One Piece Controversy Erupts Thanks to World’s Largest YouTuber

Anime has been a growing industry for quite some time now, as streaming services like Crunchyroll have helped to push quite a few series and movies to the eyes of fans who otherwise might never have experienced them. With streaming services fighting against one another by creating original anime and housing classic franchises, it makes sense that One Piece would be a big player. To date, the Straw Hat Pirates have arrived on multiple platforms, and some of the world’s biggest streamers have fallen in love with the work of Eiichiro Oda. In a shocking new statement, one of the world’s biggest YouTubers has announced his love of the shonen series and his hate for the community.

Mr. Beast has been one of the biggest content creators in recent years, currently sitting with over four hundred and fifty million subscribers. Late last year, the creator admitted that he had never dived into the Grand Line, but with the encouragement of the streamer, IShowSpeed, began the long journey of following Luffy’s quest. While Beast has been enjoying the series so far, he shared some harsh words when it came to One Piece’s fandom community.

“The One Piece fanbase can be so toxic. They are constantly saying, ‘Oh, he’s not really watching it. He’s just trying to latch onto our anime to get our audience. Let me say something, and it’s probably a negative for me to say this, I’ve seen more anime than you little anime clowns. Go dig through my Twitter, Legends of the Galactic Heroes, I was tweeting about back in 2019, six, seven years ago. I’ve been tweeting about anime before some of you were born. I’ve watched all seven hundred episodes of Naruto.” You can check out the clip for yourself by clicking here.”

Read Next

2026 Will Be a Huge Year For One Piece Fans

One Piece Affects The World

Aside from Mr. Beast’s recent enthusiasm for the Grand Line, streamer IShowSpeed has been wearing his love of One Piece on his sleeve. Most recently, while traveling to Africa, Speed proceeded to recreate the Sun God Nika dance while meeting new people in the country. With the manga and anime adaptation currently in its final saga, the end might be nigh, but real-life celebrities are continuing to fall in love with the work of Eiichiro Oda.

2026 will be a big year for One Piece, even outside the love the anime is garnering from the likes of Mr. Beast and IShowSpeed. This March, Netflix will release the second episode of the live-action take on One Piece, bringing the Straw Hats to locales like Drum Island, Whiskey Peak, Loguetown, and more. While the anime adaptation will be making some big changes, foregoing its weekly release to go bi-weekly later this year, the Grand Line is remaining a major part of the anime world and will maintain this trend long after its conclusion.

What do you think of this latest controversy involving streamers and the world of the Grand Line?  Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!