Summary

• One Piece Fishman Island Re-Edition addressed pacing, animation, and story issues effectively.
• The remaster improved art direction and trimmed filler content, making the arc more bearable.
• Despite initial concerns, the remaster shows consistent improvement in quality and pacing.

One Piece’s Fishman Island has always been a sore topic for fans of the series. While many are quick to defend the arc, others have healthy amounts of criticism for it, citing an overabundance of gags, weird animation, and subpar pacing. While most fans can agree it’s far from the worst arc in One Piece, with Long Ring Long Land taking the prize in that category, Fishman Island is arguably one of the most polarizing major arcs in the series.

Due to this, when the One Piece anime went on hiatus in December 2024, rather than just leaving fans with nothing to watch, the series released a new remaster of the Fishman Island Arc, dubbed, One Piece Fishman Island Re-Edition. This release, though far from being as exciting as new content, has done a good job of taking a polarizing arc and making it much more palatable to fans. In fact, with every passing episode, it seems that One Piece’s Fishman Island remaster just keeps getting better and better.

One Piece Fishman Island Remaster Upgrades A Controversial Arc

This Rerelease Shows That There's Always Room To Improve

Although the original Fishman Island anime of One Piece has its fans, the arc itself suffered from a few major issues: pacing, animation, and story direction. Firstly, many fans felt the arc, which could have been fairly quick, was drawn out and way too long. Next, many fans were not particularly fond of One Piece’s new art style overhaul for the anime after the time skip, especially since many characters lacked details and shadows in their expressions, making the animation feel cheap. Finally, many fans feel that Fishman Island overall has a weak story direction, filled with gags and an unmemorable villain.

We are so close... I know you can reach the light of the sun. - Otohime

However, with the release of Fishman Island Re-Edition, the animators have set out to solve many of the arc’s glaring problems in the One Piece anime specifically. Since the release, trimming various scenes, shortening the space between certain pieces of dialogue, and removing any unnecessary elements from the arc, cutting out over 30 episodes worth of One Piece filler content. Additionally, while the animators didn’t reanimate the arc, they were able to add detail to the pre-existing animation, vastly improving the overall quality. Finally, while the arc can’t change problems, like the fanbase’s disdain of Hody Jones, by trimming out all the fluff of the arc, things like gags seem far more bearable than before, even if it means cutting out some of One Piece’s best goofy moments.

The Fishman Island Remake Had Many Positive Changes In The Beginning

It Still Had Its Issues In The Beginning Like Pacing