For years, One Piece has been one of the best manga series in the world. In fact, it goes without saying that even today, One Piece is the greatest manga series, and its immense popularity after almost 3 decades as well as sales go to show for it. Content-wise, the One Piece manga keeps getting better and there's no doubt that it'll go on to reach higher heights in the future. However, the One Piece manga and anime are two wildly different things.
8 Anime Better Than One Piece
One Piece is a great manga, but it struggles in the anime department. These series have a superior anime adaptation.
While the One Piece manga is fast-paced, the anime features horrible pacing, and for good parts of the anime, bad animation. The One Piece anime is still good, but it most certainly isn't the best. Recently, Japan went on to choose its best 2025 anime at Newtype Anime Awards, and while international fans might've been hoping to see One Piece take the crown, the reality was very different. The best 2025 anime ended up being Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines, and it's a show that probably isn't all that popular globally.
Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines Has Beaten One Piece In Japan
When it comes to anime series, the tastes of fans in Japan are wildly different from what's preferred in the West. Series like Solo Leveling have taken the global world by storm, but in Japan, it's just another anime. At the Newtype Anime Awards, the best anime of 2025 was officially picked and the award went to none other than Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines.
I'm Luffy, the man who will become the King of the Pirates! — Luffy, One Piece Chapter 1
This slice-of-life anime series, which offers a relaxing experience to the fans, is loved by all anime fans in Japan, and that goes without saying. In terms of anime, it's apparently liked more than One Piece too, at least for the year of 2025.
This doesn't come as a surprise since the anime of One Piece isn't as good, and fans know for a fact that it just doesn't hold up to modern anime anymore, especially when it comes to pacing and things like sound design. Fans prefer modern anime, which is Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines won the award for the best anime.
Any series that aired or premiered between July 2024 and 2025 was eligible for the award, and as fans know it was Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines that ended up taking the crown.
One Piece Did Not Finish In The Top Five
Surprisingly, One Piece didn't even finish in the top 5 of the rankings. Gundam claimed the second position on the rankings, while series like The Apothecary Diaries finished in the third spot. Solo Leveling Season 2 was fourth, and finally, Uma Musume finished in the fifth place. It might be hard for some fans to accept, but the reality is that One Piece needs new life breathed into it, which is why the Wit Studio anime is as important as it is.
One Piece’s Greatest Episode Has Officially Been Revealed
The One Piece anime has quite a few amazing episodes, and this one has proven to stand out among the rest.
Why One Piece Needs A New Anime
It goes without saying that One Piece is the best manga in the world and it features arguably the best story of any anime or manga series. Unfortunately, the One Piece anime doesn't hold up to what is currently produced by other modern studios.
One Piece needs to massively improve and even though Toei Animation is taking some steps to remedy that, it must be noted that they're limited in terms of what they can do, since they have to produce 26 episodes a year and they're close to catching up, which means slower pacing, and bad quality.
This is precisely why One Piece needs a new anime, and Wit Studio is here to do just that. It was announced at Jump Festa 2025 that One Piece would be getting a new anime produced by Wit Studio using cutting-edge technology and delivering an adaptation that it truly deserves.
One Piece will be getting a modern remake that fans can truly enjoy, that can hold up to the modern masterpieces, and even compete with them at the very top. So far, no release date update has been provided when it comes to the new One Piece anime. Hopefully, it will premiere at some point in 2026.
Eiichiro Oda's One Piece will be featured in this week's Weekly Shonen Jump Issue. The official release date of One Piece Chapter 1166 is November 23, 2025. In Japan, One Piece drops at 12AM JST on Monday, which is 11:00 AM EST, or 8:00 AM PT. Fans can read the chapter for free on Manga Plus and the Shonen Jump apps.