×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

One Piece
Episode 1038

by Grant Jones,

How would you rate episode 1038 of
One Piece (TV 1999) ?
Community score: 4.3

One Piece episode 1038 does a solid job working with very little. In terms of how much the plot moves forward, there is not much to speak on. Luffy is still drowning essentially, and most of the episode is about events happening all around Onigashima.

But one big happening is Nami zapping Ulti. Not only does the attack look terrific with vibrant electricity and lighting effects, but it has a huge impact on the tone of the battle. Bao Huang's reaction to Ulti's defeat is utter fear and the shockwaves it sends through the Beast Pirates marks a major morale shift. Despite the samurai being outnumbered, we get to see the momentum shift into their favor in a big way here. Any time Nami gets a chance to shine and do a big attack is a time for celebration, but particularly so in this instance.

It also opens the door for Tama to have her own moment in the spotlight, helping rally the raiders and stand firm in the face of the terrible foes that have plagued her island since before she was born. The bits we got of the reaction shots of all the various Straw Hats was a delight too, even if little movement happened we got to see them all take a second and shine doing cool poses and getting lavish animation. It's a great sequence to be sure.

The final moments really steal the show. Yamatao versus Kaido was always going to be a big fight but the Toei team is flexing major muscle in these last few minutes, with outrageous cinematography and a moody color palette.

Rating:


Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

One Piece is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.com.

discuss this in the forum (751 posts) |
bookmark/share with: short url

this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history

back to One Piece
Episode Review homepage / archives