One Piece
Episode 1154

by Grant Jones,

How would you rate episode 1154 of
One Piece (TV 1999) ?
Community score: 3.7

op1154.png
© Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation

Episode 1154 of One Piece is a quizzical split between clip show, flashback, and character revelation that sticks the landing… for the most part.

This is a heavily segmented outing, with clear breaks between character segments. I've called these check-in episodes before, and that's still the best way to describe them. It's sort of like standing outside of a carousel and watching various players go round and round, allowing us brief glimpses of each in turn as they go past. These provide connective tissue between arcs and also during longer arcs with lots of moving parts (Wano was quite notorious for these).

1154 shows us slices involving Borsalino, Big News Morgan, and a trio of Vegapunks. There are others scattered in, too, but these end up being the main thrusts (along with the Straw Hats continuing to Elbaph). Big News Morgan is the least consequential and has to deal with what news fits to print; it's certainly a relevant topic in our day and age, but other than getting to see Vivi again, the scene doesn't strike me as that much more interesting or unique than just about any other scene involving him. Big News Morgan is like an affable cousin you see around the holidays: always a delight to catch up with, but he's still the same as the last time you saw him.

Borsalino's portion had more emotional heft, but I'm not quite sure it was that effective. The big issue for me is that Borsalino has been this implacable, ominous force for such a long time that it's hard to buy the sudden revelation of his softer side at this juncture. Perhaps if we had seen the build-up in the episodes leading up to 1154, or if we had more sense of his connection with Vegapunk in other flashbacks, I might have been sold on this. But the tears and the boohooing didn't sway my opinion of him much. Many of the best villains get these surprise reveals about their true motives or conflicted actions, but this simply did not work for me because of how it all gets unceremoniously dumped on the audience alongside Vegapunk's still-warm corpse.

Speaking of which, the Vegapunk trio section was more serviceable. All the explanations and scientific mumbo jumbo were pretty effective. It was a steady increase in tension and was well-directed. Sadly, I wish we had gotten more glimpses of this before and during other sections of the Egghead Island arc. Much like with Borsalino, this all being dumped at the end doesn't give us much time to absorb the knowledge. Similarly, the memory wipe aspect - while funny - strikes me as a way to avoid any head-scratchers about continuity and confusion more than a serious plot point.

Rating:

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.
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