#that said the G8 arc is worth a watch despite it being a filler

[moonpaw]

if i wanted to start one piece but could not emotionally handle the thought of watching all 1,038 episodes, where could i start?

You could try the manga! it's a faster experience if you don't mind reading

otherwise, if you are a pure anime watcher then one piece is a continuous plot series, jumping into the middle of it isn't really super recommended without starting from the beginning

so if you want to start from episode 1- then good news! you don't have to watch all 1038 episodes! there's a lot of filler in between arcs that you can skip, and a helpful site to use for the second half of the series (if you decide to keep going!)

using the episode wiki is a good way to keep track of which episodes are filler (skippable) and which are canon

the very first filler arc doesnt start until episode 54, and it's about 7 episodes long

in total there's about 84 filler episodes that can be skipped without worrying about missing canon events

if you're still watching by the time dressrosa rolls around, i'd recommend switching to One Pace, made by a group of people who edit episodes to match the manga's pacing because around this point it starts to slow down to a... very noticeable level (switching will save you SO many hours)

I usually only prefer One Pace for when the massive battles break out because i like to watch the extra little scenes of the strawhats goofing off lol, it really just depends on your own preferences! the option is there