Episode 1174 – One Piece (2026-)

Episode 1174 of One Piece manages to surprise with its quality despite having no real surprises up its sleeve.

I was gripped by this one from start to finish. I don’t know if I can fully capture why, either. In theory, this was more of all the same things we already had going on over the past few episodes. The monsters are rampaging. The kids are walking. The Holy Knights are bad. The giants are desperate. There’s very little novelty to be found, and the reactions are all pretty predictable in the grand scheme of things. And yet I found myself completely caught up in the drama of it all.

The first half of the runtime really sells the monstrous nature of the nightmare creatures. It’s a very deft bit of cinema and pacing to make a mystery that we more or less solved from the jump still seem compelling to the audience as it is unravelled for the crew. It’s just good dramatic irony to have Usopp, Nami, Brook, and Jinbei trying to discern what exactly is going on as the steady drumbeat of doom ratchets up. The anime team did a great job making this feel like a protracted siege, with all the shots of the Elbaph warriors scrambling to fight back. Those moments of the wounded leaning against buildings or the wild shots against the draugr’s shield while a defense was hastily assembled are all really good.

The back half’s juxtaposition added to the sense of drama. Again, conditions haven’t changed much for the youngsters. But watching Saul try to suss out how to help the kids was agonizing. This is especially true because Saul is more than willing to sacrifice himself to protect them and endure any pain, but the nature of the thorns is such that even that is not an option. Oof. The shot of the Holy Knights calling Saul pathetic while he tries to save the kids twists the knife.

The grand return of Brogy and Dorry is all the more uplifting after that. It’s hard not to cheer alongside the warriors of Elbaph as our two favorite giants deliver a double home run swing laser beam from the deck of their longship. The sequence where the cartoonish monsters are banished by the Hakoku Sovereignty mega-beam is expertly done, vibrant and colorful in equal measure. Having a big attack to end the episode is nothing new for One Piece, but just like with everything else, it’s handled so well it’s hard to complain.

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