In what’s probably the biggest announcement out of Jump Festa 2023, One Piece is getting an anime remake! Titled ‘The One Piece’ to differentiate itself, this series aims to retell the story from a manga-faithful lens. So, what does that mean, and what will Studio Wit bring to the table with their art direction?
This article contains light spoilers for One Piece, so catch up on Viz or Crunchyroll before reading further!
What is The One Piece Remake?
Announced at Jump Festa 2023, Studio Wit will, along with a team from Shueisha and Toei, oversee The One Piece. This remake will start from the beginning of the series, faithfully adapting the One Piece manga beat for beat. With better pacing, it’s going to become a definitive version of the series for many, especially seeing as the currently running series began nearly twenty-five years ago. It’s been a long time coming, and many fans are beyond excited to see what’s in store.
That said, as of right now it’s set to be a Netflix exclusive. That’s not a huge surprise considering just how well the One Piece live-action series did this past summer, making huge numbers for the streamer. Now, they have a chance to double dip with this anime adaptation, showing fans the manga-accurate events that inspired the first season of the adaptation. It’s a great way to allow newcomers to the series through live-action to get in on the anime without feeling overwhelmed.
Often, when anyone says they’re hesitant to jump into the series, it’s because of the massive length. It’s understandable too, with over a thousand episodes of some good, and some not-so-good pacing. Now, here we can cut the filler and see exactly what’s at the heart of the story with some cutting-edge animation.
Studio Wit
The driving force that’s going to be behind animating The One Piece remake, Studio Wit has a hell of a record. They’re responsible for the first three seasons of Attack on Titan, overseeing the story through the pre-time skip portion of that story. More recently they’ve been behind Spy x Family, which has been getting massive acclaim (for good reason). They also animated the first season of the critically acclaimed Viking anime Vinland Saga. It’s another must-watch in the current lineup, though MAPPA has taken over their duties now, picking it up from the same point as Attack on Titan.
They’re more than accomplished and come from a long history through Production IG, which ironically enough made the first One Piece anime ever. It was a proof of concept more than anything, with the story taking place very early with only Luffy, Nami, and Zoro in focus. This came out a whole year before the currently running anime, and though definitely a different take on the style and art holds up as a pretty damn good alternate story. The Gum-Gum Pistol effects were especially cool for the time. Hopefully, they bring some of that weighty combat to the new remake.
Story Arcs
So far as what’s been shown, The One Piece remake is only going to go through the East Blue saga of the series. In all reality, that could amount to a decent thirteen-episode season depending on the length of the episodes. In the original anime of East Blue, things were pretty damn padded out when it comes to the pacing. That’s typical of course for any weekly anime, but it definitely shows more in hindsight and doesn’t hold up nearly as well. Now, there’s a chance to play out all the whimsy and action of East Blue with updated animation and better pacing. Not to mention how turned around the early series is in regards to the manga narrative. It’s guilty of skipping around a ton in the early story.
Hopefully, the series will take this as a clue if things go well. They can even start it as a pattern between seasons of the live-action series. Easily showing the anime events that happened to keep new viewers in the loop. This way after season two of live-action comes out showing the Arabasta Saga, Netflix could feasibly release Studio Wit’s second season of the anime covering Arabasta as well. Plus it would just be nice to get fully updated animation for everything before the switch to HD.
More Faithful Adaptation
This is the biggest thing that’s going to set The One Piece apart- being more faithful. One Piece is surprisingly good about the actual filler arcs or storylines that get put in. Though mostly because the story lends itself to contained adventures pretty well. That said, the biggest issue is that One Piece eschews traditional filler most of the time. Instead it goes for awfully paced filler animation during major arcs. There will be billions of unnecessary flashbacks with nearly motionless scenes of one character staring ahead. It’s like old Dragon Ball Z cranked up to the max sometimes.
The East Blue Saga suffers from the issue of having to fill airtime without catching up to the manga. Even back when the anime started it was barely behind the manga. It shows because events got shuffled around for the sake of drawing out the story. Koby showing up before Shanks is pretty egregious now in hindsight, isn’t it? Then there are multiple episodes dedicated to Koby and Helmeppo’s training as well as Buggy’s misadventures after Orange Town. It’s canon material from the manga, but was only in one-page cover stories. Which have no business being spread across multiple episodes in the first place.
Will There Be More?
Please for the love of all that is good in this world, let there be more. Again, The One Piece can be everything that One Piece has dreamed of in the past few years. It’s not even the animator’s fault that the anime pacing has been awful. Especially seeing as Toei makes it a weekly episodic format out of greed. If this project with Studio Wit can take on an arc or saga at a time in the animation, giving each episode the time it deserves without being drawn out, it will do wonders for the accessibility of the series.
Later arcs desperately need it too. One of the most critical issues that manga readers are having with anime today is the pace. Lately the anime-only watchers are feeling it now too. Wano was a new exercise in patience as one chapter was stretched to five episodes at times. The One Piece could easily come in and correct these issues. They could turn this into the One Piece equivalent of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Or at least, that’s the dream. Plus it can have chances to go back and make some fixes that Oda has noticed in hindsight!
The Original Show’s Fate
For those who love the original show and want to keep watching as it continues, have no fear. It’s going to keep going with the weekly release schedule as it has for quite some time. Right now, the Egghead Island arc is about to begin, and the Straw Hats are going to have to fight some of their toughest enemies yet, even as the crew of an Emperor now. It’s going to be a brutal fight with an even more brutal history behind it, and this series isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
The most likely outcome is that the weekly anime continues on as it has for some time. Meanwhile, this new remake sticks to seasonal releases on Netflix, keeping a good pace and somewhat more relaxed release schedule. That will help improve a lot of the issues that we’ve seen in the latest episodes. Also hopefully give a fantastic representation of what One Piece is at all points in the story.
A One-Piece remake definitely wasn’t what fans were expecting going into Jump Festa this weekend, but damn it’s cool. Between the live-action being a hit, the anime hitting Gear Fifth, and the manga bringing Egghead to a huge boiling point, it’s good being a One Piece fan. We’ll have updates on the anime remake as they come out, but until then, take the time and just think about how far One Piece has come in the twenty-six years it’s been going!
