THE RETURN OF THE KING OF ANIME! One Piece Episodes 1123 and 1124 Review!

Over six months ago, we left off with Episode 1122, which concluded Garp vs Aokiji, and the special Fan Letter episode.

We now return with a new opening and ending theme and two new episodes on the same day, released on April 5 and 6, 2025.

Episode 1123 is titled, “The World Shakes! The Straw Hats’ Hostage Situation” and adapts Chapter 1089: “Hostage Situation” while Episode 1124 is titled, “Completely Surrounded! The Operation to Escape Egghead” and adapts Chapter 1090: “Kizaru”.

A Foreboding Beginning

This feels like the second season of One Piece as we get a title drop early and an eerie silence.

It is the dawn of a new day, which is symbolically fitting and we are greeted by News Coos, animal agents of World Government propaganda and the self-interest of another bird, Big News Morgans.

We see the One Piece world in all its beauty with Toei’s current artstyle, which again fits the idea of this episode being Episode 1 of One Piece Season 2.

Everyone in Fusha Village expresses worry over Garp’s fate and well that is where we left off canonically, with Garp being taken hostage instead of Koby.

This is not the only hostage-related news as the world also hears of the Straw Hats kidnapping the world’s smartest man, Dr. Vegapunk.

However, this calm changes when the world feels an earthquake and we see the fallout of the Lulusia Kingdom’s destruction at the hands of the Mother Flame.

If you look carefully, the hole in the ocean resembles Enies Lobby, which now confirms that Enies Lobby was also a vanquished Kingdom Imu and the Five Elders erased centuries ago the same way.

The sequence may be long but if you notice, this adapts the entire manga to a tee, with some expanded dialogue and lingering shots yet they do not ruin the pacing.

We see various locations, including Wano under an adult Momonosuke and unfortunately, the destruction of more One Piece islands due to the rising sea levels.

Now we enter the darkest part of the series, the real “Final Saga”, and it feels appropriate that One Piece had its first ever real break here.

Back to Egghead

The Five Elders check up on York, who asks why they have sent a fleet pointing their guns at Egghead.

The anime adds more flourishes to York’s talk with the Elders, as a way to fool herself, the Elders and the audience for 5 minutes that she is in full control of the Lab.

The addition of impact frames makes for solid animation quality for a dialogue section.

Keep in mind that the news said that the Straw Hats took Vegapunk hostage but that is only because the Government wanted to further implicate Luffy and his crew in more crimes.

Well, it is actually happening but not in a straightforward way as York, a Vegapunk satellite, is the one being held hostage after being caught in the act as the one responsible for Shaka’s death, all for her goal of becoming a Celestial Dragon.

It is interesting that the Straw Hats and the audience first see Vegapunk as a woman named Lilith, who represents Vegapunk’s Evil yet her evil is more of her (and Vegapunk’s) impulse to go outside moral rules and is seemingly generalistic. Lilith herself loses her hostility once she becomes an ally of the Straw Hats.

York is the embodiment of Greed, being responsible for feeding the Vegapunks by indulging in her lower appetites yet it is because of this Greed and lack of productivity that she becomes the most wicked of the Satellites, the true and only evil among them, as she intends to continue that life but with the status, wealth, and protection afforded to a Celestial Dragon.

On a side note, we get new eye catches, which are drawn with rougher lines than even the previous art styles, making these more like manga panels.

Franky’s New Voice

Right away, it is very clear that the new voice actor, Subaru Kimura, lacks the distinct accent and tone of his predecessor, Kazuki Yao, who has retired due to his health issues.

The problem boils down to energy and effort because to the Western audience, Kimura is not giving it his all.

He sounds more like a plain teenager than the unique presence Yao gave Franky’s character, that distinguished him as a “super pervert” (pervert in this context is barely similar to Sanji and Brook and more of eccentricities, such as Franky mostly wearing underwear instead of any pants).

Because of how Kimura lacks the inherent traits or, rather, did not have enough time to get Yao’s approach to Franky right, the new Franky turns off fans very easily, which does not help how in an arc centered on Franky’s interest in science and technology, he is barely of any significance to the plot.

Due to how long Yao has voiced Franky, his unique voice cements the identity of Franky for so many One Piece fans.

Even if dub actors, such as Patrick Seitz, also have deeper voices like Kimura’s, they too have stayed long for their respective audiences, so it will be a matter of exposure and maybe more work on Kimura’s work for Franky to feel like Franky again.

The Sanji Controversy

For a while since the Egghead adaptation, some fans have complained over what appears to be the excessive disrespect towards Sanji in the anime.

However, the loudest complaints might be the easiest to clarify here.

In Episode 1123, we see the shot of the entire crew taking York hostage but Sanji is notably absent.

Except, that is not quite true.

Oda draws One Piece panels as if they are already in motion within just one image.

Sanji with heart eyes providing food was part of the shot except Sanji was already moving within the manga as well and the anime is showing us where he actually went, to Bonney.

Some did not like this decision because he was essentially written out of a full Straw Hat shot but this is another example of an exaggerated complaint.

However, Sanji’s heart eyes towards Bonney, on the other hand, have more merit.

In the manga, it is shown that Sanji interacts with Bonney normally, as in without the heart eyes.

Heart eyes represent Sanji’s attraction towards women and this character trait proved to be a problem even early on when in one episode, Sanji acted like a dog in front of Stussy, which did not happen in the manga.

Also to keep in mind, Bonney is a child and while Sanji was not aware of this, he did spend some time with Ivankov, Kuma and Ginny’s close friend, and Sanji brags about having a lady radar, which often means that Sanji has an attunement towards appropriately-aged women.

This could simply be a gap of understanding between the anime staff and Oda’s authorial intent and if so, this could imply that they want to treat Sanji as blissfully unaware in the same way Luffy to this day does not know that Sogeking is Usopp, which is obvious to everyone and yes, that includes Sanji, arguably one of the smartest Straw Hats.

Either way, there is a lot of discourse surrounding Sanji and these less provocative moments have triggered old memories and created growing concerns for One Piece fans about the integrity of Sanji’s character in the adaptation.

The Road to Elbaph Begins

While Episode 1124 does not contain much in unique content, outside of Luffy threatening the Five Elders, this episode does set up the impetus for going to Elbaph due to the Log Pose pointing northwest.

With this in mind, we form the escape plan that is a key part of the climax.

Their main obstacle is Kizaru, whose motivations and relations are well-established in this episode as he emphasizes on his principles and the fact he knows the people he will fight.

Kizaru was assigned for this mission precisely due to his connections to Vegapunk and we begin that with his clash against Sentomaru, who brags about his defense being the greatest in the world.

Overall, the first two episodes of Part 2 of Egghead deliver on introducing us back to the world of One Piece after a six-month hiatus, maintaining the same high quality of animation yet posing new challenges, from a change in voice actors due to the series’ age to the loud attention given to Sanji’s characterization.

Opening 27: “Tenshi to Akuma” (Angel and Devil) by GRe4N BOYZ

With its soft composition and more emotional tone, “Tenshi to Akuma” is somehow going to hold a nostalgic place for fans when they look back at the most heartfelt moments in late One Piece.

The opening follows the core themes of Egghead Island through two motifs: the sun and hands.

The opening begins with a young Bonney’s hands reaching for the sun as she is on top of Kuma’s head but she awakens through multiple experiences, starting with the bubbles of Sabaody, where she was first introduced, followed by the burning of her ship, where she meets Blackbeard, before being drowned in her attempt to reach Egghead in the present story.

In place of the sun is Luffy standing in front of her, which ties into his role as Nika, the hope and sun both Bonney and Kuma sought for.

It is no wonder that both Monkey D. Luffy, the Rubber Man whose hands stretch towards the sun in joy, and Bartholomew Kuma, the stoic bearer of the Paw Paw Fruit, are the leads of this beautiful song.

The line “Angel” and “Devil” is evoked especially when Vegapunk (Stella) is side by side with York, his Greed or true devil self.

But notice the brilliance, that “devil” is invoked when referring to Vegapunk while “angel” goes to York.

Vegapunk is a devil for researching the Void Century like Nico Robin and the Ohara Scholars while York wants to become an Angel, a Celestial Dragon, and works with the Five Elders.

The irony is that the Elders take on the form of hellish yokai or demons, which Sabo was surprised to find at the top of the world.

Yet this binary is broken by a giant Gear 5 Luffy’s emergence, meaning that these imposed terms mean nothing to his freedom.

More symbolisms come as Sentomaru’s response to Kizaru’s attacks show his childhood with Vegapunk and Kizaru on his club and this transitions to Luffy fighting off Kizaru’s light-based clones.

Throughout the OP, we see flashes of Bonney’s childhood memories with Kuma, as well as Kuma’s own memories, including his own attempt to write a letter to his daughter, with ink and tears left on the table.

This ends on the same image of Bonney reaching for the sun, only for us to see Bonney sleeping on the Thousand Sunny as she recalls both her memories of Kuma and her own dreams, which set up her empowerment within the climax of Egghead, as well as her concluding with her joining the Straw Hats on their trip to Elbaph (possibly, maybe joining the crew itself?)

Opening 27 Staff:

Storyboarder and Unit Director: Wataru Matsumi (new co-series director, replacing Tetsuya Nagamine)
Character Animation Director: Midori Matsuda
Animation Director: Yongce Tu
Key Animators: Yuuki Hayashi, Akihiro Oota, Zhiguang Liu, Shoutarou Ban, Kaito Tomioka, Chiharu Akakura, Ririka Fukaya, Ziwei He, Niii, mmmkawaine, Chris, Tamerlan Bekmurzayev, Jakisuaki, Jack-Amin Ibrahim, Atsushi Saitou, Shun Murata, Miki Ogino, Kotono, Takumi Ishikawa, さんざし飴, Salt

One Piece Ending 21: The 1 by muque

The ending focuses quite fittingly on Jewelry Bonney, the emotional core of Egghead Island as she recalls her memories with her father, Bartholomew Kuma.

The lyrics repeatedly seem to be Bonney’s monologue, asking what she has seen and learned since, due to her disease, she has been confined but in spite of her journey being solely focused on saving her father, this is the young girl asking what she has learned growing up as a pirate.

Some nice symbolisms can be drawn here, like how Bonney’s tears crystalize into blue crystal, which references her and her mother Ginny’s Sapphire Scales disease, the very cause behind Kuma’s current tragedy.

Kuma is also seen immobile within what appears to be a skeleton of an animal, possibly a giant bear to represent his animal motif and he is trapped in a containment room as Vegapunk watches in regret.

This represents Kuma turning himself into a cyborg.

Takashi Kojima’s art style is remarkable as it is both simplistic and stylized, as many can attest through his solo work on the Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2 Opening, “The Rumbling” by SiM.

There is varied use of colors in these short scenes, from Bonney looking at Vegapunk’s lament over Kuma becoming a cyborg to normal colors as the song ends on Bonney slowly heading to Kuma.

One Piece Ending 21 Full Staff:

Storyboarder and Unit Director: Sho Matsui

Solo Key Animator: Takashi Kojima

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