HIGHLIGHTS
Toei Animation’s One Piece is catching up to industry leaders like MAPPA Studio, showcasing significant improvements in animation quality.
The Egghead Arc introduces fresh environments and fights, elevating the series with updated art style and intense battles like Luffy versus Lucci.
Exciting conflicts in the upcoming arcs promise to keep fans engaged, with Toei Animation likely to continue delivering top-quality animation.
Over the past year, the One Piece anime has been making huge strides in updating many facets of its production to compete with the most successful franchises in the business. Where Toei Animation’s anime retelling of Eiichiro Oda’s manga had once been marred by poor pacing and run-of-the-mill animation, it is now garnering significant plaudits and media attention for the right reasons.
The fact that Toei Animation’s One Piece is now a production whose quality is not too far behind the work of industry trend setters such as MAPPA Studio or WIT Studio, is a huge change of pace. Moreover, the ongoing Egghead Arc in the anime — which has already received acclaim for a few stellar episodes — has barely even scratched the surface of what the manga has in store. Hence, with more exciting things to come this year for the franchise, here is a look at why 2024 could be the best year yet for the One Piece anime.
New Changes During And After Wano Country
Although the first two acts of the Wano Country Arc continued to have many of the issues that had plagued the series after the time skip, the final act, which featured the Raid on Onigashima, displayed many areas of improvement. This was a necessary move given the significance of this segment in the grander narrative of One Piece. Initially, these changes appeared in short bursts of high-quality animation, between stretches of languid pacing.
By the time the Straw Hat Pirates were facing off against their final opponents for the arc, the animation had improved to such a degree that episodes such as Zoro’s battle against King were gaining considerable online attention. This came at a time when shows such as Demon Slayer Season 3, Oshi no Ko, and Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku, were airing, which speaks volumes of the kind of company it was in.
When it was time for Gear 5 to finally debut on screen, the anticipation and discourse among the series’ fan base and the anime industry as a whole, had reached a level of intensity that had not been seen in One Piece‘s case for quite some time. Although the episode itself was an ambitious and enthralling spectacle that still had its share of flaws, it dominated online discourse and debates for a long time, despite competing with hugely successful titles such as Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 and Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Cour 2.
Post-Wano Country, the start of the Final Saga featured even more changes to the One Piece anime’s art style, with softer, simplified, and less pronounced line work that added a sense of lightness to the updated character designs of the main cast. In addition, there were also further markers of improvement in the animation, as seen in sequences such as the destruction of the Lulusia Kingdom, and the early episodes of the Egghead Arc.
The Prelude To The Egghead Incident
Initially, the first few episodes of the Egghead Arc brought a host of fresh environments and aesthetic changes to the tone of the series, blending retrofuturism and atompunk styles with the cartoonish visual language of One Piece. This shift from Wano Country — which was based on feudal Japan — to a futuristic post-industrial setting in Egghead was a drastic change, reinforced by the extensive use of 3DCG in a lot of the arc’s backgrounds.
Fortunately, the series’ new art style melded well with this context, and served to elevate this part of the arc above its depiction in the manga. When the action finally got underway with Trafalgar Law’s battle against Blackbeard, followed by the highly anticipated rematch between Luffy and Rob Lucci, all the new alterations to the series’ animation came together to deliver a scintillating statement about what Toei Animation intends to do for the remainder of the Egghead Arc.
As a battle that could be one of the best animated in the series so far, Luffy versus Lucci encapsulated the surreal, rabid animosity that had been brewing between its two combatants, as they wreaked havoc across the “Future Island” of Egghead. Firmly at the center of this extended anime-only fight sequence was Toei’s new and refined portrayal of Gear 5, which indicated that they had ironed out all the kinks of its previous depiction in Wano Country. At this juncture, the studio had perfected Luffy’s use of cartoon physics without losing sight of the threat that this transformation represented.
Events In Other Parts Of The New World
Beyond the island of Egghead itself, the One Piece anime has already teased two of the most exciting conflicts of this upcoming arc, and there is little doubt that they will propel the series into the limelight again upon being broadcast across the airwaves. The two impending battles in question will take place in different regions of the New World, as the Marines, the Four Emperors, and major players among the ranks of the Worst Generation make moves of their own in a bid to reach Laugh Tale before anyone else.
If the anime chooses to follow the same sequence as the manga, the first of these two battles will likely kick off after the Kid Pirates’ arrival on the island of Elbaf. Besides the threat of the giants, Eustass Kid and his crew will also have to contend with one of the most powerful characters in the world of One Piece, whose true strength has been the subject of much speculation among the series’ fan base for decades.
As manga readers might already know, this conflict is sure to include some breathtaking action sequences, especially if Toei Animation continues to outdo the standards they have set so far with the Egghead Arc. Next comes Garp’s rescue mission to free Koby and all those currently being held hostage by the Blackbeard Pirates on the island of Hachinosu. It is no secret that the series’ fan base has been dying to see the Hero of the Marines in action for quite some time now, and they could finally see this wish fulfilled in spectacular fashion.
Since these two conflicts are expected to take center stage in the upcoming episodes, it is easy to see why the best of the Egghead Arc is still yet to come. What makes the entire matter all the more enthralling, is the fact that even these battles pale in comparison to the actual climax of this arc, which will feature a confrontation that could shatter every expectation that anime-only fans might have about where the narrative is headed.
Why The Revamped Art Style Is A Good Move
Looking at all that is in store for the remainder of the Egghead Arc, it is easy to see that Toei Animation will be under a lot of pressure to maintain the level of quality they have set so far. In the past, One Piece has suffered due to its hectic year-round production schedule, and it may not be a bad move for Toei Animation to space out its release schedule in preparation for the Egghead Arc’s most action-packed episodes.
This would naturally give animators enough time to deliver an end product that will cement the Final Saga as the best the series has to offer. On the face of it, there are a few things that could help streamline this process. For instance, the new animation style does seem to use a slightly lower frame rate at certain junctures for stylistic purposes, and this has generally been received quite well, as seen in the fights between Law and Blackbeard, as well as Luffy and Lucci.
While there are some instances where this approach has fallen slightly short of the ideal, it has been reasonably effective in depicting the ridiculous scale of the series’ current conflicts. Going forward, this will become even more crucial, as battles of monumental proportion come and go in rapid succession, affording little time to breathe for those working on the series.
How 2024 Could Be The Best Year For One Piece Yet
Hopefully, the team at Toei Animation will be given adequate time to plan and execute these segments of One Piece at a reasonable pace. This has become all the more important since recent controversies surrounding working conditions for animators at major production houses such as MAPPA Studio, have shed light on the dark underbelly of the anime industry.
If things proceed at their current pace, it might not be too long before the anime reaches the much-awaited climax of the Egghead Arc, and bringing this to life on screen will be a challenging task for all those involved. That being said, Toei Animation has repeatedly shown that they are more than equal to the task of replicating or even surpassing the quality of the One Piece manga where it counts.
With so many important moments in the story set to premiere on screen this year, coupled with the buzz surrounding the Final Saga, the upcoming WIT Studio remake of the anime, and the Neflix live action adaptation of One Piece, 2024 looks set to be a promising year for the franchise as a whole.
