Toei Animation’s 100 Billion Yen AI Gamble: What It Means for One Piece Fans

Toei Animation just dropped a decade-long game plan that swings for the fences: a nine-figure budget, new studios around the world, a push for a lot more original shows, and yes, AI is part of it. It is ambitious, a little corporate-speak heavy, and absolutely going to set off debates in anime circles.

What Toei says it is doing

• A 10-year strategy aimed at turning Toei into the biggest global anime player.
• More than 100 billion yen (about $650 million) earmarked for the first five years to build new facilities, buy tech, and make original content.
• New studios planned across Asia, plus a new outpost in Dubai focused on adapting content for international audiences and building teams in the Middle East.
• Tripling the number of new original series and targeting 25 international titles.
• The overall goal: expand production capacity, create more homegrown IP, and operate as a worldwide entertainment brand, not just a Japan-first studio.

Toei is clearly reading the room after the worldwide runs of One Piece Film: Red and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Those box office wins told them there is still plenty of growth outside Japan.

The AI part, in plain English

Toei says it wants artists at the center of the creative process, even as it explores AI. That sounds reassuring, but fans are understandably wary. Whenever studios chase efficiency, the people who draw, animate, and perform often end up squeezed on pay and workload while the tech gets the credit.

Best case, AI handles grunt work like coloring or background generation so animators can spend more time on performance, story beats, and detail. Worst case, it becomes a shortcut that flattens what makes hand-crafted anime feel alive.

'I hope AI is used incredibly sparingly like assisting the actual artists and creators to make their jobs easier instead of being used predominantly and for generation. Artists and voice actors and many other people of creation already aren't paid that well so I hope it's better'

- @AdamInsane11037

What this could mean for One Piece

This hits close to home for One Piece fans. That show works because you can feel the people behind it. Every punchline, every tear, every big 'Gomu Gomu' moment plays because someone made a thousand tiny choices by hand.

On the optimistic side, a budget this big could mean cleaner, more consistent animation and faster turnaround. Picture the Egghead arc with even smoother action and more refined effects, without the crunch. That is the dream scenario: AI assisting artists, not replacing them.

But if the balance tilts the other way, you lose the quirks and imperfections that give these characters their soul. A model can draw Luffy. It cannot decide why Luffy smiles.

The bottom line

Toei is aiming way beyond Japan now, with real money behind it and a plan to create and export a lot more original anime. If they use AI as a tool and keep artists in charge, this could be a big step forward. If they lean too hard on algorithms, they risk sanding off the human edge that made One Piece, Dragon Ball, and Slam Dunk stick in the first place.

Curious to hear where you land on this. Bold evolution, or a warning sign?

One Piece is streaming on Crunchyroll, if you want to revisit the baseline before the next wave hits.