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How is One Piece? Community score: 4.1
© Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation
One Piece episode 1081 cuts the celebration short by reminding our heroes that there is still a mission to pursue and a dangerous world to save.
The episode ends with a fight between the Red Scabbard and Aramaki. Aramaki is an interesting villain, thanks to his evocative powers and distinctive swagger combined with a pathological disregard for life. The perfect Navy villain in many ways. It’s just a little strange that he appeared so early in Wano – interrupting the sacred fun after the arc – and starting another big fight with the Wano defenders. His power turns him into an instant raid boss whose form is somewhere between Treebeard and Whispy Woods, towering over the samurai and largely unaffected by their attacks. That is until Yamato appears and uses his large stick to urge Aramaki to take the island seriously.
I have two thoughts about Aramaki’s appearance. On the one hand, it is so sudden that it feels like we have no room to breathe. We just had the biggest battle in One Piece history, and now it’s time for another huge battle against a single villain… isn’t this too soon, too fast? But maybe that’s the problem. Aramaki makes it clear that human life has no meaning on the islands outside the World Government’s umbrella, and that discrimination against the powerless outsiders is the way the rest of the society can continue to exist. It’s cruel, arbitrary, abrupt and painfully involving.
What a shame.
The rest of the episode ramps up the tension. Sabo became a unifying revolutionary figure worldwide. Admirals are staring at a much more dangerous era. And Shanks thinks it’s finally time to find One Piece. Things are heating up and where the Straw Hats will go next is anyone’s guess. However, it seems like Kuma is definitely a key character…
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One Piece is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.com.