The 12 Best Episodes Of The One Piece Anime Series, Ranked

Few anime shows have had the kind of impact and legacy of “One Piece.” Since debuting in 1999, the show has achieved what few manga and anime have, reaching over 1,000 episodes, getting over a dozen movies, breaking all sorts of records, and only increasing in popularity.

Unlike other long-running TV shows like “The Simpsons,” or “Grey’s Anatomy,” “One Piece” has not fallen off in terms of quality. Nor does it have a “golden age,” being based on a single story told by a single author who has long since abandoned his initial plan to end the story after five years. There are, of course, some all-time great episodes from early in its run that showed the promise of the story and made audiences fall in love with “One Piece.” More recent episodes, however, have reached previously unthinkable levels of complexity and quality in terms of both story and animation, even as we’ve gone from the 4:3 to 16:9 format and into the HD era.

This makes boiling down the entirety of “One Piece” to a handful of “best” episodes an ill-advised endeavor. So, consider this not necessarily the ultimate list of best episodes but rather episodes that strongly encapsulate different aspects of what makes this show one of the greatest works of modern fiction.

Despite being one of the show’s best, the Skypiea arc is very underrated, with episode 193 brings it to a thrilling and exhilarating conclusion. “One Piece” is full of great “Luffy beats the villain, the island rejoices” moments, but Skypiea perfects a formula that is still resonating in the show’s most recent story arcs.

It’s not that Luffy beats Enel or ends his reign of terror on the sky islands. It’s the fact that Luffy rings the Shandorian Golden Belfry Bell, ending a conflict and fulfilling a promise both centuries old. “One Piece” is never about a singular dispute happening in the present, at least not since Skypiea. Enel was just the last chapter in a squabble that started when the kingdom of Shandora got shut up to the sky, and a story that started even before that when a doctor arrived in the kingdom and befriended its citizens.

What’s more, this episode hits at one of the main themes of “One Piece” — namely, that of inherited will, i.e. the idea that one’s dreams and ideals pass on to future generations. Luffy ringing the bell signals that the will and the dreams of two men 400 years ago are being passed down through the generations, all so Luffy could bring their story to an end. Episode 193 also gives us one of the best post-fighting parties in the entire anime, and one that alluded to Luffy’s greatest powers 20 years before they were fully revealed.

“One Piece” has an established formula that it repeats every story arc. Certain story arcs handle aspects of this better than others, with the Alabasta arc, in particular, having the single best goodbye in the story. That’s because it bids farewell to honorary Straw Hat Vivi, the character who feels the most like she’s part of the main crew … even if she isn’t. The end of the episode, with Vivi forced to practically renounce her friendship in order to avoid getting in trouble with the Marines, followed by the Straw Hats doing a silent yet powerful sign of friendship, is a heart-warming and tear-inducing sight set against the backdrop of the original opening theme.

Friendship is a core theme of “One Piece,” and the episode is full of signs of friendship, with the other big one being Bentham of the Wild, aka Bon Clay, making a grand gesture of friendship and sacrificing themselves to let the Straw Hats escape. Bon Clay is a beloved character and a fantastic portrayal of queerness in anime, and their big goodbye in this episode makes it a memorable one.

Like most shonen anime (shows meant for young adults), the theme of friendship is the bread and butter of “One Piece,” and episode 236 depicts a friendship breaking. Following a disagreement over what to do about the damages to the crew’s ship and Luffy’s decision to acquire a new vessel, Usopp has enough. He won’t give up on the Going Merry so easy and is willing to fight for it, quitting the crew and even challenging Luffy to a duel.

The fight itself is not only one of the hardest-hitting ones in all of “One Piece,” but it’s also a fight that goes against the very tenets of action anime — that fight scenes are cool. Every frame and movement makes it clear this is not an exciting duel, but a tragic moment as heartbreaking as the clone fight in “Pokémon: The First Movie” (wherein every Pokémon fights its clone to the poignant tunes of Blessid Union of Souls’s “Brother My Brother”). Usopp, after all, is Luffy’s brother and a member of the “weakling trio” alongside Nami and Chopper — a man we’ve long known to be a coward. When he challenges Luffy, there is murderous intent in his eyes, and he takes the fight extremely seriously.

But it doesn’t matter that Usopp puts on a rather good fight; Luffy is still Luffy and, despite the heart-wrenching constant flashbacks to his first meeting with Usopp and the moment the latter joined the crew, he cannot escape his job as a captain, delivering a finishing punch to Usopp that’s as strong as those he uses on the much more powerful villains. It’s awful and heartbreaking, but as Zoro so coldly tells the other crewmembers, “This is what it means to be captain.”

Eiichiro Oda has the ability to write memorable characters you sympathize with and grow to love within just a few minutes of meeting them. Whitebeard is one of the best examples of this; he’s a character with a striking design and a cool personality. That such a renowned pirate only cared about treating his crew as his own kids makes him unique among his kind. When he finally dies in episode 485, it’s as if one of the main characters has died, despite us only knowing him for a few episodes.

The entire runtime of the episode is devoted to the epic showdown between Whitebeard and the man he considered his son, Blackbeard, two titanic fighters that are exponentially stronger than anyone we’ve ever met up to this point in the story. This is not a tale where many characters die — in fact, only a handful of them die, most in this specific arc — but Whitebeard’s death is so well done it makes up for that. The sight of Whitebeard dying standing up, without a single injury on his back from fleeing, remains one of the striking sights in the show.

But what makes this one of the best episodes is not just the fight, nor the very cool and highly anticipated flashback showing Whitebeard talking with Gol D. Roger, nor even the absolutely epic and goosebump-inducing moment where Whitebeard uses his final words to reaffirm Roger’s dying wish and proclaim that the One Piece is real. Rather, this episode is an encapsulation of the theme of passing of the torch from one generation to the next, which is central to “One Piece.”

Even 24 years after its initial air date, episode 37 remains a standout of “One Piece.” This is the moment many became fans of the story — the moment that showed there was something special about this anime. We had already discovered the tragic backstory of Nami and the reason for her betrayal, but this episodes makes it all for nothing, with a corrupt Marine captain stealing all her money (which was meant to buy the freedom of her village).

It’s this ultimate betrayal by Arlong, the first big villain the Straw Hats faced, that makes Nami break down. The moment Nami swallows her pride and finally asks Luffy for help, after years of trusting and depending on no one but herself, is a highly emotional moment in the history of the show and the one where Nami fully became a member of the group. Seeing Luffy, who neither heard nor cares about Nami’s past or motives, openly declare war against Arlong to defend her friend is awe-inspiring, while the shot of the Straw Hats marching to Arlong Park to fight for Nami, set to the track “Overturn,” is one of the most iconic sequences in the anime, even to this day.

There are many tragic backstories in “One Piece,” but episode 380 and the end of Brook’s backstory hurt the most. Every time you think it couldn’t possibly get worse, it does, as we go from his crew being separated from best boy Laboon to losing their captain and, ultimately, everyone but Brook dying. Seeing Brook shortly before meeting Luffy, mentally deteriorating as he slowly walks around the empty ship and thinks of happier days filled with life and song, is heartbreaking.

Then there’s the moment Brook starts singing a song to his new friends — “Bink’s Brew.” It’s not only an extremely catchy pirate-y song, but also its importance to the show’s lore is only becoming clear now. The sequence where the song is performed across time, with Brook and the Rumbar Pirates recording their last performance of it for Laboon, and Brook in the present singing it with his new friends, is one of the most bittersweet moments in all of “One Piece.” The contrast of the sheer joy of Luffy and the others singing the song with glee (plus the sight of Franky and Chopper messing around with chopsticks), while we cut to the Rumbar Pirates literally dropping one by one until only Brook remains, is silly, beautiful, harrowing, and tragic all at once. It’s also a perfect example of what makes this such a special cartoon.

“One Piece” slowly evolved from a fun little story about pirates embarking on an adventure and fighting crooks and criminals to an epic where the Straw Hats take on the foundations of the world itself. Though there were hints of this from the beginning (corrupt Marines, the entire institution of the Warlords), it became clearest in episode 278. This was a turning point for the show, where the end of Robin’s flashback showed the worst evils the World Government was willing to commit in the name of “absolute justice.” We also saw the heartbreak of young Robin trying to laugh despite losing everyone and everything she loved (with the casting of an actual child making it all more real).

And yet, as Saul says to Robin with his final words, “No one is born into this world to be alone.” This once again hits on the core theme of friendship in “One Piece,” as we finally hear Robin say she wants to live and her friends to rescue her, despite a lifetime of thinking she was better off dead. The episode showcases the lengths Luffy will go to for his friends. He might, for example, burn down the flag of the World Government and declare war against the entire world — all in the name of friendship. This is the most explicitly political move Oda and the anime have ever made, and it rocks. 

“One Piece” is full of moments of triumph, with Luffy and the Straw Hats defeating increasingly more powerful foes. But when the story delivers a moment of failure, it hits like a gut punch. Episode 405 specifically delivers an entire episode’s worth of gut punches, as the Straw Hats face off against Bartholomew Kuma and lose spectacularly.

Echoing the sheer terror of “One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island,” the episode feels like a horror movie, with the crew being not just defeated, but also literally vanishing one by one. Every aspect of the episode enhances the horror, from the fluid animation focusing on facial expressions to the spectacular voice acting — particularly Luffy in both the original version and English dub. Seeing each of the Straw Hats disappear is bad enough; it’s a moment that signals a change in tone for the rest of the story, revealing that the characters are not just underpowered compared to their foes, but completely unprepared. Still, the moment where the episode flashes back to how Luffy met everyone (scored to an instrumental version of “Bink’s Brew”) as Luffy just breaks down is one of pure heart-wrench.

There are few characters in “One Piece” with the reputation, legacy, impact, and mystery as Gol D. Roger, the man who became King of the Pirates and started the Golden Age of Pirates. Despite a few flashback appearances, and some of his former crewmembers talking about him, it wasn’t until we finally got a proper flashback recounting Oden’s experience with the Roger pirates that we really saw what the greatest pirate crew in history was like. Unsurprisingly, they were cool as hell.

Inherited will is a core theme in “One Piece,” as is the idea that Luffy is Roger’s true successor. But it’s one thing to hear this; it’s another to see just how alike the two really are. Episode 967 is not just important in terms of lore reveals, but it’s also one of the most loving and beautiful episodes of the entire show. We don’t see Roger beat some magnificent foe or conquer a kingdom. Instead, we just get a gloriously fun adventure with the most joyful pirate crew you’ve ever seen. It’s an echo of the early stories in the show, where it’s just a group of friends embarking on fun adventures — except much grander and legendary — as we see how similar Luffy is to Roger, even doing the same “to the sky” pose. Watching the crew constantly singing “Bink’s Brew” as a jolly sea shanty rather than a sorrowful last goodbye really sells the idea that the Roger Pirates are the archetypical ideal for what a “One Piece” pirate crew should be: completely free and full of dreams and smiles. It’s a simple, fleeting episode in the larger Wano Saga, but an encapsulation of the joys of watching this show.

In the journey of every “One Piece” watcher, there’s before episode 312 and after episode 312. Many of the entries on this list have sad or heartbreaking moments, but absolutely nothing can prepare you for the moment that changed everything for the show — the death of the Going Merry. The episode starts out inconspicuously enough, with the crew finally escaping Enies Lobby after their ship literally arrives on her own to save them. But then the Galley-La folks appears, and, sensing the crew is safe, the Merry gives up.

It’s a moment audiences knew was coming, but that doesn’t lessen the impact of seeing the Straw Hats realize they have to put their ship (nay, their home) down. It’s a testament to the writing and animation that “One Piece” can make an inanimate object, and a cartoon one no less, feel more alive than flesh-and-blood people. The moment the Merry speaks as if brought to life by the love of her crew, all while “Mother Sea” (aka the sad song) plays ,is the strongest kind of emotional devastation. The Going Merry was not just a ship or a home, it was a fully-fledged member of the crew.

This isn’t the first time we see Luffy in his Gear 5 form, but it is the best portrayal of it yet. An incredibly hilarious subversion of what an anime power-up can be, episode 1072 plays the idea of Luffy becoming a Goku-like giant muscular dude calling himself “Monkey D. Muscle” for laughs. This is the peak of Eiichiro Oda’s imagination, as Luffy’s biggest power-up has him more or less transforming into a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

The result is hysterical, complete with some of the wildest and funniest facial expressions in the entire show (Kaido hitting Luffy with his club, Luffy morphing into a spiky cone-head). We also get some incredible zingers from Kaido, who is furiously frustrated at this rubber wild-man violating the laws of physics, asking if this was a comic strip and even screaming out “mommy” like a Looney Tunes character before Luffy punches him so hard his fist goes through Kaido’s skull, stretching it to impossible shapes. More than that, the episode is a marvel of animation, embracing the chaos and changing the art style every 25 seconds, which allows for pure, distilled imagination. It’s an episode best summarized by Luffy saying “Are we having fun yet, Kaido?” The answer is a resounding yes.

This is it. The single best episode of “One Piece,” and one that encapsulates everything that makes this one of the greatest anime ever made. Adapting the monumental chapter 1000 from the manga, the best thing one can say about this episode is that it significantly elevates the source material with the most spectacular animation “One Piece” has ever featured. This is especially true of the flashback/dream sequence where Yamato hears Ace talk about Luffy’s dream while recalling reading Roger share the exact same dream, which shows the past and future Pirate Kings laughing together while sharing a dream so outlandish it’s kept from the audience. Animated by Masami Mori, who’s part of a new generation of directors in recent years that’ve taken the anime to new heights by experimenting with visuals, this is the peak of “One Piece.”

The episode truly has everything: Yamato inheriting Oden’s will and defying their dad, the Worst Generation reaching Kaido and Big Mom, Luffy fulfilling a 20-year promise to free Wano, a touching display of friendship between Luffy and Kin’emon, funny bickering among the Worst Generation, and Luffy punching Kaido so hard the original theme song starts playing. Ending the episode with Luffy delivering his iconic “I’m going to be the king of the pirates!” is just the icing on the cake for the perfect episode of this truly legendary anime.