The Egghead Incident Arc in One Piece’s anime is approaching its end now that Saturn is already causing a rampage on the island. In the middle of the chaos, the Giants have arrived to reunite with Luffy and take his crew to their homeland. Although we still have a few months to go before the Elbaf Arc begins, the pacing only allows one chapter per episode. The story is in a crucial phase with the Final Saga unveiling more mysteries than ever. The Elbaf Arc was already foreshadowed in the Little Garden Arc over twenty years ago, and it’s about time Luffy and Usopp fulfill their dreams of visiting the fabled Land of the Giants.
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The manga has already commenced the arc over a year ago, and we have barely even scratched the surface of the mysterious yet beautiful island. The arc begins with the mysterious disappearance of six members of the Straw Hat Pirates, including Luffy. When the mystery behind the Land of the Gods settles, the series introduces the cursed Prince of Elbaf, Loki, who has been serving his sentence for the crime of killing his own father. Every single chapter of the Elbaf Arc is either action-packed or filled with various revelations, which makes it all the more necessary for the anime to have a filler in between.
One Piece’s Anime Is Facing One Huge Problem Without Filler
As one of the longest-running anime series, One Piece has been releasing new episodes almost every week for over 25 years. Now, the problem with weekly release while the manga is ongoing is that the anime can easily catch up with the original source until there is nothing else for the studio to work on. The studio thought about the issues and went on a six-month hiatus last year, but that still doesn’t solve the major issue with the series. The pacing is still slow as usual, adapting one chapter per episode. Meanwhile, the newer series covers at least three to four chapters in an episode while maintaining a seasonal format, which works out well for them.
On the other hand, One Piece still maintains the trend of long-running series that were more common during the 1990s and 2000s. In order to ensure that the anime doesn’t run out of the source materials, studios used to release filler arcs, which were mostly original content featuring our favorite characters. This filler made great interludes between installments of the main story, especially in One Piece, which always provided a unique perspective on its vast worldbuilding. Arcs such as G-8 and Warship Island are always worth watching, no matter how much time has passed.
One Piece Should Instead Adapt Cover Stories or Expand the Lore
However, right now, One Piece isn’t releasing any filler; instead, it brands them as recap episodes, which no one actually cares about. Instead of dropping recaps every few weeks, One Piece can benefit a lot from filler, which can allow the studio to work on the upcoming Elbaf Arc and ensure there aren’t many breaks during its run. Elbaf is an incredibly intense arc, so the frequent recaps that the anime has been airing will just ruin the overall momentum as the series is in its final saga.
In the manga, we finally got to see the incredible island of the Giants, which is basically loaded with relics of the past. This goes before mentioning that the story introduces several new characters, both in the present and in the ongoing flashback. The anime can extend the Land of the Gods part from the manga while providing original content, or it can adapt the cover stories as fillers for a few weeks, which fans often miss out on. This could ease the burden of pacing problems while actively giving a reason to watch the anime while following the manga, avoiding series lows like in the Dressrosa Arc.
For example, the anime never explained that Bon Clay is still alive because it was revealed in one of the cover stories, and not in the main story. Since the world of One Piece is so vast, Eiichiro Oda can’t focus on every side character in the middle of a crucial arc, so instead, he came up with these cover stories that run for a few weeks or months, following several characters such as Buggy, Enel, Ceaser Clown, Yamato, and many more.
Do you think One Piece could benefit from filler arcs returning? Let us know in the comments below.
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