The One Piece anime is slated to get a non-stop streamathon starting later this week.
The announcement came from the One Piece official YouTube channel. Although the video of the announcement can't be seen for viewers outside Japan, details from other sites, including ComicBook.com, note that the video unveiled "Anytime One Piece." This reveal is part of the show's 25th anniversary celebration, and starting on Oct. 29, the anime will stream in full, non-stop, for one whole year. That means anyone who wishes to see the series from the beginning once again will have a simple and free way to do so via the One Piece YouTube channel.
The significance of this should not be undersold for one major reason: currently, the One Piece anime is 1080 episodes long, making it one of the longest anime titles ever produced. Moreover, the anime isn't over yet, so its episode total will go up before the "streaming year" is finished. Counting the One Piece episode runtimes across those 1080 episodes means 450 hours of viewing content. It's also likely, but not confirmed, that the One Piece films and specials could be a part of the streamathon, thus extending the runtime even further.
To put this another way, One Piece fans can enjoy an entire loop of the anime in less than 20 days should they stay up and watch every arc/film. Meanwhile, those who plan to hop in and out won't have to wait that long until the episodes loop back around, and they can pick up where they left off or rewatch something they haven't seen in a while. All this will build up to the end of the One Piece manga and anime, both of which have now hit their final arcs.
The official description of the One Piece series reads: "As a child, Monkey D. Luffy was inspired to become a pirate by listening to the tales of the buccaneer "Red-Haired" Shanks. But Luffy's life changed when he accidentally ate the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit and gained the power to stretch like rubber...at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, still vowing to become the king of the pirates, Luffy sets out on his adventure...one guy alone in a rowboat, in search of the legendary "One Piece," said to be the greatest treasure in the world..."
The One Piece marathon begins on Oct. 29 on YouTube.
Source: One Piece official YouTube channel, ComicBook.com
