I feel like "you can tell how much of the arc you're through by how many times Luffy has been 'defeated'" is becoming the One Piece equivalent of "you can tell how much of the fight you're through by how much of Goku's shirt has been destroyed".
Title: ''Luffy Defeated! The Straw Hat Crew Imperiled?!''
Chapters Covered: rest of 1013-1014
Episode/Animation Director: Akihiko Sano (new)
Time: 8:30PM EST
Watch It: www.crunchyroll.com/one-piece
Yes, the episode direction and the animation direction will be handled by the same person. It hasn't happened in One Piece before to my knowledge, but it's not unheard of overall. This episode's going to be outsourced to Bridge, the studio that's done the Shaman King reboot and the later Fairy Tail seasons. They're a pretty workmanlike studio so I'm not expecting a super-animated episode, but apparently Akihiko Sano ED/AD'd episodes of Fairy Tail were pretty polished so we'll see.