Summary
- One Piece has shifted away from slice-of-life filler to focus more on high-stakes moments.
- Slice-of-life filler in One Piece develops characters and the world in unique ways.
- While fans enjoy filler, introducing more may harm the series due to its already lengthy runtime.
Over its nearly 30 years of lifetime, One Piece has changed greatly in tone and composition. Compared to the earlier episodes, modern One Piece feels like an entirely different show. In many ways, One Piece has grown alongside its audience, something that has contributed greatly to the series’ longevity and long-standing popularity.
However, growing does come with some negative side effects. Namely, moving forward toward the future of One Piece means that some of the original things that fans love about the series have been left behind. This includes many slower-paced, slice-of-life episodes that resonated with many fans, showing off the characters of One Piece from new angles, far different from the usual combative and action-filled atmosphere.
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One Piece Has Moved Away From Slice-Of-Life Filler
The Series Now Focuses On Moments With Much Higher Stakes
In modern One Piece, the stakes of the series have never been higher. Especially now that One Piece’s Final Saga is underway, tension and action are at an all-time high. Although this is mainly a good thing, One Piece has so many events happening, between massive fights between the most powerful characters of One Piece and the hidden secrets of the world being revealed, there really isn’t any time for the slower moments of the series.
Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. – Robin to Zoro while he’s caring for the orphans
Sadly, this means many of One Piece’s slice-of-life moments are no longer a major part of the series, being replaced with more action-filled circumstances. While this does make for a more interesting show moment to moment, it can feel a bit one-note at times, making some characters feel more one-dimensional. Non-canon filler moments, such as Zoro’s journey taking care of children after One Piece’s Enies Lobby Arc or Sanji facing off against Carmen in a cooking battle in Loguetown are interesting moments in their own right, despite not focusing on action.
Slice-Of-Life Filler In One Piece Helps Develop The World And Characters
- Slice-Of-Life Filler Makes For Some Great Character Moments
- This Filler Also Helps With World-Building
One arc that expertly combines these slice-of-life moments with action-filled moments is the Loguetown Arc, the last arc of One Piece’s debut East Blue Saga. This arc in the anime has high stakes, with Luffy finding himself in trouble with both Smoker and Buggy. However, the anime also introduces a few non-canon moments that show off more scenarios for the rest of the Straw Hats. Usopp has the chance to prove his sniping prowess against a bounty hunter, while Zoro runs into some extra trouble with the marines after meeting Tashigi.
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At the same time, while these moments give extra time to develop Straw Hats besides Luffy, they also help flesh out the One Piece world, making it feel more lively overall. These slice-of-life moments help share the lives of other citizens in the various One Piece islands, something the non-filled content rarely focuses on. For example, while on Water 7, Zoro meets Aunt, a woman who takes care of a group of orphans. By assisting in taking care of the orphans, Zoro, and in turn the audience, learns much more about the daily lives of Water 7 citizens.
One Piece May Not Have Time For Filler
The Show Is Already Bloated Enough
However, despite how many people enjoy One Piece’s slice-of-life filler, at the same time, it may be a bit harmful to the overall series to keep introducing more of it. While these moments are nice to develop the world, One Piece is already far too long as it is. Sacrificing more time to filler episodes is something that almost every fan doesn’t want to see. Unless One Piece starts increasing the pace of its normal adapted episodes, it seems like this kind of filler won’t come back anytime soon.
No matter how I look at it, it’s weird. Why am I doing such a thing? – Zoro while taking care of the orphans
While it’s easy to miss filler content in One Piece, it may not fit as well into the high-stakes Final Saga. At least for Egghead, an arc filled with tension and huge secrets, taking a break for small filler moments would kill the pacing and atmosphere. With that being said, perhaps the Elbaf Arc may be the perfect time to introduce a little more slice-of-life filler to the anime of One Piece. However, fans will have to wait until Elbaf is adapted before the amount of filler it will have will be revealed.
