio did right and wrong over the years and choose wisely to produce the best possible adaptation for the franchise.
This is why One Piece’s remake actually has a chance of being a legit contender to rank among the greatest anime series. The only problem is that the animation studio has yet to unveil a release window for the same.
- Release Date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- Directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
