One Piece Exec Discusses Possible Anime Stories for the Future

If you are a fan of One Piece, then you know the series has more stories to tell than possible. After more than two decades, the pirate tale has been busy handling its main arcs. Of course, there are other side stories to explore with the anime has done on its own, but the manga has included several subtle stories through its cover art. And if fans are lucky, they will see those tales turn into episodes before too long.

Recently, fans gathered at the Saudi Anime Expo to discuss all things anime, and it was there Shinji Shimizu showed up. The man acts as Toei Animation's Senior Director of Production, and according to Twitter user SkippyTheRobot, Shimizu said the studio has discussed turning One Piece's cover art into actual anime arcs.

"Toei Animation Senior Director of Production Shinji Shimizu said at Saudi Anime Expo that they're thinking of including the cover stories in the TV anime, but are currently busy with Wano as it is," SkippyTheRobot shared.

"This doesnt mean that it's happening just yet due to Wano being the obvious priority, but they are thinking of doing it."

Of course, such an idea is very appealing to fans. These cover stories have been around for years thanks to One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda. The stories are told through one-page cover illustrations included at the start of chapters. Usually, the story discussed happens parallel to whatever main arc is going down. From Buffy to Coby and Jinbe, all sorts of characters have gotten their own cover stories. Now, it seems these individual arcs may make it into the anime, and fans would be happy to see how these stories look fully fleshed out.

Do you want to see these One Piece cover stories animated? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.