Is One Piece manga or anime better? This article will give you the most specific and clear answer about the things that One Piece manga does better than the anime version.
Is One Piece manga or anime better? This article will give you the most specific and clear answer about the things that One Piece manga does better than the anime version.
Both the manga and the anime are considered perfectly valid ways to experience One Piece to its fullest, but even so, they offer very different experiences, while also having their own unique twists.
Even though the manga has been around for over 20 years, author Eiichiro Oda is still one of the most popular mangaka in the industry, and One Piece is still going strong and more popular than ever. The anime can be flashy and eye-catching, but there are some aspects that only work well in manga. For anyone who is torn between the two, here are the main benefits of choosing the One Piece manga over the anime to enjoy the story.
No filler means better pacing
Like most shonen anime adaptations, the One Piece anime contains quite a few filler episodes that are completely unrelated to the main story and ultimately have nothing to do with the main plot. The reason this is such a big problem for One Piece is because the series is already very long to begin with, so not only do these filler episodes feel like a waste of time, but it's also difficult to pick out each filler episode without spending a lot of time reading through them.
Since the manga doesn't have any filler content worth mentioning, it leads to a much faster pace and some more interesting moments. Some fans still prefer to watch the filler episodes just to get some extra precious moments with the Straw Hats, which is completely understandable, but those who just want to follow the main story and experience it at a lighter pace will have a much better experience reading the manga.
Cover Story
Given the depth and richness of the One Piece world, most fans are eager to learn any little tidbit of information about the events that are taking place, and there's no better way to keep track of this information than through cover stories. This refers to the one-page illustrations that Oda often includes at the beginning of each new chapter, and their purpose is to highlight what a particular character is doing in that part of the main story.
Some popular examples include a cover story that follows Enel after Skypeia, showing how he eventually reaches the moon and even creates his own makeshift army. These stories have featured a lot of characters, including Hachi, Yamato, and Pudding, but because they are considered canon, that means they often foreshadow future events that will take place in the story. That makes them incredibly important for fans who want to keep up with everything that is going on.
Rereading chapters is easier
Given the sheer number of story arcs that One Piece has covered so far, it's understandable that fans would be eager to revisit their favorite parts. However, this can be difficult in the anime, as the overall pacing of most episodes is quite slow. As a result, rewatching the entire thing can be time-consuming, especially for long arcs like Dressrosa and Wano.
Manga readers, however, can read at their own pace, so if there's a long joke or dialogue that they're familiar with, they can skip ahead to the next part of the story that interests them the most. Anime often stretches out moments as short as possible to fit an episode's length, but manga feels much more focused and concise, making it ideal for binge reading and also for reviewing previous arcs.
All main content
While the anime tries its best to stay true to the original, it does take some creative liberties at times that start to stray from Oda's intentions. A recent example is how Sanji acts slightly differently in the Egghead arc and in the anime compared to the manga, even cutting some scenes out entirely without any real explanation.
Needless to say, anyone who wants to experience One Piece as the author intended should definitely pick up the manga. This isn't to say that the anime ruins Oda's original vision for the story, as it's still an excellent adaptation that does its best to convey what he wrote on the page, but some of these changes are still big enough to ensure that the manga is a more authentic way to take in the series.
Blood
The world of One Piece may seem very playful and lively at first glance, but anyone familiar with the series knows that it is also extremely dangerous and violent. As such, Oda added a lot of gore to the manga to really emphasize how brutal some of these battles are, but the anime tends to tone this down a bit without completely removing the gore.
Whether or not each fan wants to see the full extent of the gore is entirely up to them, but ultimately, this helps the manga to convey much more effectively the extent of the injuries a person suffers in an intense battle. The most notable example is Whitebeard having half of his face blown off in the manga during the Marineford War, while in the anime he only has a few bloodstains and stab wounds to emphasize the extent of the pain he suffered.