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 continued for 27 years now and will continue for the foreseeable future until it wraps up 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 shortcomings evident across the 1168 episodes of the story. It is precisely now, however, that One Piece is finally set to become the greatest anime series of all time, thanks to the new anime adaptation by Wit Studio, which is officially beginning in February 2027.
One Piece's New Adaptation From Director Masashi Koizuka At Wit Studio Is Making It The Greatest Anime
At Jump Festa 2024 on December 17, 2023, Wit Studio's “The One Piece” anime remake was officially announced. Back then, the project was in very early stages, and even pre-production had not begun. In the 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 being 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 is clear to see that this adaptation is in a league of its own.
“The reason we decided to produce a remake of the One Piece anime came from a reflection by the original author, Eiichiro Oda. He pointed out that the work has become very long and rich in detail. However, since it started a long time ago, the new generation, accustomed to modern productions, does not necessarily feel the same excitement towards the older animation. He felt a certain regret about this and wanted younger audiences to be able to discover and follow the story. That motivated me to recreate this legendary story using modern techniques adapted to today's audience,” — George Wada, Wit Studio CEO, explains why One Piece received a remake
Finally, One Piece is getting the adaptation that it deserves and fixes the biggest issues of the original anime by Toei Animation. This new project is spearheaded by Masashi Koizuka, who is the series director of the anime. At the same time, Kyoji Asano is taking charge of character designs, with Yuki Hayashi taking care of music, and Masafumi Mima taking charge 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, as was officially confirmed on June 23, 2026. With this incredible staff that's brimming with talent and a completely new direction that modernizes One Piece in ways never seen before, we are finally getting an anime adaptation that this series deserves.
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Why Wit Studio's One Piece Anime Fixed The Biggest Flaws Of The Toei Anime
For years, the One Piece The manga series had a subpar anime adaptation, and this wasn't particularly because of the decisions taken by Toei Animation. While the studio has its flaws, the adaptation that they have delivered is quite stunning and at times, absolutely breathtaking. The biggest issues that come with the original series are the pacing and the lack of modern animation methods years ago. The pacing for the One Piece Anime is absolutely atrocious, and even in the modern era, it only adapts up to one chapter per episode and sometimes even less.
This pacing is very slow, and an average episode should adapt at least three chapters per episode. Even in the latter arcs of One Piece That makes sense, two chapters per episode would be significantly better pacing. This bad pacing is one of the biggest issues with the original anime series that the new One Piece anime is officially fixing.
“We repeatedly traced Oda-sensei's art. After two full months of thoroughly studying his style, we finally achieved a level of quality that even the director was very satisfied with.” — Kyoji Asano, The One Piece Character Designer
On top of that, there are many One Piece arcs in the original Toei Animation version of the series that are badly adapted. The vast majority of old One Piece doesn't feature any breathtaking animation. The action is quite underwhelming, and even with great direction, hardly any scenes manage to blow the fans away. The early parts of the series do shine in terms of direction, compositing at times, and character designs, but everything else falls flat.
What's more, as the story continues, the pacing gets worse, and the animation quality drops significantly across arcs like Marineford, Fishman Island, Punk Hazard, and especially Dressrosa. It is only from Wano onwards that the One Piece anime by Toei Animation picks up again in terms of quality, but the pacing issues still plague the series to this day. All these things taken into consideration, One Piece absolutely deserved a new anime adaptation by Wit Studio, which is officially on the way to fixing all the biggest flaws of the old anime series after 29 long years.
“When One Piece first began its serialization, I remember how a sense of 'I wonder what happens next' would wash over me every single week, much like Luffy setting out across the open sea, full of excitement for the unknown. I would be so happy if children all over the world could relive that same thrill I felt back then. As for myself, I approached this with the goal of being moved every time I created new footage.” — Masashi Koizuka explains the approach taken to make The One Piece a success
With A New Anime Adaptation, One Piece Can Finally Dominate In The Anime Department
In terms of the manga, One Piece is already the greatest series of all time. Eiichiro Oda's story has managed to rack up over 600 million sales on March 4, 2026, making him one of the highest-selling authors in the entire world, not just in Japan. This level of fame has not been achieved by any other mangaka, and it is proof of the immense quality and popularity of One Piece all over the world. Unfortunately, the One Piece manga does not have an anime counterpart of equal quality, and that is precisely what Wit Studio's anime is going to fix by delivering quality of the absolute highest order, filled to the brim with life and the vigor of the One Piece world.
This anime adaptation is going to bring the manga to life in ways never seen before and give it the adaptation that it deserves. Just as the manga is the highest-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 the competition away. We can only hope that this project continues right up until the very end and Masashi Koizuka leads this brilliant team at Wit Studio to deliver the best possible adaptation of One Piece there can be.
“The One Piece” by Wit Studio will exclusively be streamed on Netflix in February 2027.
