Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga began on July 18, 1997 in Shueisha's Weekly Shounen Jump Issue #34. Since then, the story has been adapted into various media, including an anime by Toei Animation, which began on October 20, 1999, just two years later. The Toei anime has been going on for 27 years now and will continue for the foreseeable future until it concludes the story of Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates.
That said, the Toei anime fails to do justice to Eiichiro Oda's masterpiece due to various flaws evident in the 1168 episodes of the story. However, that is right now One Piece is finally set to become the biggest anime series of all time, thanks to the new anime adaptation by Wit Studio, officially starting in February 2027.
One Piece's new adaptation from director Masashi Koizuka at Wit Studio makes it the best anime
At Jump Festa 2024 on December 17, 2023, Wit Studio's “The One Piece” anime remake was officially announced. At the time, the project was in its very early stages and pre-production had not even begun. In subsequent years, more progress was made on the project. Work began on it over a year ago, and today this incredibly amazing anime adaptation is brought to life. At the Annecy International Film Festival 2026 on June 23, 2026, the first glimpse of this anime was revealed to us, and it's clear to see that this adaptation is in a league of its own.
“The reason we decided to remake the One Piece anime came from a reflection of the original author, Eiichiro Oda. He pointed out that the work has become very long and rich in details. But since it started a long time ago, the new generation, who are used to modern productions, do not necessarily feel the same excitement towards the older audience and wanted to feel a certain animation to discover this one and wanted to be able to regret. follow the story that motivated me to recreate this legendary story with modern techniques adapted to today's audience,” – George Wada, Wit Studios CEO, explains why One Piece got a remake.
Finally, One Piece gets the adaptation it deserves and fixes the biggest problems with the original anime by Toei Animation. This new project is headed by Masashi Koizuka, who is the series director of the anime. Meanwhile, Kyoji Asano takes care of the character design, with Yuki Hayashi taking care of the music and Masafumi Mima taking care of the sound design. Some other notable names include Takatoshi Honda for Chief Animation Director and Hideaki Abe for Assistant Director. Finally, Mayumi Tanaka returns to voice Monkey D. Luffy, officially confirmed on June 23, 2026. With this incredible staff full of talent and a brand new direction modernizing One Piece in ways never seen before, we're finally getting the anime adaptation this series deserves.
One Piece officially unveils a new Devil Fruit from Hell
A new Devil Fruit straight from Hell has been officially revealed in One Piece's latest release of the Elbaf arc.
Why Wit Studio's One Piece Anime Fixed the Biggest Flaws of Toei Anime
For years have One Piece the manga series had a minor anime adaptation, and this was not particularly due to the decisions made by Toei Animation. While the studio has its flaws, the adaptation that they have delivered is quite amazing and at times absolutely breathtaking. The biggest problems that come with the original series are the pacing and the lack of modern animation methods from years ago. The pace for One Piece Anime is absolutely atrocious, and even in modern times it only adapts up to one chapter per episode and sometimes even less.
This pace is very slow, and an average episode should fit at least three chapters per episode. Even in the later arcs of One Piece it makes sense, two chapters per episode would be significantly better paced. This poor pacing is one of the biggest problems with the original anime series that the new One Piece anime officially fixes.
“We repeatedly traced Oda-sensei's art. After two full months of carefully studying his style, we finally reached a level of quality that even the director was very happy with.” — Kyoji Asano, The One Piece Character Designer
Beyond that, there are many One Piece arcs in the original Toei Animation version of the series that are poorly adapted. The vast majority old One Piece has no breathtaking animation. The action is quite underwhelming, and even with good direction, hardly any scenes manage to blow the fans away. The early parts of the series shine in terms of direction, sometimes composition and character design, but everything else falls flat.
Also, the pacing gets worse as the story goes on, and the animation quality drops significantly over arcs like Marineford, Fishman Island, Punk Hazard, and especially Dressrosa. It is only from Wano onwards that One Piece anime by Toei Animation is picking up again in terms of quality, but the pacing issues still plague the series to this day. All these things in consideration, One Piece absolutely deserved a new anime adaptation by Wit Studio, which is officially on its way to fixing all the major flaws of the old anime series after 29 long years.
“When One Piece first began its serialization, I remember how a feeling of 'I wonder what happens next' would wash over me every week, much like Luffy venturing out into the open ocean, full of excitement for the unknown. I would be so happy if children all over the world could relive the same excitement I felt then. As for myself, I approached this with the goal of being newly displaced.” — Masashi Koizuka explains the approach to making The One Piece a success
With a new Anime adaptation, One Piece can finally dominate in the Anime department
As for manga, One Piece is already the best series of all time. Eiichiro Oda's story has managed to amass over 600 million sales as of March 4, 2026, making him one of the best-selling authors worldwide, not just in Japan. This level of fame has not been achieved by any other mangaka, and it is a testament to the immense quality and popularity of One Piece worldwide. Unfortunately, the One Piece manga doesn't have an anime counterpart of the same quality, and that's exactly what Wit Studio's anime will fix by delivering absolutely top-notch quality, filled to the brim with life and the power of One Piece world.
This anime adaptation will bring the manga to life in ways never before seen and give it the adaptation it deserves. Just as the manga is the best selling series of all time, the anime will finally establish its dominance at the top as the very best anime series of all time and blow away the competition. We can only hope that this project continues until the end and Masashi Koizuka leads this brilliant team at Wit Studio to deliver the best possible adaptation of One Piece there may be.
“The One Piece” by Wit Studio will stream exclusively on Netflix in February 2027.
