One Piece Just Made Its Most Anticipated Battle More Emotional Than Fans Thought

Warning: Contains manga spoilers for One Piece.

One Piece's anime continues to deliver one excellent episode after another, and its newest episode makes one of the series' most anticipated battles surprisingly emotional. The long-awaited showdown between Garp and Kuzan on Fullalead has finally been animated, and the anime casts a new light on the confrontation, leaving many lasting implications.

Episode #1121 of One Piece adapts the battle between Garp and his former pupil-turned-pirate Kuzan, making the fight much more emotional than it originally seemed in the manga. While the fight seemed exciting like any other in the Egghead Arc in the manga, the unique direction of the scene in the anime, coupled with the swelling music paints the scene as a highly emotional confrontation, highlighting Kuzan and Garp's reluctance to fight each other.

One Piece Highlights Garp and Kuzan's Bond

Episode #1121, "Garp and Kuzan - A Master and a Pupil's Beliefs Clash"

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While the clash between Garp and Aokiji is only a small portion of episode #1121, it certainly is the highlight of the episode and one of the battles fans have been looking forward to alongside fights like Kid versus Shanks, Law versus Blackbeard, and Luffy versus Lucci. The episode is mostly a panel-for-panel adaptation of the manga, with the only addition being Kuzan questioning the Navy's brand of justice after the Ohara Incident, which was arguably a very nice touch.

Still, the anime conveys the battle in a different tone than the manga, mostly thanks to the increased focus on Garp and Kuzan's flashback in the middle of the battle. While the flashback is fleeting in the manga, the anime takes its time fleshing out the scene and better establishes the deep-running bond between Garp and Kuzan.

Besides being visually stunning, the overall execution of the flashback scene with the warm, dusky rays of sunlight streaming through the windows and wistful music playing in the background convey a strong sense of nostalgia. As a result, the flashback which would have otherwise been an unwanted distraction from the exciting clash ends up redefining the fight as a whole from the characters' perspective.

One Piece Continues to Hint at Kuzan's Wavering Loyalty

Chapter #1126 Reveals Garp Suspiciously Survived the Battle

Overall, the latest episode stresses that though they may be on opposite sides, both Garp and Kuzan are clearly reluctant to fight each other. Although Garp expels Kuzan as his pupil and the latter explicitly refers to himself as Garp's enemy, both are still painfully aware of their history. The fact that Garp somehow survived the battle as revealed in chapter #11266 also hints that Kuzan may have gone easy on Garp, contrary to his claims to Blackbeard.

Kuzan's loyalty to Blackbeard has been in doubt for the longest time and the surprisingly emotional nature of his fight against Garp further supports these doubts. It is still too early to say what Kuzan's motives may be and whether he might truly end up betraying Blackbeard, but it is clear that Kuzan will not find the justice he sought from the Navy from Blackbeard.

Related One Piece Shows One Character Can Beat The Blackbeard Pirates Alone One Piece reminds everyone of the power of former Marine Admiral Aokiji by showing him single-handedly defeating the Blackbeard Pirates, twice.

All in all, One Piece is full of complex characters, each with their own distinct set of ideals and intricate dynamics with other characters, even when it comes to relatively minor characters like Garp and Kuzan, and the latest episode wholeheartedly takes the opportunity to explore these complexities. More than anything, Garp's emotional clash against Kuzan is excellent proof that not every fight needs to be purely focused on the action and fighting, which makes for quite a refreshing change.

One Piece is available from Crunchyroll and Netflix.