One Piece (2026-) ‒ Episode 1163

© Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation

Episode 1163 of One Piece plays Pinocchio with your heartstrings all the way till the end.

Nico Robin reunites with Saul. That's both the whole episode and too brief a summation to capture everything that happens. It's a slow burn all the way through, with a deliberate pace towards the big emotional payoff that is no hurry but isn't too slow.

There's plenty of wonder to be had along the way. The crew is travelling on a flying viking longship while passing beneath gigantic archways formed by tree roots over oceans of churning rainwater. Interspersed with all this beauty is the constant hammering reminder of Robin's painful past, immaculately animated and directed. Seeing Robin running as a small child, all in black and white, while hounded by blood red bullets that hover in front of the camera to reveal the painful words of ordinary people replayed in miniature - OOF. Oof. It's interesting because these are all things that the audience already knows and has experienced, but it's retold with gorgeous new animation to make it all the more effective. I seldom find myself rewatching anime episodes these days, but I think I'll have to make an exception and watch this one again.

One Piece still has the power to make me cry. I've already read the manga, so I knew this was coming, and even if I hadn't, the episode makes it clear what's going to happen at the end. Yet all of that foreknowledge availed me not, because when Robin and Saul hug and cry together at the end, I cried too. The steady emotional build-up to that grand, cathartic release was just marvelously done. We see the dream of that poor child running from the worst events imaginable, hated and cursed by everyone else, finally finding refuge and companionship and the love she deserves. It's deeply moving, and it's a beautiful full-circle moment for the series.

And that song! This is a gorgeous piece, beautifully sung and overlaid with touching remembrances of the entire Straw Hat crew. This is the culmination of Nico Robin's character arc in many ways and, in truth, one of the series' main themes. For me, the One Piece has been found, the story has reached its conclusion, and the friends we've made along the way really were the treasure we sought. Robin is smiling, and all is right with the world.

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