One Piece Episode 1088 gives us echoes of arcs past even as it sets its sights on new possibilities on the horizon.
Have I mentioned how glad I am that Wano is behind us? Because I'm really glad Wano is behind us. For all of the last arc's strengths – of which there were many and I praised it for those strengths – its isolation from the rest of the world was beginning to wear on me. That was a thematic choice and one that fits the setting of Wano to a tee. That said, as time went, on Wano started to feel less like an island within the broader pirate world and more like it was the main story that the One Piece world was just coming to visit at random intervals. With the feasting done, the goodbyes said, and the bounties updated, the crew is finally getting back to the sorts of shenanigans that made us fall in love with the story all those years ago.
And what shenanigans they are. I'd say roughly 8-10 minutes of the runtime is comprised solely of everyone crying about Vivi. This is fitting! Vivi is a Straw Hat too (even if by dint of not being onboard, she is a franchise location, but that's beside the point). It's great seeing everyone get upset and worry on her behalf. It's also fun when Zoro is being practical and kind of a jerk about it. Seeing Sanji and Zoro go at it again on the deck of the Sunny soothes my soul (and I like the new putdown in the mix of “fourth-placer”). Robin even gets to read the paper and strike her iconic pose – truly I am blessed.
The Rayleigh-saves-the-day angle was interesting. Of course, I never complain about a chance to see Rayleigh and Shakky again so their presence is welcome. It's interesting that Rayleigh specifically mentions that he is getting too old for all this, and we're getting to a place where that entire past generation is completely out of the game. Starting to seem like we're approaching the final arcs…
The Pacifista elements are all quite mysterious. The World Government has been up to no good involving technology, cloning, and so on. The star-shaped pupils of the baby Boa clone were a recurring visual in this episode and I think that sequence was just shockingly well done; as usual, hats off to the Toei team for doing great work week after week.
Rating:
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