Netflix has been doing a lot with One Piece in the past few years, and a recent announcement is taking their involvement further than ever.
Netflix is slowly becoming the premier streaming platform for One Piece, and a recent announcement about the Egghead Island arc sells that idea even further. It’s plain to see that Netflix is trying to build something of a One Piece monopoly for themselves. The live-action series proved to be a massive success and was quickly renewed for a second season, and with Netflix set to produce a full-fledged remake of the anime titled The One Piece, they’re steadily becoming one of the best places to watch the series in all its forms.
Following the premiere of One Piece episode #1089, the first episode of the Egghead Island arc, Netflix announced that they would begin streaming One Piece’s Egghead Island arc from January 13, onward, marking the first time Netflix will ever stream One Piece weekly.
There are still some issues with how Netflix is handling the anime, but regardless, it’s a great sign of what can be expected of Netflix for One Piece and all of their anime, in general.
Netflix Still Needs To Fix Its Biggest One Piece Problem
As good as it is that Netflix will stream One Piece’s Egghead Island arc, they still need to fix the biggest problem in their handling of One Piece: their slow release schedule. At the time of writing, Netflix only has everything up through the Paramount War saga, and new seasons are only added every few months, so it’s hard to justify watching One Piece on Netflix when other sites have the entire library available. In fact, Netflix streaming the Egghead Island arc might work against them because of how confusing it might be to have such a large gap in episodes with no word on when it will be filled.
That’s not to say that Netflix can’t do anything to fix its One Piece problem. If Netflix truly wants to secure its One Piece monopoly, then all Netflix has to do is increase the speed at which they release older seasons of One Piece until they’re completely caught up and can stream the Egghead Island arc without leaving any viewers confused by missing content. With over 500 episodes between where Netflix currently is and the Egghead Island arc, they probably can’t just drop them all at once, but just speeding up their release schedule in any way would do a lot to make Netflix the definitive home for One Piece.
Netflix’s One Piece Announcement Is A Great Sign For Future Anime
If there’s anything to take from Netflix streaming One Piece’s Egghead Island arc, however, it’s that it’s a great sign for future anime licenses. While Netflix has started doing weekly releases in recent years, most of their anime are still subjected to batch releases, but if they’re committing to weekly releases of something like One Piece, then that’s a sign of them being more willing to do weekly releases than ever before, even of shows that could run continuously for years. Something like that could go a long way toward making Netflix the definitive home for One Piece and anime, in general, and that would be great to see, overall.
