AROUND THE WORLD WITH THE NEW ONE PIECE OPS

WAI KWAN WU - Editor-in-Chief, 3rd Year, Molecular Cell Biology

“We have peaked :,,)”

Ask any One Piece fan and they can tell you: anime watchers have been eating well recently. There's a good reason for that: there's been an exciting rise in talented young animators at Toei Animations, and that directly translates to some of the most exciting stuff that we've been seeing in the franchise. While I personally prefer some of Toei's other ventures and wish we got some of those folks there instead, it's hard to not feel infected by the waves of optimism that emerge whenever a cool new episode of One Piece drops. And within this realm of exciting One Piece events, no one has made as big of a splash as Megumi Ishitani, a prolific director who burst into the scene with their excellent direction on some big episodes. Ishitani episodes always end up being a big deal, which I can definitely respect but not always have the context to fully appreciate. That being said, Ishitani has also recently found herself directing a few openings for the franchise, which are things that I can absolutely appreciate on their own. And boy let me tell you, they're pretty dang amazing.

The first is Saikou Toutatsuten, which capped off the end of the Wano arc. It starts off rather unassumingly, with a simple ink circle containing recap footage in the center of the screen. This blossoms into something greater though, as Luffy eventually bursts through the circle and we are immediately taken into a journey through One Piece. A forty second segment encapsulating over a thousand episodes worth of One Piece history may sound like a Herculean task, but Ishitani has a way. As the opening zooms through over thirty shots showcasing different characters, the circle motif in the center ties everything together. This is such an incredibly brilliant motif, as visually it manages to connect the many colorful shots together via a single throughline, turning it into a cohesive whole. Praise also has to be said about the sheer amount of ways that the OP is able to create the circular imagery, ranging from positive space to negative space to virtually everything in between, making it a ton of fun to go back and examine everything in detail. Of course, this barely scratches the surface of what this OP manages to achieve, because the motif is also incredibly resonant thematically, with the unification of the circle showing how everyone's connected, and how everything has come full circle in the long journey of One Piece. This truly makes it a wonderful celebration of One Piece, and even as someone from the outside looking in, it's easy to see how much love this opening holds for the franchise.

Anyone would've been satisfied by this one opening, but Ishitani would soon follow up with yet another masterpiece, with the introduction of the Egghead arc following Wano. Assu! enters the show perfectly capturing the zany energy of the franchise and remains no less impressive. This opening goes for flatter, brighter colors in approach, and makes the designs of the characters stretchier than ever before. The personality comes through in spades, from the gang bouncing around in this new world to Luffy whizzing across the screen. The command that Ishitani has over color design that allows for this level of expression without ever coming off as garish is nothing short of breathtaking. And heck, when the chorus drops and Luffy flies over the city in Gear 5 form? That's just an absolute banger, and the infectious energy of it all makes it easy to fall in love more and more. If Saikou Toutatsuten is an emotional tribute to the extensive history of the franchise, then Assu! Is a joyous and exciting look at the future, and what's to come for the franchise. And by the looks of things, it looks like the brakes on One Piece aren't going to be hit anytime soon.

So yeah, hate to say it, but One Piece really is peak. God bless.