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One Piece
Episode 1003

by Grant Jones,

How would you rate episode 1003 of
One Piece (TV 1999) ?
Community score: 4.1

An action-packed episode that still manages to be mostly setup. The image of Queen unleashing the Plague Rounds on the samurai is one of the more distinctive images in the raid on Onigashima. The giant golden chaingun, the chaos unfolding on the floor below, the monstrous transformations mid-battle - it has echoes of Punk Hazard crossed with a bit of American Gladiators in a way that I find pretty engaging.

Most of the episode focuses on the settling of old scores. Wano is just as much about prior arcs as it is about the drama surrounding the island itself. In many ways Wano is such a huge arc because it is the culmination of basically every post-timeskip arc. From Kinemon and Momonosuke's introduction in Punk Hazard to the conflict between Jack, Dogstorm, and Catviper in Zou and the ongoing fallout from Whole Cake Island - the entirety of the post-timeskip era is coming to a head here.

This is a blessing and a curse. It can be too much at times and leave the narrative feeling increasingly overwhelmed and disjointed, much like last episode. Simply laying out the connective tissue between point A and point B for the huge cast can be a massive time sink. At times it is still entertaining or refreshing, but as of late the fatigue has been getting to me more often than not. 1003 has a lot of high moments of drama, particularly for the various Mink characters. But I still can't help but feel that these moments would have hit harder if they weren't all coming one after another in rapid succession.I wish the Dogstom/Catviper/Jack drama was its own episode AND the Carrot/Pedro/Charlotte drama was its own episode. Instead, due to time constraints, these hit within minutes of each other and then we're off to the races again with the Akazaya Nine.

I suppose complaining about “too much cool stuff happening at once” is a bit ridiculous, but I wish these moments had more space to breathe. Alas, we have a lot to cover…



Rating:


Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

One Piece is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.com. Save on Anime Streaming Subscriptions with Funimation.

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