One Piece: Luffy's Gear 5 Episode Really Broke the Internet
One Piece episode 1071 debuted Gear 5 Luffy, and the global event broke down tons of streaming services.
One Piece really is a global phenomenon. After decades on the scene, the manga and anime continue to dominate sales across the world. Though seen as a hard sell in the United States years ago, Luffy and the Straw Hat crew have tons of stateside fans now, and that number is only growing. That much was made clear this weekend as One Piece episode 1071 just went live to global fanfare, and the demand for Gear 5 Luffy really did break the Internet.
If you don't know what all the fuss is about One Piece, well – we are here to break things down. This week marks the debut of One Piece episode 1071, and the release put Gear 5 Luffy on the global stage. After more than a year of waiting, the One Piece anime got around to adapting Gear 5 Luffy at last, and the whole affair was hyped by Toei Animation. So of course, anticipation was high to watch the big premiere.
Over 8000 outage reports in the last few minutes...
— Chibi Reviews (@ChibiReviews) August 6, 2023
I CANT LOL pic.twitter.com/9TqgBS2Lyi
And so what did fans do? They made sure to be on Crunchyroll and other streaming services like Hulu well before One Piece dropped. This influx led to major outages at Crunchyroll as here you can see here. At the time the One Piece episode debuted in Japan (not in the United States), users were already indicating outage issues. And when episode 1071 did go live, more than 8000 outage reports flooded in for Crunchyroll.
And to be honest, even piracy sites went down. One Piece fans who tried to find illicit means of watching Gear 5 Luffy's debut were thwarted. The big One Piece premiere took everything down, and while these technical limitations have been resolved, One Piece is still in headlines. The anime has been trending globally for more than 24 hours, and Luffy was even gifted his own Gear 5 emoji on Twitter.
Obviously, the hype for One Piece is high, and Luffy's new Gear form has only heightened the hit show's profile. This timing is great considering all of the things One Piece has in store. As its manga moves through its final act, Netflix's One Piece TV series is set to debut at the end of this month. With all these projects in mind, there has never been a better time to be a One Piece fan. So if you want to learn more about the seafaring shonen, you can read its official synopsis below for all the info!
"As a child, Monkey D. Luffy was inspired to become a pirate by listening to the tales of the buccaneer "Red-Haired" Shanks. But Luffy's life changed when he accidentally ate the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit and gained the power to stretch like rubber...at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, still vowing to become the king of the pirates, Luffy sets out on his adventure...one guy alone in a rowboat, in search of the legendary "One Piece," said to be the greatest treasure in the world..."
What do you think about this global One Piece event? Did the debut of Gear 5 live up to expectations? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!
