The 10 Best Episodes of One Piece

If there's a series that seeks to challenge the theory of diminishing returns, it's One Piece. Eiichiro Oda's monstrous epic is the highest selling manga of all time, but its absurd length still keeps plenty of people from checking it out, and that hill is only going to get steeper as we barrel toward its conclusion (eventually).

Even more of a conundrum is The One Piece anime, which is a much bigger time commitment and doesn't boast Oda's fantastic artwork as a selling point. Yet so many fans experience the story for the first time this way and fall in love regardless. There's something magical about cuddling up in front of a screen and getting lost in a world over the course of several long binges, and the strong spirit that burns just beneath the surface, even during the anime's not-so-hot days, always keeps us building to a new “best” episode. Everybody's got their favorite episodes, the ones that they feel personally attached to, and we'd love for you to share yours with us in the forums. Here are my own ten best episodes of One Piece, in chronological (but not superlative) order:

It's hard to imagine in the current era, where the manga is so detailed and thorough, that there was once a time where the anime expanded on the story in really effective ways. The anime version of Zoro's flashback, which comes a little later than it did in the manga, is so good that it's the “true” version of that story in my heart. What was once a swift and blunt couple of pages is transformed into wonderful tone piece, letting us live in the Japanese countryside for an episode as we hear the story of a young Roronoa Zoro and his original rival, Kuina.

This episode also ends up being easily the most empathetic the show has ever gotten in its fascination with gender. It depicts Kuina, the prodigal child swordsman frustrated with the knowledge that when they become adults, the difference in strength between her and Zoro will increase dramatically. This is a moment for a young Zoro to take his female opponent seriously, and whatever thematic baggage is left over by her death is eventually picked up by Tashigi in the present day. This is the tender side of One Piece at its best.

There's a risk of loading a list like this with all the big emotional crying episodes, but I wanted to keep my choices varied. Episode 67 is the beginning of the Baroque Works saga, the first time Vivi comes abroad as a semi-member of the Straw Hat pirates, and our first introduction to Nico Robin back when we knew her as the villainous “Miss All Sunday”.

What stands out about this episode is its great mixture of tones, from funny to serious and finishing up with a sense of foreboding doom as we're threatened by the true strength of a new enemy. Right off the bat, the direction really pops, partially because our point of view is firmly with Vivi, and we get to see the Straw Hats at their zaniest from an outsider's perspective. Compared to the episodes surrounding it, the art style cranks up a notch, and the designs really breathe under the cool moonlight with some great comedic timing. This is the kind of episode I turn to when I just want to take in some of One Piece's world.

This is another great Zoro episode that puts us in the middle of the climactic battle between the Straw Hats and Baroque Works. Zoro's opponent is Mr. 1, who isn't really a swordsman but a guy who can turn his whole body into blades. Not only does Mr. 1's Dice-Dice Fruit allow for some creativity from the anime, but this episode manages to deliver one of the coolest fights in the whole series. It's bloody, raw, and Zoro throws a house at a guy.

The episode is at its strongest towards the end, when everything gets quiet and builds up to the final blow. I'm still not sure what the “cut nothing/cut anything” swordsman philosophy is even supposed to mean, but the show sells it with so much conviction that I trust it's cool. I think this is one of the strongest directed episodes of the series, and a perfect example of the show's eye for cinematic storytelling.

Like most casual anime fans, I knew the general idea behind One Piece's story, but I didn't seriously start paying attention until the Funimation dub took over on Cartoon Network, and I kept watching for the novelty of seeing One Piece with the cast of DBZ playing all the main parts. It was only a novelty for a short time, however, and I was immediately swept up in the spirit of the series. That infectious sense of adventure doesn't come without some fun and compelling drama, and Luffy vs. Bellamy was so satisfying that it got me to jump straight to marathoning the series. This is the episode that made me a One Piece fan.

Every time I revisit this episode, I forget that it gives us not just Luffy vs. Bellamy, but also most of the Jaya arc's world-building. This is our first time meeting the Five Elder Stars, Donquixote Doflamingo, Bartholomew Kuma, and the first time we get to see old-man Whitebeard in the flesh. It's become tradition that the series will unload its most exciting exposition and big picture storytelling in the changeover between big arcs, and episode 151 is one of the earliest and most important examples of this.

Ever been curious to see Mamoru Hosoda's One Piece movie, only to be disappointed by its lack of official release in North America? Have no fear, because he directed an episode that you can stream legally online!

This is the only filler episode on this list, but that's okay because the G-8 arc is by far the best filler arc in the series, worth watching even if you intend to skip most anime-only content. Even within a great mini-adventure about the Straw Hats getting split up and trying to escape an impenetrable naval base, episode 199 jumps out at you with its direction. Hosoda's animation style and Oda's designs have so much chemistry, and the whole episode moves in interesting ways that fluidly connect each shot to the next. Even before I knew it was Hosoda's work, this episode was exceptionally inventive and fun.

If 151 was the episode that made me a fan, 278 is the episode that made me a fan for life. This episode and the one before it are older examples of the series' “one-hour specials”, which ultimately get divided into two episodes once released to home video and streaming sites. Even as just the second half of a special, this episode is jam-packed as we conclude Robin's tragic backstory and transition into the present where the Straw Hats make their grandest gesture yet to save their friend from the corrupted World Government.

For being such a colorful and fun series, One Piece can get astonishingly sad, to the point where it's almost competing with itself to see how miserable it can get. These lows would grow tiresome if the highs weren't so gosh darn reliable, and Straw Hats' attack on the government flag followed by Robin's big “I want to live!” scene is one of the most cathartic moments you'll ever find in fiction. The Straw Hats are still underdogs at this point in the story, so their bold “never give up” attitude in the face of their greatest enemy hits especially hard. From baby Robin escaping the genocide of everybody she's ever loved to adult Robin begging for another shot at life, this episode shows the chasms that One Piece will leap to be the saddest and happiest story it can be.

Probably the most difficult choice to make for this list is deciding which of the many great Sabaody Archipelago episodes to choose. Should I choose episode 392, which introduces the Eleven Supernovas? Or maybe episode 400, which explores the story of Roger, Rayleigh, and what it means to be Pirate King? The closest runner-up was actually 405, which serves as the “end” of the Straw Hats as we knew them, remaining unresolved until the time-skip years later.

But I have to go with what is still one of the most commonly referenced and applauded moments in One Piece, where Luffy punches a Celestial Dragon so hard that he knocks the color off the screen. If there's one thing One Piece is incredibly good at, it's payoffs. It sets the pins up so that it can knock them down in the most bombastic way possible. The Celestial Dragons are the most heinous villains we've met in One Piece to this day, and the consequences of defying the World Government (again) are clear, yet Luffy still has to do his Luffy thing.

What really grabs me about this moment is the emphasis the show puts on Luffy's promise to Hatchan not to interfere, no matter what. You get the impression that Luffy's the kind to keep an earnest promise, but it's always interesting to see a hero get pushed beyond that level.

As far as I can tell, the common consensus is that Fishman Island is the worst arc of the series. I don't agree with this sentiment. I believe that it's one of the heaviest, most three-dimensional examples of fantasy-world-racism-as-metaphor-for-real-world-racism I've seen. The mid-arc flashback covering the plights of Fisher Tiger and Queen Otohime is basically a movie-length drama, and it's one of the best flashbacks of the series, for which there's fierce competition. Truly underrated.

Aside from being an exceptionally pretty episode, both halves of it—one at the tail end of the flashback and one coming out of it—are extremely powerful. Neptune mourning his wife's death, distraught that the complexity of race relations means he can't express his anger, is a great scene, as is Nami's forgiveness of Jimbei for his connection to the Arlong pirates. What makes this arc great is the push and pull between hope, cynicism, guilt, anger, and love. Even at its darkest, you only ever feel like you're halfway through whatever life's about to put you through.

As for its place in the big picture story, this episode's an important step in Jimbei's relationship with the Straw Hat pirates, and it establishes the Ryugu Kingdom's intent to join the World Government and attend the Reverie, a heavily built-up political event that's due any day now in the manga. This episode coming out on DVD recently helped remind me how much I loved it, but even since it first aired, it's always been a favorite of mine.

This is a real stand-out episode for fight animation in the series, because it's so much more physical than usual. Even with Smoker and Vergo's powers flying every which way, the impact comes down to their good ole fists. The personal investment between two marines duking it out is already pretty strong, but the great choreography and style puts it over the edge, and that alone would put an episode like this on my radar.

That said, there is a cherry on top once Smoker vs. Vergo switches over to Vergo vs. Law, with the true villain of the arc, Doflamingo, listening in from a distance. Law defeating Vergo in such an over-the-top way is given so much impact by the rest of the series. Everything in this world is connected, and if a rookie duo like Luffy and Law take down one major figure, the rest of the world reacts accordingly. The destruction of Doflamingo's S.A.D. factory is a great scene with a great speech from Law, and the consequence of that act is a tidal wave that the story is still riding to this day as the alliance tangles with Emperors like Kaido and Big Mom. To be a pirate is to change the world irrevocably, and after going through the stuff our main characters have, we have a sense of how big of a choice that really is.

And thus, the most recent episode on the list. This is another piece of a one-hour special, but the filler-heavy first half (episode 807) is almost entirely disposable. This is the fourth time, after Nami, Usopp, and Robin, that a Straw Hat has threatened to leave the crew, and frankly it's the least threatening of them all. If we were looking at just the core story as told by the manga, Sanji leaving the crew gets a smirk and an eye roll.

But this is a case where I believe the anime significantly improves on the story. The only other time that Luffy got into a serious fight with a crewmate was Usopp, and if I was watching Whole Cake Island for the first time through the anime, I would have found this episode profoundly effective. Most of the episode is just Sanji beating on Luffy and Luffy playing pacifist, but what really elevates the material is the music and performances. There are tracks I don't think I've ever heard in the show before that underscore the story wonderfully, and Mayumi Tanaka does some of her best work as Luffy out of the entire series. Much more than the fight, my favorite part is the final scene where Luffy is shouting his impassioned speech as Sanji departs and tries to hold back his tears. It's the kind of scene where the moment by moment experience is so delicate that the right piano note on the right shot will get you welling up. That's true for a lot of scenes in One Piece, but this is the first time in ages where it felt like the anime was truly trying to up its game.

So those are the episodes I think are the most worth revisiting! Obviously, with a series this long, I'm bound to have missed a few or omitted enormously important episodes in this top ten list. If you have any favorites that absolutely need to be celebrated, shout them from the rooftops! (And by rooftops, I mean the forums.)