1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth'''

Crossword

Remember, you are not made of rubber. If you feel a drum-like beating in your chest you are not a warrior of liberation, you are having a heart attack.

Title: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth'''
Chapters Covered: 1044
Episode Director: Tatsuya Nagamine
Animation Director: Midori Matsuda + Keita Saito
Time: 8:30PM EST
Watch It: www.crunchyroll.com/one-piece

In addition to the long-awaited and hyped animated debut of Gear Fifth (I actually saw a couple of fliers for an outdoor screening of 1071 and RED when I was walking around town this week) we should also being seeing the debut of ending 19, "Raise", with this episode. Yes, after checks notes 17 years the anime will finally have proper ending songs and sequences again. Opening 25 has been announced but we haven't been given a song name yet and it won't be debuting for a little while longer.

thaihoa1991

Link Livestream Raw Episode 1071 (Time: 09:30 AM GMT+9 Japan, August 6th): https://www.nimo.tv/live/579843064

Sano

Warning for tonight. Crunchyroll and Funimation might crash, since we all know this episode is a really big episode. I remember when Episodes 807 and 808 (The hour long Luffy vs. Sanji special) came out, Crunchyroll and Funimation crashed (It also happened the previous week with the Dragon Ball Super: Goku Vs. Jiren hour long special.). So be patient with both Crunchyroll and Funimation tonight. I'm going to wait and watch the episode tomorrow.

rayleigh92

My God, five minutes of G5 and ten of flashback, and yet they skipped Dome's crowd toon reaction to Luffy. Fortunately G5's animation was really awesome and carried on the episode.

On a side note, the animation was really sick and I am afraid Toei will not be able to keep that level for each G5 interaction from now on, so let's hope they will not settle to low for future average movements.

Kaiolino

Crowd reaction to Luffy happens in chapter 1045.

Cinder

@rayleigh92 said in 1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth''':

My God, five minutes of G5 and ten of flashback

Toei patting themselves on the back for this move lol

Sano

And Crunchyroll have crashed.

Envy

Yeah... They certainly padded this one out quite a bit.

With that said, Gear 5 is every bit as hilarious in animation as I hoped it would be. I'm so glad they're nailing those classic cartoon sound effects, and Kaido's eyes popping out! LMAO.

karubiDON

Pacing was amazing this episode; I was entertained throughout. Maybe this is my favorite episode of One Piece? Tu Yong-Ce says we have WEEKS of peak left and the preview looks just as great. I’m pumped!!

Do any of you still doubt that Wano is the best arc of the series?

kevo_koma

That was not a well directed episode at all.

Also what was that Kaidou abnormality at the end. How could something so ugly make it to broadcast? lol

Oh well some of the gear 5 antics(that I could see and wasn't buried under multiple cuts or shitty flashbacks) was cool.

Looking forward to seeing what a competent director can do with gear 5

Crossword

The opening being shortened took me very off guard...and so did a proper ending sequence after the "To Be Continued" screen instead of going straight to the preview. "Raise" was pretty easy-going and cute, and probably going to be ultimately carried by the novelty of being the first ED sequence One Piece has had in seventeen years. The style of the visuals scream Masami Mori and I hope the team uses them going forward as a way to give animators and directors carte blanche to be as experimental and creative with the visuals as possible.

Nagamine's Onigashima episodes have had an unfortunate case of pacing-itis and while I did start to get urked by some of the unnecessary ones (as opposed to the episode's necessary ones like during Hiyori and Orochi's scene) towards the end I'm willing to let it slide if the payoff's there. It most certainly was for me, but I suspect mileage is going to vary by how tolerant individual viewers are of extreme stylistic art shifts. It was certainly nothing like I'd ever seen in One Piece. Next episode seems to be toning it back down to more normal levels.

+1 for the remix of "Overtaken", did not expect that.

I was hoping that the anime would provide an actual justification for Kanjuro's fire splooge ghost flopping onto Orochi but I guess some boo-boos aren't meant to be kissed.

zeltrax225

This is the equivalent of the Mona Lisa having parts of it being colored by crayons. What a way to ruin art. That's how pissed I am regarding the pacing and how much the unnecessary flashbacks ruined the episode. Don't get me wrong, still a good episode but I lost all hope in Toei for having any understanding of artistic integrity. It took them years and anime being high budget again (with ufotable and Mappa) for them to give a shit but that doesn't stop them from their ridiculous pandering. Look, I get it, the bank roll needs to roll but come the fuck on, this is your episode of the decade, it should be as close as stainless as possible. And don't get me started on the fact that endings are actually possible but they had to have push for years to get their ass on it. This episode was ALL on the animators and I can already imagine the annoyance they have for having to deal with the dogshit pacing.

Other than that, incredible episode. For what we get outside of flashbacks and pandering, this is near perfect. The animation for the fights was exactly what everyone wanted, the first look at Gear 5 just nailed it and the cinema was chef's kiss. Oh and the new OSTs? Damn. There's a lot to unpack but the last few minutes of the short fight we got has a frame-by-frame attention and love to it. The voice acting by Mayumi Tanaka is stellar, you can hear how she loved doing this and that she has finally been able to grow in a different way as a VA again. Really beautiful episode where all everyone is at the top of their craft with the only demerit being upper management being idiots. They seem to be toning down the cartoon animation in the next episode for obvious reasons such as budget and keeping in style but that is honestly a waste because the entire fight should have a movie length direction and that same style in it throughout. Do it AFTER Wano, acting on it now ruins the momentum. The other parts of the arc that borders on boring to bullshit will also ruin the fight which is a personal irk of mine but this, this could have been so much better which is a letdown. Still really good though.

Sherlockian

Fantastic episode! G5's introduction with the Gorosei felt so cinematic, and the fight in the second half was just an absolute masterclass in direction, voice acting, and especially animation. Gear 5's title card adaptation with Vincent Chansard's bouncy animation and the amazing-as-always impact frames while Luffy's journey was being shown in the background was such a S-tier sequence.
The only time I had a problem with the pacing of the episode was the CP0 flashback at the end, but I'm letting it slide since the real meat of the episode was over by that time and done amazingly at that. I feel like the criticisms for Hiyori and Orochi's scene falls more on Oda than the anime. That scene was like 5 pages in the chapter and I would've preferred being shorter there too. That said, I'm fine with what we got, and the Oden flashbacks worked well within the contexts of the scene.
All and all, an all-timer episode! I could watch Luffy bounce around for all eternity and not get tired for even one second :))

rayleigh92

I am not complaining about Hiyori's flashback. More on CP0's one. I find it kinda sad we got a better paced episode for Queen's Onigashima party episode than this one, which could've been the anime episode of the decade. They even reused the same Luffy bouncing animation a few times. I feel like this should've been Toei's highest budget episode ever, but still we got:

great excellent animation for a few minutes
CP0 too long flashback
some good animation for Hiyori and Nami/O-Tama

Maybe it's in me but I think it could and should be better.

MetaMario

why did Toei cut endings for over a decade only to decide now, "yeah we'll bring them back?"

was there just enough fan requests?

SirCaesar

I don't remember ever watching an episode of Tom and Jerry where I could not tell what was going on in each precise moment.

This was an absolute mess. Most of the shots were sped up for god knows what reason, the camera kept jumping all over the place and it was a visual mess. Arguably the opposite of what Oda did in the chapter.

Gear 5 should be cheap and easy to animate!

rayleigh92

@SirCaesar said in 1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth''':

I don't remember ever watching an episode of Tom and Jerry where I could not tell what was going on in each precise moment.

This was an absolute mess. Most of the shots were sped up for god knows what reason, the camera kept jumping all over the place and it was a visual mess. Arguably the opposite of what Oda did in the chapter.

Gear 5 should be cheap and easy to animate!

This is something I have to agree to. But it's always been part of Toei's way to high animate: put all over the place a bunch of effects, speed all up and move the camera to simulate movement.

I think a more simple (yet high cost) animation should've always been the best fit for the series, but it's never been in their chords.

.access timeco.

Loved the ending. Luffy's VA being amazing as always.

And sadly that's it. I felt like the animators were trying to outshine the actual content of the scene and pretty much ruined it. A prime example of why "SAKUGAAAA" is not necessarily a good thing when not properly used. Hopefully in the next chapter things are more contained so I can appreciate the stupidity of G5 more. The portion when Luffy bounces the Boro Breath back has to be the worst part: I couldn't even understand what happened and the portions that should be funny like Luffy plucking his eyes back were so fast I could barely register without going back and pausing...

The flashbacks I had no problem with (... because I skipped them).

Lord Gaimon

sound design terrible as usual

Elektrik Dynomite

Yeah all the fight sequences were over-animated and poorly directed. They were a mess to understand what was happening, with frantic camera moves and wayyy too zoomed in. If i hadnt read the manga, i would have no idea what happened. Also i really hated what they did to Kaidos color and design suddenly on the roof, it looks so wrong, he was like neon cyan, and it came across looking unfinished.

The Hiyori scene is fine in a vacuum, but Toei has moved stuff around before, i dont understand why that couldnt have been moved to another episode, or at least shortened.

Lots of flashbacks and reused animation. I personally was never hyped for this, since i wasnt a huge fan of the original chapter, but it was still disappointing. I want to love Gear 5, but like, i just find it so jarring.

Music and voice acting on point tho, have to give credit there. The opening drums and overtaken remix did get me hyped. Also cant help but love Ending themes coming back

Crossword

If I may share what might be a scorching hot take (maybe; I'm not as plugged in with the general fandom as I was in years past), while I think that Gear Fifth itself is very neat and creative in a way that is uniquely and quintessentially One Piece, Oda retconing Luffy's Devil Fruit is one of my least favorite of Oda's writing decisions in the entirety of the manga so far.

spoiler

Looking at the staff list I'm a little surprised that for the big Gear Fifth debut episode there weren't too many unfamiliar faces. I see Masayuki Sato in there, Takashi Kojima came back, as did Jakisuaki, but otherwise most of the action was handled by the regulars: Shida, Tu, Chansard, Yen Bm, Shotaro Ban, etc. The biggest exception was Weilin Zhang who did the whole sequence of Luffy rebounding the Blast Breath. He's a young Chinese animator who's worked on some of the big action shonen tentpoles in recent years like Mob Psycho and Jujutsu Kaisen. He directed the Heavenly Delusion OP last season too.

Dahaka

Seems the episode is as polarizing as the chapter itself during it's debut.

The energy, the goofiness and Luffy's VA were on point. Animation was nuts, Zhang's cut was hard to read, but everything else was pretty clear, so IDK what are people going on about saying the whole episode was a mess. This was a fantastic episode with directing that perfectly encapsulated what G5 is. Wasn't perfect by any means, Orochi scene at the very least should have been at the start of the episode and not in the middle, repeated cuts were annoying, and dragging the episode with recaps was lame, but G5 itself was handled perfectly and in the end that's all that really matters, at least to me.

Dahaka

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Captain Krupp

@SirCaesar said in 1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth''':

I don't remember ever watching an episode of Tom and Jerry where I could not tell what was going on in each precise moment.

This was an absolute mess. Most of the shots were sped up for god knows what reason, the camera kept jumping all over the place and it was a visual mess. Arguably the opposite of what Oda did in the chapter.

Gear 5 should be cheap and easy to animate!

@SirCaesar said in 1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth''':

I don't remember ever watching an episode of Tom and Jerry where I could not tell what was going on in each precise moment.

This was an absolute mess. Most of the shots were sped up for god knows what reason, the camera kept jumping all over the place and it was a visual mess. Arguably the opposite of what Oda did in the chapter.

> Gear 5 should be cheap and easy to animate!

No No NO!

I wish Skippy were here since he understands Animation way more than I do. But Looney Tunes or Tom And Jerry, outside of the awful TV Series from the 70's Have never ever been cheap and easy to animate. They had THE most budget, time to animate and Talent of all the Golden Era Of Animation shorts. This idea that Cartoony or Old shorts style animation is cheap and easy to do needs to die.

Crossword

Stretch-an'-squash and rubberhose is like...the diametric opposite of the limited animation style that anime lives by lol

I can just imagine some animator receiving the Gear Fifth design sheets or reading chapter 1044 for the first time and saying "thank god it's just Luffy with Super Saiyan hair" only to go "fuck you, Oda" when they turn to the next few pages.

Captain Krupp

What I didnt like about the episode is the Haki Lightning for Gear 5. It didnt use Haki yet! There shouldnt BE ANY! Other than that I loved it.

Robby

Yeah they OVER-animated that some, it was hard to follow in parts. If I hadn't read the manga I'd be outright confused. Everything past the point where Kaidou charged up hi s beam and Luffy's eyes popped out to Luffy pulling up the rock to reflect was too fast cut and camera jumpy jumpey and overusing the sketchyh filter and just generally hard to follow. And what was with bell ringing letter appear rapid fire spelling out of gear 5?

And the sound effects.... ICK. The form is more cartooney fine but you don't need to change the sound effects too, the catooney spinney wheel feet, or repeat the same exact bounce sound 17 times in a row.

It was impressive animation wise but directorially it was a complete mess, and Gear 5 is probably stuck with these sound effects forever now.

.access timeco.

Could be because I always envisioned it with those sound effects, but that was pretty much the only thing I enjoyed in the G5 portrayal this episode. Maybe if the animation was as committed to emulate the rubberhose animation style, things would have meshed better together.

karubiDON

The contrarian AP opinion strikes again. As a long time fan, I can’t imagine a more perfect adaptation than this. The episode had me smiling and laughing out loud throughout! Looking at the replies here, I’m honestly shocked to see the tepid praise and palpable disappointment mixed with a twinge of condescending criticism.

Really — what would y’all have done better? The sound effects were so fun… and Weilin Zhang’s cut was beautiful. It feels like we all watched something different!

black-leg jex

The SFX were great. Ignoring the obvious filler flashbacks, the repeated animation loops and the Hiyori section (which is fine btw, but just like in the manga it's obviously not what we are here to see right now) I think the main complaint this episode is just how chaotic the direction is on some scenes. A lot of them are great and fun, but the one where Kaidou does his Blast Breath and Luffy reflects it is OTT. The shots we want to see, like Luffy with his eyes popping out, are a couple frames at best, and it's really hard to follow the action in your first watch. And then when Luffy is reflecting the blast back the camera is zooming in and out of Luffy non-stop, like a bad shaky cam in a movie action sequence.

Don't get me wrong, there are some sequences in this episode that are great but then there are sections that are too extra. It's like that previous Luffy moment when he uses CoC and Toei used massive amounts of bloom to the point you could barely see what was happening.

Captain Krupp

@karubiDON said in 1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth''':

The contrarian AP opinion strikes again. As a long time fan, I can’t imagine a more perfect adaptation than this. The episode had me smiling and laughing out loud throughout! Looking at the replies here, I’m honestly shocked to see the tepid praise and palpable disappointment mixed with a twinge of condescending criticism.

Really — what would y’all have done better? The sound effects were so fun… and Weilin Zhang’s cut was beautiful. It feels like we all watched something different!

Yeah I agree with everything said here. I LOVED this episode. I really dont get why people go WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA FLASHBACKS or whatever. There are coming with the territory, they are never leaving. Deal with it. But thankfully thanks to all this complaints I loved the episode even more. When people unanimously love things I am usually the one contrarian who doesnt and that's never fun.

.access timeco.

This post is deleted!

danie

Yeah, i like how they handled it for the most part... Only real nitpick for me is that they had Luffy blow into his thumb still. I didn't get the impression he had to do that in gear 5, and it would have been much cooler to just see Luffy's arm become gigantic at will!

SirCaesar

@Captain-Krupp dude, sorry but old cartoons were definitely cheaper to animate than the average One Piece anime episode.

Just to mention one thing, they had fixed backgrounds!!

Captain Krupp

@SirCaesar said in 1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth''':

@Captain-Krupp dude, sorry but old cartoons were definitely cheaper to animate than the average One Piece anime episode.

Just to mention one thing, they had fixed backgrounds!!

Cant respond to the fixed backgrounds thing but I can CERTAINLY obliterate the "Cheaper to Animate" bullshit.

Value of $50,000 from 1940 to 2023
$50,000 in 1940 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $1,089,675 today, an increase of $1,039,675.00 over 83 years.

approximately $90,000-$100,000
While the price has likely fluctuated in its many years on the air, the average budget per episode of One Piece is approximately $90,000-$100,000

So unless One Piece puts ONE MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS into an episode. NO. They were NOT cheaper.

90,000-$100,000

SirCaesar

@Captain-Krupp er, cheaper today. You're comparing apples and oranges, they basically just had hand-drawn animation and film back then...

Captain Krupp

Oh god... I am just leaving I might genuinely say something rude. I dont even even.

But before I do, no just NO. The animation of shorts in the Golden Era Of Animation is not cheaper or lesser than a weekly anime for TV.

And lets not forget all the flashbacks (I didnt mind them at all but that's the real reason they are there. To put the actual animation where it matters which is Gear 5.) And that most of the original animation in this episode did NOT have moving backgrounds only Gear 5 scenes did. And that most of the budget doesnt even go into the animation it goes into the Seiyuu.

rayleigh92

While I can understand why some can think of old school episodes as something cheaper and comparison of money value doesn't help, let's remind Tom and Jerry was a cinema oriented production, with massive staff, work and money behind each of the 5-8 episodes coming out each year. They weren't the unknown cheap son of none, but one of the main production of one of the most important animation house of the time.

CosmicDebris

And then, Luffy the Grey resurrected into Luffy The White.

Heh, that was batsh*t insane.
Now, I haven't kept up with the manga, so I didn't have any expectations to fill other than I was spoiled that Luffy is going to attain gear 5 and the basic image of what it looks like. I think they did put way too much filler in this which cut down the impact of the whole situation, but it was still fun to watch.
Those Hanna-Barbera sound effects though, lol.

Robby

@rayleigh92 said in 1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth''':

with massive staff, work and money behind each of the 5-8 episodes coming out each year

MGM had a staff of about 25 animators over the course of the two decades Tom and Jerry stuff was being made, and generally making a cartoon every six weeks, but that also included Droopy and the like. T&J had an insane budget though, 50,000 per 6 minute short.

That's in 1940's dollars! That would be equivalent to something like 650,000 now. For six minutes. they were super high quality theatrical projects.

People think Hanna Barbera, they think of the flat cheap tv work they did later in the 70's like Flintstones and Yogi Bear, and that stuff generally looked bad.

zeltrax225

Anyone that believes older cartoon has lesser budget needs to run modern day animation frame by frame beside older cartoons frame by frame and understand that the technology back then was virtually non-existent compared to what we have today. Anime animation has taken ALOT of animation shortcuts and liberties in the past few decades, either because of technology, deadlines, or budget. Cartoons, or older western animation, is pretty raw in the sense that there is little to none of those shortcut being use. If you take a look at Disney/Pixar's 2D animation through a more knowledgable lens (or visual knowledge) that you have today, you'll understand how smooth every action flows is made possible because of thousand of pages being drawn, which really requires a ton of budget.

@Crossword you probably know this already by now but it was a discourse back then too. A lot of people came out and talked about how this was the chosen one trope all over again and how ridiculous it was that it took this long and this particular moment for the Elders to decide to notice that. I agree, despite having a lot of love for Gear 5 and understanding Oda's decision, mainly because all the other Gears were something that Luffy had to work to develop, came up on his own, and was his own creative workabout to the limitations of "how the fuck do you make rubber powers increasingly fun/powerful?" and G5 kind of does the opposite of that, in the sense that he can do everything and anything. It also makes the other gears seemingly pointless. Yet, I feel like a world without G5 and toon force would kind of suck and Oda did want to do this a long time ago so I am still mixed but it is very fun to watch/read.

zeltrax225

@SirCaesar It's not an apples to oranges situation. Technology is NOT a button you press and eventually everything looks good. A.I might reach there one day (at this speed? probably next year). EVERYTHING that made an animation good 20 years ago still applies today and is fundamentally the foundation for what looks and feels good. Where we've reached today in terms of animation is not just technology but people thinking of camera angles (hey, what if this looks better this way), lighting and shadows (a tweak in contrast makes this looks better), bringing in innovations from cinematography (how to compose this scene to make it interesting?). Tech speeds that up, sure, but you need to be able to look at the medium and wreck your brains on how to make it better instead of delivering the norm. All the while being paid peanuts and lacking sleep, by the way.

Using the average One Piece episode as the basis to judge older cartoons is pretty ridiculous seeing how this series is one of the worst offenders of taking shortcuts and using dated animation techniques despite being capable of doing more with the money that the series makes.

If Oda weren't such good friends with the Anime staff and the VAs, I honestly have no idea how he would have swallowed this disrespect during the past 4-5 years pre-Wano.

Cockycent

I really enjoyed the drama between Hiyori and Orochi. Especially when Kanjuro's beast started to approach him.

The Nika Man stuff had too many flashbacks and repeated work, almost like that horrible Henry Thurlow episode for Kid and Law.

Nectar

I really enjoyed it, but I came in with low expectations. One Piece being a year-round anime destroys it's pacing too much for me to watch on a regular basis except through YouTube clips.

Sano

I just finished watching Episode 1071. Really great episode in my opinion. There alot of things that I like about this episode, and I didn't mind all the recaps and stuff. I really like the animation for Gear 5. it was a great tribute to Hanna Barbera, Tex Avery, and Looney Tunes. I know, it wasn't going to happen, but I was waiting Kaido to say the infamous Tom from Tom and Jerry line, "Don't you believe it!".

The new ending song is really great and the I like the animation for it.

JazzMazz

@Captain-Krupp I'm pretty sure there was tons of COC lightning in 1044.

Just checked, during his debut, there was tons of it. There was loads of lightning coming off Luffy during the transformation.

Its not an anime addition.

Captain Krupp

@JazzMazz said in 1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth''':

@Captain-Krupp I'm pretty sure there was tons of COC lightning in 1044.

Just checked, during his debut, there was tons of it. There was loads of lightning coming off Luffy during the transformation.

Its not an anime addition.

Oh I am so happy to hear that! People ALWAYS complain this lightning is "Added for the anime" so I am mega happy to hear this complaint is unnaplicable here.

aku-chan

That was interesting.
It wasn't bad, but it was kinda all over the place and Gear 5 actually came off a bit too cartoonish to me.

Like the new ending too.

SirCaesar

@zeltrax225 said in 1071: ''Luffy's Peak - Obtained! 'Gear Fifth''':

Using the average One Piece episode as the basis to judge older cartoons is pretty ridiculous seeing how this series is one of the worst offenders of taking shortcuts and using dated animation techniques despite being capable of doing more with the money that the series makes.

I did none of that. I said that doing the episode as Oda intended (see the interview with Aoyama where he explicitly said he was going for a Tom&Jerry aesthetic) would have cost less than all these fancy camera shots that ended up making it the mess it was.

Sirxxx

While the Gum Gum Nika Fruit is and always will be a retcon, there was just no other way to give Luffy the broken devil fruit he would need to really be considered a top player.

Oda--through the characters and the story--can say whatever they like about Haki, or Iron Balloon, or Undefeated blah blah. But the toppest players in the One Piece with devil fruits all have broken devil fruits; some would say that's the reason they're at the top of the food chain ("some" being me). And if the story wants to treat Luffy as one of those select few, he had to fall in line. The fact that Oda managed to retcon Luffy into having a broken ability in a somewhat connected, kinda-makes sense (from a certain point of view) manner is really impressive!

I did like that last watercolor-like shot of Kaido at the end of the episode. And Luffy, for all of his zany antics, looked downright intimidating/evil when he put on that smile. As long as the animation nails the impact and consequences of Kaido's HEAVY hits to Luffy that bypass his cartoonery, I'm game.