Henry Thurlow, who is a part of the One Piece anime staff at Toei Animation, thinks that 2023 will be the best year for the One Piece anime in its 25-year history.
He thinks both anime-only viewers and manga readers will be happy this year.
Here is his tweet:
What will happen in 2023?
It has been three and a half years since Wano started, and finally, in 2023, the Wano arc will end in the One Piece anime. Wano is the longest arc in the anime, and fans have been waiting for its conclusion for some time now.
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ANIME-ONLY WATCHERS AHEAD
I think the reason both Henry and I think that 2023 will be great for anime-only viewers is Gear 5.
If you read the manga, you know just how epic a transformation Luffy’s Gear 5 is. In my personal opinion, it is one of the best transformations in anime history because his powers suit him so well.
I don’t watch One Piece episodes regularly and usually stick to the manga. Still, you can bet I’ll be waiting for the anime adaptation of Chapter 1044 like everyone else.
The second reason Henry thinks 2023 will be great is that manga readers will get to see THAT scene adapted. Most likely, Henry is referring to Oda’s message at Jump Fest 2023, where he said that THAT person and THAT person would be fighting in 2023.
Oda loves leaving cryptic messages at Jump Fests and this year was also the same. Nobody can say for certain who Oda is referring to. Maybe he is talking about Shanks vs Blackbeard, or maybe Luffy vs Blackbeard. Or maybe it’s Monkey D. Garp vs Blackbeard that has been teased in the latest chapter. Whoever they may be, Oda has us manga readers hooked like every year.
Here is the full message that Eiichiro Oda delivered at Jump Fest 2023:
One Piece series
One Piece is a long-running manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since 1997 and has been adapted into multiple anime series, films, and video games.
The story follows Monkey D. Luffy, a young pirate whose body gains the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating a Devil Fruit, as he travels the Grand Line in search of the One Piece, a legendary treasure hidden in the Grand Line. Along the way, he gathers a diverse crew of pirates, known as the Straw Hat Pirates, to assist him on his journey.
You can check out the official One Piece manga on the Viz website. And you can watch the latest One Piece anime episodes every week on Crunchyroll.