One Piece: Longest Arcs In The Anime, Ranked (2025)

Toei Animation’s animated adaptation of One Piece is infamous for being one of the longest anime of all time, with more than 1100 episodes in total. This isn’t that surprising though, since the original manga by Eiichiro Oda has been in serialization for over 27 years, so this is already an extensive story in and of itself.

As expected, an extremely long anime like this one has extremely long arcs, and some of them are even longer than other completed shows. This length was not just caused because the original manga was extensive, but also because of some of the decisions that were made by Toei. So which One Piece arc is the longest one so far?

Updated on August 27, 2024, by Julián Fernández Loyarte: New episodes of One Piece are still being released weekly, helping it maintain its reputation as one of the longest anime shows in the entire industry, so it’s only inevitable that a few ambitious arcs were left out of the original list. As a result, this update contains three new arcs: The Zou Arc, The Egghead Arc (which is already one of the longest arcs in the series despite currently being on air), and the Water 7 Arc. Furthermore, the Featured Image was also updated in order to better reflect these changes.

13 Zou Arc

29 Episodes

• Episodes: 751 to 779 (With some filler in between)

The anime adaptation of the Zou Arc presents quite an interesting dichotomy: Most fans appreciate this arc because it’s relatively short, but it’s still among the longer storylines in the entire show, with a surprising 29 episodes in total. This reputation was caused, however, by the fact it takes place between two other massive arcs: Dressrosa and Whole Cake Island.

Without taking those other arcs into account, it’s easy to see why Zou Arc is so lengthy. After all, it formally introduced the Mink Tribe, their culture and their home island. Zou itself is a fascinating location with intriguing lore, and the immediate connections it has with the subsequent Wano Arc make it all the more memorable. On top of that, the anime included a few filler episodes, further extending the length of this arc.

12 Egghead Arc

30 Episodes

• Episodes: 1086 to 1116 (Currently Airing)

When the Egghead Arc began airing, most viewers might have believed that this was going to be a brief arc that would quickly set up a few things for the final saga of One Piece. To their surprise, however, this immediately became a surprisingly huge story with high stakes and a lot of important revelations, including the official introduction of Dr. Vegapunk himself.

If that wasn’t enough, the Egghead Arc also features epic encounters with CP0 and the Seraphim, and a fair share of updates on what other characters are doing in the rest of the world, like Cross Guild or SWORD. This ambitious story arc is already quite long, and the anime still has barely adapted half of its entire duration, so the final result is undoubtedly going to be even longer.

11 Marineford Arc

33 Episodes

• Episodes: 457 to 489

The Marineford Arc is the culmination of a lot of plot threads that have been building up since the start of the series. As a result, this is the arc that single-handedly changed everything about One Piece’s world, plot & characters.

However, while 33 episodes are quite extensive, most fans may find it to be way shorter than they initially believed, especially for an arc that features so many characters fighting against each other in a huge all-out war. This is because Marineford is just a small part of the story of the Summit War Saga, which was told across 5 different arcs.

10 Water 7 Arc

35 Episodes

• Episodes: 229 to 263

The Water 7 Arc introduced a lot of major plot beats that work together to create a gripping narrative. For starters, there’s the destruction of the Going Merry and the ensuing conflict between Luffy and Usopp, which is already quite emotional in and of itself.

However, that’s not even the only plot thread in the Water 7 Arc: There’s CP9, Nico Robin’s disappearance, references to her mysterious past, Franky, the Aqua Laguna, and much more. Therefore, it’s easy to understand why this arc ended up being so lengthy in the anime since it establishes many key elements that were later resolved during the Enies Lobby Arc.

9 Arabasta Arc

39 Episodes

• Episodes: 92 to 130

The moment that the Straw Hat Pirates entered the Grand Line, the seeds were planted for the inevitable Arabasta Arc. This ended up being a really important event since it was the culmination of a fairly long saga and the first big arc in the entire series.

While Toei Animation added a few filler episodes with story content that was not in the manga, these not only extended the arc but also helped viewers become more acquainted with Portgas D. Ace. Regardless of that, the Arabasta Arc does feature a huge war with many different players, contributing to its length. This is a recurring trope that would later be reused for many future arcs.

8 Skypiea Arc

43 Episodes

• Episodes: 153 to 195

The Skypiea Arc is quite interesting because of how different it is from other arcs in One Piece. Aside from the brief setup that was seen in the extremely short Jaya Arc, the ruthless conflict of the sky islands takes place entirely within this one arc, from beginning to end.

This makes a lot of sense, though, since the plot of this arc is unique because it feels more like a fascinating adventure through a foreign land instead of the traditional shōnen battle arc. Not to mention that the main antagonist, Enel, is extremely powerful, so defeating him and his underlings takes a lot of time.

7 Thriller Bark Arc

45 Episodes

• Episodes: 337 to 381

This is yet another case of a long story that takes place almost entirely within a single arc that is not really connected to other arcs. Thriller Bark is infamous among some viewers for being positioned between the much more popular Enies Lobby and Sabaody arcs, but it slowly gained more fans over the years.

The Thriller Bark Arc is very long because it has an unexpected turn: What starts like just another story of the Straw Hat Pirates exploring an unknown island, ends up becoming a dangerous confrontation against one of the Shichibukai, which results in an amazing – albeit fairly extensive – final battle against Gecko Moria. Not to mention that Bartholomew Kuma also appears at the very end.

6 Enies Lobby Arc

46 Episodes

• Episodes: 264 to 312 (With some filler in between)

Nico Robin is going to be imprisoned by the World Government, and the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates (and many of their allies) take off to the judicial island of Enies Lobby in order to rescue her. This is one of the most important plot points of the entire series, so it makes sense that it would be this long.

Every single Straw Hat gets an individual battle against the members of CP9 where they obtain a powerful new power-up, with the only exception being Usopp. But even he gets a big moment where he shines. At the end of the day, the Enies Lobby Arc is this extensive, not just due to all of these fights, but also because of a few filler recap episodes that Toei Animation stuck right in the middle of it.

5 Punk Hazard Arc

46 Episodes

• Episodes: 579 to 625 (With some filler in between)

While Enies Lobby and Punk Hazard have the same number of episodes, the latter has no filler in it, meaning that it’s technically the longer arc of the two. But this is something that won’t surprise the more seasoned One Piece fans, as the post-timeskip era of the anime is notorious for having exceedingly slow pacing, which extends the length of the more recent arcs.

On top of that, Punk Hazard is not even supposed to be that long of an arc because it has the task of introducing concepts and characters that will be resolved later, during the Dressrosa Arc. But it still has a good number of characters and battles, which increases its length anyway.

4 Fish-Man Island Arc

51 Episodes

• Episodes: 523 to 574 (With some filler in between)

The slower pace of the post-timeskip era of One Piece was initially felt by viewers during its very first big arc: Fish-Man Island. But the extensive length of this arc makes a tad more sense since this is where audiences get to see how strong the Straw Hat Pirates got after their 2 years of extensive training.

Fish-Man Island also introduced an entirely new location that fleshed out the struggles of the fish-men and merfolk for the first time in the series. Not to mention, that it also features the tragic flashbacks of Fisher Tiger and Queen Otohime and the first mention of Joy Boy. These are important plot points that make up most of this arc’s duration.

3 Whole Cake Island Arc

95 Episodes

• Episodes: 783 to 877

The Yonko are some of the biggest and most powerful figures of the One Piece world, so it makes sense that any arc involving them would be this many episodes. To make things even more convoluted, Luffy and his friends had to rescue Sanji after he was kidnapped by the Big Mom Pirates.

The Whole Cake Island Arc features different plot threads that were intertwined together quite seamlessly: Sanji’s backstory with Germa 66, the heist to steal the Road Poneglyph, the attempted murder of Big Mom, the epic yet long battle between Luffy and Katakuri, Big Mom’s hungry rampage and much more. All of that - plus the anime’s signature slow pacing - results in a massive 95-episode arc.

2 Dressrosa Arc

118 Episodes

• Episodes: 629 to 746

For many years, the anime adaptation of the Dressrosa Arc was extremely infamous among One Piece fans because of how excruciatingly long it was. And while it doesn’t hold the title of longest arc in the entire anime anymore, it is still widely disliked by many because of its tedious pacing.

Dressrosa is yet another big arc that features a huge cast of characters, both old and new, that either wants to defeat Donquixote Doflamingo or are fighting alongside him. But Toei Animation extended its length by reusing the flashback of Rebecca and Kyros over and over, which drove most viewers to exhaustion. Most fans prefer the manga iteration of the Dressrosa Arc, which is also quite long, but it’s much more enjoyable.

1 Wano Country Arc

191 Episodes

• Episodes: 890 to 1085 (With some filler in between)

The Wano Country Arc is massive: in 191 episodes, it tells the tragic story of a country that was first mentioned many episodes ago, and it features the huge war against the Beast Pirates and their captain, Kaido, a villain that was built up over the course of many arcs and sagas.

This arc was already extremely long in the manga, where it was already divided into 3 different acts, but the anime adaptation took it to a whole different level: While it was obviously hindered by the slow pacing once again, Toei Animation had the brilliant idea of extending some of the climactic battles in the Raid on Onigashima with additional content and award-winning animation.

There are some filler episodes in this arc, but those are few and far between. The Wano Country Arc is mostly made up of canonical content, and it ended up being even longer than the entire anime series that has been on air for many years. And the weirdest part is that it will most likely be surpassed by future arcs that will take place near the conclusion of the One Piece anime.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

One Piece

Action

Adventure

Comedy

Drama

Fantasy

Super Power

Studio

Toei Animation

Creator

Eiichiro Oda

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll , Netflix , Hulu , Pluto TV