One Piece‘s remake still has a few months to go before its highly anticipated premiere as fans await more updates. The remake was announced in December 2023 during the Jump Festa 2024 as a collaborative project between WIT Studio and Netflix. While the original anime series by Toei Animation is popular and well-received now, it has been ongoing since 1999 and has released over 1100 episodes. Fans who have been following the series for several years can easily catch up with the show, but the number of episodes always overwhelms new viewers. Over the years, the pacing of the anime was significantly slowed down, and the series became lengthier than it should have been since it had to keep up with the weekly schedule.
While the Elbaph Arc has changed the schedule for the first time in over 25 years, the anime will still adapt only one chapter per episode. Taking the issue into consideration, the remake aims to attract new fans with a steadier pacing and modern animation. As the remake’s premiere gets closer, Kyoji Asano, the Character Designer and Chief Animation Director, shares a major update on the series.
The remake, titled The One Piece, will adapt the first 50 chapters of the manga in seven episodes and will begin streaming in February 2027. So far, there has been no information on how many seasons the remake anime will release. One Piece is one of the longest-running manga of all time, so it will take several years to adapt the entire story into modern animation, even if the story is significantly compressed.
The remake will start from the East Blue Saga, where Luffy begins his journey and forms a crew to travel all the way to the Grand Line. The first season will adapt up to the Baratie Arc, introducing Sanji, although it’s uncertain if the entire arc will be covered.
While the pacing of the original anime series in the first saga wasn’t nearly as bad as post-time skip, WIT Studio plans to fix the 4:3 aspect ratio, which was common in 1990s animation, but it’s not used anymore.
The remake announcement was made in the same year the live-action series by Netflix was released, which popularized the franchise worldwide. The anime remake aims to do the same by attracting new fans with a better-paced show and modern animation. Currently, the original anime is airing the highly anticipated Elbaph Arc of the Final Saga, and fans can catch up to it on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
One Piece has always been a popular franchise but it reached greater heights than ever after Netflix’s live-action adaptation. Netflix has been working on more One Piece projects including the one-episode spin-off Monsters and the anime remake. The platform also began streaming the original anime from the Egghead Incident Arc. Furthermore, One Piece’s pacing has been a problem for several years now. When the anime originally began, it adapted around one and a half chapters per episode which later got decreased to less than one chapter.
The story’s flow has since taken a major hit, with the anime often getting criticism for it. However, Toei has been working on the anime for over 25 years as a long-running show instead of a seasonal one. Therefore, with the manga and the anime simultaneously releasing every week with a two-year gap since the debut, Toei couldn’t give One Piece a normal pacing like other anime. Even so, the studio made up for it with anime-only scenes and gorgeous animation that only got better over the years. However, they are striving to fix this issue with the longest anime hiatus in history.
In July 2024, the President of WIT Studio, George Wada explained the reasons behind the remake in an interview with Real Sound. He talked about Oda’s goal to make Japanese manga more popular around the world. In order to do that, it is necessary to reach people who aren’t familiar with One Piece with a remake as an entry point. Additionally, Wada noted that the original anime was produced in a 4:3 aspect ratio and features animation that may feel dated since it was created over two decades ago. This format can be a barrier for young viewers who are used to modern animation standards.
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