As a long-awaited manga fan event is about to be adapted into the anime, the series One Piece just surpassed the manga on one point: the conclusion of Sanji’s arc journey Wano Kuni.
The great success of the toei
The Wa no Kuni arc was a particularly intense arc for fans of One Piece. Along with learning more about various mysteries surrounding the world created by Eiichiro Oda, including the truth about Monkey D. Luffy’s powers, the samurai arc will have given us the most powerful antagonist that the Straw Hat Captain has faced to date: Emperor Kaido of the Hundred Beastsnicknamed the most powerful creature in the world.
But the battle between Luffy and Kaido wasn’t the only highlight of this fourteen-volume long story arc. In effect, Zorro Roronoa and Sanji Vinsmoke, the two most powerful members of the crew after their captain, were treated to duels worthy of their abilities : the swashbuckler fought King, whose bounty is estimated at 1,390,000,000 berry, while the crew cook fought Queen, with a bounty of 1,320,000,000 berry.
Episode 1061 thus saw the conclusion of the fight between Sanji and Queen. A wonderfully well-animated fight, bringing a clear added value compared to Eiichiro Oda’s manga, whose action scenes are increasingly criticized by some fans. The particular care of the Toei teams to iconize the character of Sanji reminds us how much the character is unfortunately increasingly neglected in the manga.compared to other very powerful characters who have come to the fore (one thinks in particular of Yamato in the Wano Kuni arc).
But that’s not the only area where the anime beat the manga on the fight between Sanji and Queen. In effect, the fight between Sanji and Queen is not exactly the same as in the manga, the anime allowing itself to emphasize the psychological evolution of the to cook. Indeed, where in the manga, the discussions between Queen and Sanji were based above all on the heritage of Germa 66, the anime had the intelligence to put the question of this heritage in a broader context: the construction of Sanji as a man, from his beginnings in the Baratie crew to his entry into the Straw Hat crew. A strategy not to focus only on an episode that disappointed some fans of the character.
Anyway, if obviously the quality of episode 1061 does not allow us to affirm that the anime is better than the manga version, we realize that the last statements of the Toei were not lies, and the current season of One Piece could well be one of the highlights of the year in terms of Japanese animation. In addition to a highly anticipated event that should happen in the coming weeks, the quality of the animation allows One Piece to compete with very popular anime like Demon Slayer or Hell’s Paradisethe new creation of the MAPPA studio.
By Gaetan Desrois
Hi, this is Gaëtan. Graduated with a Master’s degree in Modern Languages, I am a big fan of Pop Culture. I have a particular affection for the culture of the 80s/90s. A great reader, I am also a cinephagous and a drinker (one of the most balanced diets!). Fascinated by the Middle Ages, I am a big fan of Fantasy. Otherwise, I love Korean cinema, Japanese literature, series and British comics. Ah, I forgot: to know if there is wind, you have to put your finger in the rooster’s ass.