One Piece Episode 1072- “The Ridiculous Power! Gear Five in Full Play”: Review

After One Piece Episode, 1071 crashed Crunchyroll last week due to everyone tuning in to see Monkey D. Luffy’s Gear 5 transformation and a glimpse of his new powers. This week’s episode shows Luffy’s new abilities in action against Kaido.

One Piece Episode 1072 begins with an epic stare-down between Kaido and Luffy before the epic fight, with “Overtaken” instrumentals playing in the background to get the fans pumped.

While Strawhat’s captain bounces around laughing, Kaido begins to question Luffy’s ability to stay alive and his devil fruit powers. He then attacks and devours Luffy, resulting in some of the best animations in the episode. When Luffy is devoured, the first thing you see are his eyes in Kaido’s pitch-black stomach. It was incredible how they animated his eyes like an old cartoon.

Next, we see Luffy falling down Kaido’s stomach with a smile on his face, and the camera then returns to Kaido’s concerned expression. While sliding down Kaido’s stomach, Luffy proceeds to beat him up while having the time of his life. It reminded me of “Tom and Jerry,” when Jerry would use traps to annoy Tom while Tom was hunting him down. Jerry was constantly laughing and treated Tom as if he were a joke. That is exactly what Luffy does to Kaido throughout the episode.

My favorite part of this scene is when Luffy transforms Kaido into a dragon version of a hot air balloon using a Gum-Gum balloon. Yamato and Momo’s side commentary, which was hilarious, sealed the deal for me. MOMO’s concern over Kaido’s weight made me laugh. Luffy notices an exit from Kaido’s interior. He uses Gum-Gum escape Rocket by grabbing Kaido’s nose through the eyes, which was also a highlight of this episode’s animation.

We see an amazing animation of Luffy’s Gum-Gum giant while he’s in the sky with the thundering clouds after successfully exiting Kaido’s stomach. Kaido bites him, leaving only a minor sting but having no effect on him. Luffy performs my favorite episode move, the Gum-Gum jump rope, and literally treats Kaido like a jump rope. The animation was goofy but great; it was well-crafted and evoked memories of classic cartoons. Kaidou used another Bolo Breath at Luffy’s point-blank range, but it had little effect on Luffy. Luffy starts spinning his legs so fast that he can run through the air.

Kaido hits Luffy with Kosanze Ragnaraku, which causes Luffy to become fatigued and literally age to an old man on his deathbed. Kaido is exhausted as well but assures Luffy that someone will tell him about his fight. Luffy tells his heart to start beating faster in order to reactivate Gear 5 after remembering why he’s fighting and the people who gave their lives to free Wano.

Kaido again strikes Luffy with Hassaikai, and another blow from Kaidou squashes Luffy to the ground. Luffy launches himself back up using the ground as a springboard. He punches Kaido in the head, knocking him out. While Kaido is stunned and defeated, Luffy begins to consider naming his new move. Kaido questions Luffy’s identity once more. Luffy reminds him that he will become the Pirate King.