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One Piece
Episode 1045

by Grant Jones,

How would you rate episode 1045 of
One Piece (TV 1999) ?
Community score: 4.2

One Piece continues its hot streak with episode 1045, delivering on more dramatic scenes and hard-hitting action. The only letdown here is not in what was delivered so much as what was not delivered, but that's to be expected.

Much of this episode is centered around villainous monologues. After Nico Robin's triumphant victory over Black Maria, the sense of momentum swings back the other way as we focus on Hawking, Big Mom, King, and Queen. It's lots of mwahahaha-laughs over burning backgrounds with our heroes either groveling, grunting, or fighting for their lives. There are simply too many heavy-hitters at Onigashima for things to end this soon.

Big Mom in particular gets to gloat over the lesser pirates before her. Despite Eustass and Killer both getting significant chest-size glow-ups post-timeskip, no amount of pectoral mass can save you when Big Mom crashes the party.

Though the heroes got a chance to shine too, namely Raizo and Sanji. Raizo is an odd duck; he's certainly not my least favorite of the Red Scabbards, but he's not a particularly noteworthy member either. Raizo's most telling features are the things that make him stand out visually: he's a ninja (which is not common in One Piece generally or Wano specifically) and he has NBA JAM Big Head syndrome (also strangely uncommon in the proportion-defying-world of One Piece). Sadly, beyond his early introduction in Zou, I've never really felt he was all that different from the rest of the Red Scabbards. Still, it's nice to hear him deliver his big call to action and get a bit of visual shine, and it's a testament to the Toei team's ability to make such an absurd character design work in a serious dramatic scene.

Sanji also gets to shine, and man it's great to see him in action. Despite all my misgivings about him, when he gets to do his thing it's always a visual treat and his battle with Queen is no exception. The flow and speed on display are superb – once again, hats off to Toei for bringing this battle to life. It's vibrant and exhilarating and I only wish there were more.

Also of note is the final scene with Cat-Viper and Perospero. Not only is this sequence stunning and fluid, with an almost astonishing level of detail on Persopero's facial features, it has some very interesting visual elements to boot. I'm not sure how many times I've seen such a lovingly animated archery POV shot like this, let alone in weekly television. The cartoonish elasticity of his face when Cat-Viper leaps in to attack is sheer delight in motion.

The only negative feature of this week is that it follows premium Nico Robin content and is by definition lesser, though that's not an entirely fair criticism on my part.

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.

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