The long wait has finally ended as One Piece has finally made a glorious return with Episode 1123 kicking off part two of the Egghead Arc. Besides stunning new opening and ending themes and a new voice actor for Franky, One Piece’s anime has also returned with an all-new staff, including a new series director. While bringing on a new director for a new arc has been the norm with One Piece for quite some time, the anime has just bid farewell to the series’ best director yet, known for breathing life into the Wano Arc and changing One Piece’s anime forever as we know it.
One Piece’s Egghead Arc has returned for part two with a new series director, Wataru Matsumi replacing Tatsuya Nagamine, who has served as the director for the entirety of the Wano Arc and the first half of the Egghead Arc from Episodes 892-1122. Considering the huge step up in quality with the Wano Arc, it would be an utter understatement to say Tatsuya Nagamine has left an unforgettable impact on the series and quite literally set the bar for the series going forward, one that the anime is still trying to keep up with to this day. While Nagamine’s exit from One Piece no doubt signals the end of an era, fans can rest assured that One Piece’s anime is in safe hands with the new series director, Wataru Matsumi, whose creative direction is already showing much promise in the latest episode.
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One Piece’s Wano Arc Director Makes Way For A New Promising Director
Despite One Piece’s decades-long run, the Wano Arc is still considered the anime’s magnum opus, with drastic improvement in every area of the series’ animation, from the general art style to the character designs, compositions, and even the color palette. The top-notch quality of the Wano Arc is largely attributed to Tatsuya Nagamine, with many hoping that the anime will keep up the same level of quality animation going forward under his care. Nagamine did indeed continue as the series director well into the Egghead Arc right up until the hiatus, delivering many spectacular episodes till the very end. As such, it is easy to understand why fans may be anxious to see him go.
However, One Piece’s anime has already proved with just one episode that the series will be fine even without Nagamine. In fact, the new series director, Wataru Matsumi’s vision can already be seen in One Piece’s glorious new opening theme, which was not only directed but also storyboarded by Matsumi, who has also previously directed the episodes covering Kid’s fight against Shanks, as well as the battle against the Seraphim on Egghead. Matsumi has also notably storyboarded Zoro’s jaw-dropping fight against King during the Wano Arc, which means fans need not worry about One Piece losing that Wano magic any time soon.
One Piece is available to stream on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
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