The best arcs in One Piece are always the ones that can draw people in with phenomenal emotional moments, and even after almost 30 years, the franchise has only gotten better at it with time. Sure enough, the Elbaph arc has boasted some of the best emotional moments to date, and the next episode of the anime is set to deliver a massive one with almost 20 years of build-up.
Why One Piece’s Next Episode Will Be Its Most Emotional Episode Yet
In one of One Piece’s most shocking twists in years, the Egghead arc revealed that Jaguar D. Saul, Robin’s first friend, who seemed to have been definitively killed in her backstory, was actually alive and had been living on Elbaph the entire time. While one could criticize it as another case of One Piece using a fake-out death, Robin reuniting with one of the people who gave her the will to live was still an amazing idea for the story, and it added even more hype to the long-awaited Elbaph arc.
Robin and Saul will finally reunite in One Piece episode #1163, and sure enough, the anime is doing a lot to hype it up. Not only does the trailer suggest that episode #1163 will be another episode with gorgeous animation and direction to highlight the emotional moments, but they also put out an additional trailer and promotional art to go along with it, as well. It all does a lot to draw attention to just how emotionally cathartic Robin and Saul’s reunion will be, and it makes episode #1163 all the more exciting.
One Piece Finally Delivered The Moment Fans Have Waited 20 Years For, And It Didn’t Disappoint
One Piece fans have been waiting over 20 years for the long-awaited reveal of Elbaph, and in episode #1162, the anime nailed it in every regard.
Robin is arguably the Straw Hat who has suffered the most throughout their life, and while Saul’s sacrifice helped her get to a place where she could learn to be happy with herself, having him still be alive doesn’t diminish that in the slightest; if anything, it works by both relieving Robin of Ohara’s burden and creating a way of emphasizing her growth. It’s as emotional a moment as someone could ask for, and hopefully, the One Piece anime will more than do it justice.
One Piece’s Next Episode Will Be Everything Great About The Anime
One Piece episode #1163 has everything going for it to be an emotional masterpiece, and that, of course, embodies everything great about the anime. As previously discussed, One Piece’s story always hits the hardest when it’s delivering emotional and tragic stories and giving them tremendous catharsis, no matter how many years it takes to happen; now, Robin, of all characters, is on the receiving end of that, and with just how tragic her backstory was, seeing her get more closure on it is bound to hit incredibly hard.
One Piece’s Enies Lobby arc is hailed as one of the best arcs in One Piece because of the cathartic element of Robin’s character arc, and with the Elbaph arc repeating that by reuniting Robin with Saul, it will be another reminder of how One Piece’s emotional moments are the real reason it’s become such a legendary anime. The Elbaph arc, opening with such an emotional moment as Robin and Saul’s reunion, perfectly encapsulates why it’s one of One Piece’s greatest arcs of all time, and with any luck, episode #1163 will deliver on that in every regard.
One Piece releases new episodes Sundays on Crunchyroll.
- Release Date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- Directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
- Writers
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
