One Piece: The End of An Era and A New Beginning

 The year of 2025 is coming to a close, and typically I write about my Game of the Year. But this time around, I did not finish my favorite game to its fullest. So, the next one may be about that, who knows. In favor of scrapping that idea, I have decided to write about the end of One Piece's original TV Adaptation. Something that I never really thought could happen, especially after 25 years of it. While I welcome the change for the series, I'm really gonna miss the behemoth. Now, One Piece may actually last forever. Regardless, I am going to talk about my history with the anime and go over some of my favorite parts. 

My first experience with the One Piece Anime was through the 4Kids Rap. I remember seeing it on Saturday mornings and immediately peacing out. I had no tolerance for the goofy pirate rap when I could be watching Sonic X, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or TMNT. So, for years that was my impression of One Piece. A TV show with a really bad rap song for an intro. This impression would dissipate years later, and serve as my gateway into Anime and Manga. 

Before my dive into the deep blue sea that was One Piece, I was only vaguely familiar with anime in general. There were the shows mentioned previously, as well as Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, YuYu Hakusho, Zatch Bell!, Bobobo-bo, Hamtaro, and Naruto. With Code Geass being the first anime that I actually sat down and watched. Just me and my brother watching episodes where we could. Even resorting to watching the episodes in multiple parts on YouTube. So, aside from Code Geass, my anime knowledge came from Cartoon Network's Toonami. 

The quintessential TV Block for people growing up in the 2000s and 2010s in the English-Speaking Western Hemisphere. Toonami was sort of like a sampler. As many of the shows that would appear here would be these long-running series. So, it never felt like you could complete a series when watching it on Toonami. Like, I have seen Naruto's Chunin Exams and Dragon Ball Z's Frieza Arc so many times through Toonami. The sampler platter helped to garner interest, and eventually move into the shows as a whole. It's one of the reasons why I like Toonami so much.

But what does Toonami have to do with One Piece? Well, eventually the 4Kids Dub of One Piece would be dropped from Toonami, and subsequently replaced by the Funimation Dub. And that change would become the key to opening my heart. This aspect falls more into hindsight, but is relevant. As the start of my One Piece journey began with rejecting the 4Kids Dub, and then embracing the Funimation Dub. So, the question now becomes why? Why take another chance on One Piece? The answer to that was simply, because it was on Toonami. 

I had just decided to watch an episode of One Piece. And it wouldn't be anything that makes sense. Lika an Arlong Park or Alabasta. My first introduction was the Davy Back Fight with Foxy. So, I have a lot of love for Foxy, Porche, and Hamburg. The goofiness was infectious, and it gave me something new to look forward to every Saturday. Eventually my brother would join me and he would start getting into it.

If I remember correctly, I think I moved onto the internet when Water 7 became the new arc. I just kept going because the storyline was so engaging and impactful. I never really watched a show with these kinds of emotional stakes. So, despite not having any context for anything pre-Davy Back Fight, I was able to feel all the beats in Water 7 and Enies Lobby. And let me tell you about Enies Lobby. 

The arc that made me love One Piece, and the arc that defines One Piece for me. It has all of the tension required for the perilous journey of saving a friend's life. But the arc transitioning from the stormy darkness on the Puffing Tom, and into the bright, blue skies of Enies Lobby, has been etched into my mind ever since I saw it. And to top it all off, we get introduced to Brand New World by D-51 with the new opening. So, not only does Enies Lobby start off with a bang. But it keeps that momentum for a majority of the adaptation, only dipping with the filler episodes as they jump off the tower. 

I can see now how this would kill people's pacing when watching week-to-week, yet when binging the episodes, it might as well have been a speed bump. As the standouts for me being Luffy vs Blueno, Robin's backstory and speech, and Luffy vs Lucci, would ultimately overshadow the pacing. So, with an arc chock-full of strong character moments and fights, these were the ones that I gravitated to the most. Not to mention the iconic, "Shoot down that flag" line. But in the essence of time, my journey started with Foxy and became cemented with the fall of Rob Lucci and his Dark Justice. 

From then on, I made my way through as much One Piece as I could. Only stopping to go back to the older episodes I skipped when my brother told to. That hill was 200 episodes long, but at that point, I was already in the 400s, so it made sense to experience the things that I missed. And that was nice as I liked hearing the Funimation versions of the openings and endings, as well as the performances once again. I say once again because at the time, the Funimation dub only covered up to Post-Enies Lobby. So, the Filler Ice Hunter Arc with Phoenix Puzzle onwards was only in Japanese. A transition that wasn't too bad, however, I started with the Funimation dub, and I wanted to watch what was there. 

Just like with Water 7 and Enies Lobby, the Sabaody Archipelago Arc and succeeding Paramount War Saga brought an amazing tension and emotional rollercoaster. Obviously, Kizaru would be a major standout in Sabaody, but I will always remember Mayumi Tanaka's masterful performance as Luffy that really made all of the moments in this stretch feel important. You have the slave auction, the decimation of the Straw Hats, and fighting the Pacifistas in general. Oda was really in his bag when crafting this section of the story, but would these moments mean the same if I had read them instead of watching them. Back then, maybe not. But now, I would say yes. It's more to do with the evolution of me as a viewer and person, than it is the work. Yet in that moment, it was Mayumi Tanaka. And before that, in Enies Lobby, was Colleen Clinkenbeard. 

And then there's the standouts during the Paramount War Saga. Like, Kazuki Yao's Bon Clay in Impel Down. Cheering incessantly for a dying Luffy that had been poisoned by Magellan. Or Toshio Furikawa's performance as Ace at Marineford that gets capped off by his dying speech. I remember exactly where I was when watching that scene. Sitting with my brother in his room at an ungodly hour just crying our eyes out when our Dad walked in confused as to why we were crying. Like, I couldn't stop the tears to even respond. I was an absolute mess. 

And then that train kept going with Post-Marineford, as we get the Curly Dadan and Garp confrontation paired with Jinbe's talk with Luffy. Two things I remembered fondly, but didn't know until recently that they were in the same episode, fuck me I guess. But what stood out with Dadan in particular was that performance once again. Noriko Uemura made me feel all of the same emotions that Mayumi Tanaka was feeding me. It's one of the reasons why I'm always thinking about this grieving Mother. And it's a similar deal with Katsuhisa Hoki's Jinbe. Yet with this one, it's always been more about the words. Which would be more about appreciating Oda and the screenwriter for that episode. However, I recognize Hoki's performance vividly when reminiscing on that scene. 

So, I would still have One Piece when catching up to the current anime episodes at the time. Which happened to be the start of Dressrosa. A now maligned arc in One Piece that has become known for its pacing issues across the board. While I agree now, I only really had an issue with Wake up! by AAA back then. I couldn't be too upset when I had jumped to reading the manga and knowing what would happen next. I could only complain that they were stretching it out too much. And it really sucks because Doflamingo was a great villain, and the return of Sabo was amazing. But at the end of the day, Dressrosa only really excelled at Luffy vs Doflamingo and Kyros vs Diamante, in my opinion. The former makes sense to a lot of people, but why the latter? I liked Kyros, and thought that him getting revenge was paid off well. But big shoutouts to the voice director that almost killed Gear 4's coolness. Making Mayumi Tanaka do a goofy theater voice actually made one of my friends hate the new form at first. Really had to sell him on that one after Dressrosa. 

With the One Piece Anime magic waning, more and more people would start to recommend just reading or using One Pace. As someone who came from the anime, it hurt. I understood the why, yet I still believed in the One Piece anime. And that tide would start to turn after Zou and into Whole Cake as the most problematic Straw Hat would get people to turn around on him. All the Sanji lovers, including myself, got to bask in one of the best redemptions in the series, as he would learn to rely on others. Always a self-sacrificing type that just refused any helping hand. Not to mention, we got the spiritual successor to Luffy vs Lucci in Luffy vs Katakuri. Thematically different, but fundamentally the same. Luffy couldn't leave without confronting Katakuri, and they both knew it. 

What I really liked was how they conveyed the idea of Katakuri teaching Luffy, and then feeling the thrill of the battle. Katakuri was not a normal villian, he was just doing it for his family. But the most important aspect was how Luffy cared not for appearances, he just wanted to fight because that's what he came to the Mirror World to do. Ultimately, Whole Cake Island perfectly showcased why Sanji was so beloved, and how Hiroaki Hirata nailed all of the emotional beats needed in that performance. 

And funnily enough this arc also put me on Namie Amuro, simply because I enjoyed Hope as an opening so much. What made it funny was that Fight Together might be the best opening song in One Piece overall. But it was Hope that made me really start to listen. It was also nice to see Namie Amuro get immortalized in One Piece as a retirement gift. So, while Whole Cake got a lot right, it didn't quite swing One Piece in the way that Wano did.

As a reader, I loved Wano through and through. It ushered in a new era of One Piece and ended the Yonko (Four Emperors) Saga that kicked off in Punk Hazard. But as a viewer, this was where I eventually fell off, still stuck at the 1,000 episode mark. I'll see the newest openings, and maybe some scenes that I hadn't watched, yet I haven't dove back in. Eventually I want to catch up, and there are a lot of reasons to. But for now, I mostly stick to reading. I still keep up with the movies, and I loved Fan Letter, the episode directed by Megumi Ishitani, yet I'm just not ready to jump back in. However, I will give a shoutout to Tatsuya Nagamine for the new direction that started with the Wano Arc. 

So, my journey with the One Piece Anime started with Foxy and is currently in Wano. A nice spot to be in if you ask me. It only goes up from here, and I'm excited to see how the schedule shakes out for the new production of One Piece. A series that has impacted my life on so many levels that's made by a man who needs to sleep for at least a month long. 

To the people who scoffed at the anime when it was at its lowest, that was a completely reasonable response. But what made One Piece worth it, were the elements that made it stand out. It's the performances, the music, and just the overall writing and narrative. Not a perfect ten out of ten production, but one that has stood the test of time. Thank you to the team at Toei over the years that brought One Piece to life, and thank you to Eiichiro Oda and staff for making One Piece. This may be the end of an era, but it is also a new beginning for the almost 30 year old manga. See you at the Peak.

And remember to Free Palestine, Free Congo, Free Sudan, Free Venezuela and to Free Lebanon from the onslaught of their oppressors. Never stop talking about them. They think that we don't care, but we see everything. Never forget that. They are trying to suppress our voices because they matter, remember that. There may have been a ceasefire in Gaza, but Palestine still needs to be completely free.