A few years ago, shortly after the success of the One Piece live action, Netflix announced they were funding a new adaptation of the One Piece manga with Wit Studios called The One Piece. I had just finished catching up on the existing One Piece anime, and my opinion at the time was, “Why?” Watching all of the original One Piece anime was one of the best experiences I had had with a piece of media, and it’s not even done, why would you remake it? Seeing most people’s reactions to it left it clear to me that my opinion was not typical. People who had never watched or read One Piece before were saying things like, “Maybe I can actually watch it now,” while people who had read or watched it before were saying things like, “I hope they improve the pacing!”
Recently, we got our first actual information and trailer for it, including the information that the first season will be seven episodes with an approximate total runtime of 300 minutes, or roughly 44 minutes an episode, and that it will cover material up through the end of the Baratie Arc. The original One Piece anime covers the same material in 30 episodes that are roughly 25 minutes each, or 750 minutes, two and a half times longer. The live action, for comparison, is 8 episodes totalling approximately 7 hours or 420 minutes of run time to cover material which the original anime covers in 44 episodes or 1100 minutes of run time, approximately 2.6 times longer, meaning it has a slightly less favorable ratio, but not loads less. While the live action was widely praised as a good adaptation, it was criticized for significant changes to the story which were forced by a combination of insufficient budget to cover some of the more fantastical action sequences and creatures of the anime, and insufficient runtime to fit in all the events. The biggest of these changes was the elimination of an entire villain, Don Krieg, which makes it questionable why Sanji even joined up, as well as doing short shrift to Usopp’s introduction and early heroism in his arc, which makes it questionable why anyone trusts him to be able to contribute to the crew, and the compression to Zoro’s introduction which made him come across as a psychotic badass rather than a psychotic badass with a heart of gold - a major issue when it is clear in the original that the big reason Luffy chose him to join his crew is not his badassery but his kindness. I’d hate for the new anime to be so compromised.
So the question is, what is the goal of this adaptation? Is it to produce an accessible abridged version of the story to introduce people to the story, which they can then get the full version of by reading the manga or watching the original anime? Or is it to produce the definitive version of the anime, without the filler and pacing issues that were forced onto the original anime due to the constraints of it airing weekly on Japanese TV with barely any breaks for nearly the past thirty years? I mean, honestly, the answer is neither - it’s to make money. But I do wonder, is this One Piece for Newbies or One Piece The Best Experience?
If it is One Piece for newbies, well, it’s not for me. I’ve watched the whole original anime and loved it, pacing issues and all. I don’t need a new version, and especially not a new, shorter, compromised version that sacrifices any of the story in favor of accessibility or runtime. One Piece is notorious for “padding” for time - it has a lot of sequences of long reaction shots, panning panoramic landscape shots, and extensive dramatic speeches before and after every major event, and surely many of the people welcoming this new anime are hoping these will be shortened or eliminated. I can understand that, as there are definitely times, particularly in Dressrosa and Wano, where they clearly are running out the clock in some episodes to avoid moving too fast and catching up with the manga, which would force them to either write filler episodes or go on hiatus. But East Blue does not really suffer from those issues - while it still has a lot of those, there they are used judiciously to build tension, and while I don’t doubt it can be cut down in runtime without sacrificing narrative somewhat, doing it too drastically - and in particular if it results in actual cut scenes or events deemed nonessential - could completely change the story and feel. The live action, although good, suffers from this - by the end of Arlong Park in the anime, you feel like the Straw-hats are friends for life, not just with each other, but with you, the viewer, who has spent a thousand minutes watching them struggle for their lives and freedom. At the end of the live action, I honestly questioned why these people who had just met were committing to spend the rest of their lives together in the most dangerous seas of the world. One Piece uses the time it spends to build these relationships and intimacy and connection, and while I’d never propose that its perfect, there is definitely a limit to how much you can cut it down without killing that very important element of the show.
So what do I want from the remake? What are my hopes? I want the definitive version. I want a version that includes absolutely everything from the manga, with enough time and slow enough pacing that we can really get to know the Straw Hats as we did in the original, but that isn’t pressured to pad for time beyond that like the original was. Is that possible with the runtime Wit Studios has allotted for this remake? I honestly cannot say for sure without watching it. I doubt it, but I hope so. While I can understand why some want a more accessible version than the original anime, that already exists. It’s called the live action. Watch that, and if you like it, then watch the anime or read the manga. People say the anime is just too long, but honestly I think thats bullshit. East Blue is amazing and does not suffer from pacing issues, and any version of the story that does justice to it isn’t going to be any more accessible than the classic, charming, retro feel of the original.
I also want one that incorporates all the cover stories. Oda draws covers that are often just fun scenes of the Straw Hats in random scenarios, but other times are actual important plot relevant events happening to background characters while our main story happens in the foreground. The very first filler arc of the original manga adapts one of these stories, following Buggy in his chibi form after Luffy defeats him, and one of the biggest travesties of the original anime in my opinion is they did not keep adapting the cover stories into filler arcs. While I don’t think they need to do full filler arcs in this new anime for these, incorporating them as transitional panels or in openings or ending sequences would be a great way to tell these stories without burning runtime on them.
Will I get what I want? I strongly doubt it. I honestly was more optimistic before writing this post, as doing the math really underscored how difficult it would be to do justice to this material in the runtime allotted. But I’ll keep my mind open. And at the end of the day, if the new anime is basically One Piece for newbies, at least it will get more people into the fandom. I just hope the original anime doesn’t go the way of the original FMA anime if people decide the new anime is better despite being compromised simply because they can binge watch it in an afternoon.
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