The 2024 Crunchyroll Anime Awards were held in Tokyo, Japan on the evening of March 2, 2024. Most of the awards of the night, including Anime of the Year, were claimed by Jujutsu Kaisen‘s second season.
But we’re not talking about Jujutsu Kaisen. We’re talking about One Piece, which was only nominated in three categories and still walked away with two awards—including one specific award for the second year running.
Last year, One Piece won Best Continuing Series, beating out stiff competition from Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer. This year, One Piece continued the streak, winning Best Continuing Series and beating out stiff competition from, well, Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer. And Jujutsu Kaisen. The win means that One Piece has won half of the four total times that Best Continuing Series has been presented at the Anime Awards, and it’s the only series to do so consecutively. Sure, the Anime Awards has only happened eight times total. But I’m proud of One Piece and will spin the W however I please, thank you.
Some fans were even more excited about the other category One Piece won: Best Main Character, for our boy Monkey D. Luffy.
To those not inaugurated into the series, but aware that it’s having a widespread cultural moment—thanks to factors like the approaching climax within the series itself and all the hype around the Netflix adaptation—it might feel obvious that One Piece should nab some awards. Which, yes. But also, there are reasons the win feels significant that are specific to the anime’s triumphs within the year—and to its larger history.
What the wins mean
2024 marks the 25th anniversary of Toei’s anime, which first began airing in Japan in 1999. That’s a huge hallmark for a series to achieve. One Piece isn’t broken up like Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, etc. It’s been happening almost every single week for 25 years. It has been a constant presence throughout people’s entire lives.
But most media that have continued for so long aren’t able to keep up a high level of quality or momentum—there’s inevitably a dip, or people simply lose interest. Think of The Simpsons, for example. But that’s simply not the case with One Piece. A friend recently asked me if I have found Japanese friends who I can geek out about One Piece with, and a Tokyo native in the conversation cut in, “I mean, that’s basically everyone in Japan.” I later talked with a 14-year-old about how cool Zoro is.
Add to Japan’s continuing love for the series the fact that One Piece is actively growing in popularity in other parts of the world, specifically the United States. One Piece is entering its endgame and has entirely avoided the slump. Not only that, but a character created 25 years ago still continues to captivate so many hearts that he wins Best Main Character in a fan-voted award show. That’s truly exceptional.
This past year the One Piece anime has successfully encapsulated all that excitement. As One Piece as a whole grows in global popularity, Toei’s anime is the best it’s ever been. Last year’s Best Continuing Series win was a testament to the newfound strength of the series. The Wano arc saw the series rethink its art style.
Starting with the Raid on Onigashima, which serves as the final act of the arc, Toei decided to allow their individual animators the freedom to use their own unique styles in the show, which has turned One Piece into a hotspot for some of the most innovative, exciting animation in anime. Regular viewers can easily attribute certain sequences to certain animators, due to their distinct art styles. It’s so rare, if not fully unheard of, for a television series to celebrate its animators’ individual voices in this way.
“We want to experiment”
One Piece‘s win in 2023 was so deserved because of its newfound and innovative explorations of animation. Between that win in March 2023 and now, that wildness was been turned up to 11. The end of 2023 was also the end of the four-year-long Wano arc, and therefore this particular year of One Piece contained many spectacularly animated climactic moments. Specifically, we saw the unveiling of Luffy’s Gear 5, which married anime with the classic 1950s “cartoon antics” style of Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry. Not only was it a highly-anticipated moment of growth and triumph for Luffy, but it was a bold stylistic mashup that (as far as I can research) had never been attempted before.
The season was also historic for including the first episode ever directed by someone who’s not Japanese—episode 1066, directed by Henry Thurlow. Thurlow celebrated that this particular moment was an acknowledgment of the cross-cultural importance of One Piece by asking animators from all over the world to contribute to the episode. This even included Ian Jones-Quarterly, the creator of OK KO! and known One Piece fan.
The end of the Wano arc is very much about the younger generation rising up against the old guard, in the interest of building a new era. While there’s of course no “old guard” that needs to be defeated within the One Piece Toei staff, the sense that young, new animators are reinventing the show and shepherding it into a new, glorious era is palpable.
In his speech to the press after accepting the award for Best Continuing Series, Yasunori Koyama summed up (through an interpreter) this moment in the One Piece anime beautifully. “Of course, we want to keep what we’ve been establishing for 25 years. But at the same time, we want to do something [experimental] and challenging as well.”
“To everyone around the world watching One Piece, thank you so much,” Koyama continued. He laughed as he said “thank you” as if the scope of those global fans was hitting him for the first time.
That commitment to innovation on a legacy series that could’ve just continued doing the “same old, same old” is worth celebrating. Having that legacy series say it wants to experiment and challenge itself is downright exciting.
(Image credit: Toei Animation)
