One Piece fans will soon have to pay to watch certain arcs of the anime series on Crunchyroll. The popular anime streaming service announced today that some of the anime's arcs will require a Premium Membership to the streaming platform to watch.
The first 206 episodes — the East Blue to Sky Island arcs — will remain free to watch. However, every arc after that will be gated behind the paywall.
The shift will be done in phases, beginning December 23rd with episodes 207 to 574 — the Water 7 to Fish-Man Island Arc. On January 20, 2025, the Punk Hazard to Whole Cake Island arcs plus six specials will move to the Premium Membership. And finally, the last phase will move on February 17th and include the Reverie, Wano Kuni to Egghead Island Arcs. You can few each specific arc and their corresponding episodes here.
It's unclear why this change is being made, although many were quick to blame Sony for the switch. Others just simply shouted "corporate greed" and threatened to pirate the episodes moving forward. The anime industry has been working tirelessly to crack down on illegal pirating websites, with some of the largest anime streaming sites shut down over the past couple of months.
Thankfully, Crunchyroll is one of the more affordable streaming services. The cheapest option, "Fan," only costs $7.99 per month and provides streaming access to the entire Crunchyroll library ad-free. It also includes access to new episodes shortly after release in Japan.
The most popular option is the "Mega Fan" membership for $11.99 per month. This also includes access to the entire Crunchyroll library ad-free plus new episodes shortly after Japan but allows offers streaming on up to four devices at a time, offline viewing, and access to the Crunchyroll Game Vault (a catalog of free games). The most expensive membership is the"Ultimate Fan" at $11.99 which offers all of the above but bumps the streaming to up to six devices at a time.
For those who don't want to subscribe to Crunchyroll, One Piece episodes are also available on Netflix and Hulu. But those streaming services also require a monthly membership.
Based on Eiichiro Oda's manga series of the same name, Toei Animation's One Piece is one of the most popular anime series in the world. Although it first debuted over 20 years ago back in 1999, it continues to find new fans — especially with the recent release of Netflix's live-action adaptation. Crunchyroll was a great place for newcomers to dive into the series and watch it in full without having to pay, but alas that will no longer be the case.