One Piece (2026-)

Episode 1166

Episode 1166 of One Piece maintains the languid pace of 1165 with very little to show for it.

I'm sorry, folks, I was pretty bored by this one. I usually try to give One Piece the benefit of the doubt, particularly when it comes to exposition-heavy episodes. It's a long series, and to set up big events, sometimes you need more time than might otherwise be necessary in shorter works. That's fine, I get it, I'm willing to forgive some pacing issues that I might ding other series for. This week, I wasn't feeling it.

Now, that might partially be my Nico Robin bias. I accepted the slower episodes of prior weeks because they focused on my beloved Nico Robin being celebrated, which I consider a moral good. So the absence of any Robin-praise does make me more critical. Though I think that's also illustrative of what made this one hard for me to connect with: there just wasn't much else there that was interesting or novel. Usually, the downtime in this series has us regaled with the exotic mechanics of the unique island the crew finds themselves on, interesting political machinations between various parties, or deeper character revelations we haven't learned before. Here we get… none of that, really.

Perhaps my issue is that the Elbaph residents are a little one-note in this episode. “It's an island of giant vikings” is the short and longer version, more or less. Now, I know from the manga that we have a lot more depth coming, but we spend an entire episode learning very little about the giants, which is either illuminating or interesting. Did I know for a fact that all the people of Elbaph worshipped Nika? No, not really. Does it fundamentally change how I view current events? Again, the answer is no. It's something that I probably would have guessed just based on vibes alone, and it turns out that would have been correct.

That's not to say that this week was entirely bereft of good moments. Loki watching the wolf choke and Sephiroth-monologuing while it went down was the most sequence by far. Luffy's general goober-nicity is always fun. Most important of all was Usopp regaling the giants of the Straw Hats' triumphs and being cheered on by them with shouts of, “Captain Usopp!” Our baby boy has come a long way from telling tall tales in Syrup Village - he's a living legend.

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