One Piece’s Remake Is Necessarily Unnecessary

Wealth. Fame. Power. A remake. One Piece has fallen victim to the remake trend far before its mainline series will see its eventual, inevitable ending. While the omnipotent anime and manga have already undergone the live-action treatment, it’s been announced that the anime itself will be remastered. This is excellent news, but it also serves as a significantly contradictory decision for the anime industry as a whole.

There’s no major expectation that the One Piece remake will double as a drastic departure from the original series (that’s well over a thousand episodes deep), yet at the same time, the announcement that One Piece will be given a remake of an ongoing series is a bit puzzling. With no end in sight, the sense of urgency that One Piece may press upon itself to remain relevant feels a bit self-imposed, considering the unavoidable nature and unmatched status that the pop culture titan has created for itself. With the One Piece trading card game being just as prominent as the manga and the anime, the anime’s remake may be excessive with purpose.

One Piece’s Remake Might Be An Important Endeavor To Pursue

The One Piece remake announcement may sound a bit redundant on paper, yet when examining the ultimate goal of the anime’s remake, perhaps the idea may not be as unnecessary as one may presume it to be. Simply titled The One Piece, Eiichiro Oda’s beloved anime will be recrafted by Studio Wit. However, this re-embracing of One Piece will feel a bit easier to digest when stripping back the daunting anime episode count. Studio Wit will only reanimate seven episodes to comprise the first season, allowing The One Piece to feel like a significantly less intimidating entryway into one of the most popular series of all time.

With One Piece being so notorious for its pacing and filler episodes, perhaps The One Piece is exactly what the seemingly endless saga needs. Condensing the density of each arc and the overall inconsistency in storytelling, being able to dissect One Piece through The One Piece ensures that there’s a more intimate understanding of what exactly Studio Wit aims to achieve through their remake. Deliberately understanding how to remake the anime without depleting its original value is a feat within itself, and instead leans into the most crucial episodes that set the foundation for One Piece‘s ability to thrive.

According to ComicBook.com, One Piece insider @pewpiece has reported that the creative team is addressing The One Piece with utmost integrity. “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,” Character Designer and Chief Animation Director Kyoji Asano said, per @pewpiece’s claims.

One Piece has an ongoing demand for streamlined and concise storytelling, which Studio Wit may set out to deliver through The One Piece without feeling the need to drastically alter Oda’s vastly imaginative world that’s become seemingly untouchable in its glorified status. At the same time, with One Piece‘s age starting to show as its first arcs take on the test of time, it’s wise to consider revitalizing how the anime may look to match visual standards for the modern age. Something is charming about the datedness of One Piece‘s original animation style, absolutely, though there’s hope that its glory can be restored through a fresher means of bringing the earlier arcs back to life.

Will Remakes Be The Next Big Anime Trend?

Studio Wit’s The One Piece may invite an unwelcome trend into the anime industry. Remakes, rehashes, sequels, prequels, and spin-offs have already threatened to dominate the entertainment industry. It’s been an ongoing pattern that’s been perceived as greatly unnecessary while intimidating the creative integrity of original works. The One Piece could unintentionally (and unfortunately) signal other anime to follow Studio Wit’s lead in remaking classic anime as abbreviated versions of the original. There’s not much of a want for other iconic pieces of entertainment media to be reconstructed, and it’s wise to leave them undisrupted. With anime in particular, there needs to be a preservation of original works for modern-day masterpieces to reflect upon, and for the industry to demonstrate its growth in an animated medium.

One Piece isn’t just cashing out on the remake commitment — it’s been announced that One Piece: Heroines will run concurrently as an official spin-off title. With potentially three One Piece anime series competing against one another while attempting to attract the same fandom, there’s a concern that the oversaturation of one series will distract from the innovation of others. One Piece needs to spotlight the women at the very heart of the story, though the high volume of One Piece content being created simultaneously can easily detract from individual stories attempted to be told. To overshadow a diverse story in favor of one that’s already been told is a concern that cannot plague the anime industry. With anime becoming such a mainstream phenomenon, it’s requested that original concepts and series be respected and given the trust to be able to stand on their own.

There’s really no need for anime remakes to attempt to recreate creativity that’s already been celebrated before. While animation studios aren’t showing the same interest in rebooting current titles, a creeping sense of fear that more may invest in revivals over new ideas may become a reality. The manga-to-anime pipeline already has a strong current, and there’s no doubt that the tides will change for an unpredictable (and unwanted) gamble on a remake’s success. Success isn’t even guaranteed — animation studios are blindly putting faith into the concept of a remake even being embraced by fans to begin with. If remakes do become a budding pattern, studios should tread lightly.

The One Piece should serve as a cautionary tale about how anime remakes are incredibly contradictory. It’s necessarily unnecessary: not a need, not a want, but an attempt to revive an iconic series for a new age, despite already keeping up with itself.

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