Netflix's One Piece Is Secretly Making The Entire Franchise Better... No, Really

It is no exaggeration that the One Piece live-action was a massive game-changer for the franchise as a whole. Besides being well-loved by fans, the live-action pushed One Piece into the mainstream like never before, with the franchise reaching a whole new audience almost overnight.

Season 2 of Netflix’s One Piece has continued to be just as successful, and there’s plenty of excitement surrounding the seasons to come. All that to say, One Piece has benefited greatly from the live-action, and even though Season 3 is still a long ways away from releasing, it’s already helping out the main series in one major way.

Netflix’s One Piece Is Allowing Oda To Take More Breaks

Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, recently took a trip to the set of the live-action in Cape Town, South Africa. Netflix shared a video of Oda in the desert where Season 3 of One Piece, The Battle of Alabasta, is currently being filmed, with the mangaka seen interacting with the cast and sketching Luffy in the sand. Oda also mentioned this visit in a comment in the last issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, hyping Season 3 and its visuals, saying:

“I went to Cape Town!! It looks like Season 3 of the live-action series is going to have some incredible visuals too!! I’m looking forward to it!!”
– Eiichiro Oda, Weekly Shonen Jump #26, 2026.

Ever since its inception, Eiichiro Oda has been closely involved in the production of the live-action, be it choosing the cast or visiting the set, and this has likely been a huge reason for the series’ success. That said, at the same time, there has been speculation that Oda being occupied with the live-action is the reason One Piece’s manga has been going on breaks more often.

One Piece’s Elbaph Arc is on break yet again this week, with Chapter #1185 due for June 14, 2026, instead. Furthermore, while the series did drop a new chapter on May 31, the previous chapter was quite noticeably shorter than usual, spanning only 12 pages. In fact, despite being halfway into 2026, One Piece has only released 14 chapters so far this year.

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For years the debate on whether certain stories could work in live action was fierce, but then a single Netflix show proved it could be done.

Granted, most manga maintain a buffer of a couple of chapters ahead of the most recent release to stay ahead of schedule, though it’s hard to say for sure whether One Piece is doing the same, as the series did release an unfinished chapter as recently as the Egghead Arc.

One Piece’s Future Depends On Oda’s Wellbeing

Eiichiro Oda from his recent interview with Luffy in the front, smiling.

All that said, although it may be frustrating for readers, it is actually a good thing that One Piece’s creator is taking more breaks due to the live-action series, especially in the long run. Eiichiro Oda has been working tirelessly on the series week after week for nearly twenty-nine years straight, and so, if there’s anyone who deserves a break after all this time, it’s him.

Weekly Shonen Jump’s hellish schedule is infamously taxing on the physical health and well-being of its creators, with perhaps the most pertinent example being Hunter x Hunter’s creator, Yoshihiro Togashi. Eiichiro Oda may meet a similar fate if he keeps bulldozing forward without taking enough breaks.

Even though One Piece has entered its Final Saga and things are getting very interesting, most fans would surely much rather see Oda finish the series at his own pace than never see it to the finish line or be forced to go on a years-long hiatus like Togashi. On the flip side, Oda’s continued involvement in the live-action also means the series will continue to live up to fans’ expectations for seasons to come.