Episode 1072 of ONE PIECE was released today and it continued the goofy Gear 5 hype in strong fashion. Right in the start, Kaido mentions that it must have been awakened due to affecting Luffy’s surroundings as well, which is typical of a Paramecia fruit. However, the transformation is typical for Zoan-type fruits, so that part confuses him. He has no idea about the real name of Luffy’s fruit (and Luffy doesn’t either), so it’s no wonder he’s surprised the random Gum-Gum Fruit allowed the new power-up.
He decides to swallow Luffy, but that backfires terribly as his insides get toyed with and Luffy just has fun. Yamato and Momo arrive to the roof to see a balloon Kaido floating and wondering what’s going on, and we already see some cool animation sequences here. Then Luffy sees two lights, which are Kaido’s eyes, and actually extends his arms through the pupils to propel himself outside. Only the power of imagination can explain how Kaido recovered from that, but Luffy did get outside and shortly show his new giant form.
After some more goofing around, eyes popping out and Luffy using Kaido as a jump rope , Kaido uses his Ragnarok and launches Luffy down into the roof. His head flies through, making the people downstairs see his new form and send their own eyes out for a bit. While I felt like that specific action had already been overused, seeing Kid and Law included in the shocked faces made me smile. I love the dynamic of their relationship, and the way they refuse to go down before the other is precious. They’ve already taken down a Yonko, and it’s only right for Luffy to do it too.
After immediately returning to the fight, Luffy loses his Gear 5 form and turn into an old man as an after-effect of using the ability. Another scene that made me smile was when Luffy said “I’m tired” and Kaido reacted with “Who the hell are you?” It’s a somewhat relaxing moment in the short break from the main fight. The future Pirate King then thinks back and calls out the names of Momo, Tama, Kin’emon and Pedro to hype himself back up and find the heartbeat h’d had before, bringing about my favorite sequence of the episode.
He asks Kaido whether he really believes that he’s afraid of dying, after which the epic version of “Overtaken” OST starts playing with drums in the background. He then finds the sound he was looking for and transforms back to Gear 5.
This looked seriously amazing, and Luffy then returned to some more goofing around. Completely nullifying Kaido’s attack by adapting to his club, using Conqueror’s Haki, running around with legs as wheel or flying like a helicopter, Luffy does it all. Eventually he even lands a big attack that goes right through Kaido’s head, exclaiming how fun it is. Kaido wonders again who the hell he is, to which Luffy responds that he’s Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will surpass him and become the King of the Pirates. On the other hand, Zunesha again draws a parallel with Joyboy, claiming that it’s exactly like he’s actually back.
ONE PIECE Episode 1073 & Chapter 1090 Release Date
The episode 1073 preview is available, and the anime will return next Sunday on August 20, while the ONE PIECE manga is taking a break and will release chapter 1090 on August 20 as well. You can watch the anime on Crunchyroll, while you can catch up to the latest manga chapter for free on either the VIZ website or the MANGA Plus website.
Images via Crunchyroll
© Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha / Toei Animation
