Anime

What is One Pace and Why Less Isn't Always More

What is One Pace and Why Less Isn't Always More

With more than a thousand episodes, it seems quite impossible to catch up with One Piece as quickly as possible, so fans took it upon themselves to help with that.

To deliver faithful to the manga experience fans started the One Pace project, its goal is to streamline the viewing experience, cut away unnecessary elements, edit fight scenes to be more quick and reduce the amount of seemingly pointless scenes, providing a more guided experience to get anyone up to speed. A noble but misguided task that frankly disrespects not only the creators of the anime, but even the manga, as One Pace actually requires a guide to view it. What wasn’t taken into account is that One Piece has proper pacing intended for the TV viewing experience, so trying to mold individual episodes into something they can’t do, which is emulating the pacing of reading a manga, resulted not only in cutting of necessary to the story scenes, but some story bits directly from the manga ended up being cut too.

Probably the most egregious example of that is that One Pace contains no scenes from episode 19 of the anime, or chapter 42 of the manga, it’s a flashback sequence that explains Zoro’s driving motivation, what makes him want to be the strongest swordsman, and introduces the character Kuina, who is still talked about despite her brief appearance. It is also one of the best episodes of the early One Piece that showcases just how much richer an anime adaptation can make the source material, dedicating an entire episode to Zoro’s struggles. Losing this story bit that is referenced frequently in Zoro’s storyline might end up leaving viewers confused, especially in regards to Zoro’s relationship with Tashigi, who looks exactly like Kuina.

Besides that, to be honest, One Piece just has some pretty decent filler in general, particularly the story arc G8 is often praised as the best filler in anime for its tight writing and frequently great animation, especially episode 199 which was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, a legendary modern director, whose work on the episode shouldn’t be missed by any animation enthusiast.

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One Pace isn’t the only project of such caliber, as fans of Naruto, inspired by Dragon Ball Kai, decided to make an aptly named Naruto Kai. This project is actually worse in most ways, because, while One Pace actually has more or less proper editing, the vision is there, it's just not a good vision, Naruto Kai lacks the same effort and feels more like poorly glued together episodes with very noticeable cuts between the scenes.

It’s a bittersweet notion, but there’s no substitute for the proper One Piece anime, if you wish to get into the series, then there’s no better way than to just watch it as it was intended in all its glory.

With more than a thousand episodes, it seems quite impossible to catch up with One Piece as quickly as possible, so fans took it upon themselves to help with that.

To deliver faithful to the manga experience fans started the One Pace project, its goal is to streamline the viewing experience, cut away unnecessary elements, edit fight scenes to be more quick and reduce the amount of seemingly pointless scenes, providing a more guided experience to get anyone up to speed. A noble but misguided task that frankly disrespects not only the creators of the anime, but even the manga, as One Pace actually requires a guide to view it. What wasn’t taken into account is that One Piece has proper pacing intended for the TV viewing experience, so trying to mold individual episodes into something they can’t do, which is emulating the pacing of reading a manga, resulted not only in cutting of necessary to the story scenes, but some story bits directly from the manga ended up being cut too.

Probably the most egregious example of that is that One Pace contains no scenes from episode 19 of the anime, or chapter 42 of the manga, it’s a flashback sequence that explains Zoro’s driving motivation, what makes him want to be the strongest swordsman, and introduces the character Kuina, who is still talked about despite her brief appearance. It is also one of the best episodes of the early One Piece that showcases just how much richer an anime adaptation can make the source material, dedicating an entire episode to Zoro’s struggles. Losing this story bit that is referenced frequently in Zoro’s storyline might end up leaving viewers confused, especially in regards to Zoro’s relationship with Tashigi, who looks exactly like Kuina.

Besides that, to be honest, One Piece just has some pretty decent filler in general, particularly the story arc G8 is often praised as the best filler in anime for its tight writing and frequently great animation, especially episode 199 which was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, a legendary modern director, whose work on the episode shouldn’t be missed by any animation enthusiast.

What is One Pace and Why Less Isn't Always More - image 1

One Pace isn’t the only project of such caliber, as fans of Naruto, inspired by Dragon Ball Kai, decided to make an aptly named Naruto Kai. This project is actually worse in most ways, because, while One Pace actually has more or less proper editing, the vision is there, it's just not a good vision, Naruto Kai lacks the same effort and feels more like poorly glued together episodes with very noticeable cuts between the scenes.

It’s a bittersweet notion, but there’s no substitute for the proper One Piece anime, if you wish to get into the series, then there’s no better way than to just watch it as it was intended in all its glory.