Ready to finally get into One Piece? Here’s everything to know before watching the long running anime/manga.
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One would struggle to find an anime enthusiast who hasn’t made an effort to see One Piece at least once. The King of Shonen has more than 1,069 episodes and is still airing after almost 25 years, which is a difficult feat for even the most devoted binge-watcher. Unfortunately, a lot of potential One Piece fans give up because of the series’ size, missing out on one of the most well-known and enduring anime of all time.
There’s never been a better moment to catch up with One Piece because it’s presently in one of its best storylines, the Egghead Island arc. It’s not necessary for viewers to start with the anime or even see every episode. The easiest way to watch One Piece is to just get started and enjoy it without giving too much thought to how much of the shonen journey is still present.
Everything you need to Know About One Piece
The manga series One Piece, written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, has been serialised in Weekly Shounen Jump since 1997. It’s a shonen action manga that focuses on everything readers have come to expect from this audience—action-packed tales, thrilling combat sequences, positive themes, the value of friendship, and more—and is targeted towards young male readers. Nevertheless, even those who shy away from shonen shouldn’t dismiss the show entirely. One Piece has been in the top tier of anime for a reason, frequently earning more accolades than other classics like Naruto and Bleach, its two competitors among the shonen big three.
The main character of One Piece, Monkey D. Luffy, is a passionate and daring 17-year-old who is determined to travel the world’s oceans and experience an adventure of a lifetime. Set against a vast, vibrant universe filled with pirates and everything else Oda can conjure up, this famous anime protagonist embarks on a daring journey to realise his ambitious ambition of becoming the Pirate King. Friends and enemies alike make up the story’s extensive and constantly growing cast of characters, which filters into a narrative that is varied yet never boring. The One Piece anime presents the manga in a sporadic manner, adding some pointless fluff, tedious pacing, and a few instances of poor animation. With those little faults out of the way, One Piece is an excellent anime to watch.
Who Should Watch One Piece?
There is a lengthy list of justifications for watching the One Piece anime. First of all, One Piece is a very significant series that isn’t just limited to the anime genre. It will continue to be relevant for a very long time. The popularity of the series demonstrates its broad appeal, which is not just limited to young male viewers. The more recent arcs of the anime and manga, despite being lengthy, include some of One Piece’s most captivating content to date.
One Piece’s plot hasn’t gotten any worse, which is another important consideration. It’s amazing how a piece of art with such lifetime has not aged. Fans frequently complain that long-running titans like Naruto and Bleach, which have mostly ended (apart from Bleach’s surprising “Thousand Year Blood War” translation), have lost some of their narrative grandeur. That doesn’t mean they are still regarded as enduring programmes, However, One Piece’s capacity to remain excellent over a 20-year span is a remarkable and exceptional success in the anime industry, not just for shonen but for all audiences. One Piece is excellent from the very beginning, so the question isn’t “when does One Piece get good?” Though different One Piece fans will have a different opinion on when Eiichiro Oda’s pirate adventure actually enters its golden era of unrivalled shonen grandeur, One Piece instead continues to gain pace until it finally gets its stride around the Water 7 storyline.
Where to Start One Piece's Anime Adventure
Since many anime lovers won’t have the time, energy, or patience to watch that much stuff, even if they skip the filler episodes, it might not be the greatest option to start at episode one and watch the anime in its entirety. Here are some helpful viewing suggestions because many individuals find One Piece tough to get into and may worry that they’ve missed the boat.
The first recommendation is to start with the source manga rather than watching the One Piece anime. Reading the One Piece manga is the most practical way to get started with the series because readers can read a page considerably faster than the anime can depict it because Eiichiro Oda’s writing is action-packed and fast-paced. Although the manga doesn’t have the animation or musical score of the One Piece anime, it starts out much more fluidly and has no filler or opening or closing credits to skip. A manga enthusiast could easily read one volume every day, and if they continued to do so every day, they could finish the manga’s 103 current volumes in a little more than three months. That’s surprisingly swift for a popular series like One Piece, far quicker than the anime.
There are some crucial storylines that one shouldn’t miss on television. Many people believe that One Piece begins to take off properly during the “Arlong Park” anime arc (episodes 31–44), reaching some early emotional peaks that are unusual for the series. After beginning the manga and getting to know the characters, it’s a good place to start. The next hundred or so episodes are all extremely watchable, but they can get repetitive and may not be for everyone (filler excepted).
It is highly recommended to see the “Enies Lobby” (episodes 263–312) and “Marineford” (episodes 457–489) arcs, which are regarded as the best in the entire One Piece series. One Piece hasn’t been all that great in more recent episodes, but the “Wano Country Saga” (the current anime arc) features some of the best animation to date. One filler storyline worth watching is the “G-8” arc, which spans episodes 196–206. Loyalists of the manga should unquestionably make an exception for these 10 cherished episodes. The trick is to select and choose favourite scenes from the manga to watch on screen instead of necessarily watching the entire One Piece anime, which would be like watching a highlight reel of One Piece’s best moments.
Where to Read and Watch One Piece
On Crunchyroll, one of the finest places to watch One Piece, most Western fans can easily and affordably jump into the anime and pick their favourite story arcs or scenes to watch. If you have a Netflix account, you can watch seasons 1 through 13 in full. Hulu only offers Seasons 1 through 7 for streaming right now. Seasons 1-4 of One Piece are available on demand and on PlutoTV’s live-streaming One Piece channel.
The greatest option for reading manga legally online is Viz Media. Manga images from the publisher are of a good calibre, and new chapters are available there without charge. If they choose, interested readers can purchase discounted digital volumes or only read the individual chapters. The Shonen Jump app makes it simple to read the One Piece manga’s chapters whenever and wherever you want, and the 100 chapter limit each day shouldn’t be a problem. Even for a long series like One Piece, reading so much is a lot of work, and readers are advised to take their time and enjoy the story. One Piece isn’t only a manga that is renowned for being long; it also has amazing quality, and it will take time for all that shonen sweetness to make its way into the story.