One Piece: what order to watch in — and which fillers to skip
Short answer: the order of One Piece is simple — the anime runs from episode 1 to today, and the movies are bonuses. The real question of 2026 is where to enter a saga of more than 1,170 episodes: the original anime, the Netflix live action, or the remake arriving in February 2027. Here is the guide, with the fillers to skip block by block.
Where to start in 2026?
| Entry point | Volume | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| The Netflix live action | 2 short seasons (2023, 2026) | testing the universe over two weekends |
| The One Piece (remake, Feb. 2027) | East Blue, redone by Wit Studio | those who can wait for the modernised version |
| The original anime | ~1,176 episodes | the full experience — the one this guide covers |
| The manga | 110+ volumes | the impatient — it remains the fastest route |
The anime: the main milestones
To find your bearings (give or take a few episodes):
| Episodes | Saga |
|---|---|
| 1-61 | East Blue — the crew comes together |
| 62-135 | Alabasta |
| 136-206 | Skypiea |
| 207-325 | Water Seven / Enies Lobby |
| 326-384 | Thriller Bark |
| 385-516 | Sabaody, Impel Down, Marineford |
| 517-574 | Fish-Man Island |
| 575-746 | Punk Hazard / Dressrosa |
| 747-889 | Zou / Whole Cake Island |
| 890-1085 | Wano |
| 1086- | Egghead (ongoing) |
Good news compared to Naruto: One Piece is only about 10% filler. Its real flaw lies elsewhere — the pacing, badly stretched after episode 517. That is why the anime switched in 2026 to a 26-episodes-per-year format, better produced.
The fillers to skip
| Episodes | Content |
|---|---|
| 54-61 | The Warship Island arc |
| 98-99, 102 | Alabasta fillers |
| 131-143 | Post-Alabasta: Goat Island, the Rainbow Mist |
| 220-226 | Ocean's Dream, Foxy's return |
| 291-292, 303, 406-407 | The "Boss Luffy" period-parody episodes |
| 317-319 | Post-Enies Lobby fillers |
| 326-335 | The Ice Hunter arc |
| 382-384 | Spa Island |
| 426-429 | Little East Blue |
| 575-578 | The Film Z tie-in arc |
| 626-628 | Caesar Retrieval |
| 747-750 | Silver Mine |
| 780-782 | Marine Rookie |
| 895-896 | Cidre Guild |
| 492, 542, 590 | Isolated crossover episodes |
The exception to keep: episodes 196 to 206 — the G-8 arc. Invented for the anime, yet unanimously regarded as the best filler ever produced. If you keep only one, make it this one.
The 15 movies: all bonuses, four worth the detour
No One Piece film is strictly canon: they are side adventures, to watch whenever you like once the matching saga is behind you. Four stand clearly above the rest:
| Film | Year | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Strong World | 2009 | written by Eiichiro Oda himself |
| One Piece Film: Z | 2012 | the best antagonist of the movies |
| One Piece Film: Gold | 2016 | the most spectacular |
| One Piece Film: Red | 2022 | the Uta phenomenon, the saga's biggest hit |
The live action and the remake: the new entry points
- The Netflix live action covers East Blue (season 1, 2023) then the entry into the Grand Line (season 2, March 2026). Short, faithful in spirit, and endorsed by Oda: the best way to find out in two weekends whether this universe is for you.
- The One Piece, Wit Studio's remake for Netflix, restarts the story from the beginning in February 2027: modern pacing, no fillers. If you have never started and nothing is urgent, waiting for it is a perfectly defensible option.
- The original anime continues in parallel, around episode 1,176, now in batches of 13 episodes.
The most common mistakes
- Trying to "catch up" in one go. At three episodes a day, it takes a year. Treat One Piece as a long-running series, not a marathon — it is a travelling companion, and that is exactly the point.
- Starting with a movie. None of them is an entry point: they all assume you already know the crew.
- Skipping East Blue because "it gets good at Alabasta". The first 61 episodes are where the crew is built — and that build-up is what makes you cry twenty years later.
- Confusing the remake with a sequel. The One Piece restarts the story from zero: it is not the continuation of the original anime, it is a second way in.
Know the saga? Prove it
Knowing the order of the episodes is one thing. Being able to put the events of the story in order is quite another — and across 1,100 episodes, it is a real challenge.
Junban has a One Piece theme entirely dedicated to that: you get a moment from the saga and simply say whether it happens before or after the previous one. Does Luffy meet Chopper before or after defeating Crocodile? No dates to memorise, no names to type: you just have to reason.
Solo or with up to 4 players, online or around one table — and the same principle then works across more than 50 themes, from movies to music, Naruto to Star Wars. That is what earns it first place in our comparison of timeline quiz games.
More sagas to sort out: Naruto, what order to watch in and which fillers to skip and Star Wars, what order to watch the movies and series.