10 Biggest Things One Piece’s Anime Remake Could Fix to Make it Better than the Original

Of all the anime announcements at Jump Festa 2024, the biggest one was the reveal that One Piece would receive a full-fledged reboot in Wit Studio’s The One Piece. Anime reboots are hardly uncommon, but it’s never happened when an anime was still ongoing, and seeing it happen with a story as big as One Piece means that there are a lot of expectations for it to be great.

There’s a lot of pressure on The One Piece to be a great reboot, and to do that, it needs to fix some of the shortcomings of the original series. As good an anime as it might be, One Piece certainly has its share of problems, whether they be missed opportunities or various inconsistencies, and they make certain parts of the anime hard to get through, especially the early arcs.

The early arcs, of course, are what The One Piece will be tackling first, so if it wants to succeed, some definite changes need to be considered.

10

The One Piece Can’t Make Luffy & Zoro Fight At Whiskey Peak

One of Luffy’s worst moments in One Piece

One of the most infamous moments in early One Piece is when Luffy picks a fight with Zoro over him beating up the citizens of Whiskey Peak, with Luffy unaware that they were Baroque Works assassins trying to kill them. Not long before that, however, Luffy was the one who most adamantly refused to believe that Nami was a villain who betrayed them for Arlong, even with all the evidence for it, so Luffy immediately believing strangers over Zoro felt completely out of character for him.

Luffy and Zoro’s fight at Whiskey Peak is a terrible moment for Luffy’s character, so The One Piece should simply not let it happen. Once the series gets to Whiskey Peak, The One Piece can avoid Luffy and Zoro’s fight by having Luffy believe there was a good reason for Zoro to attack everyone, which would be far more consistent with Luffy’s character and make the arc easier to sit through. The One Piece is currently slated to only cover the East Blue saga, but if it goes any further, that’s one of the first changes it should make.

9

The One Piece Should Properly Explain How Shanks Lost An Arm

One of One Piece‘s weirdest & most iconic moments

One of the defining moments of Luffy’s backstory was Shanks getting his arm bitten off by a Sea King to protect Luffy, but it retroactively became a bit of an odd moment as the series went on. With the eventual reveals of the Haki power system, in addition to it later being established that Shanks had a bounty of over one billion Berries when he met Luffy, it’s become harder to explain how something weak enough for Luffy to beat it at the beginning of One Piece could severely injure someone like Shanks.

Shanks losing his arm is a major inconsistency of early One Piece, so The One Piece should try and make it easier to justify. Shanks losing his arm is far too iconic to be removed, but at the very least, The One Piece should try and make it clear that Shanks wasn’t in the right state of mind to protect himself with Haki when saving Luffy, as that’s the only way to truly justify Shanks losing his arm. That would make the overall worldbuilding more consistent, so it would make sense for The One Piece to do something like that.

8

The One Piece Needs To Make The East Blue More Knowledgable Of Devil Fruits

The One Piece needs more consistent lore

Devil Fruits are one of the signature elements of One Piece, but they haven’t always been handled well. The East Blue saga had most people treat Devil Fruits like they were a myth, but later sagas would establish the biggest players in the world as being Devil Fruit users, retroactively making their treatment in the East Blue saga weird. Even weirder is how Sanji was equally ignorant about Devil Fruits, but it later became a major plot point that he had wanted the Clear-Clear Fruit since he was a child, so his ignorance in his debut made even less sense.

The early treatment of Devil Fruits in One Piece is very odd, and it’s something The One Piece should try to change. Doing so would be as simple as not having characters in The One Piece treat Devil Fruits like they’re supposed to be a myth, and since it becomes a major plot point that Sanji wanted to eat the Clear-Clear Fruit since childhood, changing that would do a lot for the story’s consistency. It’s something that could be removed without changing anything about the story, so there’s no reason for it not to happen.

7

Racism Towards Fishmen Needs To Show Up Earlier In The One Piece

The One Piece needs to acknowledge its darkest element

Like many fantasy settings, One Piece has numerous plot points revolving around racism towards fantasy races, the most prominent being the repeated discrimination of Fishmen. It would be hard to know that right off the bat, however; when the Arlong Pirates first appeared, the focus was exclusively on how they saw themselves as better than humans, and the idea of Fishmen being discriminated against wouldn’t be explored until years later in the Sabaody and Fishman Island arcs.

The way the world of One Piece treats Fishmen is a major part of its worldbuilding, and The One Piece should try and have it come up sooner than it did in the original anime. While Arlong and his crew should still be explicitly villains, The One Piece introducing Fishman discrimination earlier would add some more depth to the conflict with Arlong, so it would only benefit from a change like that. Netflix’s live-action One Piece did something similar to great effect, so it’s proved it can work.

6

Garp Should Have A Role In The Beginning Of The One Piece

Garp needs more screentime in One Piece

Luffy’s grandfather, Monkey D. Garp, was properly introduced in the epilogue to Enies Lobby, and he’s been a prominent recurring character in the series ever since. Garp technically appeared before then, though, as he was involved in Koby and Helmeppo’s cover story, but what’s odd about that is that it took place during the East Blue saga, yet Garp never had any interactions with Luffy. The pacing of the East Blue saga probably didn’t allow for anything like that, but it’s still a missed opportunity, nonetheless.

Garp not showing up in the East Blue saga is a clear missed opportunity, but The One Piece can fix that. Garp showing up in the East Blue saga could be used to further develop his relationship with Luffy. The live-action series had a similar idea that led to Garp being an antagonist, and while The One Piece wouldn’t have to go in that direction, it still shows that a lot of good could come from having Garp appear earlier than in canon.

5

Ace & Sabo Need To At Least Be Referenced Earlier On In The One Piece

Luffy’s brothers need more attention

Two of Luffy’s strongest relationships in One Piece are with his brothers, Ace and Sabo, but the introduction of their relationships was somewhat odd. Ace was never seen or mentioned until his brief appearance in the Alabasta arc, which was still relatively early into the story, but Sabo was never mentioned until Ace’s death, and his relationship with Luffy was only explored in a flashback after it that ended with Sabo seemingly dead.

In both cases, Ace and Sabo are introduced at points where it’s difficult to fully explore their relationships with Luffy, but it would be easy enough for The One Piece to fix that. At the very least, The One Piece could have flashbacks to, or occasional mentions of, Ace and Sabo throughout the show, as that would work to add depth to Luffy’s bonds with them that weren’t there in canon. Sabo would especially benefit from that, as it would make his character feel less tacked on to Luffy and Ace, so something like that would be great to see.

4

The One Piece Needs To Properly Integrate Uta Into Canon

Uta deserves a place in canon

One of the biggest characters to be introduced in One Piece in recent years is Uta, Shanks’ daughter and Luffy’s childhood best friend. Uta’s relationships with Luffy and Shanks added a lot to both of their characters, but while Uta is canon, her movie, One Piece Film: Red, explicitly isn’t, and with how late into the franchise she was introduced, there’s never been a good opportunity to properly introduce her, not even through flashbacks.

Luffy and Shanks have only benefited from Uta’s inclusion, so The One Piece should try to better integrate her into canon. The series is bound to open with Luffy’s childhood, so it would be easy for The One Piece to go back far enough to when Uta was still around for Luffy and Shanks; if not that, then just like with Ace and Sabo, the series could also have occasional flashbacks to Luffy’s time with Uta. With how important a character Uta was, something like that would certainly add a lot of life to the series from start to finish.

3

Nika Needs To Be Part Of One Piece’s Lore From The Very Start

One Piece‘s biggest mystery needs more development

Despite how recently he was introduced, the Sun God Nika has quickly become one of the biggest parts of One Piece’s lore. In addition to being the first genuine God introduced in One Piece, Nika’s power is the true power of Luffy’s Devil Fruit, its real name being the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika, and Luffy being the latest person to harness his power after Joy Boy has made people see him as a prophetic figure destined to save the world.

Nika has undeniably become a big part of One Piece, and The One Piece would benefit from changing his execution. A major criticism of Nika and everything related to him, especially Gear 5, has been the lack of build-up behind it all, so The One Piece could introduce the idea of Nika early on in the story and make later developments involving Luffy feel more natural. Doing something like that could make the eventual debut of Gear 5 even better than it was in canon, and that would do a lot to set The One Piece apart from the original anime.

2

The One Piece Needs Better Art & Animation Than The Original Anime

One Piece‘s animation needs more consistency

Beyond its execution of certain story elements, one aspect of One Piece’s anime that’s always been criticized has been its art and animation. As is common with long-running anime, One Piece has a fluctuating quality of art and animation. Everything from the Wano arc onward has been more consistent and all-around good, but it doesn’t erase all the years of the animation failing to live up to the quality of the story.

Before doing anything with the story, something The One Piece has to fix about the original One Piece anime is its art and animation. The improved work on the original One Piece anime has done wonders for its popularity in recent years, so for The One Piece to succeed as an anime, its art and animation need to be just as consistent and good as what the original anime is currently doing, if not even better. Wit Studio has a great track record for animation, and with any luck, The One Piece will be their best showing yet.

1

The One Piece Can’t Have The Original Anime’s Terrible Pacing

One Piece needs to fix its pacing

If there’s anything that One Piece’s anime is truly criticized for, of course, it’s its terrible pacing. Not only does each episode only adapt one chapter of the manga at a time at best, but scenes will often be stretched out to random lengths to pad out the runtime, the story often suffering as a result. Add in the typical tedious filler arcs of long-running anime, and One Piece easily has some of the worst pacing of any anime.

Pacing has almost always been a problem for One Piece, so The One Piece needs to avoid the pacing issues of the original anime to have any true success, and since there’s no reason for the anime to have filler episodes or padding of any kind, that’s very likely to happen. The pacing is easily the biggest thing The One Piece has to fix to surpass the original anime, and with any luck, it will deliver on all of that and more.

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