© Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation
Episode 1092 of One Piece is mostly comedy and drama and does both well.
The bulk of this episode is Luffy, Chopper, Jinbei, and Bonney wandering around Egghead Island. As I mentioned, I feel very happy every time the film crew does silly things in special situations. This style of scene is quite common in this series but has been absent for quite some time: the crew encounters strange new flora, fauna and phenomena. In this case though the novelties are all about the technological variety and not about the environment or mysticism. The retro-futuristic aesthetic, upbeat music, and fantastical machinery all create a silly playground for Luffy and company to have fun.
I love shenanigans so I figured this was time well spent. It may not be the most profound of such sequences, but it will be entertaining, and my controversial opinion is that sometimes cartoons should be fun. I was so excited when the group received new outfits from the clothing store—especially Jinbei who received two giant shelves of floral t-shirts. The group ran around doing silly, childish things as if they were taken to a mall or shopping mall.
The end of the episode reveals larger events to us. First, the shocking revelation that Kuma is Bonney’s father is certainly a surprising connection. And the conflict is approaching between Blackbeard and Trafalgar Law—a fight that seems poised to bring an easy victory to the villain Teach.
Rating:
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One Piece is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.com.