Summary
- Pacing issues in One Piece anime stem from adapting too few chapters per episode, creating tedious viewing.
- Dressrosa marked the start of pacing problems, with more episodes than chapters compromising viewer experience.
- Despite pacing problems, hope for the series lies in potential improvements in future releases like Fishman Island.
The pacing of One Piece has always been one of the series’ biggest issues, especially with the anime. While the manga is decently well-paced, since reading is much faster than watching, sometimes, watching the anime can feel draining. With 20 minutes per episode, and over a thousand episodes, the pacing is one of the main things that scare away new fans of One Piece from giving the story a chance.
Due to this, many fans are curious about at what point in the series the pacing problems of One Piece truly begin. While overall, the anime has always been decently slow, it isn’t until much later in the series that the slower pacing can become a bit too much for many fans. Although, for some, the slower pacing makes the series a more relaxing and enjoyable experience, others wish that the show was half the length it is now.
Since the manga is well-paced in comparison, this article will mainly refer to the anime of One Piece. However, similar issues do apply to the manga, just to a much lesser degree.
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One Piece Pacing Issues Come From Adapting To Few Chapters Per Episode
Sometimes There Are Actually More Episodes Than Chapters
The pacing problems of One Piece, unlike other anime, generally don’t come from an overreliance on filler. Proportionally, One Piece actually has a fairly small amount of filler when compared to other series. Instead, one of the main issues comes from how many chapters are adapted into a single episode of the series. While in the beginning, an arc like the Alabasta Arc would translate 69 chapters into 39 episodes, at around the Marineford era of One Piece, the chapter-to-episode count becomes nearly even. Going beyond this, from Dressrosa onwards, the anime consistently has more episodes than chapters for each arc.
I don’t wanna live a thousand years. If I live through today, that’ll be enough. – Ace
Having more episodes than chapters creates a massive issue with the pacing of the series since, although both explore the same amount of content, reading a manga chapter is much faster than watching an entire episode. While a chapter may only take a few minutes to read, with each episode taking over quadruple the amount of time, One Piece can feel like a chore to get through. This is especially true during the less interesting sections, like drawn-out reaction panels, of the series, which can be breezed through in the manga, but need to be watched in their entirety in the anime.
Dressrosa Started The Trend Of Having Drastically More Episodes Than Chapters
Wano Continued THis Trend To A Greater Degree
|
Dressrosa Chapters Versus Episodes |
102 Chapters and 118 Episodes |
|
Wano Chapters Versus Episodes |
149 Chapters and 191 Episodes |
From here, it’s safe to say that the pacing problems for the One Piece anime started during the Dressrosa Arc. In the manga, while the Dressrosa Arc is still incredibly long, sitting at 102 chapters, it feels much more manageable to get through, with a strong reader most likely being able to finish the arc in around 8 to 10 hours. However, the anime sits at 118 episodes, requiring the viewer’s full attention for nearly 40 hours of watch time. While this may not seem like the worst thing in the world, it definitely started a downward trend that continued into the next arcs of One Piece as well.
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Wano, an arc that some fans already consider to be too bloated even in One Piece’s better-paced manga form, is even worse in its anime form. Although the pacing problem started in Dressrosa, this arc is when the pacing problem truly begins, with the anime version of Wano spanning over 191 episodes, nearly 50 episodes more than the manga has chapters. For some, Wano is the breaking point of pacing in the series and is indicative of where One Piece went past the point of no return.
There Is Hope For The Future Of One Piece
New Releases May Fix The Pacing Issues
However, it seems the creators of the anime are well aware of the issues the series faces and are taking steps to correct them. Overall, with the rerelease of Fishman Island, and hopefully better pacing coming to Egghead, it may not be too late for the pacing of One Piece. Still, as it stands, the series needs to make some big improvements in order to appeal to a wider audience.
Bring on the hardship. It’s preferred in a path of carnage. – Zoro
In the end, while the pacing does get worse at the Dressrosa Arc, the series has always been very slowly paced to begin with. Although this may seem like a bad thing, many fans actually enjoy the slower pace, which allows the series to take its time and explore and develop the world of One Piece. Hopefully, by the end of the series, the slow pace will pay off, once the treasure of the One Piece is revealed.
- Release Date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- Directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
