An interview with One Piece creator, Eiichiro Oda, released recently in the photo collection and information book for Super Kabuki II One Piece “Ida Naru Sekai”, talking about what is to come for the series. Super Kabuki II is a Japanese kabuki play based on the popular series, it premiered in 2015 telling the Straw Hats adventure.
In this interview, Oda said that it would take another 1 to 2 years for the One Piece manga to reach the Wano Arc. This goes with earlier statements saying that the Wano Arc will be as big as The Marine Ford Arc, which was the climax of the first half of One Piece and had the biggest world changes in the series.
Along with this announcement, Oda also gave additional info about One Piece and his thoughts on the series. He commented that fan letters about foreshadowing make him think about the future of the story and its direction. Oda feels that the fans have a working hand to shape One Piece.
With creating the islands, he wants them all to be significantly different from each other and never similar to keep the audience from getting bored. The opposite is said with the main protagonist, Luffy, as he wants to keep his personality consistent from chapter 1 so the fans can have familiarity with these experiences. He also stated that it’s hard to talk about justice through Luffy because he is a pirate and it’s a theme that he likes to play with.
Currently, the manga is nearing the end of the Whole Cake Arc with the anime in the early stages of the arc. Last December, Oda said that he has plans to wrap up the Whole Cake Arc in 2017 and the series is 65 percent complete. He also hoped to bridge the Reverie Council of Kings and Wano arcs into the story by 2017 also. However, we are getting closer the end of 2017 and the Whole Cake Arc still has some story in it. This isn’t the first time that Oda time estimations went off course. He had planned to burn the Straw Hats first ship, Going Merry, in 2003, but it happened in 2006.