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Fans of the One Piece anime series have been on cloud nine due to the unbelievable, movie-quality effort Toei Animation has put into the series. Since the climax of the Wano arc's biggest fights began, the series has impressed fans and truly outdone itself on a weekly basis.
One of the biggest contributions to this success is the fact that all of these recent episodes have adapted at least one full chapter's worth of material at a time. With a seemingly inconsequential adaptation pace compared to other series, the One Piece anime's weekly status makes this an exciting choice for these latest installments.
However, as Luffy and Kaido's main event bout progresses with this same adaptation pace, it also highlights a major problem the One Piece anime has with its production. In fact, the problem is so major that it's arguably the series' biggest mistake and likely prohibits the anime from ever wholly being able to do justice to the original manga.
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Disclaimer: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinions.
One Piece anime's biggest problem is its slow adaptation
Without a doubt, the biggest problem of the One Piece anime overall is the adaptation pace the series has showcased in recent years. Early on in the weekly adaptation's history, Toei Animation would typically adapt at least one and a half chapters in each episode. This made for a sustainable adaptation pace as a weekly series while also moving quickly enough to keep fans' interest.
This pace eventually slowed down to one chapter per episode during the Marineford arc's second half, which still made for very watchable television despite feeling somewhat slower. However, going into the Punk Hazard and Dressrosa arcs, there are multiple instances of the anime adapting barely over half a chapter per episode by page count.
This trend has continued into and is evident throughout the Wano arc, where this half-chapter adaptation rate is not only present but at times even undercut. Episode 944 is a perfect example of this, adapting pages 12-19 of Chapter 945. With where the episode starts adapting page 12, slightly less than half of the chapter ends up being adapted in this One Piece anime installment.
As mentioned above, however, the most recent Wano arc episodes have remedied this by adapting a full chapter's worth of material in each episode. This significant improvement in pacing has not been lost on fans, who are praising the work Toei has done and their decision to adapt full chapters in each episode.
However, this recent glimpse at what the series has the potential to be pace-wise has also given fans a sense of existential dread for what's to come. At the time of this article's writing, the anime is roughly 43 chapters behind the manga series. Obviously, this chapter-per-episode adaptation rate is not sustainable given this gap, meaning fans will soon be returning to the slow pace the anime is known for.
As a weekly show, however, there's not much that Toei Animation and the anime's staff can do. Their options are either to create entire filler arcs and episodes or maintain a slow adaptation pace to stay a weekly series. Unfortunately, neither option will allow the anime to do justice to the original manga series as has been seen in the latest climactic Wano arc episodes.
Be sure to keep up with all One Piece anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.
