By Xuanzhang “Steve” Zhu
“The One Piece” is real!
One Piece, a story about a group of pirates trying to find a treasure named the ‘One Piece’, is the best-selling manga of all time, going as far as to win a Guinness World Record as ‘The Comic Book Series with the Most Copies Published by a Single Author’. One Piece has proved itself again and again to be one of the most popular and influential pieces of fiction to exist in the modern era.
As a manga reader, I liked One Piece as much as the next guy, so even before I watched the anime adaptation of the series, with such strong source material, I knew it would be great (and it was). However, after experiencing the anime, I’ve realized that for the number of things that the show did correctly; there were an equal number of things done wrong. This has sparked many debates from fans online, some claiming that the show is mediocre at best and does not do the manga justice – and some arguing that the anime is exceptional, lauding the episodes and their emotional storytelling.
Now, from what I can tell, this is a pretty split issue. The anime definitely has had its ups and downs, but saying it is straight-up ‘bad’ might also oversimplify it, so what exactly led this group of fans to perceive One Piece as ‘bad’?
The production of the anime is led by Toei Animation, the same studio behind other major titles such as Slam Dunk, Sailor Moon, and even Dragon Ball. However, as you’re hearing these names, an astute observer might realize that most of these titles aren’t very recent. In fact, all of these titles were released around the 90’s, and One Piece is no exception. You have to understand that the animation scene in the 90’s was much different than it is now. Shows didn’t stop at 12 or 24 episodes and can instead go on for hundreds, or in One Piece’s case, more than a thousand episodes.
The problem is, it might have been all right if every episode was crucial to the plot, but there are also quite a few filler episodes. These are episodes that divert off the path of the manga when the pace of the show goes too fast. These act as padding which disrupt the flow of the original plot, and it will have zero relevance to the overarching storyline, which to some will just seem like a huge waste of time.
That’s not the worst part. While filler episodes are indeed annoying, there are a variety of sources online to help. Sites like One Pace are run by a team of dedicated fans who edit the episodes and remove any filler every time a new episode is released. This has successfully battled the problem of filler for many, making it so that filler doesn’t cause a huge problem for anime watchers catching up from the future.
The actual most complained about part of the anime is the directing and pacing. The reason why the pacing is so unnatural is that the show has done everything it can to not catch up to the manga while still broadcasting new episodes every day. Some examples are dragged-out reaction scenes, repeated animations, and unnecessary monologues. Granted, it’s working, but it messes up the pacing and that can break the immersion and the overall experience for a lot of people.
As an anime that has a new episode coming out every week, the animators run on a constant time constraint. Even if it is from the experienced animators of Toei Animations, producing high-quality content under such a strict and demanding schedule is impossible, which means that the animation, to keep up, has to decrease in quality. To make deadlines meet, inconsistent frames and simplified visuals can be found as a result. In more important and meaningful fights, there is much more effort being put in, and that creates a strong contrast, and while inconsistency remains prevalent there is a trend of progression in terms of animation quality, with the only exception being the latest Wano Arc, which has been consistently high-quality.
Despite all this, many fans still love the anime and watch it loyally. The anime gave One Piece much more publicity than it would have gotten on its own, and there is a good reason for that. Looking past the weaknesses, this anime is still one of the best, with love and care put into recreating the scenes from the manga. The manga itself already had a great story, so to accompany it with colours, voice acting and music will bring the narrative to a whole new level. Despite all of the shortcomings, One Piece still ended up as one of the most popular animes of all time, being regarded as one of the ‘Big Three of Anime’.
One Piece is an example of an anime being done right and wrong at the same time. We know that the show is strong and does a good job in many areas, but it also has quite a lot of space for improvement. This begs the question: Is this how One Piece will be until the manga is finished? Will it never fix its flaws? I’m happy to announce that not all hope is lost for One Piece fans! On December 17th of 2023, the One Piece anime celebrated its 25th anniversary, and along with that came the announcement of a new anime adaption of One Piece by Wit Studio.
This announcement is amazing, because not only does that mean One Piece will get a new chance to refresh its storytelling and visual approaches, but it is also being adapted by one of the best animation studios around: Wit Studio. Ever since its debut, Wit Studio has released nothing but classics, from Attack on Titan to Spy x Family to Ranking of Kings. If there’s one thing to know about Wit Studio – it’s that it never misses.
This adaptation is called “The One Piece” (Notice that there is a ‘The’ in the title, making it infinitely better), and I believe that this show will tilt the scales of anime. Wit Studio will undoubtedly improve the pacing and the animation, fix all of the problems that the previous anime faced, and prove to the world – once and for all – that One Piece is truly the greatest anime of all time.