Highlights
- One Piece anime improves with Wano Country arc, featuring high-quality animation and notable fights.
- Upcoming episodes to showcase Shanks vs. Kid and Garp vs. Blackbeard Pirates, highlighting popular characters and emotional storylines.
- Many more notable fights and revelations in the Egghead arc yet to be animated, with Toei Animation focusing on storytelling and quality.
The One Piece anime has been on a roll for the last few years. Toei Animation has been serious about delivering high-quality episodes every week. While the One Piece anime was not poorly animated, it didn’t quite have the same level of animation as its fellow shonen anime. It does make sense for the quality to drop off every once in a while, especially since One Piece is not a seasonal anime.
When the anime reached the Wano Country arc, Toei Animation decided to step up its game. The studio put the most talented names on the project, resulting in an adaptation that would be talked about for years to come. Currently, the anime is focused on the Egghead arc, which sees the Straw Hats reach Vegapunk’s laboratory.
The Story So Far
One Piece Episode 1110 featured the death of Shaka, one of Vegapunk’s satellites, who was shot by the traitor. With his death, the culprit bought themselves more time to carry out their mission. The Straw Hats and the rest of the satellites, except for York, are still busy trying to find a way to stop the Seraphim from running riot. Luffy and Zoro even formed a temporary alliance with Lucci and Kaku in hopes of gaining the upper hand. However, the durable bodies of the Seraphim enabled them to take a serious beating without any problems. Elsewhere, Sanji arrived in the nick of time to stop S-Shark from harming Nami. In the next few episodes, the story is going to shift to incidents around the world.
Shanks Vs. Kid
Round Two Finally Begins
Manga spoilers beyond this point.
The One Piece anime will bring two big moments to life. The first is the fight between Shanks and Eustass Kid. In the manga, it wasn’t even a fight, as Shanks used Divine Departure to beat Kid and Killer. The two Supernovas had no prayer against Shanks’ sudden attack. Once their captain was knocked out, those who remained conscious begged Shanks to leave them alone. Shanks took the Road Poneglyph rubbings and left the ship. Following his departure from the ship, Dorry and Brogy appeared and launched a devastating attack that destroyed the Victoria Punk. Not only were the Kid Pirates beaten, they were humilated by Shanks and the giants of Elbaf.
It will be interesting to see how the anime handles this duel. Is Toei going to make a 1:1 adaptation with no extended scenes, or will it stretch the fight to make Kid look a bit better? After all, he is a pirate worth 3 billion berries. This fight should happen in Episode 1112, and, as it is not very long, it will be wrapped up in the same episode. As Shanks is quite popular within the community, fans can expect the top animators to work on the fight.
The Hero Arrives In Hachinosu
Another exciting event that the anime will soon cover is the clash between Monkey D. Garp and the Blackbeard Pirates. Garp is known as the Hero of the Marines, but he hasn’t demonstrated what he is capable of. The clash against the Blackbeard Pirates gives him the perfect chance to show his strength. While Blackbeard is not on Hachinosu, the Titanic Captains will not stand idly and watch Garp destroy their territory. Among them, only Kuzan stands a chance at beating Garp.
However, it will be rather emotional for both, as they used to be close in the past. In fact, Garp served as Kuzan’s mentor. Garp’s training helped Kuzan become a better fighter, and neither of them would have thought that they would fight each other at some point. Also, it will not be a fair fight. The Blackbeard Pirates do not play by the rules, and they won’t make an exception this time. They will help Kuzan gain the upper hand in the fight by distracting Garp or attacking him while he is busy.
The outcome of the fight will affect the whole One Piece world, especially the Marines, as they will be losing their greatest ever fighter. There is a possibility that Garp might have some backup with him, but whether they are able to do any damage to the Blackbeard Pirates will be worth seeing. Once again, viewers can expect Toei Animation to put its best animators on the episode.
Will There Be More?
To put it succinctly, yes. There are still many notable fights in the Egghead arc that have yet to be animated. Almost all the clashes are phenomenal, and when Toei Animation finally adapts them, it will blow everyone’s minds. Aside from the action, there are many important revelations that happen in the arc. The studio must take care of them and handle them with the utmost care, as storytelling is one of the main things that One Piece is renowned for. Only time will tell whether it will supplant the manga or not.