One Piece: Anime vs Manga – Which Is Better?

One Piece is one of the longest-running shounen series ever, spanning over a thousand chapters and episodes. One Piece started off as a manga series in 1997, with an animated series beginning shortly after in 1999. While it took a while, the anime isn't too far behind the manga, meaning you're never too far from seeing the latest chapter fully animated.

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With so many episodes and chapters that tell a story spanning over two decades, you may be wondering which of the two you should start with, anime or manga? While a lot of fans both watch and read One Piece simultaneously, more time-conscious people may want to choose just one to focus on.

8 Art

Manga

Throughout the hundreds of chapters Eiichiro Oda has drawn for One Piece, his work has slowly gotten better and better, and some panels of the manga are truly breathtaking. The expressive line work and paneling make the characters come to life on the page.

The backgrounds in each panel are also incredibly detailed, filled with nameless characters, detailed architecture, and other bits that you could spend hours looking at. While the anime is beautiful in its own right, the manga is something special, earning it the first point.

7 Character Design

Tie

One Piece has some of the most unique character designs in the shounen genre. Each character has a unique design that sets them apart from the rest of the cast. Combined with each character's powers and abilities, it's never difficult to keep track of the hundreds of characters the anime introduces.

That said, in the manga, some of the characters can look similar due to only being able to be portrayed in black and white. While flashy outfits and unique details definitely help alleviate this, it's just easier to tell who's who in the anime. Both are excellent in their own regard, though.

6 Fight Scenes

Anime

The One Piece manga's art may be fantastic, but the fight scenes hit a whole lot harder in the anime, thanks to the power of animation, sound effects, and voice acting. The manga does a very good job at conveying information during a fight scene, and they're often amazing to look at, but this is where the anime shines in comparison.

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Luffy's rubber powers are also portrayed better in the anime thanks to the fluid motion of animation, which really helps characterize the captain of the Straw Hats. The fight scenes in the One Piece anime are definitely a stand-out, and it's not uncommon for manga-only readers to go back and watch just the fight scenes later.

5 Immersion

Anime

Just like with animation, the One Piece anime has aspects that just can't be done in manga due to the limitations of the medium, such as voice acting and music. These add a lot to the anime to make it more immersive than the manga. Since you can read the manga at your own pace, you may sometimes speed through dialogue or gloss over drawings, which can lessen their impact.

The anime doesn't have this problem, and even goes a step further to immerse you in its story with the amazing voice work done by the cast, perfect sound effects for every situation, and music that builds hype during big battle scenes.

4 Pacing

Manga

The One Piece anime's pacing has been a long-standing critique. As the anime caught up to the manga, it became more and more frequent for the anime to draw out certain aspects so that they wouldn't completely catch up and have to wait for more of the manga to come out before continuing.

While there's something to be said about the consistency of anime episode releases, it does come at the cost of the episodes having poor pacing. The manga tells the story at exactly the speed it needs to, and while some arcs can be a bit long, it never wastes your time in the way that the anime sometimes can.

3 Length

Tie

Speaking of the pacing, this also factors into the length of the anime and manga. If you were trying to get through One Piece as quickly as possible to catch up, the manga would be the obvious choice, as reading one chapter of the manga takes a lot less time than watching an entire episode of the anime.

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However, if you're a journey-before-destination type of person, you may not mind the length of the anime. In fact, some treat the 1,000+ episodes as a positive, because there's simply more of their favorite show to watch. For both of these reasons, this category comes out to a tie.

2 Extra Content

Tie

Both the anime and manga have additional pieces of content outside of their episodes or chapters, and both are worthwhile. For the anime, there are over a dozen movies that fit in throughout the series, adding world-building and introducing new characters. While none of these are canon, as they did not exist in the manga, some of the movies are great and worth watching.

The primary form of additional content in the manga comes from the SBS Question Corner. In each volume of the manga, Oda takes time to answer questions in fan letters.

While these can definitely get silly (which is fun in its own right), there's quite a bit of extra details you can learn about the Straw Hats from reading the Question Corner, like the ages and birthdays of the Straw Hats, funny details about incredibly minor side characters, and a whole lot more.

While the Question Corner definitely isn't as extravagant as an entire movie, both have their merits in expanding the One Piece world, so we've marked this category as a tie.

1 Verdict

Tie

Overall, both the anime and manga of One Piece have their merits, and which you prefer comes down to personal preference. If you value the fight scenes and immersiveness of the anime, that will be the better option.

On the other hand, the manga's tighter pacing and beautiful panels allow it to stand out. If the anime's drawn-out pacing is a dealbreaker for you, the manga delivers almost exactly the same story, but in a much more compact and deliberate package.

No matter which version of One Piece you decide to experience (maybe even both!), there's no wrong answer. There's a good reason why One Piece is one of the most beloved series of all time, so you really can't go wrong with either medium.

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