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One Piece
Episode 1044

by Grant Jones,

How would you rate episode 1044 of
One Piece (TV 1999) ?
Community score: 4.5

I'm going to do my best to write about this episode without absolutely frothing at the mouth over giant evil women. I'd also promise that would not color my review, but I won't make a promise I can't keep…

Episode 1044 continues to illustrate some of my core theses about One Piece. Firstly, the episodes which delve into the emotional context of the core Straw Hat crew are far and away the strongest material in the series. Secondly, Nico Robin is a strong enough character to have her own series entirely.

Let's take the flashbacks for example. Most of the flashbacks we see, while artfully done and cinematically rich, are reminders of what we have already seen. Events such as her mother's death, Saul teaching her to laugh, being hounded by other people, and so forth – it hits hard, but there's not much in the way of new revelations here. We already knew most of these things and their emotional beats (though they are always nice to revisit).

The one new piece of information we do get is a bit about Robin's time with the revolutionary army during the time skip. We still know next to nothing about what happened during those two years, and this flashback doesn't exactly reveal a whole lot. We knew she spent time with Koala and Sabo, but now we get more details about Koala teaching her a few Fish-Man Karate techniques. It's a very small amount of new information, but everything – from their little arguments about who gets to work with Robin to her emotional journey in self-worth and fighting to protect herself and others – is incredibly engaging. Robin was with the revolutionary army for two years, and finding out about a single moment in that time is enough to fill an episode with depth and introspection.

Not to mention the marquee fight being an absolute tour de force. Black Maria and Robin's throwdown is somewhere between a kaiju battle and a Devilman fight, and it is full of gorgeous visuals and fluid motion. Toei really made this feel like the highlight of Wano – and I wonder if they'll be able to top it by the end.

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.

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