The Wano Country arc is the biggest and arguably the best arc in One Piece to date. The buildup for the arc started all the way back in the Punk Hazard arc. Luffy and his crew had to travel to different locations before they finally arrived in Wano.
While the arc has already ended in the manga, One Piece anime is airing new episodes every week. Normally, manga readers advise other fans to just read the source material as they consider it superior, but that narrative has completely changed with the anime adaptation of the Wano Country arc. Toei Animation has done a spectacular job of adapting the arc. The animation, combined with other reasons, makes the Wano Country arc better in the anime.
5 Better Quality of Animation
One of the biggest complaints about the One Piece anime was its quality of animation. Prior to the Wano Country arc, the animation quality was inconsistent. In some episodes, the quality was top-notch, while in others, it was considered below par. Ever since starting the Wano Country arc, Toei Animation has taken huge steps to get rid of this inconsistency.
Almost all the episodes of the arc are breathtaking, and they give fans something to look forward to every week. The studio has put some of the best animators to work on One Piece, which is the main reason why there are so many iconic episodes from the Wano Country arc. Episodes 957, 1000, 1015, and 1017 are easily the contenders for the episode of the year, and to think that all of them came out in the same year is truly staggering.
4 Soundtracks
Original soundtracks (OSTs) have always been critical to any successful anime series and One Piece is no exception. Almost every iconic moment in the series has been brought to life by the use of OSTs. Different OSTs help to bring out various emotions.
The staff working on the Wano Country arc has masterfully executed the job of using OSTs. They have used OSTs in several situations, but mostly they were utilized to increase the excitement in the fights and to make it easier to evoke emotions during a tragic moment. As the arc nears its conclusion, viewers can expect to hear even more incredible OSTs.
3 Pacing
One Piece anime has crossed the thousand-episode mark, which is a huge accomplishment for the series. Considering it is not a seasonal anime, One Piece has done rather well to not succumb to the fad of churning out fillers to maintain a healthy distance from the manga. While this has its advantages, it also has some huge issues, and one of them is the pacing.
Almost every One Piece anime has complained about the slow pacing in the anime. Several arcs, like the Dressrosa arc, felt unnecessarily dragged out, and it reached a point where many just dropped the anime altogether and started reading the manga. However, the Wano Country arc has no such issues, and it has good pacing. The manga still has better pacing, but given the quality of the animation and storyboard for every episode, it feels like the anime is a bit superior to the source material.
2 Extended Fight Scenes
One Piece is a shonen anime, which means the targeted demographic is young boys, who love adventure and action. At some point in their lives, almost every anime fan has pretended to be their favorite character, who fights against the bad guys. Dragon Ball won the hearts of the fans with its outstanding fights, so it was not surprising to see other anime series follow in its footsteps.
One Piece has a plethora of characters, and there are many fights in the series. While Oda does his best to give the fans what they want, he does have a tendency to keep the fights short, which is understandable considering he works hard every single week. This is where the anime comes in. In the Wano Country arc, there are many incredible fights, that have been beautifully animated. The staff working on the anime has also extended some of the fights, such as Roger vs. Whitebeard, and that decision went down extremely well within the community. After witnessing multiple high-quality battles, the fans of the series are enthusiastic about the final round of fights.
1 New Filters
In the previous arcs, the anime did not pay much heed to the little details. All the arcs had the same art style and filters, which at times failed to highlight the differences between the islands that the Straw Hats traversed. For the Wano Country arc, the anime has taken a brand-new approach. The staff has started paying attention to the tiniest of details, making the anime extremely vibrant.
The change in filters made a massive difference to the Wano Country arc, and it seems vastly different from the previous arcs. Fans will be hoping that the studio continues to go down the same path for the other arcs as well. While Oda's art style is brilliant, the Wano Country arc has been better in the anime. If a person still prefers reading, then they should still try to watch the weekly episode because it is honestly some of the best content that One Piece anime has ever put out.