One Piece creator promise series finale to be unlike anything ever seen before

As creator, author, and illustrator Eiichiro Oda’s original One Piece manga series progresses through its final saga, fans are looking back on the series and its production in all respects. Favorite arcs, sagas, fights, moments, characters, and more are all on the docket for fans to discuss as the series finally, unbelievably concludes over the next few years.

A particularly enjoyable aspect of the series’ history to look through is the comments Oda has given on One Piece in general. However, fans are more specifically focused on anything that could give a clue to the final saga. Everything from plot teases to promises of quality is being thoroughly analyzed by superfans everywhere.

Twitter user and reputable One Piece news source and historian @sandman_AP (Sandman) has recently posted one such promise of quality said by Oda in 2012. Despite being a 10-plus-year-old statement, fans are still excitedly discussing and debating the veracity of Oda’s claims as if it’s something he said just last week.

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One Piece’s Marineford arc set to “look like nothing” next to the final saga, according to series creator Oda

Oda’s claim, explored

In the 2012 quote posted recently to Twitter by Sandman, Oda claims that One Piece’s final saga and wanting to draw it is something that motivated him to keep drawing. Obviously, 11 years later, this proved to be fantastic motivation, with the series still heading strong as it progresses through the first arc of the final saga.

Oda goes on to claim that the final saga “will be so amazing that it makes the Marineford arc look like nothing.” Oda even goes as far as to say that Marineford was “just a side trip” for him as an author and that he “didn’t expect it to be so popular.” With this quote coming roughly two years after the manga finished the arc and one year after the anime did, the arc was arguably at the peak of its popularity at the time.

This makes Oda’s quote even more exciting and tantalizing 11 years later, with hindsight and time having only aged One Piece’s Marineford arc like a fine wine. While it certainly seems possible for the final saga of the series to legitimately surpass Marineford in all areas, such a claim is an incredibly lofty one.

One difficult area to surpass Marineford in is the excitement fans felt as it was being released. Truly each and every chapter brought a new twist and turn with it which fans couldn’t see happening the week before, all the way through the arc’s final moments. While the final saga has had a similar approach to its storytelling thus far, it remains to be seen if this can be kept up for a years-long section of the story.

Another difficulty will also come in surpassing Marineford’s climactic unification of several different characters and storylines throughout the first half of the series. While Oda can undoubtedly replicate this for the final saga, it remains to be seen if the upcoming version will surpass the blueprint itself. Thankfully, fans should have an answer for this relatively soon compared to the series’ nearly 26-year run.

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Be sure to keep up with all One Piece anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.