Why Manga Ends Sooner Than You Expect

One piece is definitely better and better as Oda sets the stage for Final War. With the Elbaph Arc bringing a massive reveal and now ending, fans are excited for what's next One piece. There has been a lot of debate not only about how the Final Saga is likely to develop, but also when the manga finally reaches its conclusion.

With Oda making several “inaccurate” projections over the past few years, fans are becoming increasingly skeptical that the manga will actually end before 2030. However, there are now several reasons to believe that One Piece may actually reach its climax sooner than most fans imagine.

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Oda Wants to End One Piece “Soon”

Eiichiro Oda has stated for years that he wants to finish the story “soon” and has also given several “deadlines” in many interviews. For example, in 2018 he said that he intended to end the story within five years, but as we can see, things went in a different direction. He also stated that about 80% of the story will be completed by the end of the Wano Arc. Of course, even if the writer has a good idea of ​​what will happen in the final arc (and it's clear that Oda has already defined how many things will develop), when they sit down to actually write it chapter by chapter, it's common to realize that the scope of events is greater than previously imagined.

In any case, One piece is already in Final Saga. The remaining question is how long it will take for the manga to actually reach its end. Oda has already dropped a few “spoilers” of his plans as he has stated several times that there will be a massive war that will make the Summit Wars, the “highlight” of the manga to many, look like child's play. Therefore, although it may take a while, the manga is really ends.

Imu Descending Upon Elbaph is a big Twist

The Elbaph Arc started out as something big because it immediately followed Egghead, which was a clear transition. So fans had no doubt that this arc would bring a massive reveal. Furthermore, this phase was expected to set the stage for war, but not necessarily immediately follow the Great War itself. While this may still be true, a few things changed in the last few chapters as an unexpected event happened: Imu decided to leave Mary Geois for a short while and descend on Elbaph.

While Elbaph was high stakes from the start, fans wondered why this arc didn't seem to have a clear opponent. Typically, each arc has a “main villain”, and since Imu is considered the main villain of the story, fans expected him to face off with the main characters later on. Now that Imu has officially stepped into the arc's main villain role, a massive battle against him is inevitable. However, the outcome could go one of these ways: Imu will either have to retreat as he seems to be weakened on Elbaph, or he will still be strong enough to force the Straw Hats to retreat. Either way, the stakes will climb even higher as Luffy will likely find a compelling reason to actively want to overthrow the world government.

Will One Piece end before 2030?

Given the pace of the Final Saga, many fans now expect the story to end by 2030 or even later. Oda has seemingly avoided new projections, probably because his previous ones failed to materialize. further One piece has grown even more in recent years. While this could be a sign that the big players expect the story to continue for a few more years, it also adds to the hype surrounding the end of the current anime, a new anime adaptation (which will likely cut fillers), and a live-action series. These are the three projects that depend on Oda completing the story. Keeping the series going for another ten years would probably make both the remake and the live-action film especially difficult to produce.

Additionally, Imu's arrival on Elbaph seems to change things significantly as it gives the feeling that the final war is coming. If some fans initially thought that this arc would be followed by a transition arc, now it seems that the war will start right after Elbaph wraps up. Oda stated that this arc will be concluded in 2026, and possibly sooner than many originally thought. While there's no official word yet, it really seems like Oda is aiming to get everything done within the next four years; there's even a chance we'll see the finale well before 2030.

The anime began covering the Elbaph arc

As Elbaph ends in the manga, the anime just started adapting this arc. The first batch of episodes airs during the spring 2026 anime season, and the first episode premiered on April 5. Once this course is over, the next batch should start around September. So far only episodes are released with subs, but the English dub will probably be out in a few months.

One piece

Release date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imayomura, Yashiôhiro Mayuū Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

Writers

Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda

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  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

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  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)