Warning: There is a spoiler for One Piece episode #1071.The A piece anime has finally arrived fifth gearand even more so than manga, this form is a perfect recall of the series’ origins. Gear 5 serves as the Awakened form of the Gum-Gum Fruit, and as such, its use allows Luffy to further enhance the rubber-based abilities he acquired in his previous form. Not only can Luffy turn his surroundings into rubber and both bounce and stretch them with it, but his own body can move even more fluidly and eccentrically, almost maybe he’s a rubber tube cartoon character.
Gear Fifth adds a whole new dimension to Luffy’s fighting style, but more than that, it serves as a perfect throwback to One Piece’s roots. While One Piece has never ceased to have a degree of goofiness to it, the early years of the series were much more cartoonish to them, so Gear 5 essentially turned Luffy into an animated character. The rubber tube brought the series back to that idea perfectly. Episode #1071’s description of this goes even further, and with so many One Piece battles going on lately, Gear 5 works to give a lot of new life to the entire series.
Anime One Piece makes Gear 5’s gimmick even better
Gear 5 serves as the perfect vehicle to bring One Piece back to its animated roots, and episode #1071 helps to sell even more. In the Gear 5 description of episode #1071, Luffy’s movements are even more chaotic than in the manga with the fast camera speed and his body parts flying around, which are always accompanied by sound effects commonly found in the West. cartoon, with an impact frame that even has an intuitive “SLAM” sound effect. All of that shows Gear 5’s homage to classic cartoons even more than the manga did, and One Piece is even better for that.
One of the best things about Gear 5 is its inherent goofiness that helps overcome one of anime’s biggest problems: fights. While one of the main highlights of the early One Piece was its silly fight scenes, many battles have become increasingly simplified over the years, with Luffy’s modern fighting style, in particular, often favoring punches and kicks over some bizarre moves. he used in older arcs. However, Gear 5 let Luffy fight like a cartoon character, bringing back the goofiness that once defined One Piece’s fight scenes, thus fixing one of the biggest problems with anime.
One Piece’s Gear 5 Is Totally Silly in Anime – And That’s Its Purpose
The idea that Gear 5 might bring some silliness into the early battles of the series is a sentiment even shared by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda himself. In an interview with Detective Conan’s Gosho Aoyama, Oda said that he hates how fighting manga have become so serious lately and created Gear Fifth to help One Piece avoid it, providing humor. and fun that he felt was necessary to maintain the series’ appeal. Whether it’s about combat or the overall aesthetic, Gear Fifth works well to bring out the cartoonish charm of A pieceits origins, and this intention is perfectly conveyed in the anime.
A piece release new episodes on Saturdays on Crunchyroll.