'One Piece's Latest Episode Features A Gorgeous Luffy Scene

The latest episode of One Piece reunited Sanji with Luffy after being separated for the majority [...]

The latest episode of One Piece reunited Sanji with Luffy after being separated for the majority of the Whole Cake Island arc, but before things could be back to normal between the two they had a few issues to work out.

What fans didn't expect to see in the midst of all of this angst, however, is how gorgeously animated Luffy's punching of Sanji would be.

As noted by @AshitanoGin on Twitter, animator Katsumi Ishizuka has returned to the One Piece anime after three years of absence. His presence is immediately felt during the scene where Luffy is angry at Sanji's unwillingness to say what he really feels, and launches an impressive looking punch at the confused chef.

If you don't know Ishizuka by name, One Piece fans surely know of his work throughout the series as he has animated many of the finishes of the series' greatest fights. He animated the final moments in the fight against Crocodile at Alabasta, Enel at Skypiea, and Rob Lucci during the Enies Lobby arc.

Fans are glad to have the great animator back, and for sure can't wait to see what he injects into the later fight scenes to come if he can make a huge moment out of something smaller like this.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Eiichiro Oda also revealed some upcoming news for One Piece's future at Jump Festa 2018. Not only will the manga see Wano sooner rather than later, the next villain of the series is "one of the legends which lurks in the One Piece world. The greatest enemy ever for Straw Hats will hinder their way...Can you believe Marineford Summit War will look 'cute' compared to that?"

One Piece is currently in the middle of the "Whole Cake Island" arc and is now streaming on Crunchyroll and FunimationNOW.

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