One Piece Wows Fans with Surprising Ace Scene

One Piece‘s Wano Country arc has seen some hiccups over the last few episodes as fans of the anime have called attention to its slower pacing compared to the original manga release of the series, but every now and then the series continues to impress with a well animated scene. The previous episode of the series impressed with an incredible use of Luffy’s Red Hawk, and Episode 906 surprises even further with an emotional yet stunning looking Ace flashback. After seeing Luffy’s fiery punch take down Holdem at the end of the last episode, Otama couldn’t help but think of her lost big brother.

Episode 906 has Otama thinking back to how Ace once saved her in very much the same way Luffy is now, and this flashback includes one devastating looking Fire Fist. Not only is it surprising as fans had never expected to see Ace in action again in any capacity, but it’s even more impacting given how it’s kind of out of nowhere.

When the Wano Country arc began, we were introduced to the young Otama. She quickly grew fond of Luffy, and even called him her “Big Bro,” because he seemed strong. It was revealed that she lived in a dying town, and continues to live there in the hopes that Ace would return to Wano someday after he helped save her from Kaido’s forces years before.

But soon after meeting Luffy, he broke the bad news to her that Ace had died and wouldn’t be coming back. Thus she began to see Luffy as a replacement for Ace, and the two latest episodes cemented that connection between the two. Seeing Luffy’s protective aura radiate in much the same way as Ace’s did back then, and then seeing his fiery exploits in saving her from Holdem, Otama realized that she can truly trust Luffy in the same way that she trusted Ace. And fans got an impressive new Ace scene out of it, so it’s a win-win!

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and 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 over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.