Henry Thurlow, an American animator working for Toei Animation in Japan, assures fans that One Piece’s year is far from over.
According to Anime Senpai, Thurlow used her personal Twitter account to get One Piece fans excited for the upcoming episodes of the Wano Country season. “You’ve got tons of great scenes already, with the craziest, historical bits still at the top,” Thurlow said. Thurlow had this to say when asked about competing with series like Bleach and Jujutsu Kaisen: “The longest One Piece story in the series will end with (I promise you) the best anime episodes in the series. Bleach and Demon Slayer, etc (while awesome! I’m a fan of these, not a hater) don’t show off their top-notch battles. 2023 is the year of One Piece. No doubt.”
One Piece animator exaggerates the series
This isn’t the first time Thurlow has proudly hyped the One Piece anime. Back in November 2022, Thurlow told fans that “extremely exciting” things were about to happen for everyone’s favorite pirate-themed series. While it’s likely that Bleach and Demon Slayer fans might interpret Thurlow’s comments as a dig into their series, the animator has made it clear that he’s not a ” haters”. He was merely excited for people to see how the anime adaptation of Wano Country ends.
As Thurlow said, Wano Country is currently the longest side story in One Piece. The story begins in 2018 and ends in 2022, accumulating 16 episodes of storytelling. It takes place after Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates successfully rescue Sanji from Big Mom. The plot explores Wano Country, a country inspired by feudal Japan that serves as the base of operations for the Beasts Pirates. There, Luffy meets his strongest opponent, Kaidou of the Beasts, considered the “Strongest Creature” in the world. The Straw Hats also meet Yamato, son of Kaidou, and the female samurai Kikunojo of Lingering Snow.
One Piece author assures fans of Live-Action
In addition to the Wano Country finale, One Piece fans have a live-action Netflix series to look forward to. One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda assured fans that the streaming series won’t launch until it meets his quality standards. This is a reassuring fact for fans who may have been convinced by false reports about Netflix series performing poorly in test views.
One Piece is currently streaming on multiple services like Netflix and Tubi.
Source: Twitter, via Anime Senpai