In many ways, One Piece is heading into uncharted territory—both within the story and outside of it. As the anime is grappling with unprecedented battles against two of the Four Emperors, the manga is reshaping our idea of World Government history. Meanwhile, the first live-action adaptation of One Piece is mere months away. And I’m still buzzing from how barely one year ago, One Piece became a musical. It’s an absolutely thrilling time to be a One Piece fan.
Episode 1066 of the anime is a perfect example of this moment. It’s historic both within the series and in its real-world context. The episode depicts the impending defeat of one of the Emperors of the Sea. And it’s the first One Piece episode to ever be directed by someone who’s not Japanese. 1066 was directed by Henry Thurlow, an American-born animator and director. And to celebrate, Thurlow recruited a lot of foreign animators to work on the episode, including some famous names.
So let’s look into these historic achievements one at a time, shall we?
Why Big Mom’s defeat would be a huge deal
The first reason episode 1066 is historic is apparent within the episode itself. By its end, Eustass “Captain” Kid and my wonderful guy Trafalgar Law are on the precipice of defeating Big Mom. That defeat would mark only the second time in One Piece that one of the Four Emperors, the most powerful pirates in the world, has been defeated. And it would be the first time that one of the Emperors was defeated by people who, in the delightfully messy moral code of One Piece, would largely be deemed “protagonists.”
The episode ends just shy of what one assumes is Big Mom’s defeat. But the toppling of any Emperor is a major deal. It upends the world order. Places under that Emperor’s rule are left vulnerable—or if they’re a tyrant, liberated. Navigating the new world order is a huge insecurity and pain in the ass for the World Government as well.
But the Raid on Onigashima threatens to topple not just one, but two Emperors—an unprecedented act since the Emperors became A Thing. If one toppling is a major disruption, two could mean total chaos. And the climax of Luffy’s battle should be coming very shortly. Kid and Law’s victory is a major stepping stone into Luffy’s super-climactic battle, and we’re all excited as hell to see that fight. But our boys’ triumph is also a major development within the world of the series in its own right.
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The first foreign director of One Piece
Now that the in-series history is out of the way, let’s talk about the real world. Because prior to episode 1066, every episode’s director has been Japanese. It’s a Japanese show made by a Japanese studio, so that makes sense. However, that changed with episode 1066, when Henry Thurlow became the first non-Japanese person to ever direct an episode of One Piece.
Thurlow lives in Japan and has been working as an animator on One Piece. His sequences have been some of the most stunning in all of the Raid on Onigashima. Which says something, because the animation in this arc has been absolutely gorgeous. His hits include the “samurai in the hallway” animation from 995 and Big Mom’s epic-as-hell combo attack in 1033.
Thurlow’s historic achievement seems reflective of One Piece‘s relatively new place in the real world. The series has been a gargantuan hit in Japan, and then southeast Asia, for decades. In the last five or so years, the West has finally started catching on, and the series’ Western audience has suddenly and significantly grown. It feels like One Piece is truly becoming a global affair. This is no better reflected than in the Netflix live-action adaption: produced by mangaka Eiichiro Oda, showrun by Americans, filmed in South Africa, and starring a core cast whose members are Mexican, British-Lebanese, Japanese-American, and American.
Who else worked on 1066 and why it matters
Thurlow recruited some very notable help for episode 1066. Perhaps to make the most of his own achievement as the first non-Japanese episode director of One Piece, Thurlow recruited a lot of animators based outside of Japan to do sequences for the episode.
Many of these animators are very notable for the connections to the wider animation world they bring. One, Ole Christian Løken, has worked for freaking Disney via the film Disenchanted and is currently working on Gendy Tartakovsky’s new project. French illustrator/comics author David Tako did the black-and-still illustrations shown at the beginning of the episode, which were striking even for the wide range of artistic styles recently shown on One Piece.
Famous Japanese animators who don’t normally work on One Piece got in on the action, too. Masayuki Kouda, the director of Boruto, animated Law’s final line. But best of all, I was particularly tickled to see that the credited artists included Ian Jones-Quarterly, the creator of the beloved Cartoon Network show OK KO! and noted One Piece fan.
As such, the episode has legitimately feature-level animation. It’s a spectacle and breathtaking to behold.
I can’t say it all worked, though. Largely because … well … the mouth flaps. Japanese anime typically animates speech differently than American animation does. It’s famous for its “mouth wags,” meaning that characters’ mouth largely just move up and down, open and closed, and has earned anime a fair amount of satire. But in episode 1066, there were suddenly a whole lot of mouths moving in on “oo”s and “aa”s. I was surprised by how much it stuck out to me.
I’d be lying if I said all this extra mouth movement didn’t take me out of the action sometimes—especially because it wasn’t consistent throughout the episode. One Piece episode 1066 was an unprecedented historic experiment, though. How were we to know this would be a byproduct of American animators working on a Japanese show?
Beyond that small criticism, the presence of so many international artistic voices makes One Piece 1066 a notable moment in all of animation history. It’s a gorgeous episode that featured contributions from animators all around the world. It’s a lovely testament to how this particular series resonates with people all around the world.
So congratulations to Henry Thurlow and the entire 1066 for delivering a stunning, historic piece of television.
(Featured image: Toei Animation)
