While fans typically use the sagas and arcs listed on the series’ wiki, Shueisha has released the One Piece official arc list, and it shows that fans were wrong in how they divided the series.
The official arc list was released recently on the One Piece website, and it shows how Shueisha classifies the different arcs and subdivisions of the series.
One Piece Official Arc List
The arc list was translated into English and shared by @newworldartur on Twitter.
Fans have long divided One Piece into story sagas, with each saga containing multiple story arcs. For example, the East Blue Saga features 6 story arcs from “Romance Dawn” to “Loguetown.” This is based on the One Piece Wiki.
But in Japan, an arc and a saga are translated as just one word. For the English translation by @newworldarthur, the main divisions are called “sagas” which are then divided into “subdivisions” (the equivalent of the fan “arcs”).
Officially, Shueisha divides the series into 12 sagas, including:
- East Blue Saga (Chapters 1-101)
- Alabasta Saga (Chapters 102-218)
- Sky Island Saga (Chapters 219-313)
- Water Seven/Enies Lobby Saga (Chapters 304-441)
- Thriller Bark Saga (Chapters 442-490)
- Summit War Saga (Chapters 491-597)
- Fishman Island Saga (Chapters 598-653)
- Punk Hazard Saga (Chapters 652-699)
- Dressrosa Saga (Chapters 700-801)
- Zou Saga (Chapters 802-822)
- Whole Cake Island Saga (Chapters 823-908)
- Wano Country Saga (Chapters 908-present)
Each of these sagas contains one or more subdivisions which are named based on where in the world the story takes place. For comparison, the fan divisions are a bit looser with arc terminology.
Take for instance the Romance Dawn arc which is considered to consist of chapters 1-7.
But in the official list, chapters 1 and 2 each have their own subdivisions, with chapters 3-7 being lumped together as the Shells Town subdivision.
While this is confusing at first, the official subdivisions make more sense as they are named based on location instead of having arbitrary names.
Related: One Piece Creator Did Not Intend to Reach Over 100 Volumes
One Piece Final Saga
The official arc list only goes up to Chapter 1054, so there’s no word yet on what the Final Saga will be called and how long it will be.
While fans call it the “Final Saga,” official materials instead call it the “Final Arc.”
There’s some debate on what exactly it should be called, but given that arc and a saga have the same meaning in Japanese, it’s likely that the series’ final part will be a saga consisting of several subdivisions (if the official classification is used).
Whatever the case may be, what’s sure is that One Piece is heading towards an ending sometime in the next couple of years.