I have been a fan of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece for more than a decade now, and despite being well-versed with the franchise, it still manages to surprise me almost every year. The series has been growing strong for almost 30 years, and it is only going to go bigger and better as the story moves forward, and honestly, it is now driving me crazy.
In 2023, the Popular Japanese animation studio, WIT Studio, announced a One Piece remake, which made me spiral out of my mind. The reason behind this is the fact that the franchise has received so many spin-offs, adaptations, movies, etc., and even after that, the One Piece fans never get bored with it.
Ideally, in this situation, any other anime series would have been criticized by fans for dragging the narrative so much. But One Piece fans still enjoying it speaks for the loyalty to the franchise, and Oda’s ability to keep the story interesting.
The many different projects of the One Piece franchise
I once read somewhere that more than half of One Piece’s fans were not even born when the series first began, and it is something that is absolutely accurate. The series first began in 1997, and the anime industry has only become a mainstream form of entertainment in the past decade or so. Despite that, the series has managed to keep itself at the top of every list.
In terms of projects, One Piece has an ongoing manga, an ongoing anime series by Toei, a plethora of spin-off sequels and prequels, video games, live-action adaptations,14 feature films divided between canonical and non-canonical, one Original Video Animation, card games, merchandising, etc., and it is only evolving every year.
Plus, the biggest announcement in recent times, according to me, aside from the second season of One Piece live-action, is the remake that the franchise is getting by WIT Studios. The remake is being created to reanimate the series from the beginning in a more modern style that would connect with the modern-day anime fans who choose to ignore One Piece because of its old animation and pacing issues.
One Piece fans can never get bored with the franchise
I have witnessed many anime franchises getting flopped with just one new adaptation or project being added to the IP. Anime fans, in my opinion, do not like the idea of the narrative being stretched in another dimension by following a different plot. This tends to thin the story and makes it too complex or too boring, thus leading to fans criticizing it.
The only franchise that has not only escaped this problem but managed to ace it every single time is One Piece. Despite having so many projects, I have never seen One Piece fans complaining about the story being stretched too thin or the creators adding complexity to the narrative. Instead, there are literal fans (including me) who demand more One Piece content every year.
The credit for this, according to me, goes to Eiichiro Oda’s brilliant world-building and storytelling talents that have engaged One Piece fans for so long. The franchise has built such a loyal fanbase that not only defends it from others, but also supports every step that the creators and the management team of the franchise take. It is truly the most unique support group within the anime industry, and I am proud that I am a part of it.
One Piece is currently available to watch on Crunchyroll.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
