One Piece joins rarified company this week, hitting one thousand episodes of television. It's been a ride, hasn't it folks? The story of a silly rubber monkey pirate on an adventure that took the world by storm. Twenty-four years of comics. Twenty-two years of television. Fourteen feature films and thirteen television specials.
What a journey.
Let's be real here – there's nothing much to say. It's a five-star tour de force. It's twenty-three minutes of bliss. It's a walk down memory lane and a trailer for things to come. Each and every Straw Hat gets a shining spotlight on their past, with gorgeous animation and heartfelt remembrance. The classic "We Are" opening is lovingly redone and gave me chills. This is a love letter to the series and the characters we hold so dear brought to life by some of the best creators in the business. Of course it's phenomenal.
It's hard to avoid a slight feeling of melancholy though. These kinds of moments remind us not only how far the crew has come, but also that at some point their journey must end. In fact, we are likely closer to the end than the beginning. Maybe it's one arc, or two, or ten, but the truth is we have less One Piece ahead of us than the years of memories behind us. There's also a sense of how much the series has changed from its humble beginnings in the East Blue and all those amazing pre-timeskip introductions to our beloved Straw Hats. It's hard not to miss those times when the series was a little more down to earth, but it was always Oda's plan to launch this story into orbit.
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