One Piece Just Made History and Pushed The Limits of What a Episode is Capable of

How is this even possible? How is this even possible? Like, how in the hell does Toei Animation and their staff, the people they hire, keep raising the bar higher and higher than I have ever seen? Like, what we legit and what I legit just watched is honestly something that no words I say with what I know of the English alphabet could properly describe just how insane this episode was. And I'm just, I want to say it right now. I want to just hands down say this, episode of the year. This could be in part to recency bias, but if it's not the episode of the year in terms of like all anime I've watched, it is definitely the best episode of One Piece for all of this year, like straight up. The absolute quality and just immersion that was poured into this episode special is something that is of movie level quality. And I just, I understand now why people get so upset with One Piece. It's jealousy. It is, it is straight up envy and jealousy. And I understand that completely. When I take a hard look at just this episode special of One Piece and see what's on display just for a literal special, okay? I'm just like, this beats hands down basically 90% of anime that is aired this year in terms of episode animation and art quality and directing for the storyboarding and stuff. Hands down, this beats 90% of all the stuff that's aired this year. Like, that's actually insane. And look, I love One Piece. I'm a fanboy. Yeah. I'm not like a hyper, hyper mega fanboy. I can, I can notice and talk about flaws of the series. I'm not going to be someone that's blind to everything, but I will say when something is just straight up quality and it is actually pushing that limit of like, how is this even possible for a TV release instead of a movie release? I mean that. I would a hundred percent mean what I say when I say that this is honestly, I don't know how this was possible. I don't know how long it took Toei Animation to really cook this and bring this out, but whatever the case may be, we need to take a moment to really just talk about the individual that directed this fan letter episode for One Piece, Ishitani Megumi. She has definitely gotten a lot more active roles as of late in the past few years. I mean, and it's very clear that Toei Animation is very well aware of the skill set that Ishitani is capable of. It's become more obvious, especially allowing Ishitani to direct this entire episode One Piece fan letter. And it's like a, an in-between transition into like the remake of Fishman Island into also the six month hiatus of the One Piece anime. It's a very important role to have. Like what Ishitani just got to be able to direct this episode was extremely important because it bridges the gap from like people that are watching the current anime to people that potentially are going to watch the remake, but also give something in between for those that are waiting for six months. And it's a very risky maneuver, but I think what Toei Animation did, they were very smart about this and they allowed the skills of Ishitani to really cook. And I do hope at the very least what Toei Animation just showed us with this fan letter, that they are going to be going the direction of what they showed here. And what do I mean by that? Well, for one, I'm just going to point this one out. It's, it's very apparent. And honestly, it's what really took me by surprise. It's the, um, it's the blood. Like I actually was very surprised with the blood that was showcased within the special. Now I don't know necessarily how this was aired. Like, I don't know if this was the same One Piece time slot bracket that it normally release in. I don't know if this was completely just online release. I really don't know exactly how this was released in Japan, but I would love more One Piece, modern One Piece to look like this. And here's the thing. I talked about this a week ago when it came to like the, the One Piece news that came out with it going on a six month hiatus to, you know, it doing something that has never been done before going on a very extended long hiatus, potentially transitioning the One Piece long running anime into a seasonal. Um, one thing I talked about was that there potentially could be less censorship because they're going to be changing their broadcasting slot and stuff. We could probably get more violence and blood and stuff within the show. And if this is indeed what we can look forward to just that alone from this special, holy crap, One Piece is legitimately about to cook an egghead when it finally does come back later next year. Because I really hope this is like a sneak peek. I really hope Toei Animation is just like, this is what you can expect because if so, oh my God, like, oh my God. Um, let's get back into Ishitani for a second. So Ishitani, um, directed this entire episode. And I think if more or less because of the reaction I have seen and just looking at, you know, how it's reached into the top three best anime of all time on my anime list. I know you don't take my anime list seriously, but it's still very telling just how many people are really enjoying this, you know, fan letter episode. Um, I think that Ishitani is probably going to get more active roles going forward. I really do think at this point that because of just the reception that One Piece's fan letter has gotten, Ishitani is probably going to be moved into a very major spot, like director role of the upcoming One Piece, you know, series, you know, egghead and stuff. And if they do transition into seasonal, I could definitely see, you know, Ishitani being like the main head honcho or one of the big figure heads of the directing for individual episodes, especially after this. But, um, let's get into a little bit more details with this. So what is One Piece fan letter and why is it becoming such a huge conversation piece right now in the anime and manga community? Well, it does things that honestly hasn't been done yet. It broke. It broke some records as well in terms of like doing things we've never seen. It's never happened in the history of One Piece. And the way it was done was just it opened the door up for so much potential stories for One Piece. This episode special doesn't focus any spotlight. Well, it does have spotlight on them, but it doesn't have the main perspective of the Straw Hats. In fact, the spotlight of this episode, the main characters are grunts on the ground, kids on the ground and how they view the world around them, how they view pirates, how they view the Navy, the Marines, and how they idolize the Straw Hat Pirates. It's legitimately incredible episode because it does something super unique. We get to see just how terrifying the world of One Piece is from the perspective of a grunt, a soldier, a Navy Marine soldier on the ground. We get to see how terrifying like the pacifists are. We get to see how terrifying the Straw Hats are, Devil Fruit users are, how white beard was, how giant Orz's leg was that was cut off. You know, we get to really get a good perspective of what the common soldier sees that's constantly used as fodder and thrown around like nothing. It's a scary, scary thing that happens. And I just I love what this episode establishes. It establishes just the fear and the terrifying might of the big head honchos within the One Piece verse. And just like it really shows the scale of how far Luffy has come as well in terms of a regular grunt, a Marine soldier to an actual like Yonko now within the story. It's just it really puts a respect to how powerful he is and how people view him like as a freaking monster. Now, I love what this episode does. And it really it feels like once again, it's a fan letter. That's what this is called. It's like a bunch of fans of the Straw Hats have their own individual stories and how they, you know, are inspired or they love the Straw Hats to some way. And I love how it feels like just fans, fanboying and fangirling over, you know, our main characters put into an anime like setting. It's very beautiful. It's legitimately a very beautiful episode in terms of storytelling, directing, art and animation. It is like I said, it's hands down like one of the best episodes I've seen all year. Probably one of the best episodes of One Piece of all time. And I'm not just saying that because of recency bias, but like I said, it breaks the formula. It breaks the mold of One Piece and does something super unique. And I hope this episode with how well it's being received, I hope we get more stuff like this. I would love to see different POV shots of different arcs with characters. Like imagine seeing a character in Dressrosa turned into like a toy or whatever and getting to see their life as they're a toy and everybody forgets them and seeing everyone around them just, you know, acting like they're just a toy or not really human anymore. And when you see the Straw Hats come in and try to save the day, like imagine how cool a POV fan letter episode would be of like one of those episodes. Like if we took the perspective of a toy from Dressrosa, that would be insane. Like oh my goodness, please tell me. You have honestly so much material now to cook with, with opening the door with this that I want to see more. Like legit, there is so much potential here. Now let's get into one thing that needs to be discussed and that is obviously the art and animation, which I feel like that's going to be the big point that everybody's going to be discussing. The art and animation is, as I've already kind of hinted at, it's movie level. Like it literally, like it literally feels like it's a movie. It's straight out of a movie. And that's what's terrifying. Like it's actually terrifying. Like this pushes the modern limits, I think, of what an episodic TV show or not episode, but like an episode TV long running series can really do. And that's the crazy part. This is a long running. Like One Piece is a long running anime, and it's cooking like this. Imagine if it transitioned into seasonal, like really. It's so crazy just how much times have changed. 10 years ago, any series that Toei was attached to was more or less considered a curse. It was. It was considered a bad omen, a curse, and not good news if Toei picked up one of your favorite series, because they always did the bare minimum. That's like, look at the beginning of Dragon Ball Super. Let's look at like, for instance, Fishman Island to pretty much like some parts of Whole Cake Island. It's very clear that, you know, it wasn't viewed favorably. Toei wasn't. But I don't know what happened with their internal staffing, their management, whatever. Whatever happened was for the best, because they really got their act together, and they really are delivering some of the best products I have seen in terms of anime content in years. And I'm putting that up against every anime. Like they legitimately are delivering. And once again, I'm not a like a massive, massive mega fanboy of One Piece. Like, I love One Piece. I've been reading and watching it since 2011. But like I said, I can see flaws with it. I'm not going to say that it's perfect in every single way, but I will say that if we continue getting stuff like this, it gives more credibility to why One Piece really is the number one anime and manga. It really does. But I can see why so many people are jealous when they see stuff like this. Like, it's just it's too good, man. Like the envy and stuff. But how good One Piece is, I can see why. Because there's so many series I wish could even get half the love that One Piece is clearly getting. And. Oh, my God, man, I cannot wait to see what Toei cooks when they return next year. I really, really hope Ishitani gets more roles and directing roles, because this alone just showed how crazy One Piece would look if we had more directing like that. But OK, I'll leave it at that, though. Thank you so much for watching. May all of you have a fantastic day or night wherever you live. Be safe. Stay healthy. Shiny out.