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Ken O'Connor
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Steve Yerko
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Zach Logan
This is the One piece podcast, episode 917 for the week of Monday, May 4, 2026. My name is Zach, and today Sam Leach will be joining us. He's not here yet, but hopefully he will be. But until then, I'm joined by our official archivist, Ken o'. Connor. How's it going, Ken?
Ken O'Connor
Hey, Zach. Happy to be here for this very interesting episode this week.
Zach Logan
Yeah. So Sam is way behind in the anime recaps, and I've been not giving him enough of a hard time. So here we go. We have eight episodes. I don't know how many he's doing today.
Ken O'Connor
Well, it's gonna be 10 total. We have the last five Egghead to cover and the first five Elbaf to cover.
Zach Logan
And I've watched the first five Elbaf, but probably by the time Sam is done taking his notes and everything, I will have been asleep for many hours or he will be doing it in a future week. So we don't know as we sit here today.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, I watched them all today in preparation because I wasn't sure how far we were gonna get, but I don't know if we're gonna be able to cover all 10 in one go. But we're gonna give it our best shot. God damn it.
Zach Logan
They're all beefy episodes, although.
Ken O'Connor
They are.
Zach Logan
Yeah, I was gonna say being in the Lego Kingdom, you know, but we'll talk about that when we get there. I'll just say, still, I've been enjoying the One Piece anime. I have not watched the this one yet because they come out now like, Sunday morning.
Ken O'Connor
Sunday morning, yeah.
Zach Logan
Yeah. So it, like, completely messes up for me, my schedule and watching them before the show, but we'll see. I'm curious how that one. That one looks like it's going to be good.
Ken O'Connor
It was very good.
Zach Logan
Yeah. I'm very excited. I'm ready to get out of Block Kingdom. And we were only there for like three episodes, so. Which is exactly what I said in the manga too, so that's fine.
Ken O'Connor
They got there pretty quickly, all things considered, like.
Zach Logan
Yeah, yeah, no, they did. I was just. It just since I don't know if I'm going to be on the anime. Stephen mentioning, I mean, spoilers if you're not caught up with the anime episodes. We're talking about this week from last week, but the whole thing with the bunny, I think I'll just say, I think at the time it was like left up to like kind of your imagination as to what exactly happened. But they really talk about it a lot. And then show the bunny and then show the skeleton of the bunn.
Ken O'Connor
They show like the flaming melted crater of the LEGO blocks and just the skeleton there. And there's a slow pan. It's really. It's kind of horrific.
Zach Logan
Yeah. I mean, every. It like goes to show they really like. In the manga, you're like, you don't really know what color everything is and you don't really know what you're looking at as much. But goddamn, they really should have known that they were melting plastic pretty quick and figured out at least that. But anyway, this week we're going through all of those episodes of the anime that we'll find out in a moment. I don't think we have piece together. So we are going to do a lot of tournaments and popularity polls and there's a lot to talk about on that end, which we'll do, I guess, in this intro segment. But before we get to that, patreon.com One Piece podcast new stickers, I think the Lego Nami and the Luffy give a hoot. Read a book with Biblo. Biblo the owl.
Ken O'Connor
Correct.
Zach Logan
Yeah, there we go. Oh, God, that would have been bad.
Ken O'Connor
That was the previous ones. Pull that tide. So for the next two months, we're going to send out those stickers as the two winners separately.
Zach Logan
Correct. What other podcast things are happening? OPLA is, I don't want to say like on hiatus, but we might have one more episode in this season depending on how things go. But if you haven't, please check out this season. It's like some of my favorite interviews we've done, particularly like well, particular. I'll just name them all. Aura. Rob Coletti, Mark Harlick. Brandon. Sean. I'm going to. You know, I found out I was naming the person from Hot Ones. From Hot Ones. I don't know why. Sean Evans. Because it's Murray. Murray, Right, Brandon. Yes. Yeah, Okay. I remember he's great, too. And we also had him on the main show, so, like extra shout out. Also Michaela Hoover, which you can't forget.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, you guys got a lot of really good guests this time around. Like, wasn't as many as compared to the first season, but the ones you got all excellent interviews. I had a great time listening to all those.
Zach Logan
I mean, the first season was during the writers strike, so we. That's what the second season was all like. Now we could talk to people from season one, which is really. This is also. This is really our second season. But the first half of the first season, I'll say, was all. But they're all amazing interviews because they're like the executive producers. Producers and showrunners and all of that. So if you haven't listened to those, please do. But, yeah, no, I just send out the requests and see who bites. And there's some who did. And it just. The timing didn't work out. And I think it's pretty common knowledge at this point. They're. I think they have mentioned they're back in South Africa filming, so they're not really on the publicity tour at the moment. So we're also going to take a break from OPLA for that reason.
Ken O'Connor
It's going to be great, though, after season three is out because so many of those actors and characters will be done. Like, they're out of the spotlight of the show for a while and they'll be much more available to hopefully come on and talk about things for season four.
Zach Logan
They'll age up for skypiea in season four. They'll have to have a time soon
Ken O'Connor
if they find a way to bring. Okay, Vivi, you're coming with us for season four. Come to skypiea with us?
Zach Logan
Why not?
Ken O'Connor
Well, no, that doesn't make any sense. Bring everyone along. Doesn't make any sense at all.
Zach Logan
No, because they have to have the X, the arm raise thing. That's not going to work. They're not going to be able to do that. Vivi has to stay behind. I'm sorry, Vivi fans. I mean, she'll come back eventually in season 50. Yeah. Netflix is known for having that many. All that being said. Yeah. Please check that out. Our latest Episodes. But I want to talk about. What do you want to start with the. You know what? Everyone loves the term midterms, right, Ken? Doesn't that only bring you excitement and, like, ease of mind? Either you're thinking of midterm elections, which are so fun, amazing. They just fill you with something and. Or you're thinking of midterm. Or you're thinking midterm exams, which somehow equally dreadful as someone who still has,
Ken O'Connor
like, nightmares of, like, high school and, like, college and like, oh, I've got to take a class the entire semester. Like, the idea of, like, midterms finals still. Oh, it's. Why does everyone have that same nightmare? It's so weird.
Zach Logan
Well, I'll say. For. In law school, like, I was there during Hurricane Sandy and we had. It was like remote learning before, really, like, it was.
Ken O'Connor
Because that was a thing.
Zach Logan
Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, we had Skype. We were doing the podcast. So obviously there was stuff that was happening, but I wasn't on that. But that. For that reason, I get that nightmare a lot because it's like, oh, I just forgot about this class all year and now I'm gonna get it. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, not to give everyone anxiety here, but you all forgot that class. Every single one of you. Listening. You got an F. I'm sorry.
Ken O'Connor
So about these midterms.
Zach Logan
Oh, yeah. I want to talk about the results. We could. I mean, we could just go through it. We're reading. We got time. I'll say. Before we get into the interim or the midterm results. There were. There was a lot of festivity around this, considering it means absolutely nothing at the end of the day. I mean, like, obviously it means a lot to our, like, Club Ship beards get through. And that is the official term.
Ken O'Connor
Absolutely.
Zach Logan
Here at least. But the car. So the official one piece website, slash Twitter account did mention that the characters that rank in the top final result in the top final results of reading the Google Translate, if that's not obvious. So the top 30, I believe, get drawing from Oda of some sort. The top 50 get a 1 piece card game. I assume a card or a special card for it. The top 30 get merch at the Mugiwara store and elsewhere. What do you call the. What are the little, like the bean looking plushes?
Ken O'Connor
Like the Tsum Tsum looking.
Zach Logan
What it is. Yeah, the ones.
Ken O'Connor
That's what Disney calls them. I don't know if they're. They have another name.
Zach Logan
Like they're. They're like. They look like they've been Rolled in sushi and yeah, they're sticking out of one end. Are you looking that up?
Ken O'Connor
Yes.
Zach Logan
There's a name for it as well as other merch. I mean they list like Pops the Cream, the Bronpresto Crane game stuff, Ichiban Kuji Bounty.
Ken O'Connor
It's a lot more than the figure arts. Yeah, it's a lot more than the first popularity poll because I think then it was only the top 10 got figures. The top 20 were drawn in a big color spread. Like our top 15.
Zach Logan
The cool thing for this one, I don't know if you saw this is they will have an eye catch in the 2027 season of the One Piece anime.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, that's so cool. I didn't know that. No.
Zach Logan
Which. You know what? Why not? That's pretty cool. So look forward to Rockster getting his. That would. Wow,
Ken O'Connor
there's a couple on here we'll talk about. I'd be very surprised.
Zach Logan
The one other piece of news I did want to mention, which is.
Steve Yerko
I don't.
Zach Logan
I should have mentioned it first. That there's a One Piece fan event that's going to be in Los Angeles August 25 and August 26 at Cosm Los Angeles, which I believe is like this. It looks. Sounded like the Las Vegas Sphere esque kind of thing. They have like an area for this. Sounds to me having been to one of these in Japan. This sounds to me like the traveling show is the One Piece Grand Arena Tour. Like that's what it sounds like. Like, oh, they have blow ups of like cool things and it's like an immersive or whatever they call it experience. It doesn't sound like a convention. You know, as you would think of it. There are some stage events it says though.
Ken O'Connor
It's like the stuff they bring to cons though, like the big inflatable Luffy's and whatnot.
Zach Logan
That's. I am guessing that because they have. They have like areas you'll explore and it's every arc, basically. Well, not every arc, but most arcs. Although it's out of order. Why is Impel down at the beginning? Anyway, that's going to be, As I said, August 25th and 6th at the COSM. I don't know if that's pronounced differently than that. Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Okay, now that wasn't an ad, but it felt like one. There's a ticket lottery. Otherwise I'd be much more excited. And also I don't think any of our crew is like it's a midweek con in la And I think we're like, we work.
Ken O'Connor
Watch no one go to this.
Zach Logan
I could see Jill doing it. I can see Jill because like, Jill will be like, dude, I gotta call out today. I gotta go my One Piece convention. I'm trying to. And her boss, who she got into One Piece would be like, yeah, okay, that sounds. That sounds reasonable.
Ken O'Connor
Yo, can I go with you?
Zach Logan
No. Okay. But yeah, hopefully we. I have always wanted. I mean, there. There was the Kaizoku Con, right? There's something like that in Florida. But like the. Like, just like a One Piece convention. But like a convention convention. But like One Piece is the center.
Ken O'Connor
I would love that. But I can't imagine that coming to fruition here for some reason.
Zach Logan
I said that like 10 years ago for many reasons. But these days.
Ken O'Connor
Oh yeah. Now it's much more popular nowadays, so I could see it as a better chance of happening. But still, I can't imagine what that would look like for us.
Zach Logan
Yeah, I mean, have there been any conventions? Just about one series. I mean, like Trek, like Star Trek is one.
Ken O'Connor
Like Final Fantasy. Just had a big convention in California this past weekend.
Zach Logan
Metal Gear Solid. I know because Maddie goes to that.
Ken O'Connor
That's a small one. But yeah, Metal Gear has its own one.
Zach Logan
It doesn't have to be big. As I said, I don't know much about that, but I do know that they have that.
Ken O'Connor
So I would love a One Piece convention though. That sounds great.
Zach Logan
Yeah, let's do a New York Ken, the two of us.
Ken O'Connor
That'd be great.
Zach Logan
Call us.
Ken O'Connor
We can rent out the Javits Center. Right? We can totally fill that.
Zach Logan
Who is it? The people who do Anime NYC or something. Give us a call, we'll get you all set.
Ken O'Connor
That'd be smarter than if they did a spin off because they've abandoned their November convention for. They moved it to the summer. If they did November, One Piece only anime convention, that would probably work. Honestly, all jokes aside, it would.
Zach Logan
I don't know if anyone's listening. The problem is with these things is will it be as popular in a year? Because it takes that long? Probably. Probably. I mean, it's been around for how long?
Ken O'Connor
I think One Piece is on the up and up. Like every single day at this point. It feels like. Yeah, for good and bad reasons.
Zach Logan
Sometimes for good and bad reason. Actually, I. This is a good moment to. I'm just really trying to stall before we get to the results. If you haven't watch friend of the show Jeff Thew's video. I don't know if you had a chance to. But it is one Piece related about certain bad actors trying to. I mean, we've talked about this kind of with like the One piece card game. Just like the amount of.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, I know what you're talking.
Zach Logan
But also it's been happening with the manga, apparently. But Jeff does a really good. I won't say takedown, but, like, dissects, like, what exactly is going on? I think it's.
Ken O'Connor
I need to watch that. I haven't watched that yet. That sounds good, though.
Zach Logan
Yeah. Even I'm getting into YouTube essays. It's bad.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, no.
Zach Logan
That means they're officially out. I'm sorry, folks. You shouldn't really be listening to this anymore. Cool people don't. Okay, now we could get into the results. Maybe I should probably pull them up. Do you want to. Are we going through all of them?
Ken O'Connor
I mean, do you want to go through all 100 or, like.
Zach Logan
Because I do want to talk about some of these.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, like the top 30. It's like, okay, I could see why that character's the top.
Zach Logan
Yeah, the top 30 isn't gonna. Isn't surprising for the most part.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. There's one or two interesting ones in the top 30, but it's mostly.
Zach Logan
Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, so the bottom are the interesting ones. Let's be honest.
Ken O'Connor
All right.
Zach Logan
Josh doesn't get that out of Conte. Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
But go in starting at 100, we have Panda man, which honestly, I think is very fitting for him to be on here at all.
Zach Logan
Yeah. And it's the cool looking Panda man, according to this. Yeah, I. Well, by the way, I am so curious about everything below 100. Way more than I am above 100. Just give me like 300 to 101. And. Yeah, that's all of them, isn't it? Are there more than a thousand?
Ken O'Connor
There's more than a thousand. Yeah.
Zach Logan
Last year. Last time, last year. Send your pink too high at 99. I mean, too high.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. But again, I always try to think, what are the. What are these actual, like, are these actual popularity results or like, people like, oh, it's Senior Pink. The funny guy with the funny flashback. Let's all vote for Senior Pink.
Zach Logan
There are. And I could say this because we've had many of them on the show. There is a Senior Pink fandom.
Ken O'Connor
Yes, absolutely.
Zach Logan
People who do genuinely like, I think Senor Pink is fine. I think he just was not utilized the best in his flashback is not as moving as people think. I think it's actually Kind of funny in that his. The. The senior works at a bank. I can't. I'm. For those who remember our discussion about that. Anyway, you could. You could go back and listen to our episode from whenever that manga chapter came out in 2013. Maybe. Who's next? You could tell us.
Ken O'Connor
Ken98 is the Malo Black, aka the fake Luffy.
Zach Logan
That's right.
Ken O'Connor
Fake kid in the manga. And then, like, here's the thing. Like, then we have like 97, sussy, which feels way too low for how much, like, everyone loved her during Egghead to be one spot.
Zach Logan
Recency bias. That's why, I mean, recently, the opposite of recency bias. Because it's been. How many years ago was Egghead at this point?
Ken O'Connor
Oh, don't remind me how long it's been since Egghead ended.
Zach Logan
Yeah, it's longer than you'd think.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, it is longer than I think. But I don't know. I feel like. I felt like Sussy would have been higher even, because, like, the anime, I feel like, gives a little bump too. Well, look at, like 60 jumping around a little bit. Like, 61 is joy boy. And I feel like a character we haven't, like, spoil me. I know, but a character we haven't seen who we'll get. There is the end of Egghead.
Zach Logan
But Stussy didn't really do very much. It was actually extremely disappointing how little she did, considering how fun her power could have been and her backstory.
Ken O'Connor
We'll see more of her, though, because they let her go. She's out there somewhere.
Zach Logan
I'll do the next one because Iris is, I think, trying to get back there. Yeah. So this one's just for Brodsky, I believe. Exclusively. So Brodsky's obviously been using bots for number 96, which is Hango. Can you tell me anything about this character besides that they are on Shanks Crew?
Ken O'Connor
Not really, no. That's about as much as I know about them. I think they're the Doctor of the crew, and that's the only thing. And they're the one that gave Bartolomeo the poison to give to Luffy. And that's really all I know.
Zach Logan
That is. He did do that one thing. Film Red. Briefly, I think.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. Like the film Red. He showed up in the anime again recently. But, like, again, none of the red hair pirates really do much besides.
Zach Logan
No, this is. This is obviously. This is obviously a contingent of like, the One Piece community that's very vocal. Like the same people who are voting for that fly From Alabasta.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, wait, the flop from Baratier.
Zach Logan
You mean bocce. The baratie. You're right.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. It's bocce.
Zach Logan
Did I say alabaster? Baci. Okay, yeah, I got the name right and the arc wrong, so I'm halfway there.
Ken O'Connor
Rebecca's a fly.
Zach Logan
Rebecca's 95. No one cares. You could go doctor here.
Ken O'Connor
Look at 94.
Zach Logan
That's opla in my. Like, some of these are opla, and that one is definitely. I mean, deservedly so, but opla.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. Well, there's a lot of these on here that are all, like, very ennis lobby coded and water seven coded, too. Like, Okay. I think that, like, that arc just being so beloved carries a lot of these characters forward every time.
Zach Logan
Yeah. I mean, again, not incorrect, but yeah. Why? I don't like what is. Did something impel. Downy happen recently that I'm forgetting about?
Ken O'Connor
I don't know.
Zach Logan
You could go all.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, yeah. I'll just read through these if we want. If you want. Stop me at any point and we'll talk about.
Zach Logan
That's probably because I could also just.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, yeah. 93 is Ivankov. 92 is Pel, who should have stayed dead. 91, Scapper, Gabon, which I'm surprised he's this low again.
Zach Logan
Gabon's amazing. Your system already has failed. We're already stopping and talking about each one. But Kaban's the best, and he should not be this low. I agree.
Ken O'Connor
90s iceberg.
Zach Logan
I'll tell you right now, Gabon I like more than. I think everyone else on this page. Minus one or two. Like, I would.
Ken O'Connor
I would agree. Gabon. I love a lot. So I am surprised he's.
Zach Logan
I would vote him higher than a lot, a lot of these folks. Not all of them, but a lot.
Ken O'Connor
90 is Iceberg. 89 is Miss Golden Week. 88, Laboon. 87 Fujitora. 86, Gaimon, which I'm happy to see Gaimon actually this high.
Zach Logan
That's retribution. I don't know what to call that. That's like the return of the oldies. Like, at least. At least the first generation of one piece fans are able to get their stuff in there. With Gaimon, I feel like that's. Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
85 is Lilith, which I think is. 84 is Helmetpo.
Zach Logan
80, which I think is too high.
Ken O'Connor
83, Caesar Clown, too high. 82, Perospero, who should not be on this top 100 at all.
Zach Logan
No, I don't understand be in the top 1000. I know the voice actor for him on. But I'm sure he would agree that he should also be hated and not beloved. Also, the spelling is.
Ken O'Connor
Oh yeah.
Zach Logan
It's like what's the opposite of a chef's kiss? Raw Perosperol. It's bad. It's bad.
Ken O'Connor
How do you like your steak?
Zach Logan
Raw? I like a Pero Sperra.
Ken O'Connor
Ew. Anyone is crude who likes their steak
Zach Logan
like that, I want it glazed in candy and uncooked.
Ken O'Connor
There are people who like steak like barely touching the grill. Like, I don't know. There are people like that.
Zach Logan
I just realized we have no episode image for this and I haven't even asked anyone. And now I just want to ask someone to draw a candy coated steak that isn't cooked.
Ken O'Connor
80 we have shushu.
Zach Logan
You said Karu, right? You didn't forget Karu like the live action forgot karu?
Ken O'Connor
No, we said Karu. 8 Sho Shoes 79 Penguin 78,000 Sunny 77 Monet. Who is dead.
Zach Logan
Why? Why? Yeah, lots of dead people on this. We'll get there.
Ken O'Connor
76X Drake. 75. Yes.
Zach Logan
Diaz Drake.
Ken O'Connor
Diaz Drake. Right?
Zach Logan
He's Latino.
Ken O'Connor
Sure. 75 is Spandam. 74 is Kiku. 73 is Koala. 72 is Tashigi.
Zach Logan
I'll say so. What a contingent like Koala and Tashigi, I feel like are the same kind of person. Like as a fan of both myself too. Like that feels. Although Tashigi is also for the oldies, I think. Anyway, go ahead. Sorry.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, I feel like Tashigi just hasn't been like, I don't say relevant too much recently or hadn't.
Zach Logan
No, she actually has not. No. I mean she was an opla, which might be why she's even this high. But she's great and there's like definitely this fan base for her, you know?
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
71 we have raid you. 70 is big mom.
Zach Logan
Way too. Well, Big mom should really, and I mean this very sincerely. Sincerely should be in the top 15. Like she.
Ken O'Connor
She's probably one of, if not my favorite like antagonists in the series. Like, she's really great.
Zach Logan
Especially when you get to some of the people we're about to get to. And Big mom, criminally low in my opinion.
Ken O'Connor
69 is Odin. Nice. That's fitting.
Steve Yerko
He's dead.
Zach Logan
He's dead.
Ken O'Connor
He's dead. Basil Hawkins also dead.
Zach Logan
And also why. Why is he this high?
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. No.
Zach Logan
By far the most boring supernova. And somehow Diaz Drake is below him, which like.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, I don't understand. I don't understand that.
Zach Logan
I wouldn't should be above Hawkins. I think that is a absolutely objective fact that. I'm sorry, Hawkins fans. Shushu is better.
Ken O'Connor
Like, it's cool when he turns into a scarecrow, I guess. But is that worthy of being this high in the list?
Zach Logan
Yeah, his power's fine. It's kind of. He's. He's like, No, I know. I'm not going to argue with the next one because Josh will.
Ken O'Connor
67 is Paulie. 66 is Ulti. 65 is the Kung Fu Dugong.
Zach Logan
Look, I love you, Kung Fu Dugong. You should not be 65. You should not be proud of you. But first of all, you are a group of animals. Not a single Kung Fu Dugong. There are many of you. I don't know which Kung Fu Dugong made it to 65.
Ken O'Connor
In all fairness, in our polls, we have the Satanist, which is all of you guys. It's multiple people.
Zach Logan
Yeah, but we shouldn't be held to the same standard. A Shueisha. And Putting together the WT100,
Ken O'Connor
you're right. 64. We have Shirahoshi. 63.
Zach Logan
Gunko, Saint Mon Mayor Man.
Ken O'Connor
Saint Man Mayor Gunko.
Zach Logan
Too high.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, too high. Above. Again, we can go back and forth all day comparing, like, oh, above this character, above that character.
Zach Logan
Just too high.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Zach Logan
That's all there is to it. I'm not. I'm not saying anything else specific about Gunko, but. Too high.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. Again, going back to the recency bias, some of these characters, they're so new too. It's like, can you really say that this character is this much better than that character?
Zach Logan
I'm not saying Gunko isn't interesting. And I understand why people like the fact that she exists. You know, especially without pants. Because there is that contingent. But. Or the dichromatic folks. That. Or Hetero was a heterochromia. Heterochromia that I get. But I think we'll like her more.
Steve Yerko
I don't know.
Ken O'Connor
We'll like her more after her flashback with Brooke, probably.
Zach Logan
Or hate her more.
Ken O'Connor
Or hate her more.
Zach Logan
To be fair, hating a character also is a feeling that could bring them up on the list.
Ken O'Connor
Correct.
Zach Logan
I get that. I get that. Like Spandam, for example. No one likes Spandam. And if you do, check yourself in people too.
Ken O'Connor
Because he's here.
Zach Logan
No, I know. But he's great as a villain.
Ken O'Connor
Yes, go ahead. 62. We have Kaido 61. Joy Boy.
Zach Logan
That's ridiculous. We don't even know his real name or what he looks like or who he is.
Ken O'Connor
I Think people got really happy the fact that they had the original voice actors in both the English dub and the Japanese dub portray Joy Boy.
Zach Logan
I think it's just obviously they're important to the plot. Obviously they're like this big deal. So I'm gonna vote for him.
Ken O'Connor
Emmett pulled the hockey loop on the rope. Like, there's a lot of Joy Boy stuff going on right now. Everyone's very angry. Yeah.
Zach Logan
But do you notice who's not here? Emmett.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, that's kind of criminal, my boy. I loved Emmett. He was great.
Zach Logan
Replace Joyboy with Emmett and you got it. That's fine.
Ken O'Connor
That's actually fitting, I think.
Zach Logan
And also, Emmett's adorable. Like, you made a giant robot who's lived a thousand years really adorable, which is, I think. Anyway, go ahead.
Ken O'Connor
Number 60, we have killer. Number 59 is pudding. Number 58 is gecko moria. 57.
Zach Logan
That's criminally high moria. I think that's just because of the recency bias since he, like kind of came in the sbs and.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, everyone loves him now because he's.
Zach Logan
Now everyone loves him because he's Kozuki Moria. Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
Kazuki Geko Moria.
Zach Logan
If you don't know what we're talking about, about, good for you. You're in a better place for it.
Ken O'Connor
You've avoided the most not knowing.
Zach Logan
Not to say I dislike Moria. I think he is a perfectly good villain. I just don't think.
Ken O'Connor
I just want to see what Oda's doing with him. Because again, they freed him from Blackbeard's island and we haven't seen him since. And like, what is he saving him for? It's gotta be something.
Zach Logan
And wasn't he supposed to be dead too?
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, he escaped.
Zach Logan
He escaped? Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
Well, that's the thing. He quote unquote died during the Paramount War. And then we thought he was dead for a while. Then he showed up on Blackbeard's Island. Then he got captured. Now he's freed again.
Zach Logan
Yeah. What's the uptick?
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, he's got all this stuff going on, but it's not amounting to anything. 57 Dragon 56 Izo, who is dead. 55.
Zach Logan
Beppo, who is on a loser island, but he's not dead.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, he's still swimming with Law's dead body on his back.
Zach Logan
Wow. Wow.
Ken O'Connor
54, we have King aka Albert is his real name. 53. Ben Beckman.
Zach Logan
Ben Beckman. 2i Ben Beckman's 2i Ben Beckman is there merely because of the way Kizaru Says his name. That is the only reason he's there.
Ken O'Connor
It's too.
Zach Logan
But, you know, for that one, I will allow it because Kizaru does say his name. Fantastic. It's just fun to say and listen. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's okay. Back. I can't do it, Alex. I know. Can, but no, I. It's too high. Obviously. Too high, but it's funny.
Ken O'Connor
52 Bartolomeo. 51. Gold Roger or gold D Roger. They have. It's where they have. They have gold D period Roger and then Gold Roger underneath it. As if people don't know at this point, but whatever.
Zach Logan
Well, you might know him as Gold Roger, but his name is Gol. Roger.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Zach Logan
D is the middle name.
Ken O'Connor
50, we got Blackbeard. 49, we have Emu, which. It's just funny having Emu and Blackbeard back to back like that.
Zach Logan
It looks like he's growing out of Blackbeard's head in this because the, you know, the pictures are.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, yeah. He's stacking on top of each other.
Zach Logan
Yeah, Stacked on top of each other. I forgot who pointed out how adorable the little emu silhouette is there. He looks so little and pathetic now. I mean, Emu I get, because not only is it recency bias, but he's like kind of the thing that's happening right now in the manga as this vote is going on.
Ken O'Connor
So I don't know it's because of the podcast or not, but I love this emu silhouetted form. I feel like we have had so many good jokes, so many good episode images. Like, we have gotten so much out of this form of emu that, like, I like the new design. Like, the new design's cool and whatnot. But, like, if we could go back to Emu Classic, like this weird shadow. Coca Cola bottle, I think.
Zach Logan
I think. I think Emu Classic absolutely still exists somewhere.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. I hope we see more of Emu classic. 48, we have Kaku. 47, we have Akainu. 46.
Zach Logan
Wow. Yeah. No, that's great that he's that high. I'm surprised.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. Still the only cover story character not to come back into the story yet.
Zach Logan
That's gonna happen. The later it happens, the bigger it's gonna be.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Zach Logan
Yeah. Potentially.
Ken O'Connor
45, you got Bonnie. Oh, this is nice. Bonnie. And then Kizaru right next to Bonnie.
Zach Logan
That's really nice.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, that's great.
Zach Logan
Didn't Kizaru try and kill her several times? But whatever.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, but they were friends at one
Zach Logan
point, they had a pizza party and
Ken O'Connor
that they had a pizza party. Really stretchy, weird, cheesy pizza.
Zach Logan
Actually the picture of her like it's the one from the. Is that supernova color spread right or something? They had that supernova maybe.
Ken O'Connor
Maybe. I'm not sure.
Zach Logan
Anyway, that's the most normal looking pizza I've seen in the series. So that's all I was saying. Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
43, we have Rayleigh. 42, St. Figarland Shamrock.
Zach Logan
Why is he up here? I think it's unfair. I'm gonna say this to have two Shanks in this list.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, Shanks's family is taking over the polls.
Zach Logan
Is Figarlin Garling in this too? I hope not, no.
Ken O'Connor
But we'll get to UTA in a little bit. And Udin is technically shooting his daughter.
Zach Logan
I'm glad. Other people also don't really care about Figarlin Garland because he is stupid. I'm the only one who thinks that apparently. But yeah, go ahead. Look at that hair though. Look at those locks.
Ken O'Connor
I mean, yeah, he has crazy long hair.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
41 is the going merry. 40 we have Kuzan criminally joined also, I think.
Zach Logan
Yeah, yeah, I'm a Kuzan.
Ken O'Connor
I feel like if this was closer to that chapter he had where it was him and Garp during the flashback, that would be pretty good. 39, we got Koby, which actually is fitting him next to Kuzan. Oh, look at this. All three of these. Look. 38, Garp, 39 Koby, 40 Kuzan. That all works together for that little like trio there for the moment. 37, Cavendish. 36, Rockstar.
Zach Logan
That's the only. Is this the only person from our Glep shit beard bracket that has made it onto this? I think, I think so. So maybe we should really be putting our weight behind Rockstar as well. Like pile on.
Ken O'Connor
Like, does the whole world understand the Rockstar bit? They must at this point.
Zach Logan
Maybe there's another thing, maybe there's another joke. But I. For those who don't remember, back in 2009, 10 we were making the. The jokes about Rockster is like, hey, everyone, you know who I am? I'm Rockstar, you know, the newest member of the. Of the Red Hair Pirates. Everyone knows about that. Anyway, the, the. The end result here is 36, which is pretty crazy. I don't.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, that's. It's again, like higher than Emu. Higher than Big Mom. Higher than like some of these, like Rockstar. Like it just doesn't. Does not make sense.
Zach Logan
No, this is the whoop slap of this. Of this list. I think so far. So. I mean, I definitely want one. Whoops.
Steve Yerko
Slap.
Zach Logan
I want Oda to have to draw a character he does not care about. I think that is only fair for someone who's given me amazing manga every week for 27 years. He should draw someone he doesn't want to draw. What's. What's next on so. 35.
Ken O'Connor
Whitebeard, who is also dead. 34.
Zach Logan
We got Smoker, who's not dead, but we haven't seen him in a while.
Ken O'Connor
33. Bon Clay, not dead. 32. Vivi, which should be higher. Should be higher.
Zach Logan
I think she will be in the next one because I feel like she's about to become relevant again. Especially if you watch this week's anime episode. I believe it was this week's or. I'm sure she's coming back soon.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. 31. A member of Cross Guild who did not make the top 30. Mihawk. He's right below there.
Zach Logan
Whoa. Can't believe it.
Ken O'Connor
But still a good place, though.
Zach Logan
Like perfectly fine. Okay, top 30.
Ken O'Connor
Top 30.
Zach Logan
Well, why don't we take. Why don't we take a minute? We'll come back with the top 30, which this is just going to be our whole show isn't.
Ken O'Connor
Looks like at this point.
Zach Logan
We'll be back in a moment. Hey, everyone. We had to take a break because we have Steve Yurko with us. How's it going, Steve? Hey. Hey.
Steve Yerko
Are you talking about some sort of world top? What's going on?
Zach Logan
What?
Ken O'Connor
It's midterm season, Steve. It's midterm study.
Zach Logan
Midterms. Everyone's favorite.
Steve Yerko
No wonder why I got my ballot in the mail
Zach Logan
and I wrote perospero on every one. I misspelled it. It was spelled with an R, a W at the end for some reason,
Ken O'Connor
but it makes it look more authentic.
Steve Yerko
Yes. And for people who don't know, these are the midterms. Stay in line. You still have a little over a month to vote. If you are in line, stay there.
Ken O'Connor
It probably doesn't hurt.
Steve Yerko
I'm doing the hand thing again. People will never see this because we're an audio podcast. Keep doing the Steve chop. The yerk chop or something.
Ken O'Connor
The yerk chop.
Zach Logan
I'll have some perros Perro steak with a yerk chop on the side.
Ken O'Connor
A yerk chop salad.
Zach Logan
A yerk chop salad. Steve, though.
Ken O'Connor
Well, first of all, it's steak and salad. Don't start. Sorry.
Steve Yerko
No.
Ken O'Connor
God.
Zach Logan
So, Steve, I was gonna ask you. You did get to do some one piece stuff this week. We talked A little bit about before. I don't know how much you want to talk about it here.
Steve Yerko
I don't think we should derail the conversation.
Zach Logan
Okay, let's talk about it.
Steve Yerko
We should stay on topic. There's always another opportunity to talk about it. Yeah, I'm here to talk about tops.
Zach Logan
Okay, let's talk about tops. No bottoms this time. Go for it, Ken. All you.
Ken O'Connor
All right, coming at number 30, we have Jinbe, followed by 29. You think Jinbei higher, don't you, Steve?
Steve Yerko
Just get through it. Just get through.
Zach Logan
No, we're going. We've been going one by one, but. Okay, fine.
Sam Leach
Oh.
Steve Yerko
Oh, my God. So this is gonna go like, what, like five hours?
Zach Logan
100 through 31. And, like, you should.
Steve Yerko
You should do what the video did, the stream did. Just, like, go through, like, 10 of them and then kind of just talk about them.
Zach Logan
Okay.
Ken O'Connor
Okay.
Steve Yerko
I'm just steamrolling coming in here.
Sam Leach
Back.
Ken O'Connor
No, no, no.
Steve Yerko
This is what you guys should do.
Zach Logan
We were kind of killing time, you know?
Ken O'Connor
I mean, Let me name 30 through 21.
Steve Yerko
Read 30 through 21.
Ken O'Connor
Okay, I think that's number 30. Jinbe. Number 29, Carrot. Number 28. Katakuri. Number 27. Marco. Number 26. Frankie. 25. Eustace. Kid. 24. Doflamingo. 23. Buggy. 22, Kuma. 21. Loki.
Steve Yerko
Steve hurts that Jimbe and Frankie are not in top 20 or top 15, even.
Zach Logan
I mean, I guess that's asking too much, but
Ken O'Connor
Carrot has dropped.
Steve Yerko
The kids are saying, bro, who is he? We'll get to that later.
Ken O'Connor
Bro, who is he? Carrot has dropped a lot from the last poll.
Steve Yerko
Sorry. I don't know how much Delaney edits, but at this point, my audio on the podcast now is just. It's like tomodachi life. There's this character just coming in here and saying, hello,
Sam Leach
I'm Steve Yerkel, and I'm here to say I make Delaney's job harder in a major way.
Ken O'Connor
They're not coming out.
Steve Yerko
Should I steamroll casting?
Zach Logan
Should I steamroll this?
Ken O'Connor
Can I say one thing? Can I say one thing for the podcast? I have to have my opinion known.
Zach Logan
Yes. That's. Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
Corazon and Sabo. Usopp. Fucking crazy. Fucking bullshit.
Zach Logan
Yes.
Ken O'Connor
UTA over. Usopp is crazy.
Zach Logan
Yes.
Steve Yerko
Can we have some decorum in here? Some decorum in here? We didn't even get to them yet. You're spoiling. You're spoiling Delaney.
Ken O'Connor
All right, just censor me.
Zach Logan
No, no.
Steve Yerko
Delaney can be like, no, I'm leaving all that in yeah. Door slamming, all that stuff.
Zach Logan
Well, now that you've done a Delaney impression, it is 100% staying in.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. Now it's going.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
You.
Zach Logan
You have just sealed it. Yeah. This list. I'm not 29 through 31 is what we were doing. Yeah.
Steve Yerko
Not surprised. Like. Like, Frankie is like, a lower t. Lower tier popular. You know, lower tier and popularity with straw hats. If you're not including, like, Mary and, like, Vivi and all that. Jim bae, I felt like was, like, higher up than me, too, Frankie last time. So this kind of like. Oh, dang, dude. What happened?
Zach Logan
Yeah, I don't know why Frankie and Jim bae, I mean, I feel like Frankie's been more relevant in the story recently.
Steve Yerko
Just recently.
Ken O'Connor
I just.
Zach Logan
It's. I mean, recency bias is usually a thing as we'll go through, but
Ken O'Connor
Marco's too high. I don't know why Marco's this high.
Zach Logan
Marco's too high.
Steve Yerko
I'm not. I'm not too old.
Zach Logan
Headphones.
Steve Yerko
Do you want a podcast?
Ken O'Connor
I wanted to know where Buggy was.
Steve Yerko
Okay.
Zach Logan
Is Buggy too high?
Steve Yerko
I thought Buggy would be higher.
Zach Logan
Yeah. I'm actually surprised. Yeah.
Steve Yerko
I think to me, none of this is surprising because a lot of these characters.
Zach Logan
Look at all the tongues, though. Loki, Buggy, Doflamingo.
Steve Yerko
Oh, yeah, A lot of tongue. With the exception of Loki, you know, all these characters are reoccurring, and they're. These are pretty familiar. Like, they're familiar with ranking pretty highly. But I think the biggest surprise out of all these for me is Kuma. Kuma at 22 is crazy.
Ken O'Connor
You think too low or too high?
Steve Yerko
No, I'm just surprised that he was ranked so high.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
Okay.
Steve Yerko
Says a lot about the strength of the story, you know? Yes.
Ken O'Connor
Well, it's interesting with him at. Him at 22 and Bonnie down at 45.
Zach Logan
So it's a dad's story. It's not a good story.
Ken O'Connor
It's not about the kid. It's not your turn.
Zach Logan
Yeah. If there's one thing about fatherhood is that the kid doesn't matter.
Steve Yerko
That story was all about doing everything for the kid. It's still about the dad.
Zach Logan
Just about the dad. It's the. It's that selfless person getting the attention they don't want. You know, it's that kind of thing. I think Kid Marco and Carrot surprised me the most from this. As to how high they still are. I mean, kids dead. Carrot hasn't been in the story in, like, three or four years, and Marco
Ken O'Connor
isn't really she was on the COVID story last week. Of course.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Steve Yerko
Yamato was on several.
Ken O'Connor
Don't Carrot's drop, though, because Carrot was in the top 10 previously during the last poll. So the fact that she's dropped down to 29 is just. It's a big drop for me, which makes sense.
Steve Yerko
The last world top 100. That was. End of one. That was like, before Wano ended, right?
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, yeah, before Wano ended.
Steve Yerko
That was. Everyone's like, have to look. Greg, explain. Explain to us why is Carrot so popular?
Zach Logan
Furry.
Ken O'Connor
They're called Furry, sir.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, it's like, explain to us like a child. So, like, none of these characters being in the top 30 besides Kuma is all that shocking. Loki. I don't know how much got into. Well, we'll get into this in a bit, but there's always arc recency bias. I'll never be like, oh, what's wrong with people? I'm like, no, I've been around a long time. I remember the popularity poll that followed shortly after Chibondi and Kid In Law were in the top 10. So, yeah, no surprises here. I would have thought Buggy would have crapped the. Crapped? Well, he crapped the.
Zach Logan
Ben. He would.
Steve Yerko
I thought he would have cracked. I thought he would have cracked the top 20. But,
Zach Logan
yeah, I'm a little surprised about that, too. I think this is more deserving. I think, like, this is a good spot for Buggy. Like, where would you have put him on your list, Steve? Like, I'm not asking you to rank everyone, but, like, if you had to
Steve Yerko
give him a number that's getting into all, like, where I'm placing everybody else.
Zach Logan
But, yeah, I guess that would be more.
Steve Yerko
I feel like he would have been somewhere between 20 and 11 for me.
Zach Logan
Okay. I mean, that's not that far off. Doe. Flamingo is. I don't understand why he's still so high either. Now that I'm thinking about it.
Ken O'Connor
I don't like Doflamingo.
Steve Yerko
You guys sound like Boomers.
Zach Logan
I don't understand.
Steve Yerko
We'll save that. I'm sure they'll be complaining about some other characters.
Zach Logan
No, okay, I understand. I just don't agree. Maybe that's. That's more of the way to put it to me.
Steve Yerko
It's crazy that Eniru ranks so high.
Zach Logan
Yeah, we mentioned that. We love that.
Ken O'Connor
That's kind of great.
Zach Logan
Yeah, we do love that.
Steve Yerko
Yeah. No, I. You gotta understand, that's not coming from a. Like, a place of complaining. It's just like, that says a lot about that character when he. We haven't seen a lick of him in almost 20 years.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Steve Yerko
You know, because that's like when his cover story. His cover story was going on, what, through Thor Bark. So about like 18 years, I would
Zach Logan
say it's before we did the podcast.
Steve Yerko
That's a lot.
Ken O'Connor
I think there was that 20.
Zach Logan
Almost.
Ken O'Connor
There was that one reader request of, I think him riding a big cat. I think it was the last time we saw him drawn by Oda.
Zach Logan
I don't even remember that.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, I would say he's about. He's like 1B. Opp. One year before One Piece podcast.
Zach Logan
Oh, yeah. That's how I measure things. Yes. Yeah, I think you're right. But that's pretty crazy.
Steve Yerko
I don't know if there's anything else you guys want to say, but.
Zach Logan
Yeah, I think.
Steve Yerko
I'm not surprised. Disappointed, you know, that, you know, Jim Bay really dropped, like.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Steve Yerko
Like, the fact that he's less popular than Brooke is crazy.
Zach Logan
When I say I don't understand, it's not that I don't comprehend as to why someone did it, and I will say if I don't, but it's more that, like, I. It in my wildest dreams, I could never have done, you know, I would never put these characters in this specific place is what I mean. Or this is way higher than I would ever think to. Ken, go ahead.
Ken O'Connor
All right, next. The next ten. Number 20, Brooke. Number 19, Rob Lucci. Number 18, Perona. Number 17, Yamato. Number 16, Usopp. Number 15, Crocodile. 14 sabo. 13, Rosie on Rosinante. 12 roxti xebek. And 11 boa Hancock.
Steve Yerko
Hancock is finally out of. Was Hancock in the top 10 last time?
Zach Logan
She might have been.
Steve Yerko
She's always been very.
Zach Logan
What's a midterm? It's a midterm result. So stay in line. It's not. These aren't. Finally.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, let's. Yeah. Stay in line. Well, let's get the elf in the room out of the room here.
Zach Logan
Nisha.
Steve Yerko
Rocks ranking super high, if you follow. If you would follow the social media team and then posting their weekly, like hot, you know, five in each, like region. Rocks was crack the top five in like Africa and the Middle east.
Zach Logan
At least many weeks.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, couple times. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, good for the people that, you know, use words like hype and. And goat or time. God. God, we sound like old miserable people.
Zach Logan
We are.
Steve Yerko
No, it's. It's just like, damn. Like.
Zach Logan
Yeah, yeah.
Steve Yerko
People are all about that. When me, I'm like, when I could get back to Harold, who's not anywhere, he's dead too.
Ken O'Connor
And they're all dead.
Zach Logan
How many of these Nowhere are dead?
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, we were commenting on how many of these characters are actually dead and they're still this popular.
Steve Yerko
I just meant, like, Harold's nowhere in sight.
Zach Logan
You're right.
Steve Yerko
In this 100.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, yeah. But his son is.
Zach Logan
His legacy is. Yeah.
Steve Yerko
I was following the post, so I was not at all surprised by Rox. I think the biggest shocker and with Lucci, too. Lucci, like, when Rox wasn't ranking high in those, like, regions or it didn't have an uptick in votes, which, know, if you guys explain. But when they post those every week, it doesn't necessarily mean these are the top five. It's more like these are. The characters are getting, like, a huge upswing in votes this past week. Lucci was another character. If it wasn't rocks in that position, it was Lucci. But wow, Lucci being more popular than, like, Dofi is kind of crazy to me.
Zach Logan
It's a good point. Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
Do you think it's the Egghead recency, the fact that he was such a big presence on Egghead?
Steve Yerko
I would say so, yeah.
Zach Logan
I also, I mean, if you ask me this, like, even after Dressrosa, I would like. I think Lucci currently is a more engaging character than Doflamingo is currently in the story.
Ken O'Connor
Yes, absolutely.
Zach Logan
Like, so I don't think that's, like, if you're just looking like meritocracy, like, do they deserve to be, you know, like, I think Lucci does deserve to be over Doflamingo. Just like, like, looking at it like
Steve Yerko
that, coming out of Egghead with kind of like his especially, like, I was watching those episodes recently with him kind of. He's always kind of shown some signs of. I don't agree with everything the government's doing, but then he's just like, well, it's my job. Here I go killing again. Yeah, it's my job.
Zach Logan
But I still think it's compelling like that, you know? Yeah, go ahead, Steve sir.
Steve Yerko
But the biggest shocker for me of all of this is Rosinante ranking higher than Sabo is nuts. I would have thought Sabo's had more development than he's ever had recently or so. Or just say, maybe more interesting things to do lately. Yeah, but sometimes you can't beat a good flashback character. And I don't know. And then there's like, those. Those clown people out there, which is. But, like, I don't know, like, hot clown, I guess. Well, people find Buggy hot, but, like, Rosinante's got that slight bit of clown thing that people are into. I'm saying weird stuff.
Zach Logan
You are. I was gonna say something, but took a step back, letting you do your thing there. Steve, you were talking about hot clown.
Steve Yerko
Clown. But Rosinante's also a great character.
Zach Logan
That's who he is. He is a genuinely great character. Popular.
Steve Yerko
Rosinante is popular too.
Zach Logan
But, like, who's the highest flashback specific character who's like, like, below him? Like, you'd have to really look. I saw. I know, like, Dr. Hero look was in the 90s, but is there, like, anyone.
Steve Yerko
Kuma counts, but.
Zach Logan
No, but he's. He's in the present day a ton.
Ken O'Connor
It's interesting, too, that in the last top 100 poll, Rosinante came in in 13th place, too. He's in 13th place now. He has not moved.
Steve Yerko
He's hold. He's holding that spot.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Zach Logan
Yeah. It must be the same amount of people doing the same exact. You know, like, they're staying in line and they will just.
Ken O'Connor
Just as a refresher, for the last top 100, the top 10 were Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Sanji Law, Robin, Hancock, Carrot, Ace, Sabo. So a lot of those, like, those bottom. Those last four have already been knocked down to a lower position since last time, which is interesting.
Zach Logan
It's just the midterms. This could change. I think the highest. Yeah, the highest flashback character is Joy Boy. I think at 61 after that doesn't count. I mean, we've never seen him in the present day, and he's so silhouette. Yeah. I should say the highest silhouetted character is Emu.
Steve Yerko
I would say, like hero Look, I guess, is probably.
Zach Logan
I think you're right. I didn't. I don't think I saw anyone above that. It's a good Odin. Odin.
Steve Yerko
Oh, Odin.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Steve Yerko
Yeah.
Zach Logan
At 69. Anyone? Okay.
Ken O'Connor
Nice.
Zach Logan
Thank you. Yeah.
Steve Yerko
Penguin, I guess Penguin has more going for him than Shachi, I guess.
Zach Logan
Yeah. Poor Shachi.
Ken O'Connor
People spell Penguin.
Zach Logan
That's.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, that's what it is.
Zach Logan
That's what it is. It probably is.
Steve Yerko
You know, we. Brooke made it into the top 20. Brooke being above Frankie is crazy to me.
Zach Logan
I am happy that Brooke is getting some recognition. I'm upset that it's at Frankie and Jim Bay's expense, but I am happy he's there.
Steve Yerko
Yamato staying, you know, pretty close.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, Yamato was. Yamato was 11th last time, so they dropped the 17th.
Zach Logan
Okay.
Ken O'Connor
Which isn't bad. I'm still happy to see in the top 20 midterms. Yeah, midterms.
Zach Logan
Stay in line.
Steve Yerko
Stay in line.
Zach Logan
Stay in line, Ken.
Ken O'Connor
Well, if anything, this reinvigorates me to vote because I was doing consistently voting every single day, and I dropped off the last couple weeks, but now I'm like, all right.
Steve Yerko
Oh, no, I thought you were the one.
Ken O'Connor
I missed one day. And then I'm like, ugh. And then it all kind of like,
Steve Yerko
I missed a few days. They'd be like, oh, I'll do it in a bit. And then, like, the whole day goes by. I'm like, oh, shit.
Ken O'Connor
Exactly. As soon as I missed one day, I'm like, well, now I have the perfect record. Every picture for every single day. Now. Now it's going to be incomplete. And I kind of fell off a little bit, so.
Zach Logan
Did you think of time traveling?
Ken O'Connor
It's not Animal crossing.
Steve Yerko
My votes are just getting thrown away.
Zach Logan
So, yeah, yeah, that's the way to do it.
Steve Yerko
I have had voted for Kaku a few times.
Zach Logan
Oh, what about Rockstar? What are your thoughts on Rockstar being at 36, Steve?
Steve Yerko
Well, Rockstar made it to the 100 last time, right? Did he? Yeah, I remember because I did, like, a long time ago, I did, like a tier ranking. Oh, I remember Rockstar being there, I
Zach Logan
guess, for the Glupp ship. Beards. He's got a lot of shit beards.
Steve Yerko
It seems like the meme votes this year are him, Damalo Black Spondom,
Zach Logan
maybe Rock Star was.
Ken O'Connor
Rockstar was.
Steve Yerko
Nobody likes Bondom.
Zach Logan
Ben Beckman, I feel like is. Oh, I'm sorry.
Steve Yerko
Ben Beckman's not a meme vote.
Zach Logan
Hong Beckman's cool.
Ken O'Connor
Hong Godsky vote.
Zach Logan
That's a bronze. It's a specific that. That's enough to give you merit to be in the top hundred. I'm not saying Ben Beckman isn't cool. It's just he hasn't done enough to, like, he shouldn't be in the top 100. Like, objectively speaking, I get why he is there. But Kizaru san, when you look at
Steve Yerko
all this, I mean, you could argue that with so many of these characters. So we don't have to get into.
Zach Logan
Yeah, okay, what's the top? What's the top?
Ken O'Connor
All right, Next, the next 10 through 4, we have Chopper at number 10, Utah at number 9, Shanks at number 8, Ace at number 7, Robin number 6, Law number 5, NAMI at number 4. And if you want to finish it off it's Sanji Zoro Luffy as third, second and first.
Zach Logan
Wow, that was surprising, that one. There was no drama in that at all. Steve.
Steve Yerko
I think the last time. The last time, I think the world top 100 happened. I don't think Film Red had come out yet.
Ken O'Connor
It had not. No.
Zach Logan
No. UTA's too high. What is going on? UTA's barely a canon character. Why is she here?
Ken O'Connor
I kind of like the UTA's this high. It's kind of good. It's weird. I don't know why, but I kind of like it. At least it's shaking it up.
Steve Yerko
Her popularity is gonna, like, it was. It's definitely gonna exceed, like, just like, the purpose of her character for that film. Like, it was definitely. This was a character invented, like, oh, you could do so much with this outside of the story. So I think that's why she's just appealing. Because, you know, like, Vocaloid Vtuber stuff is really big. That's One Piece's version of that. Even though she's a real person within the context of the story.
Zach Logan
But.
Steve Yerko
But UTA being there does not surprise me.
Zach Logan
Not surprising. Shocking. Not surprising maybe is the way to put that.
Steve Yerko
But the rest of this is pretty straightforward, I think, especially if you've been following week to week. But Chopper getting in the top 10. Good for him.
Zach Logan
Yeah. I think Chopper should. I think Chopper should be like, he's
Steve Yerko
done nothing noteworthy in a long time.
Zach Logan
He's adorable.
Ken O'Connor
The last big thing he did was cure the. The Ice Oni virus.
Zach Logan
The opla. There were definitely some big Opla boost. And I think that's a big one. I think that's. Yeah. Well, like Dr. Hero look being there at all, I think. I don't remember where he was.
Steve Yerko
He's always been.
Zach Logan
He's always high. He was 60.
Ken O'Connor
He was 67th last time.
Zach Logan
Oh, so he went down then.
Ken O'Connor
He was. He was one below Rockstar. Rockstar was 66.
Zach Logan
There were.
Ken O'Connor
Rockstar has gone up and Hiro has gone down.
Zach Logan
Smoker and Tashigi. I don't know if they're usually where they are, but.
Ken O'Connor
But Smoker Last time was 27th. Toshigi, I don't see. Oh, 38.
Zach Logan
Oh, wow. Okay. She took a nosedive then. If that's the case. From the manga. From the. From the live action. Right? Sorry, go ahead.
Ken O'Connor
I was just saying, like, the top 10 isn't that. It's the. Everything below 20 is where the most things have changed. Like, Shushu was number 100 last time. So Shushu has gone up why is.
Zach Logan
Why is Shushu stocks.
Ken O'Connor
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know why.
Zach Logan
Okay, well, I mean, the top three don't spread.
Steve Yerko
Just a lot of like fan communities out there that kind of just rally.
Zach Logan
Actually, the top.
Steve Yerko
Our problem is we're not like minded. We all have.
Ken O'Connor
No.
Zach Logan
That's the problem.
Steve Yerko
Different favorites.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Steve Yerko
And agree on one glup Shito to just.
Zach Logan
Oh, why don't we do our club shit beard thing quick and then I'll let you guys get to the anime. Unless you want to do that later. Ken,
Ken O'Connor
do that after. We'll do that. We'll do that after.
Zach Logan
Okay, we'll do that at the end. Let's get into whatever Sam has planned. We'll see in a moment. Congratulations, Luffy. But stay in line.
Sam Leach
This is the anime recap for episode 1151-1152-1153-1154, and 1155. And 1156, 1157, 1158 and 1159, and 1160.
Ken O'Connor
Stay in line, folks. It's still going.
Steve Yerko
Stay in line.
Sam Leach
All right. I apologize for letting the anime recap episode stack up for so long. You know, they. They released Super Saiyan 4 Daima Goku on. On Dragon Ball Fighters and it just kind of ruined the whole schedule. Yeah. So. Okay, so 1151, we're finishing off the last five episodes of Egghead and the first five episodes of Elbaf. We are starting with 1151, her and her father's dream, Bonnie's free future. And I went ahead and I tallied like what. Which manga chapters are being adapted. And I was surprised how even at the end here they were pretty regularly doing like two chapters per episode.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, wow.
Sam Leach
Yeah. So. So we're. 1151 is chapters 1118 and 1119 entirely with a few scenes like kind of swapped around between them. We're getting the usual like montages of everybody kind of reacting to the Vegapunk feed. We got some Kaku urging Stussy to leave without him. He's trying to be a real hero about it. Luffy and the giants successfully make it back to the giant ship. The. The. The great Eric and Luffy reunites with Oimo and Kashi and they're like, oh, long time no see, guys. We got. Doll and Bluegrass have been hit with Bonnie's powers and they're turned into children with like Bonnie like kind of squat on the. On the edge of the ship, kind of taunting him with her. Her age changing gun. And Luffy is helping himself to some of the Giants food as Marcus Mars blasts at them while the giants are defending with their swords and shields. But it still lights the. The boat on fire. And then as Mars is writing up another attack, everybody kind of stops in place because they hear the sounds of the drums of liberation, which obviously means that Luffy is going gear fifth. And it's the. The rhythm of the music is even getting the. The boat in doing a little. A little jiggy. And it's like lifting up into the air. This is giving Bonnie. This is reminding Bonnie of, you know, dancing with her dad. And they have a very nice, very like, like a charcoal drawing version. And. And like, I think of like Luffy here when he's going. When he's going buff, he's like, like, like that. The SpongeBob Anchor Arms is what it reminded me of.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, he's a jerk and everyone hates him.
Sam Leach
And then, you know, Bonnie is.
Steve Yerko
She's.
Sam Leach
She's doubting herself, but she. She gives it a dry. She gives his. His encouragement a try because she's like, oh, I'm not as strong as you. I can't do it. And Luffy. Luffy's answer is basically like, oh, how do you know? Why don't you just. Why don't you just try it? And so this becomes a distorted future where I'm most free. And that is enough to give her basically a simulated version of Luffy's gear 5 Nika powers. So now we got two giant Nikas in the fight. Which brings us to the eye catch of the episode. We got a quite a labored sequence of Luffy ballooning up and grabbing Marcus Mars and like hugging him closely to his chest and then telling all his crewmates and Bonnie to like, attack himself to they. He wants them to attack Luffy because I guess he's just gonna like absorb the blow and have that blow push Mars back. And so everyone's. Sanji and Frankie and Bonnie are all wailing on Luffy and Luffy is surprisingly. He's all hurt by this. He's like, ah, it hurts. And Bonnie's like, then why did you tell us to attack you? But Bonnie is doing a super size Nika punch. And. And you got like. Bonnie is like. Her eyes are like popping out at Luffy reacting in pain. She's. She's full on Nika herself. Yeah. So she. That. That's enough to send Mars just launched into the sky. Team rocket blasts off again. Saint Ju Peter, the big worm is sucking air, sucking in air and pulling all the boats on off the shore towards him and get just a really slick shot of Luffy doing a. An elephant pistol on him. And as Warcury is trying to headbutt the ship himself, a voice shouting Joy Boy emerges. And Emmett, the. The Iron Giant, it lifts out of the sea to the clock. Warcury in the face. We get some voices of Joy Boy from the past. In the Japanese version, it's Urara Takano, the original. The voice of Luffy in like, the old like Ova pilot thing that they did with. What was that? Madhouse.
Steve Yerko
No, that was production ig.
Sam Leach
Production ig. That's it. That's.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Steve Yerko
And now it's been so long since episode aired that now we have the English dub version of this episode and it's voiced by Erica Schroeder, who was the four kids.
Zach Logan
Luffy.
Sam Leach
Yep. I watched the dub episodes for the egghead portion, so I. I heard Erica Schroeder thought she was very good. I like if. If she was allowed to just like kind of not be at. At a 10 at all times. Like, I. You could easily imagine her being in a Luffy role. And I like how Emmett in this. This, this ending part of the episode is just like. It's. I think it's mostly just the atmosphere, but he's like cast in EVA unit 1 colors, but you know. And the episode ends with Luffy stars in his eyes at the sight of the giant robot 1152, her father and mother's legacy. Bonnie's Nika Punch. And this covers chapters 1120 and some of 1121.
Ken O'Connor
Wait, do we want to talk? Do you want to talk about. Do you want to go through all them first, or do you want to talk each one?
Sam Leach
Like, I mean, like at this point, they've mostly all blurred together, so I wouldn't be able to really evaluate each episode on its own.
Ken O'Connor
Fair enough.
Sam Leach
So like, you know, just like, whatever. If you have opinions, share them. If you have comments, share them.
Steve Yerko
Gotcha.
Sam Leach
You can just do this. Like, I'm gonna try to keep this at a nice clip because we do have a lot of episodes to go through. 1152. Yes. We begin with a flashback to Punk Hazard 26 years ago. And there's like a very heavy like 8 millimeter film grain effect on this. On this flashback he's discovering with a young question mark, Professor Clover. He's like midlife crisis Professor Clover with the leather jacket. And the dragon that Zoro will eventually cut the head off of is a little dragon. And Clover is revealing to Vegapunk that his real name is Cloudy clover dun dun dun.
Steve Yerko
Which our very own Alex Kazanus did not remember.
Ken O'Connor
But yeah, it's funny that just came up today.
Steve Yerko
Actually, avid podcast listeners should remember us talking about it because we kind of named an episode after it. And our very own Delaney even made it a shorts video out of it. So check that out on our YouTube.
Ken O'Connor
That Alex was in too.
Steve Yerko
That Alex is in. And so is Sam.
Ken O'Connor
Yes, I was there.
Sam Leach
I remember it. We move forward ahead a little bit 22 years ago now on Punk Hazard. And a young Caesar clown is ecstatic by the news of Ohara getting blown up. He's like, wow, isn't it amazing that we have the technology to just wipe people islands off the face of the map? And you know, we got a little scene of Vegapunk overhearing news of the Soul Survivor Nico Robin. He's like looking at her wanted poster. Vegapunk visits Ohara's remains and cries over it as we saw him do before meeting Dragon there.
Ken O'Connor
His anime tears are insane. Like he's openly sobbing. It was very, very overly animated, but I liked it.
Sam Leach
Yeah. In the present day, Lilith is trying to theory craft ways of getting past V Nesturo with these cute little animated visuals of trying to get like the sunny to use its coup to burst to get ahead. But Atlas takes this chance to knock Lilith out instead. She has a different plan, or a slightly different plan, I suppose. And you got like Emmett and Luffy doing like a manzai bit where Emma is calling him Joy Boy. And then Luffy like looks over his shoulder. Like his shoulder, like, huh? Who are you talking. Who are you talking to? Who are you talking about?
Ken O'Connor
No, I'm talking to you.
Sam Leach
Yeah, Emmett even like does like the, the Monzai like hand thing. Like I'm talking about you. The, the giants. I, I, presumably everybody but Luffy is unable to hear Emmett's voice. So Emmett is speaking through the voice of all things just phenomenal animation as Emmett is like readying up a big rocket punch. But like jams because he's, he's all old and rusty and then like Jupiter and Warcury are like crashing into him. So like, you got the big worm monster, like kind of squiggling down but smashing into into Emmett. And like just kind of look, the way that the, the impact kind of displaces through the worm's body is really cool.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, the entire Emmett fight is just really, really cool to look at. And well done.
Sam Leach
And you know, Atlas is Chiaotzu exploding herself against Venusjuro. She gets her arm Cut off. There's a very cool like sudden slow mo shot of the sunny doing its Kuda burst and like blowing past Emmett and Venus DRO and like the music just kind of cuts out and it's super dramatic. And then Atlas's explosion, it creates a big gust of wind that's able to catch on the. The sunny sails and push them further. And that's the extra push they needed. So York is under the impression that she's the only Vegapunk now. Luffy is slapping Saturn's pincers away from the Giants and Bonnie and stuff.
Ken O'Connor
Stuff.
Sam Leach
And Bonnie is, you know, she's like, she's like a little kid right now and. And she's kind of going to her mind palace to get the gear five powers back out. And Vegapunk on the recording is continuing to talk to the world about how the, you know, to keep in mind the flooding that they're all going to experience or have been experiencing is a. A man made phenomena and that forces that be are trying to make certain races extinct. And there's like a montage of all the different kinds of of races like the, the Three Eyed tribe or the Lunarians or the Buccaneers. Bonnie is talking to herself saying like I want to live for my parents because they were happy I was born. And that is a very beautiful moment. And Bonnie's having a memory of her as a baby. You know, seeing Ginny and or Ginny and Kuma taking care of her and holding her in their arms and telling her that they love her.
Ken O'Connor
Well, it's not really a memory. It's a made up. Like that's what life could have been for her, right?
Sam Leach
Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
If they were all family.
Sam Leach
Yeah. It's like it's an abstract pseudo memory.
Ken O'Connor
Yes.
Sam Leach
It's a distorted past.
Steve Yerko
Nice choice of words there.
Sam Leach
I wrote bignekapunchies.com as Luffy and Bonnie are turning Saturn into Swiss cheese. This kind of feels like the conclusive final blow against Saturn for the arc. And the episode ends with a shot of Kuma who is basically dead and unconscious, barely conscious, but he's smiling peacefully, happy.
Ken O'Connor
That entire final sequence was so well done with Bonnie. Her transformation scene when she's the little kid and the smoke kind of blows past her and then she's her adult form and it blows past her again. Now she's in the Nika form and then she's sliding on Saturn's legs like the vines from Tarzan at one point. There's a lot of really good stuff in that final little bit. And Then just dismembering Saturn and ending on the to be Continued was really powerful.
Sam Leach
Yeah. And just like the whole relationship of Bonnie and her parents and this sort of familial relationship that never was, and yet still they feel so bonded together, as if they have always been together. I thought that was extremely well done. Really. I was extremely moved by that final sequence there.
Steve Yerko
That's a good punchy.
Sam Leach
Episode 1153, the upheaval of an era. The color of the Supreme King that leads Luffy. And this is chapters 1121 and 1122. Vegapunk talks about gold. Roger. We're cutting around from scenes like Beehive and the Shanks Ship and Empty Bluffs. Vegapunk says, I don't know what the fate of the world will be, but I know who will decide it. It will be whoever finds the One Piece.
Zach Logan
He said.
Steve Yerko
He said the thing.
Sam Leach
He said the thing. And we get the montage of all the, you know, all the different big players who were meant to infer are like kind of the leading contenders for this. For this title. And Koby is remembering talking to Luffy about the One Piece way back in the day. Except his. His memory is suspiciously manga canon now.
Steve Yerko
I thought this too, when I saw that episode.
Ken O'Connor
It looked and sounded so off. It was really weird.
Sam Leach
Also, I think. I think Buggy has a new dub voice. I think the. The guy who's playing him as a kid is now playing him as an adult because Mike McFarlane's been going through medical. I think so. Like, I couldn't. I couldn't identify who else it would have been.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, unfortunately. Because, you know, Mike McFarlane, if you weren't aware he suffered. He unfortunately. Yeah. Some poor health and still dealing with that. So I. Sorry, I don't want to. I don't want to say the wrong thing of what. What happened to him. I don't want to put misinformation out there, but unfortunately, yeah. And he's still recovering and thoughts go out to him too, as well. I know his GoFundMe is always open. So if that. This is something you weren't aware about and want to help out at all, please look into that. Sorry, I was also looking up. I believe it was Clifford Chapin that voiced young Buggy and like the Odin flashback, if I'm not mistaken.
Sam Leach
Is that right? That doesn't sound. Hold on. We can look this up.
Steve Yerko
That's what I recall. Look, everyone, we're Googling.
Sam Leach
Yep. So Kyle Ignexi.
Steve Yerko
Oh, my mistake. That's fine. That's what I get.
Sam Leach
The wiki says that's who he plays, the young buggy. But no, no name is given for like episode 1153 and up or anything.
Steve Yerko
I don't know why I thought it was Clip. My mistake.
Sam Leach
But yeah, I could tell it was. It was. It was a similar, but definitely not the same exact voice. And you know, Emmett finally gets jabbed in the chest before we can hear Vegapunk say what Joy Boy really is. And that cuts the feed. So the transponder snail that was inside Emmet.
Ken O'Connor
I laugh so hard at the transponder snail dying because it falls over a little static and the biggest explosion ever. Like, wow, that's dramatic. And the eye catch happens and it just plays that scene again of the snail falling over and the explosion and I lost it. I thought it was the funniest thing
Sam Leach
I. Like, in the dub script, Usopp calls V Nestjuro a geriatric demon horse.
Ken O'Connor
That's great.
Sam Leach
So, yeah, Emmett is dying and he's in his final moments acknowledging that Luffy is different than Joy Boy. He's like, I know that you're not exactly the same. I just, you know, I saw someone like Joy Boy and I was so happy. He asks Luffy what his name is. And then Luffy shouts, I'm Monkey D. Luffy. I'm gonna be K. Keg of the Pirates.
Steve Yerko
You said the thing.
Sam Leach
Yes. And em. Emmett is pleased by the D. Letting that hang.
Steve Yerko
This pleases me.
Ken O'Connor
Yes.
Sam Leach
Emmett pulls out of like a compartment in his chest. A. Like a. A. No, like a knot. Like a rope knot. And he unties it. And that releases a burst of Conqueror's hockey that is so huge that it, you know, the. The elders get just kind of blown away by it. Like, they just completely disappear.
Ken O'Connor
This hockey scene was terrifying. Like, it was so overly animated. And like, the look on Luffy's face in that one scene was so like every line and detail on his face was like, overly drawn. It was very, like, striking.
Steve Yerko
Is this when Emmet pulls the knot?
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Steve Yerko
I mean, I'm always so all over the place with. Or I should say, like, you know, like, I think just one piece in general these days. Like, it's left to a lot of interpretation and a lot of different animators hands. And some people really like this. It's just like. Yeah, I don't know. It was definitely like a very big feeling.
Ken O'Connor
They needed a shorthand just to show like, guys, this is big, big hockey. You have no idea how big this is. Even Luffy is afraid of it. I think the over animation is just trying to drive that home. We don't really need it. But it looked insane. And that scene just kept going for a while too, showing every single person pass out and react to it.
Sam Leach
And. Yeah. So we wrap the episode up with Emmet's memories of a discussion with Joy Boy. And the knot was something that Joyboy had given to Emmett. He's like, hold on to this until the right time. It's a knot with the greatest hockey in the world. Episode 1154 the Truth behind the Secret Plan Vegapunk claims victory. And this is covering chapters 1123 and 1124. I get crazy, like kind of diorama pull out shot of like all the different ships outside of Egghead as the Giants are declaring victory. We got out alive, guys. Most of us. Luffy is thanking the robot and Looney Tunes running through the sky back to his ship or back to the great air. We have a scene with Morgan's Vivi and Waffle. We have a scene of Kizaru reporting back to headquarters. And you know, Kizaru is asking Sakazuki like, hey, have you ever killed your best friend? And we get like a cool collage of memories from like Kizaru's like first person point of view of all of his experiences on with Vegapunk and Punk Hazard and Punk Records and stuff. And we'd see a surprisingly emotional Kizaru like breaking out in tears, saying, you know, talking back to the flea Admiral,
Steve Yerko
if you have time to doubt me,
Sam Leach
then come here and look at my work, you little shit.
Ken O'Connor
That was great. He's standing on the ship and just everything is in fire and burned down around him. Immediately after they showed like what. He and Vegapunk built it together and like, it's. It's hard. It was a heartbreaking scene. They did a good job with that one.
Sam Leach
Like, I. I'm not happy with what I did, but I did it. I did my job, you know.
Ken O'Connor
How dare you.
Sam Leach
Don't, don't. Don't diminish like the, you know, my. Don't. Don't call me soft here, you know. And it is enough to get Sakazuki to like apologize, like, oh, oh, I'm sorry.
Ken O'Connor
He's like, it's too late. Just shut up.
Sam Leach
And yeah, so Sanji is with Vegapunk's body on the ship and. And remembering Vegapunk's warnings, we get a series of flashbacks of like Vegapunk and. And several of the satellites, Pythagoras and Shaka. They're noticing the miscalculation in their power plant readings because somebody must have taken a portion of the mother flame in secret and fudged the numbers accordingly. And now they're catching the discrepancies that that created. So they. They start snooping around. And after a week, Pythagoras has identified York as the culprit. And there's a really great illustration of the. You know, like when they're where they're discussing the. The consequence of the mother flame being given to the government and we see that like the big whirlpool hole that Lulusia left behind. Thought that was really just a really strong drawing.
Ken O'Connor
I think this is also in that same sequence he's talking about the five Elders. But it's like this really stylized. Like they're all like in black silhouettes, but their facial hair is all white. But Venus Duro has no facial hair or hair in general, so his sandals are white. I don't know why, but I thought that was very funny.
Sam Leach
And then two days before the beginning of the Egghead arc is when they began their big recording their big broadcast that Vegapunk was preparing for the world. And then they lay down on their little science beds and delete their own memories. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind style.
Steve Yerko
Their learning beds
Sam Leach
or their unlearning beds.
Ken O'Connor
Good one, good one.
Sam Leach
And Vegapunk, he wakes up from his memory wiping and he finds a handwritten note he wrote to himself. And he's like, oh, you just had your memories wiped. But don't worry, it was of your own volition. You have many surprises to head. And then. Lol.
Ken O'Connor
Lol. And then they cut to all the. It's like a recap. And it's Vegapunk reacting to everything. What? Yes, what?
Sam Leach
I thought this was a really great way of just quickly summarizing the arc of their wide establishing shots of Egghead in punk records and stuff. And it's just people announcing like the Straw Hats have landed.
Zach Logan
What?
Sam Leach
CP0 is here. What? The Marines are attacking.
Zach Logan
What?
Sam Leach
Kizaru is here.
Steve Yerko
What?
Ken O'Connor
And it ends with like ah. Like it just keeps escalating. It's really funny.
Sam Leach
And finally, the Straw Hats and the Giants all perform big toasts on their way to Elbaf. Luffy is in his post. His post gear 5 mummy form. And I thought it was really sweet ending the episode with Sanji remembering like when they're escaping Egghead in like Vegapunk's little car. And Vegapunk has the. The little racer goggles on Vegapunk is telling Sanji, like, I don't know who's going to claim the one piece, but I hope it's you guys. 1155, the promised horizon. Off to the long awaited Elbaf. And this covers chapters 1124 and 1125. And we have Frankie, Zorro and Jim Bay all convening and recapping their mission and kind of admitting that they more or less failed their mission. And you know, like how Vegapunk was recapping things at the end of the last episode. Now we got kind of Frankie recapping similar, the similar challenges that they faced going up against the five elders and an admiral and CP0 and the Seraphim.
Ken O'Connor
He's like listing them and counting them off. It was really funny.
Sam Leach
We have a flashback of from 200 years ago of Saint Saturn, who looks exactly the same, telling some of the scientists in front of the deactivated Emmet robot to do research on him for military purposes. And now he's kind of regretting this decision all these years later because he's like, oh shoot, that kind of blew up in our faces that we kept it around in it. And Doberman is now questioning Saturn on the validity of Vegapunk's message. He's basically concluding that, hey, you're not saying that Vegapunk is lying, are you?
Ken O'Connor
You?
Sam Leach
It sounds like this is inconvenient because it's all true, right? And then Saturn just zaps him.
Ken O'Connor
How dare you question me. Like blasted through the door.
Sam Leach
Yeah. And York wakes up and Punk Records is starting to float away. She thinks she's taken Edison out, but she hasn't. At Maryjah, we got this kind of cool like tunnel. Like the camera is like kind of like the drawings of the celestial dragons are kind of like loose and playful and simple. But you got this kind of cool diorama effect of the camera pushing back one. You kind of see the next one lined up in the corner of the shot, pushing forward to the next one, to the next one, to the next one. And they're all complaining about the lack of food because the attack from the revolutionaries has kind of screwed their resources. And the revolutionaries are sabotaging their ability to ship more. In Figarland, Garling walks into the five Elders office like he owns the place and sits down, crosses his legs, announces himself as the new godhead of science in Saturn's place. And the other Elders are shocked by this.
Steve Yerko
And they're like, wait a second. But we have one.
Sam Leach
Yeah, we're not the six Elders if you're.
Ken O'Connor
You're here and I'm here, then that means.
Sam Leach
And yeah, Saturn on his ship is receiving his punishment from Emu. And he's just kind of like, turning into squibbles. He's turning into, like, the dead people from the River Styx at the end of Hercules. There's this kind of organ chime that sounds very much like something you'd hear in Symphony of the Night Night.
Ken O'Connor
This animation of him just, like, being tortured and decomposing is so cool. Like, when this came out, I remember seeing everyone post this originally, but, like, it's still, like, awesome animation.
Steve Yerko
Yeah.
Sam Leach
And now Edison Atlas, Pythagoras and Shaka are now, like, one combined unit. Like, there's. We. We kind of have them, like, communicating in a void as themselves. And then, like, the. The camera kind of pulls out and reveals that, like, now they are basically just like one body with Edison as the head, Shaka's torso as the torso, Atlas and Pythagoras arms, respectively. Shaka accuses Edison of being jealous of his height. And they're. They're in like a. It's like the robot equivalent of a changing room. Like, there's just like, all the robot parts and heads and stuff. You can see like, like, extra York heads in case York needed to replace her head. And they were talking about, like, oh, let's. Let's destroy York's part. Wouldn't that be funny? And we have the revolutionary army discussing what they know. And even cover concludes that the building of structures like Tequila Wolf. And there's, like, other simple, other similar wolves like Bourbon Wolf and, like, I think Rum Wolf was one of them.
Ken O'Connor
Yep.
Sam Leach
Like, oh. Oh, they've been building that for hundreds of years because. Because they were preparing for this, this. This flood that's coming. Lilith wakes up. I like seeing her without the jacket on. It's. It's got. It's got a. It's Moe.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, I. I'm. Wow. Yeah. One of my biggest comments so far has been like, yeah, well, it's cute without the big, puffy leather jacket on. But, like, also in the manga, it's this, you know, when you let little more, like, cute or comical moments happen, the characters are a little more. Well, they're, like, looser and rounded. Like, the proportions are a little more super deformed. And that's kind of how will I remember her looking here?
Sam Leach
And. Yeah, so she wakes up and she's like, sorry, guys, I need to cry. And then, like, just starts wailing. And then Usopp out of sympathy for her. He's like, I wonder why they call you the evil one. And then immediately she's. Immediately she's just like, all right, done. That was all the crying I needed. And then, then she starts to wonder like, why am I so hungry? Oh, right. Because I'm not connected to York anymore. So. So I guess all the other satellites never had to feel hungry simply because York was doing all the eating for us.
Zach Logan
Him
Sam Leach
and Luffy is depression eating. Chopper is like he's only eaten five bunches of giant grapes. But then, but then Lilith is trying to explain to them like okay, I know I was crying a second ago, but it's like not really that sad. Cuz we're not really dead. I mean we're dead to you guys, but we're not dead to us, if you know what I'm saying. And they don't know what she's saying.
Ken O'Connor
There's this one shot where it focuses on Lilith's face and her pupil gets the anime shine over it. And you see all the other satellites in her pupil. For a split second I thought it was really a cool visualization. They're all here. They're all still inside me. We're all connected.
Sam Leach
Yeah.
Steve Yerko
It's like the Avatar.
Sam Leach
And now Luffy feels better and he can banquet properly. And we get this great like bird's eye view of Luffy in standing on the table surrounded by like a circle of the giants all like you know, cheering to the sky. And we got Robin cuddling with Chopper thinking about her soon to be reunion with. With Saul. That's a very sweet moment. Great like money shot of like bank of like Luffy, you know, with his mug in hand like throwing at the camera. He's like kind of posing in front of the sun in the similar way we're used to seeing Gear five Luffy pose in front of the moon. I thought that was cool. And you know, you got Bonnie cuddling with Kuma and they're. They're happy to be getting to see the the horizon together. We finally did it down head and we got very nice orchestral we are plays
Ken O'Connor
like a very small smile on Kuma's face too. Like more emotion than he showed the entire time he's been back on Egghead, which is great.
Sam Leach
And the end credits this time are like. It's not the usual ending. It's the same song. But they're kind of rolling the credits like it's a movie now. And we're getting like a. Just a montage of all the. You Know all the memories of the egghead arc playing before us. And there's a. And then we get a post credit scene of a certain somebody, a certain silhouetted man drinking on the edge of what we assume is Elbaf, clearly waiting for the straw hats to come. And he says, come on, you guys.
Ken O'Connor
That's the end of season one of One Piece.
Sam Leach
That's the end of season one Piece.
Steve Yerko
I heard that joke.
Sam Leach
All right, any general thoughts on how this egghead arc has concluded?
Steve Yerko
They really didn't kind of get. Let me rephrase here. Senioritis I don't think was an issue here. They really put a lot of work into these last few episodes. And just like the big moments like hit, like Bonnie and Luffy teaming up against not only Marcus Mars but Saturn as well, were so well done and I enjoyed. Well, we got the. I think. Yeah, we. We already missed out on all the. We got like the latter half of like the broadcast here and you know, I always kind of get a kick out of seeing like all these old characters again. But I think I mentioned this is like a little off topic, but I think this episode was before. I forget which episode it was, but it's before the start of this anime recap. But there was one shot in Jaya and I'm like, something about this looks very old school. Oda. These characters, the way they're drawn too. I'm like, this feels like how Oda drew at one point. And I immediately go grab volume 24 and immediately find the panel. And it's the first panel inside the bar. And it's the same exact characters sitting at this table, minus they add some character and they kind of block out where you see Luffy, Nami, Zoro and Teach at the bar. But I got a kick out of that. But some really cool stuff. Some really great flexing of the anime. It really kind of felt like. It didn't feel like. I mean, they had the benefit of wrapping up this story arc. So it surely kind of felt like a season finale than just, oh, it was like, oh, why are things so awkward? It's like, oh, the anime took a break during this time. Then again, I think they handled the last hiatus pretty well. So I think. I think overall Egghead has been really good in the anime. A real treat. And some. Once again, it's been like a cavalcade of animators with various styles. Your opinions on that may vary, but a lot of episodes felt like an event and yeah, no, these were some great ones for sure. And I got to finish Watching these dubbed, too.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, I pretty much agree with all that. You could tell in, like, every episode. They had a lot of fun with Gear five, whether it be Luffy or Bonnie. Like, they added a bunch of extra. Just little flourishes of, like, oh, like Luffy running around in the sky, Looney Tunes style. Or at one point, Bonney and Luffy were two colored diamonds, little sparkles flying up into the air. Before they zoomed in to see they were doing their attack together, there was a lot of extra little flair that really made the end of Egghead feel really special. Even stuff like the Marcus Mars where Luffy blasts him off. That scene didn't make much sense in the manga to me. And the animators, I think, did a better job of conveying what was happening there. Okay, Luffy's pulling him in, and the other three are pushing him out to kind of transfer the energy. It didn't make sense much in the manga, but in the anime, like, all right, I kind of get it more here.
Sam Leach
For me, in the anime, that was, like, the buildup was so long. I'm just like, where is this going again? I don't even remember this.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, I remembered it, but I was like, okay. It didn't make sense to me. How are they gonna convey? Cause at first, Luffy's jumping in front of the fire, like, oh, I can take it. And what are you doing? It takes a while for him to grab onto Marcus Mars and then pull him down. Like, okay, now it kind of makes sense. But all the Elders look great, too. Like, when the Elders weren't CG models, when they were fully animated, they looked really good.
Sam Leach
I think they were not CGI at all in these five episodes.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, no, they weren't. And it was great. The Emmet stuff was really good. I thought Emmett looked really great. The Emmet fight was well animated. His impact. Tons of impact scenes where they got all sketchy or black and white or had things really like just Chef's Kiss across the board. They did a really good job wrapping up Egghead.
Steve Yerko
Like, the. Oh, God, why am I blanking on the animator's name again? Mr. Swivel Neck Guy. Animator.
Sam Leach
When Naotoshi Shida.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, Shida. When Emmett comes out of the water. There was enough things in there. I'm like, this is Sheeda.
Sam Leach
Yeah, he's definitely. He's around. He's always around.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, it's like, hell. I was even looking at the water, and I'm like, yeah, that's sheet of water.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, speaking of the water, real quick, that scene where Luffy goes gear five when they're on the ocean and like the water turns rubber and everyone floats and bounces into the air for a split second then turns into like a little music festival with all the giants real quick. Like that looked like that happens in the manga too. Like everything around him goes rubbery. But they really overemphasize the the floating and just the entire ocean was reacting to Luffy and it was very cool.
Sam Leach
Yeah. I was very satisfied with these final Egghead episodes. I think they really hit the spot. I was really completely sold on the emotional payoff of all the Bonnie and Kuma stuff. And even though we're Egghead is not a conclusive arc of any kind, we're transitioning pretty fluidly into Elba. But like having the Bonnie stuff as the. As that anchor as like something that there is a payoff for. I thought that really worked well.
Steve Yerko
It's how this arc starts and how it finishes. So I think it's only appropriate.
Sam Leach
Yeah. And you kind of get this feeling of like, you know, like you're so happy for Bonnie and Kuma, but you're also starting to feel bittersweet as the audience as you're like, what's going to be ahead for these final arc or two of all of One Piece.
Steve Yerko
They've really done it now.
Ken O'Connor
It's just the strength of the story again. The anime did a great job executing a really well done story. Even all the shots of after Vegapunk's message is done. And all the pirates around the world, they keep like, oh, that means it's our turn to go find the One Piece. And they're all invigorated. Like, yeah, the world's gonna belong to pirates. Like they show like the different like cuts to different places around the world. Like that's in the manga too. But it just. It feels so good here in the anime.
Steve Yerko
Where is Daredevil?
Ken O'Connor
I'm right here.
Steve Yerko
Don't miss the return of Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again.
Zach Logan
So what's next?
Steve Yerko
I feel liberated.
Ken O'Connor
We're gonna take this city back over
Sam Leach
medicated in an all new season.
Steve Yerko
Now streaming only on Disney plus.
Sam Leach
They're hunting us.
Ken O'Connor
It's time we started hunting them.
Steve Yerko
I can work with them.
Zach Logan
This should be tons of fun.
Sam Leach
Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again now streaming only on Disney plus. And now we finally begin the Elbaf arc. We have 1156, the long sought Elbaf the reunion banquet. And this covers largely chapter 1126. And we have A memory of Luffy and Usopp on the. On the going merry. This is a. This is a pre time skip memory. Probably like just like. As they're leaving Little Garden, Luffy and Usopp are dancing and getting excited about the idea of one day going to this country of giants. Elbaf and Oimo and Kashi are catching Luffy up that they. After Water seven, they went to find their bosses on Little Garden and that's how they reunited with them. And Dori and Brogy were still fighting and they were fighting with their bare fists because obviously their weapons broke killing that giant goldfish. But that part is new to the straw hats. They did not realize that the giants were breaking their weapons to do that. We get some good Little Garden reanimation, especially of Usopp and Nami's time watching the giants. Sanji is excited to see some giant ladies. As you can imagine, the giants are explaining the the powers of Absinthe, which they call the the Green Fairy. And they're like, oh man, take a sip of this. It's pretty strong. You know. Might give you hallucinations. And then that's enough to get Chopper to do a spit to take.
Steve Yerko
It'll get you drunk.
Ken O'Connor
Chopper's a big Moulin Rouge fan.
Sam Leach
Brooke is like spinning in place and blood and. And like oh, I feel it. I can feel the the hallucinations beginning
Ken O'Connor
now sinking into my bones.
Sam Leach
And Luffy is like, Brooke, play some music. And Brooke, great animation of Brook. Brook like spinning in place like to face the camera with little like blush marks on his face. On his cheek cheeks or what would be his cheeks if he had them. Yo ho ho.
Ken O'Connor
Yo ho ho.
Sam Leach
And yeah, he plays a. Plays up to like the first chorus of New World. Actually, I don't even think they get to the chorus.
Ken O'Connor
They don't even get to the chorus. Like I was like, oh, Brooks doing a song. I was hoping it was gonna be like a new song that he made just for the anime to be like back, but all right. It's New World. Cut it short.
Sam Leach
Yeah. There is a reason why it's New World World that we will get get to eventually. Later in the arc we cut to Gartel island in the New World where there was an incident. Bartello Mayo was trying to sell straw hat merch. I I think that this like town girl is super cute and she's like pointing at. She's like, hey guys, you might want to look over there. And she's like pointing at the big red haired pirate pirate flag. Hanging over town. Yeah, yeah. She's tapping the sign just so you know whose territory this is. This is. And obviously Bartolomeo takes that as an invitation to burn it. And then later, we cut to the future date when Bartolomeo's hands are tied and he's beaten and bloodied and he's kneeling before Shanks, who has to punish him now because he. He's, you know, Bartolomeo's actions are putting his territory at risk. And so Hango, everyone's favorite Hango in the top 100 character. Yeah, offers Bartolomeo a chance to repent by giving him a vial of poison that he wants Bartolomeo to give Luffy within a month. And then, you know, make your boss responsible for your actions, basically. But Bartolomeo leaps right into just drinking the poison himself. And then he makes a big emotional plea about, you know, how he. How he'll always love Luffy and he'll always, you know, sacrifice himself for Luffy. But then the poison doesn't kill him, so they're free to just sail off. And they're like, well, that was fun. And you know, back on shore, Shanks is just really tickled by their love for Luffy. And Yasop just kind of like walks in front of Shanks like, hey, boss, like, step aside, crazy. Like, there's like this split screen of like the, like from Yasopp's, like left and right that then like, the camera swivels to like, merge them before he like, readies his shot and blows the Bartow Club ship up and sinks them.
Ken O'Connor
That shot's so cool. Cause the shot follows like the bullet for a split second. And you see Barto's like, head turn right at the impact pack shot. It's really cool. It's really well done.
Sam Leach
And we get. We get it seems like they're doing pretty. They're doing like original eye catches each episode. The. The intro eye catch is Shanks. The outro or the returning eye catch is Blackbeard and his crew. Just incredible, like, kind of camera direction throughout this whole sequence on full lead or beehive or whatever. We're calling it like the. The Big Pizzaru. The Big Pizarro. You know, bizarre Pizarro
Steve Yerko
Pizzaru. Oh, no, that was. That was Kizaru in the Kuma flashback.
Ken O'Connor
Even the pizza.
Steve Yerko
That's like a God. That feels like a rejected one piece podcast title. Yeah, why don't we call it Pizarro?
Sam Leach
Pizarro's eyes are like. They're doing lots of weird stuff throughout this episode. But sometimes there's like. Sometimes they just twitch because the animators get bored, I think. So we're going into Blackbeard's base and on the inside we got Blackbeard like, manhandling a smaller Pizarro face on the inside of the castle. And he's mad that Kobe was allowed to get away. And Pizarro is like, like, wait, wait, before you get too mad about the Kobe thing, we also lost Moria.
Steve Yerko
See, you know, Zach is a fool because he always is like, ah, Moiry is dead. He's like, no, he's.
Ken O'Connor
He's alive.
Steve Yerko
And they talk about it.
Sam Leach
But down. Down in the town, all the pirates are. They're super excited. They're super fired up that, you know, like this. All these big news events, all these, you know, changing power hands, you know, that that's got them excited about to chase after Treasure and do lots of pirate stuff and. And that's enough to please Blackbeard. Great shot of him, like, plopping down on his couch. And then like the. There's this shot of Burgess, like, arms crossed, leaning back against the. Against the window, like a door frame. And then like San Juan Wolf's like, eye comes in to look into the window frame. And then that like, changes the atmospheric lighting of the scene. Great stuff.
Ken O'Connor
Doesn't he pull Pudding onto his lap too? Like, he like grabs her off screen and pulls her.
Sam Leach
Vasco shot, like, comes in with Pudding and just like kind of like throws him into. Throws her into Blackbeard's arms and he's like. He's like weirdly like playing with her head. Like. Like he's gonna crush her like a grape. It's like there's a weird. There's a weird tension. There's a weird energy to it. And she's kind of creeped out and she's like, get your hands off me, you. You. You ape.
Steve Yerko
But give credit to the anime too, because, like, they're not just like, well, this is where they're, you know, let's just recreate the spread from the manga. It's like it's incorporating where all these characters positioned and kind of do. Doing fun things with it and having
Ken O'Connor
it showing their needs and stuff. Like having it.
Sam Leach
Yeah, yeah.
Steve Yerko
And having it play into lighting and other things, which is how one character moves the other and. Oh, that's what the anime. That's when the anime is cooking, when it's just taking that stuff and just running with it.
Sam Leach
Yeah. And it has to find an opportunity to include each member of the Blackbeard pirates into the scene and like the way that they're kind of like interacting with each other, interacting with the setting. The scenery is just aces. They're calling up Lafitte on the phone and he's keeping an eye on the revolutionary army as they bomb a shipping company that's trying to deliver goods to Mary Geoa. And so the crew has been the crew and the giants and friends. They've been sailing for two days trying to get to Elbaf, but they haven't gotten there yet. And now we've got a very freaked out brook running along the edge of the ship with his little like feet scuttering around wailing about how the Sunny has gone missing and the giants and the some of the straw hats are still on the giant ship looking for the Sunny. They don't know where it is. What a predicament. That brings us to the cliffhanger of the episode. And then we get the post credit scene of Nami waking up in a mysterious location. A strange giant Legoland in her strange skimpy Viking outfit.
Ken O'Connor
Did we talk about Caribou also or
Sam Leach
I didn't include him in my notes.
Ken O'Connor
If Katarina and them show up on the boat with Caribou and he's like fawning over the island and then the giant Pizarro hand pulls them onto the island.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Steve Yerko
I'm so shocked. But one piece season two. We're back baby.
Ken O'Connor
Hell yeah.
Steve Yerko
One piece.
Sam Leach
100 years 1157 Nami in a fix. An Adventure in Block Kingdom and this cover. This includes content from 1127 and 1128. And NAMI is trying to remember what happened to her. She like got drunk on the absinthe and now she's like, I'm in a strange location and I don't remember changing my my clothes. Something's up. And she gets jumped by something and there's. We're getting like a cutaways to like regular townspeople in this weird strange Lego city or Lego country or whatever it is we're calling this area. And we got like bees, like man sized bees attacking people. That's what attacks Nami. But Zeus is zapping the bees and protecting her until she gets sleepy and goes back into his Pokeball. Nami is crying for her friends like oh please help me. Luffy, Zoro, Sanji. I'd even take Usopp at this point. And then she hears Usopp's voice calling for her. Nami, where are you? And she's like, oh, Usopp. She's struggling to walk on the ground. I'm sure the heels don't help, but heels on the giant Lego bumps are.
Ken O'Connor
They lingered on that shot too long. She trips on like the Lego bumps and she's like, oh, I tripped. And she's like. They held it there for like a couple seconds too long, like, all right, I get it. But come on, guys.
Sam Leach
But Ken, she stepped on a Lego. Have some sympathy, right? Nami is startled by the sight of a cute like, porcupine bear thing. And that gets her back on her feet and running.
Steve Yerko
A hedgehog.
Sam Leach
A hedgehog.
Ken O'Connor
Porcupine bear.
Sam Leach
Nami.
Steve Yerko
Finally, Avatar the Last Airbender.
Ken O'Connor
Just a hedgehog. That's weird.
Sam Leach
So she finally finds the source of Usopp's voice. And we're led to spend this part of the episode thinking that Usopp is like, like calling out to her. Cuz he's trying to find her. He's trying to get to her. He's trying to help her. She finds the predicament he's in. He's being eaten by a giant like Cheshire cat with a king's crown. And she's like, oh, you think I'm going to help you, huh? And she, she has to, you know, now she's being cornered by the. By the hedgehog. And you got Zeus the, the grower now. Now I show her.
Ken O'Connor
Jesus Christ.
Sam Leach
Power pole extending into the hedgehog's mouth and zapping him. And now Usopp is telling us about how he remembers waking up. He saw his outfit in the mirror. We got this kind of funny shot of him observing his new look so close in the mirror that his nose is squishing up against the mirror mirror. And then that's when he got attacked by the cat when he was going to go inspect Nami. And so now the. The cat is chasing them through the castle. And then they eventually reach a dead end. On the outside, they're like on a cliff. Not a cliff, but the, you know, the edge of the castle rail. And Usopp just like, suddenly gets some liquid courage, believing that the, the absinthe hallucinations are the cause of the. Their situation. He was being eaten by the cat a few moments ago, but now suddenly he's certain that he's not gonna feel a thing.
Ken O'Connor
It's fine.
Sam Leach
And the cat just crash. There's a lot of like the, the cat running and then just crashing into something. That happens like four times in this batch of episodes. And then, yeah, that knocks him off the castle cliff. That brings us to the eye catch. Of the episode.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, wait, no, you gotta talk about. Cause Usopp stands like, oh, he's not the cat can't hurt me. And then it's like, like boom, boom. Like three different angle shots of the paw hitting Usopp. I lost my shit. That was hilarious. Before they fall off the edge.
Sam Leach
And a lot of characters waking up and wondering how they got into their situation in these episodes too. Nami's waking up from the fallout of this attack, and she thinks Usopp is a skeleton. Like, this is a joke that really works when it's Brook, but it's a little exaggerated when it's Usopp. And then, you know, they. They. They see the Lion King himself appears above them. And this is when, like, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji jump in to save the day. And they all do their respective attacks to take out the lion and turn it back into the cat. And I remember like, the. It is weird how they're like, keeping Luffy's eyes covered. Like they're like. Like we're gonna discover he's not really Luffy or something in a second. I don't. I don't really know what the. The point of that approach ever was.
Ken O'Connor
I think it's like the grand intro to like, these are their Elbaf looks like here that. Here's their big, like. I guess it's a style choice, I think.
Sam Leach
And so, yeah, they beat up the cat and they're like thinking about whether they should eat him or not. Not. And they're talking about a rabbit that they had and ate earlier that they loved. And they're like, well, the cat's probably not going to taste as good as that rabbit, so let's not even bother.
Ken O'Connor
I love when the cat is like, turning back. Like turning back from a line to a cat. It's almost falling on Usopp and Nami. And Nami just throws Usopp like a shield at where the cat's going to fall. And they're like, I can't believe Usopp died. It's okay, Nami. Usopp would die for you anyway. And Usopp's laying on the ground. I'm not. How could you use me as a shield? It's a great scene. There's a lot of comedy in this episode.
Sam Leach
And now the crew.
Steve Yerko
That's a perfect start to an arc.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Sam Leach
Now the crew is trying to figure out, like, what is going on. Is this a hallucination? Have they been turned into giants? And that's why they can wear Giant size. Why they can wear Viking style clothes, which they probably wouldn't have in human sizes. Sanji is certain that it's not a dream because there are men around. And that's right. He knows that the entire crew isn't in this. In this region because his. His MII radar isn't smelling robin. And then Nami's just like, what are you, a dog? So they. They march on ahead and they're singing a little song about Elbaf and you know, thinking about what they're gonna find. Kind. Episode 1158 A Quest in the Land of Mystery the Secret of the Sun God. This is covering chapter 1128. And I love this guy. A big burly man running it. Riding in on a. On like a big grasshopper motorcycle like, like from Strong World. And feel so important. It feels so important. I don't know if we ever see him again after this.
Ken O'Connor
And he's never given a name.
Sam Leach
He informs them that the land that they're in was created by the Sun God. Which is interesting because we're like, isn't Nika the Sun God? The man says he personally serves the ruler of the castle. Like, oh, you serve a person? They're like, no, I serve a cat. And the cat's name is Izcat. And he's on his way to go feed the needle God. And we just got word that our dearest beloved Ear God perished in a fire in a nearby town. And the straw hats are all. You know, they're all making different funny faces about how guilty they feel for
Ken O'Connor
absolutely covering Luffy's mouth. And like there's troll leaking out between his fingers.
Sam Leach
Yeah, they don't want to, you know, they're just like 1, 1 centimeter away from completely implicating themselves in all the horrible things that have happened to all of those animals. And then the. The guy also says, oh, by the way, I'm not telling you this for no reason, but there's. Don't go that way. It's bad to go that way. The Sun God lives there. Nobody's ever gone there and returned. It's just like a huge. It's a huge mess. You know, It's. It's gonna be a huge misadventure for you if you go over there and Nami's just like, no, no, don't phrase it like that. Don't make it sound cool to Luffy.
Ken O'Connor
And he's gone.
Sam Leach
And he's gone. He's running. Nami very like turns around and like very cutely apologizes like, sorry for everything, you know? And the guy is blushing. He doesn't know what she's sorry about yet. And you know, Luffy is running and he sees what is obviously his own mirror reflection in the distance. And he's like, huh? Who's that guy? He's also in Elbaf clothes. Well, let's just avoid him for now and then.
Ken O'Connor
Have you learned nothing from whole cake, Luffy?
Sam Leach
And that's, you know, that makes it pretty clear that he's looking at his own reflection. Eventually, he's crashing into the mirror and breaking through it. The whole. The whole sky, the infinite looking sky is actually just an illusion. And that behind the mirror is a giant's room. And they can hear Chopper's voice calling out to them. And that brings us to the eye catch of that episode. I like these eye catches that have. It's like using the LEGO bricks to make a like pixel art version of Luffy's wanted poster.
Ken O'Connor
Yes.
Sam Leach
Yeah, I really liked that one. And they go into the room looking for Chopper, who is collared to the ground and just scared for his life. And Zoro offers to cut him out of his chains, but it just scares Chopper because he says it in a really intimidating way for no reason. And Nami just Locke picks him out instead. And then Chopper is just crying in her arms and they're hugging. He's like, oh my God, Nami. I was so scared.
Ken O'Connor
It's okay.
Sam Leach
And she's comforting him. She's like, it's okay. It's okay. You do owe me one though.
Ken O'Connor
There's a really small animation thing here where she's spinning the needle in her hand that she used to pick the lock. I don't know. Just wasn't needed. But it looked really cool for spinning the needle between her fingers.
Sam Leach
Yeah. So they're taking a look at the mirror that they broke through and realizing it's a special one way mirror that it reflects on one side and it can be seen through on the other side side. And like Sanji. Sanji is like, wow, what an interesting technology. Hey, Nami, for no reason, can I clean the women's bedroom one day? And then she. She just immediately kicks him like, no, don't. No funny business. Don't, don't. Don't go installing one way mirrors in our room. And so now like, snakes and mice and ravens are attacking them in the room room. And this is enough for Luffy to go gear five over and we getting like these kind of cutaways to the Sun God himself. This big Robed man with a deer skull mask on is approaching the room like he doesn't know what he's about to walk into yet. We got a lot of Nami riding around on deer mode. Chopper. I feel like we don't see Chopper in this. In this form very often these days. And the. The quote unquote Sun God enters the room and he's shocked by the sight. Luffy is dawn pistoling the snake and the hightail. The. The crew hightails out of there. They. They catch Izkat on the way out and they. They jump on him and ride him. And Nami has. She's. She's found a blueprint like a map of the Black Kingdom, which is gonna be very helpful for them.
Ken O'Connor
And they fleshed out that animal fight a lot more than there was like in the manga. It was like. Like one or two panels of like the animals. Like this was. Yeah, a little more of a full on fight, which I kind of liked a lot.
Sam Leach
Yeah, it's like. It's like the Sun God like walks in and then that's. The fight is already happening and Luffy's
Ken O'Connor
already carefree and said, which was cool.
Sam Leach
And you know, the incensed Sun God follows after them like, I'm not gonna let you get away way. 11:59 Destroy the miniature garden Escape Block Kingdom. And this is mostly chapter 1129. The sun God chases after them. Luffy is admiring. He, you know, Luffy admires the craftsmanship of. Of this Block kingdom. He's like, oh, I see that. This is like a hobby. He put a lot of work into this. He'd probably be sad if we just like busted everything up. So let's, let's, you know, be careful with his art.
Steve Yerko
I wondered like, is this like out of character for Luffy? Not that. Oh, this breaks the character. I always thought it was very strange. I'm like, I feel like Luffy would never care.
Ken O'Connor
I think Luffy always cares about what other people care about. Like, oh, that flag's important to you? It's important to me. Oh, like this dog food is important to you? It's important to me.
Steve Yerko
Oh, are you talking about. Are you talking about you or are you talking about your dog right there?
Zach Logan
Who?
Steve Yerko
Clearly, both. Okay, I stand corrected. You read the manga? I guess I don't.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, come on.
Steve Yerko
But I was also wondering. It's like, oh, is this just Oda just writing himself into Luffy right here? It's like, oh, I like Legos.
Sam Leach
It's easy to imagine that Luffy would like Legos too.
Steve Yerko
If he
Sam Leach
didn't grow up in a
Steve Yerko
windmill, he'd just be like, I just want to make something now.
Sam Leach
Yeah, but he'd. He'd make something and he'd be proud of it. Even if it was it. It was a mess. And. And eventually you got Nami tossing the. The blueprints away because she's basically memorized them. And she's like pointing out to Luffy like, hey, notice that these clouds that you see around these are just. Technically it's just cotton hanging from a sea ceiling. And Luffy stretches out, grabs one, squishes it with his hand. He's like, yeah, you're right.
Ken O'Connor
Oh yeah.
Sam Leach
And I'm like fascinated by what the mechanism is here. As the Sun God has the scepter with a hoop shaped sun design at the end. And he kind of reaches out and I guess there's a secret little groove where a net is hiding.
Ken O'Connor
A retractable net or something.
Sam Leach
Yeah, like a retractable net net. And yeah, he's catching Iscat. And this scene is just cool as fucking hell of Zoro and Sanji, you know, readying up there. You know, the. The. The hell hockey and the. The blue hockey and just. Just going to town on the metal nets and breaking their way out of it. Just. That was an incredible looking scene. And you know, they're back, They're. They're running on. They're riding on Iskat out of the net. And the Sun God is like, oh, that's okay because the Ear God is about to catch him.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, sir, about the Ear God.
Sam Leach
And yeah, we have not. The audience has not gotten to seeing this bunny yet. So now we're. We're seeing the Sun God's memory of the Ear God. And the, The Ear God looks like a Mario Odyssey miniboss or like a. Like a Mario and rabbits.
Steve Yerko
Like, it's so funny. Like it kind of. It almost seemed like dark like, man, they ate a rabbit. Then we see what this rabbit looks like.
Sam Leach
It looks like you feel like one
Ken O'Connor
of the critters, you know, so it's like, fucking monster.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, I guess. No loss there.
Ken O'Connor
I just love. They show like the burnt crater of where they clearly roasted it and all the skeletons, all the melted Lego around it. It's so funny.
Sam Leach
And at first the Sun God, we think that the Sun God's pretty mad about this, but then he just kind of gets swept in emotion. He's like, oh, the drama, the highs and the lows. Cause he built this whole LEGO country and it's all about role playing with action figures to him.
Steve Yerko
Yeah, he just stands up and goes Fiddle Dee de.
Sam Leach
Usopp does like a big skull grass explosion to start breaking away. More of the mirror, you mean.
Ken O'Connor
He sets off a nuke.
Sam Leach
Sets off a nuke.
Ken O'Connor
It goes off. It just shows all the buildings flattening around it. It was so over the top.
Sam Leach
And when the cat crashes, in classic anime fashion, he does have an X shaped but butthole.
Ken O'Connor
Yes.
Sam Leach
The Sun God. He's just kind of talking to himself out loud about. He seems to know who the straw hats are and he's imagining them as his little dolls hanging on strings in front of him. They're all part of this kind of puppet show for him.
Ken O'Connor
I want those dolls.
Sam Leach
And he's acknowledging them all by name. He's calling them Ultra Rare Luffy Ultra Rare Zoro Ultra Rare Sanji Ultra Rare N Ultra Rare Usopp, which I forgot was like.
Steve Yerko
Like a Stephen Paul joint. Like that was. Yeah, it's like something he came up
Sam Leach
with, like Zoro tasso or something like that in Japanese or uso tasso,
Steve Yerko
which I feel like. Can't help but feel like it's, it's. It's in reference or at least like paying a little bit of an homage to like the popular card game.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, definitely.
Sam Leach
Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Like, I mean, I guess like collectible dolls don't really have rarities like cards do.
Steve Yerko
I don't know. Put it in a slab.
Sam Leach
Yeah, I guess
Ken O'Connor
my PSA 10 NAMI doll.
Steve Yerko
I mean, I made an image with. Well, he had like the card game cards.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, right, right, right.
Sam Leach
Does he pull him out of like a gachapon machine and you know, now it's his turn to step on a Lego and trip. And we get this, this very interesting, like widescreen flashback of like how the Sunny got to Elbaf at all. And basically a giant raven brought it to Roto. We're recognizing him now as Roto, one of the new Giant pirates members do the anime.
Ken O'Connor
Only watchers know about Roto because he was a cover story character.
Sam Leach
Probably not.
Steve Yerko
He's been briefly shown when the new giant pirates were mentioned and you see them, but he was never fully animated.
Ken O'Connor
Gotcha. Interesting.
Sam Leach
Moved.
Steve Yerko
Okay, so he's never moved.
Ken O'Connor
He's never talked Rotor never moved much.
Sam Leach
He recognizes the straw Hats because his boss made Luffy his boss. And you know, he's looking at. He's looking at. He's looking at his little collection here. He flares his nostrils at Nami and I kind of. I Do like the effect of the widescreen bars. Like you see them fading as we're returning to the present.
Ken O'Connor
That scene was creepy though. It ends with him like with like it looks like a syringe, but it's full of like that sleeping mist. And he sprays them again for good measure. I'm like, you're a fucking creep, Roto. I did really not like that at all.
Sam Leach
And he notices that the clouds are turning dark and he's like, huh? What's this about? And then we get this great like pull out shot of you know, like Lil Nami standing behind him, you know, because she's ready, readying up her big attack with Zeus and just a giant huge thunderbolt. Looks powerful looks amazing looks. Is animated incredibly. Back on the cat, they're running again. Usopp is yelling at Nami for going too far. This is an incredible little animated bit of just like her looking adorable and proud of herself as like the, the, you know, the, the up and down of the cat running is like lifting them in the frame and like they're kind of zooming off in the distance as the cat gets further away. And Nami's doing like an Ojo sama laugh. He's like, it went viral.
Ken O'Connor
I saw this everywhere.
Steve Yerko
It's kind of broke captivity, you know.
Ken O'Connor
She's like, oh, it's divine retribution. It wasn't me. And it was like bullshit.
Steve Yerko
It's really. It's just really cute animation. And even like Usopp is really funny. Like the way he's animated too. It's a really great scene. Like definitely like a standout.
Ken O'Connor
The little laugh is good. Like the voice actors are doing a good job. You have Zoro and Sanji kind of smirk in the background. Like it's. It's amazing. It's such a good scene.
Sam Leach
And great shot of like Luffy jumping into the air. And then like while. While he's like soaring through the sky, he's readying up his mini gear 4. Just like his just. His arm is. Is in gear four right now. And he does a gum gum Kong gun to blow a big giant hole in the mirror ahead of them. And then the final shot is like the camera pushing in on Luffy as he's retracting his arm back. And he's just like looking amazed at the new sights he's about to see outside the LEGO world.
Ken O'Connor
How do both of you feel about mini gear 4?
Sam Leach
I mean, it's a natural, like the way we already kind of, you know, pushed Gear three into like this this instantaneous thing he does now feels like it's only natural that to Gear four eventually becomes real.
Steve Yerko
I. Yeah. I kind of forgot this is something like totally new and. Yeah, I mean it's just like a progression in strength because yeah like Sam said like he was able to do this with you know, gear second and all that so.
Ken O'Connor
Okay. Yeah. It feels so weird to me. Like I feel like nowadays Luffy is either Luffy or he's like Gear five. So like mini Gear four where he's not doing a full transformation. Like, I don't know, just weird.
Sam Leach
I mean that's. Yeah, it's. It's Gear five is probably what he will go to when it's a transformation. And then. Then the rest of the forums are just kind of like you know, kits in his toolbox.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Sam Leach
Then our final episode of the Marathon 1160. An encounter on the snow field. Loki, the accursed princess
Steve Yerko
instinctively going to
Sam Leach
call him the princess. Loki, the accursed prince. And this is adapting chapter 1130. And it opens with a very kind of snowy, stormy area before we. We return to the the other side of the wall where everything's all bright and colorful and the. We have a scene of the. The giants looking for Luffy and friends on the great Eric. And eventually like. Like Frankie just like crosses his arms, just puffs his chest and goes a 10 shot and then asks for the. He tells the giants like hey you know what? It's okay. You don't have to be looking for him anymore. And you suspect that that means that Frankie has figured something out or that he's like learned about something about their whereabouts. But his logic is basically just like ah, they're Luffy. He'll be fine. Like don't. Don't waste your energy. We'll just to get to Elbaf. We'll reunite with them eventually and got tank top boy shorts. Robin is got me acting up.
Ken O'Connor
Yep.
Sam Leach
That. That's. That's. That's good.
Ken O'Connor
Sam, did you notice that the dice in this scene in like all the scenes with them.
Sam Leach
I know that there were dice. What about them?
Ken O'Connor
Just there's a single die on the table. They're at all the stuff happening on the giant chip this episode. And it's like in every shot you're really trying to look how big this dice is compared to them. It felt like they were overusing that one prop to really sell how small they were. I just didn't know if I was just paying too much attention to it or not.
Sam Leach
I was not paying much attention to it at all. But it definitely was there. And I think you're right. That was kind of a nice size establishment.
Ken O'Connor
Gotcha.
Steve Yerko
Reminds me of like a really bad joke where it's their bowls of cereal are so big they need a lifeguard. Four kids would do that. Four kids would do that.
Ken O'Connor
Absolutely. Absolutely they would.
Steve Yerko
You know what? I'll go up one more live action would do that.
Sam Leach
Yeah. Back to Luffy's group there now, you know, kind of touring the outside of the LEGO world, which is. Which is like a very dank, very moody, stormy, earthy, kind of foresty winter area. And they're. They're amazed by like just the size of the trees and the size of this big giant rickety bridge ahead of them, which Gerd and Goldberg are coming down. And they're. And then the straw hats just kind of like hide off to this side while Gerd is shit talking Roto calling him a creep. It's like he's the shame of Elbaf, not Loki. And I like that. They're like character intro screens have. This night, they have these nice little like, like almost like patterned scarfs. Gerd is talking to her owl, Piper, confirming with the owl. Owl, you know, who's not talking, but can just like nod and say, yeah, hoot, Hoot. But Piper or Gerd's like, hey, Piper, you saw Roto's crow bringing a small ship to him. Correct. And the owl confirms.
Steve Yerko
The owl says, who? And Kurt says, roto who? Roto Man, I'm just full of the bad jokes tonight.
Sam Leach
One of us is an owl who.
Ken O'Connor
Stupid.
Sam Leach
So the straw hats can't like, can't really make up their minds if they want to be staying out of sight to these guys or not. Because they're. They're probably friends, but they're also. Just don't want to get into it right now, I suppose. But Sanji's going goo goo for Gerd, obviously. And that gets Gerd and Goldberg too.
Steve Yerko
That's another good title, Goo goo for Gerd.
Sam Leach
But they're like, oh, did you hear something? Then they stop looking and return to their path.
Ken O'Connor
I like how Gerd has a pink axe on her back that matches her outfit perfectly. And then later you get a shot of Luffy. The axe he's been having he has on the entire time matches his outfit too. So I like that everyone in Elbaf has colored axes that match their outfit of the day.
Sam Leach
Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
Probably
Sam Leach
got Nami writing Chopper again. And Chopper's letting her know, like, oh, I'm Used to walking on ropes like this. Like it's just like what happened on. On drum.
Ken O'Connor
That was weird. They cut back to drum and showed him like running on the ropes. Like, okay, I didn't need to be.
Steve Yerko
It's season two, Ken.
Ken O'Connor
How's anyone gonna remember the second. The second screen experience?
Sam Leach
So the eye catches this time. They feel like. Like, like shipping themed. Like the. Like a. The. Again with the pattern scarf effect. One's like a Luffy Nami one and one's a Sanji chopper one. And we. We're back on the ship. Robin is reading a newspaper to the giants because the text is too small for them to read. And she's filling them in on,
Steve Yerko
you
Sam Leach
know, how the paper is. Is summarized their participation in Egghead, which Dory and Brogy are obviously interested in. And the. The narration is cross cutting with Morgan's like writing the story out looking. Looking like light Yagami, like, I'll take the bird. Bird fruit and eat it.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, he does do that freaking motion, doesn't he? Yeah, that's so funny.
Sam Leach
So Dori and Brogy have had their bounties updated to 1.8 billion each, which they're. They're a little concerned with. They're like, that's. That's a bit much for a. You know, like, we went out for milk and now we're. We're, you know, 1.8 billion. This one giant who has like a weird ball sac chin.
Ken O'Connor
I'm glad you noticed this a Peter Griffin. No, it's like. It's like a giant goiter. They're not really like.
Sam Leach
Yeah, if it was a beard, it would look normal.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, it's just teeth.
Steve Yerko
You're saying this guy should. This guy has a face of. Oh, you should grow out a beard.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. Literally.
Sam Leach
Well, like. Yeah, it's like a tonic Y, like ball sack.
Ken O'Connor
He has a giant coma in his face or something. I don't know. It's really bad. Bad.
Sam Leach
It's. I don't like him.
Ken O'Connor
It's concerning.
Sam Leach
He makes me uncomfortable. Also, the newspaper is saying that Luffy was responsible for killing Vegapunk, which Lilith thinks is funny. She's like, ah, Luffy killed me. And Robin is wondering about the. The X mark on Luffy's arm. She's like, that looks familiar. I feel like this is relevant to experiences I've had from early in my time on this crew. But also that the. She's recognizing the power of Photoshop here. That Luffy's photo is slightly blurry, but the X mark is weirdly.
Ken O'Connor
Sharp Robin's. Like, I was hiding in the cabin when I saw them all raise their arms at one point during Alabasta. Don't know what they were doing, but.
Sam Leach
Yeah, it's like that thing I saw him washing off in the sink afterwards.
Ken O'Connor
Exactly. They were all talking about it.
Sam Leach
Luffy is having the time of his life as he's like jumping into snowbanks and stuff. And I really love how like warm the colors on Luffy look here. Like, I don't know if it's just like. Like he's just popping from the. The kind of dreary landscape.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah.
Sam Leach
Or like it feels like they turned the saturation up a little bit. Little bit just for this.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, they might have.
Sam Leach
Yeah. This has a very warm, very like. Like crispy, burnt flavor to it. And. And this is happening as the giants are like explaining the complicated relationship between, you know, Haruden is like the. The illegitimate son of the king. He stayed behind because there was a business at Elbaf that needed some of the. The youngblood to. To take care of. And that's why they're. They're not with the rest of the giants. On the Great Eric, you know, we see Haradin, you know, trudging through the snow, getting to fights with like, weird like lizard deer things. We also learn that the king had a legit, another legitimate son, Loki. And we get a cool abstract version of Loki of him, like defeating all the other giants. It's like. It's like halfway between. It's like not exact. It's not what his original silhouette looked like, but it's still like kind of different enough from his real appearance that
Ken O'Connor
it kind of feels like a midpoint monstrous. Yeah,
Sam Leach
yeah. And so, so, so Luffy is getting circled by wolves. But he's not like, he's not all that bothered by it.
Zach Logan
He's.
Sam Leach
He keeps moving, getting lost in these woods.
Ken O'Connor
The editing of this scene is really well done because the narration continues over the entire sequence. Luffy's wandering through the woods. The wind is blowing, but the narration keeps going. It keeps coming back to the straw hats on the ship, back to Luffy. It was really well done that it couldn't have been conveyed this way panel to panel in the manga.
Sam Leach
I. I was quite breathtaken with the bit of Haruden is like fighting the. The monster in the woods. And like the. The gust of air from his attack like kind of covers the screen. And then that is a transition for like a bird to like swoop in and like. And we're now Seeing like a beautiful establishing shot of Elbaf.
Ken O'Connor
Yes.
Sam Leach
In general. And like seeing the parts of Elbaf that aren't snow covered. Like, it really makes the island feel huge. Like on. On over here in the mountains. It's snowy here on the beach. It's like kind of summery. Just like really, really establishing the. The atmosphere and like the. The kind of beautiful, fantastical scenery. I thought that was great. And then also that contrasted with like the weird, dark feeling of Loki chained up. He's very. He's got very intense design. He's got a very intense circumstance with the blindfold and the chains. But he's like kind of smiling and being kind of smug about it. And we're like, you know, getting our. We're trying to get our bearings on, like, who this guy is and whether we're supposed to be afraid of him or if we're supposed to think he's cool, like a good guy. And, you know, Luffy's just kind of like happening upon him on accident. He's not. He's not privy to any of the narration, obviously. So it's just like a really very cool, like, what is going to happen? Like, what is. What are we supposed to feel right now, now? Kind of circumstance and. And you know, Luffy and Loki have an exchange. Like, Loki gets a decent bit of dialogue at the end here, and he's voiced by Yuichi Nakamura Satoru Gojo himself. And he's like, I am the Sun God, Loki. To be continued. General thoughts on the beginning of Elbaf so far.
Steve Yerko
It's great to have one piece back. I especially loved, like, the, you know, the Nami attack episode, but also, like the first episode. Great choice to go back and reanimate some of the stuff from Little Garden. The Barto Ameo stuff was really good. Just the tone of the. That was exceptional. It's been fun so far. I definitely. I would be remiss if I didn't point out because I think some people are under the wrong impression. They didn't read all the fine print. When they thought, oh, the pacing. Can you imagine pacing with one piece now that season? I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. They never said that they were gonna pick up the pace here, so they.
Sam Leach
Well, they're not going to be less than a chapter per episode, for sure. Sure.
Steve Yerko
Yeah. Like, it's crazy to me. We're in an era where there's no, like, no. There's no recaps. It's just true. You just jump into the episode.
Sam Leach
Yeah. I hadn't really thought about that.
Steve Yerko
It's a crazy time, but I still feel like the pacing is very similar to, you know, like, Egghead stuff. But now we don't have like the. We haven't gotten like any chopper specials or, or
Sam Leach
the recaps.
Steve Yerko
Just clip shows. Even like Egghead didn't have long recaps either.
Sam Leach
So Egghead had a lot of clip shows and I'm guessing we're not going to be seeing those at all. Or maybe very much more infrequently. At least
Steve Yerko
they've been entertaining on dub rewatch, especially the ones with Bartolomeo in it. Because now I think a new thing we'll say around the household is that Marco the freaking Phoenix.
Ken O'Connor
So
Steve Yerko
really looking forward to, you know, Bartolomeo getting, you know, some more time before he gets blown up, you know, so I look forward to hearing that in English. But no, it's been awesome so far. The vibes have just been so, you know, like springtime fresh. I think just, you know, the fact that, you know, we're entering a country that worships the sun goes God, this just feels so much. The vibes of this is just like just warm rays of sunshine. And I guess especially coming off of the end of Egghead where it was just very smoke, you know, smoke filled skies from an island being annihilated smoke. But it's been fun. And to me it's like the number one appeal for One Piece for me is the straw hats. And seeing the straw hats do some fun stuff together at the beginning of an arc, it's. It's Chef's Kiss. So it's been a very entertaining watch so far.
Sam Leach
Ken.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, I've been loving it so far. Again, that Nami electrifying Roto and then laughing on the back of his cat. We said earlier it broke out of containment and went everywhere. I need a thousand more of those moments. It was so well animated and really brought out like personality again. We haven't had this focus on the straw hats in such a long time. Like Vegapunk's message in Elbaf, it was all about the cameos and the wider island, like everything going on. This has just been the straw hats for the most part. And it's been great. It looks really good and I can't tell if, oh, is the animation quality that much better than it was before the break and I can't really tell, but it looks really good. And the fact that that first episode was so confident to not have have the opening sequence and just, hey, let's go in. Here's a recap of where all the straw hats, all the Blackbeard pirates, like, here are all the major players that you need to focus on going forward. It'll look great. The Legoland mini arc is fun, and they got through it pretty quickly in a couple episodes, but I'm really excited to see Loki in action and hear more because that little bit we got, the last episode of Loki was so good. I love the Loki stuff in general. I like seeing Elbaf and those big wide shots they showed of, like, the cannon sticking out of Elbaf, the giant sword sticking out, and like, the scale of things. Like, it's really. I'm just excited to see more. They're doing a really good job in general.
Sam Leach
Yeah, I really enjoyed these episodes a lot. Like, the, The Legoland stuff, I'm of two minds of. Because it feels like it's. It's so trivial for us to have spent like four or five episodes there. But also, like, I do appreciate that I kind of had a much clearer idea of, like, what the. You know, like, that this whole arc is just kind of on. Ramping us into the rest of the arc and it's just kind of its own little confined. I don't know. Like, I found it very kind of confusing choosing to follow in the manga where, you know, like in. In the anime, like, I. I felt like, okay, I get what the. What the story is doing. I get, I get, like, exactly what. Where our expectations on the. On the stakes here are supposed to be.
Steve Yerko
I just remember us being very befuddled in those early chapters, especially when there was art inconsistencies and.
Sam Leach
Yeah, you're just trying to like, make sense of like, like, what. What is our takeaway of this supposed to be right now?
Ken O'Connor
We had crazy like, oh, is this a halluc imagining this? Is this Elbaf? Is it not Elbaf? Like, in hindsight, once you see all the pieces, like, okay, it's a clever little, like, mini contained story. But when we first read that, we had no idea what was happening. It was very disorienting.
Sam Leach
Yeah. And I thought the fifth of these, the most recent of these episodes, the last episode we just did, I thought that did such an incredible job of, like, laying down the vibe, laying down the atmosphere, fear, laying down the intrigue with Loki. Like, I think if I was watching it, the anime for the first time, not as a manga reader, like, I would have. This introduction to Loki would have been like, whoa, dude. Like, I just, I think that. I think the Vibes are immaculate. And I. I really, really appreciate that. I think it's. I think. I think it's heightening the Elbaf arc lot.
Ken O'Connor
Oh, yeah. Even just in that most recent episode, the wind howling, the wind blowing. Throughout the entire episode, I felt a chill. There's a little bit of character acting too, where Sanji takes off his cloak and puts it around Nami because she's cold. When Luffy's standing on the edge of the rope bridge listening to the howling in the wind, he can tell that someone's screaming in the wind. It's not just the wind blowing. There's a lot of little stuff that it really added to that episode.
Steve Yerko
One Piece is at its best when it feels like an adventure.
Sam Leach
All right, anything else you guys would like to comment on before we move on and close the episode out?
Steve Yerko
We're all good here.
Ken O'Connor
Sam. Yeah, season two is great so far.
Sam Leach
Thank you guys. Thank you for everyone's patience while I. I got myself out of this funk to get this anime recap ready and sitting here and listen to me narrate for 10 episodes worth of recap. All right, thank you, guys. Let's move on.
Steve Yerko
Thank you, Sam. It was nice to get the band back together for this. Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
Not a small feat. So thank you so much for taking your time for this.
Sam Leach
All right, let's move on.
Zach Logan
This has been the One Piece podcast episode 917 for May 4, 2026. Sam, thank you so much for your anime recap that you've just done.
Sam Leach
My voice is so soar.
Zach Logan
Yes. That's one thing we could say for sure as we sit here right now that your voice is sore. Sam, where could people find you?
Sam Leach
They can find me on Bluesky C Sam.
Zach Logan
Steve, where could people find you?
Steve Yerko
SteveDerko.com, social media Steve Yerko Listen to me on Prozd Plays Games me on 4 kids flashback.
Zach Logan
Yes. What was the name of the train game that you played this week?
Steve Yerko
I do highly Recommend train sim world4world4.
Zach Logan
I'm sorry. That episode was extremely funny, Ken.
Steve Yerko
If you liked seeing trains move, don't watch. Check out another playthrough.
Zach Logan
Sorry, don't know why I just start crying immediately thinking of it. Kids can. Where could people find you?
Ken O'Connor
You can find me anywhere online under King01. And make sure to check out the One Piece Art Collab on Blue sky at Opcollab Bsky Social.
Zach Logan
Thank you everyone for listening. You can find me zack logan.com on bluesky one piece podcast.com one piece podcast.com anywhere you go online, one piece podcast, anywhere you get your podcast. YouTube.com one piece podcast. Please subscribe, rate and review there. So I think next week we'll be back with our manga recap. But before we go, can I don't know these results? I have stayed in the dark. We have a Glup Shit beard tournament going on to celebrate the people who are not celebrating. The WT100 is the exact opposite of the WT100. Except Rockstar.
Ken O'Connor
Except Rockstar. But he's gone this point, so that's spoilers. Well, that was last week.
Zach Logan
Oh, not spoilers.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah, he's already gone.
Zach Logan
Okay.
Ken O'Connor
Okay. The results from the previous week are. Whoopslap beat Red King 24 to 12, or Lumbus beat Lime Juice 27 to 9.
Zach Logan
What a name.
Ken O'Connor
Chuji beat Moosi 1917. That was a very close one.
Zach Logan
The battle of the under animals.
Sam Leach
Justice for Moosie.
Ken O'Connor
Wow. Choo Choo Sar Funkel beat king hamburger 18 to 17. That was another very close one.
Zach Logan
I did that.
Ken O'Connor
Peek at the Crotch beat fish woman Nami 18, 17. Wow. Again, very close.
Zach Logan
I lost that one. Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
King bomb beat Bogard 2214.
Zach Logan
That's good.
Ken O'Connor
The Satanist beat Josh 18 to 17. Wow.
Zach Logan
Josh.
Ken O'Connor
Very close. Poor Josh.
Zach Logan
What does Josh say? At least I got beaten by Satan. That's true.
Ken O'Connor
Yeah. And then Charlotte Moscato, Mr. Gelato, beat little orange junior 20 to 15.
Zach Logan
And who do we have next week in the.
Ken O'Connor
All right, so the pairings this week, which are already live, make sure you join our discord and vote. These are already up and you can vote right now. Now we have Whoopslap versus Orlumbus, Chuji versus Sarfuncle. Pika. The Crotch versus King Bomb, and the Satanist versus Charlotte Moscato, Minister of Gelato.
Zach Logan
Ooh. Come on, Satanists. Let's go. Fighting Satanists. My local team.
Ken O'Connor
The Fighting Satanists.
Zach Logan
The Fighting Satanists. For those who don't know, we voiced the Satanists in the dub, not in the sub, unfortunately. Any thoughts on our current bracket for the glupship beards, anyone?
Sam Leach
Justice for Moosie.
Zach Logan
Okay.
Steve Yerko
Justice for.
Ken O'Connor
I think Chuji's a better choice for a glupship beard than a moosey is, though. I think.
Sam Leach
So what has Chuji actually done? Really?
Ken O'Connor
That's the point. I think the less they've done, the more gluppy they are.
Zach Logan
I think a gluppy.
Sam Leach
But the more they do, the more shitto they are.
Zach Logan
A shit beard could only be described as if you ask any regular Normal fan of One Piece. Who is this character? They go, who the fuck is this character?
Sam Leach
Yeah. I think, like, if I was having a discussion with my brother who's read the whole series.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Sam Leach
And I. And I just, like, offhandedly mentioned, like, oh, Vice Admiral Strawberry. He'd be like, who?
Zach Logan
Yes. That's why, you know the guy.
Sam Leach
You know the guy with the really tall head? He'd be like, oh, you know his name?
Zach Logan
Yeah. Yeah. That's a club.
Ken O'Connor
Shit. If I said Chuji and then someone's like, who? Oh, you know the. That small little mouse in the two episodes of Onigashi Sanji Safe and the Woman. And, like, that mouse has a. Yes, it's Chuji. Like, that's prime right there. Where I think most people remember the moose that fought in the coliseum of Dressroses.
Zach Logan
Moose.
Ken O'Connor
Like that, at least. Oh, Moose. Moosey.
Sam Leach
How well do they know him, Ken? Moose?
Ken O'Connor
Apparently better than I do.
Zach Logan
Moose.
Ken O'Connor
He's not a moose. I'm sorry, Moose.
Steve Yerko
Most of my horses.
Zach Logan
So I thought you were gonna say something.
Steve Yerko
I just cast my votes now. See what happens.
Zach Logan
Who. Who was your horse in this one? Like, Pearl, Who. Who was the original horse you had in this one?
Steve Yerko
Feel like, I don't know. Maybe peek at the crotch can go all the way.
Zach Logan
I voted Fishbone in all the way, I think. Maybe peek at the crotch. Maybe peek at the crotch.
Sam Leach
It's all in the name. It's all in the. The name.
Zach Logan
Yeah.
Ken O'Connor
It'll be fun to see where this finally all lands. It's been. It's been very divisive across every round so far.
Zach Logan
Everyone now hates each other on the Discord, but please join. That'll do it for the One Piece podcast. Sam, huge thank you for doing the amount of episodes that you did this week. We'll see you next week for manga recap. Bye, everyone. Ice. Goodbye.
Ken O'Connor
It.
May 4, 2026
Host: Zach Logan
Guests: Ken O’Connor, Steve Yerko, Sam Leach
This episode of The One Piece Podcast delivers a jam-packed analysis of two major One Piece topics: the midterm (WT100) One Piece character popularity poll results and an extensive anime recap covering the end of the Egghead arc and the start of Elbaf in the anime (episodes 1151–1160). The hosts dive deep into fan reaction, character trends, structural changes in the anime, and continue their own "Glup Shit Beard" tournament—celebrating the most obscure, beloved, or ridiculous One Piece side characters.
(03:20 – 56:05)
“UTA over Usopp is crazy.” —Ken O’Connor [42:10]
"Her popularity is gonna, like, it was. It's definitely gonna exceed, like, just like, the purpose of her character for that film." —Steve Yerko [58:49]
(61:49 – 157:52)
Featuring detailed segment-by-segment analysis from Sam Leach, with reactions and commentary from Steve and Ken.
Atmosphere Shift:
Standout Scenes & Animation:
Pacing and Direction:
General Host Sentiment:
(160:31 – 164:55)
| Time | Speaker | Notable Quote or Segment | |-----------|----------------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:20 | Zach/Ken | “Midterm” popularity poll results begin | | 25:44 | Zach | “Big Mom…should really…be in the top 15.” | | 42:10 | Ken | “UTA over Usopp is crazy.” | | 44:17 | Steve | “Kuma at 22 is crazy...says a lot about the strength…” | | 58:49 | Steve | “Her [Uta’s] popularity is gonna, like...exceed…” | | 62:06 | Sam | “Stay in line, folks. It’s still going.” | | 75:56 | Sam | “…extremely moved by that final sequence there.” | | 101:01 | Ken | “Chef’s Kiss across the board…the end of Egghead…” | | 129:40 | Sam | “This scene is just cool as fucking hell…” | | 135:59 | Sam | Nami’s “Ojo-sama” laugh, viral animation moment | | 151:31 | Steve | “…no recaps. It’s a crazy time…” | | 153:30 | Ken | “I've been loving it so far…haven't had this focus…” | | 157:39 | Steve | “One Piece is at its best when it feels like an adventure.” | | 162:56 | Zach | “A shit beard could only be described as…” |
This episode embodies The One Piece Podcast’s core strengths: knowledgeable, opinionated, and passionate hosts; genuine engagement with both canonical and fan-driven One Piece culture; and a welcoming atmosphere for listeners to join the conversation (Discord, sticker releases, and interactive polls). Whether you’re a manga reader, anime fan, or part-time participant, this episode offers an in-depth, entertaining review of the current state of the series and its fandom.
For more, check out the latest episodes, join their Discord for tournaments, and stay tuned for the upcoming manga recaps!