Many anime fans have witnessed some version of this conversation: (Person A) “You should watch One Piece!” (Person B) “Doesn’t that have… like… a thousand episodes?” (Person A) “I mean… yeah… but…!” We One Piece fans are used to people being taken aback and hesitant when presented with how long the series is, even when we insist One Piece is absolutely worth it. Trust me when I say that I get the hesitancy: I only started watching the series in earnest in 2019. You should know what you’re getting into. So how many episodes does One Piece have? Short answer: many. Long answer: a lot.
One Piece the anime began in 1999, courtesy of Toei Animation, and is based on the manga, started in 1997, by Eiichiro Oda. Both have been running nearly non-stop ever since, which is more a credit to Oda’s ridiculous work ethic than anything. This also means new installments are still coming weekly. One Piece the anime airs its new episodes every Sunday morning in Japan, which translates to Saturday night in ‘Murica. I say all of this to prepare you for the large number which results from near-weekly installments for, in the anime’s case, 23 years.
How many is “many”?
So, yes, there really are over 1,000 episodes of One Piece. The 1,000th episode aired in November 2021 and was adorable. Episode 1015, which adapts the manga’s 1000th chapter, came out in April 2022, right before a hack at Toei Animation ceased production for a month. Maybe because of the hack, Toei seems to be planning on skipping the opportunity for a holiday break, so there will be 1049 episodes of the anime by the end of 2022.
Regardless, I recommend unequivocally that you begin your One Piece journey at episode one. As hard to believe as it is from the outside looking in (again, I was in your position just years ago, so I know), One Piece doesn’t drag. The plot, the characters, the stakes, and the lore really are growing, slowly and deliberately, over those thousand-plus episodes. And that makes it one of the most fascinating experiments in fiction ever conducted. In my humble opinion. Plus, the final saga is about to begin in the manga. Given that the fandom is about to go through a years-long streak of being especially excited and loud, I’d say it’s a good time to start.
(featured image credit: Toei Animation)
