One Piece: How Toei Animation Ruined The Greatest Shonen Anime Of All Time

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This post contains spoilers for One Piece.

Many fans and critics consider Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece to be the best shonen manga ever created. It’s incredibly popular and also holds the record for the best-selling manga series of all time, with over 500 million copies sold – a milestone no other manga has reached.

The One Piece manga is fantastic, but the anime has been more inconsistent. Recent story arcs have been great, though it hasn’t always been that way. Some fans even believe Toei Animation significantly damaged the anime adaptation.

The One Piece Anime Has Horrible Pacing

  • The One Piece anime has abysmal pacing
  • Toei Animation has been responsible for the failure

One Piece has been running as an anime since 1999, and now has over 1100 episodes – a huge amount! This can be intimidating for new viewers, especially since most anime seasons today only have around 20 to 30 episodes.

Why does One Piece have over 1100 episodes? The main reason is that Toei Animation chose a very slow and drawn-out approach to adapting the story. The pacing was good at first, but around the Loguetown arc in the East Blue Saga, things changed. Some episodes only covered about 10 pages of the manga, making them painfully slow to watch.

The One Piece Anime’s Quality Went Down With Time

Over time, One Piece began to disappoint even its most dedicated fans. This was partly due to increasingly lengthy story arcs. For example, the Dressrosa arc spanned 102 chapters in the manga, but the anime adaptation stretched it to 118 episodes. Similarly, the Whole Cake Island arc, which had 78 chapters, took Toei Animation 95 episodes to complete.

Even the Wano arc, often praised by fans as one of the best, suffers from the same problem: it’s significantly longer in the anime than in the manga. The Wano arc took 149 chapters in the manga, but 191 episodes in the anime to finish. The current arc, Egghead, has already spanned 68 manga chapters, which have been adapted into 70 anime episodes. This shows that Toei Animation is currently adapting roughly one manga chapter per anime episode.

New-Generation Anime Have Mastered The Art

While decent, this anime doesn’t quite reach the quality of some recent, highly-regarded releases. Shows like Solo Leveling successfully adapted a large number of chapters – 110 in just 25 episodes – keeping the story moving at a great pace and captivating fans. Gachiakuta is another strong example; its first season covered 87 chapters in 24 episodes, earning widespread praise and positive reactions from viewers online. These adaptations demonstrate how to maintain an engaging rhythm and avoid feeling drawn out.

Toei Animation’s slow pacing is hurting the One Piece anime. While the story itself is fantastic and the fight scenes are great – which is why fans are still watching – things aren’t likely to improve. It’s been confirmed the anime will continue adapting only one chapter of the manga per episode, and this will likely be the case for the upcoming Elbaf arc as well.

The One Piece Remake Needs To Happen Soon

It was recently announced that Wit Studio, known for anime such as Spy x Family, Vinland Saga, and Attack on Titan, will be creating a remake of One Piece. While some fans wonder if a remake is needed, many agree that One Piece would benefit from a fresh adaptation.

George Wada, president of Wit Studio, explained that the One Piece remake is happening for two main reasons. First, the original anime’s older 4:3 aspect ratio feels dated by today’s standards. While common in the 90s, it no longer offers the best viewing experience. Second, the studio wants to address the show’s often rushed and uneven pacing. By updating the visual format and improving the flow of the story, Wit Studio hopes to make the One Piece anime more enjoyable for a wider audience.

I’ve been following the progress of this project, and it seems like we’re still a ways off from seeing it released. The studio, Wit, hasn’t announced a date yet, which makes me think they’re still deep in production – they might be juggling a lot of other work at the moment. The good news is they’ve shown off some new character designs, including updated looks for the Straw Hats and characters from various islands. I’m hoping we’ll get a more concrete update during the next One Piece Day celebration.

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2025-12-30 17:34