Summary
- Punk Hazard: Immediately turns bizarre with goofy dragon, rifle-wielding yetis, giant kids, goo mountain.
- Skypiea: Encounter with Enel, giant snake, priests, civil war, and lightning.
- Thriller Bark: Features creative monsters, zombies, Gecko Moria, and Nightmare Luffy power-up.
There have been a plethora of arcs throughout the story of One Piece, but while some may be fairly straightforward and used primarily for lore dumps and character development, some can be a little more over-the-top. Sure, One Piece may be known for getting a little exaggerated every now and then, but these specific arcs are where the narrative and action went above and beyond what anyone could have expected, making for an outlandish, but also memorable section of the adventure.
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Simply put, there's never any telling how out-there and ambitious the next arc is going to be, which is a big reason why so many fans have stuck with the series for this long, due to its random and unpredictable nature. However, anyone looking to go back through some of the most over-the-top parts of the story will definitely want to dive back into these specific arcs, which only get more and more bizarre the longer they go on.
8 Punk Hazard
It Doesn't Take Long For Things To Get Very Weird After Luffy And Co Step Onto Punk Hazard
- Episodes: 579-625
At first, it seemed as though Punk Hazard, an island that was used as a battleground between Akainu and Aokiji, was little more than some kind of factory or facility. However, almost as soon as the Straw Hats depart the Sunny, they are confronted by a goofy-looking dragon, who sets the bizarre tone for the rest of the arc. From then on, the Straw Hats are confronted by two rifle-wielding yetis, uncover a group of giant kids, and narrowly avoid being slurped up by a living mountain of goo.
There's also plenty of body-swapping shenanigans that feed into Punk Hazard's very strange and unorthodox tone. While it's a little shorter than most One Piece arcs, Punk Hazard is still a ton of fun for re-reads just to remember how exaggerated and odd it is.
7 Skypiea
A Villain With A God Complex, Giant Snakes, Death-Dealing Priests, Skypiea Has It All
- Episodes: 153-195
It takes a little while for Luffy and his crew to finally be able to reach the Sky Islands, but once they do, they quickly realize just how strange and otherworldy these ancient lands really are. It doesn't take long before the gang runs into Enel, a man possessing the Goro Goro no Mi fruit which allows him to shoot down lightning on anyone who tries to ridicule his claims of being a god.
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Enel is a large part of what makes this arc so over-the-top, as he is always reviving himself whenever he's taken down, and is constantly raising the stakes higher and higher as the arc goes on. However, the arc also features a giant snake, who manages to eat Luffy alive, alongside four deadly priests, and there's even a civil war brewing in the background too.
6 Thriller Bark
An Arc Packed Full Of Creative Monsters And Luffy's Weirdest Power Up To Date
- Episodes: 326-384
When Luffy and the gang first stumble upon Thriller Bark, it seems as though it would simply be a short pit-stop to pick up their latest crew member, Brook. In actuality, they would be stepping into a nightmarish freak show that would see them face off against all kinds of weird and wacky creatures, including giant spiders, three-headed wolves, and even an army of zombies.
Things only get weirder once Gecko Moria is introduced; a larger-than-life Shichibukai member who is the captain of the entire ship, and is the one who creates the zombies by filling them with other people's shadows. To top the madness off, the arc ends with Luffy turning into Nightmare Luffy in order to take Orz Jr. Down for good, making for a memorable ending to one of the most outlandish and fun arcs of the pre-timeskip era.
5 Impel Down
Each Floor Of Impel Down Is More Bizarre Than The Last
- Episodes:422-452
Each floor of the dreaded Impel Down prison possesses a different aesthetic and challenge for the prisoners to overcome; something Luffy comes to find out not long after infiltrating the base with a little help from Hancock. After accidentally kicking off a massive prison break featuring characters like Crocodile, Jinbei, and Buggy all making a quick getaway, Luffy is forced to venture through a freezing icescape, a barren dry desert, and even a gigantic labyrinth filled with all sorts of monsters.
This is just scratching the surface of what Impel Down offers, as Luffy also eventually stumbles across Megellant, the poison-based head guard of the facility who is more than willing to kill anyone who tries to defy his orders. What starts as a simple prison run turns into a chaotic action-packed thrill ride that ends up being far crazier than anyone assumed it would be, considering it's only really the precursor to Marineford.
4 Whole Cake Island
The Most Random And Unpredictable Wedding Story Ever Told
- Episodes: 783–877
The Whole Cake Island arc already has a pretty strange premise. With Sanji being thrust into a forced marriage with one of Big Mom's daughters, a few of the Straw Hats decide to head for the delicious food-based island to help save their chef from being hitched away against his will. The arc plays out as a fairly normal adventure until the wedding takes place and Big Mom unleashes her true form.
With her insatiable appetite taking control of her, a good portion of the arc becomes dedicated to creating a cake that will be sweet enough to stop Big Mom's rampage. Whole Cake also just features some of Oda's most out-there designs in general, not only with characters like Big Mom and Katakuri but also through the design of the island itself.
3 Wano Kuni
Plenty Of Transformations, Tons Of Bizarre Enemies, And All Kinds Of Over-The-Top Fight Scenes
- Episodes: 890–1085
Everybody knew that the Straw Hats journey through Wano was going to be an important one, but nobody could have expected just how far the arc would go in terms of its hype level, with things reaching a boiling pot near the very end during Luffy and Kaido's clash. Before that, though, the arc is packed full of outlandish moments which are facilitated by the new characters, one of which being the exuberant Queen who loves nothing more than putting on a rave for his loyal fans.
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Then there's Kaido; a beast who already showcased his immense durability before Wano, but who showed what he was truly made of throughout the arc specifically. After beating Luffy with a single hit, Kaido then turns into a dragon and even lifts the entirety of Onigashima single-handedly. Though there are a few slower moments due to the length of the Wano arc, it also delivers some of the most exhilarating scenes in the series which stretch the creativity of One Piece as far as it can go.
2 Marineford War
The Stakes Reach A Breaking Point As The Most Powerful Members Of The One Piece Universe Collide
- Episodes: 457–489
What makes Marineford such an over-the-top arc within the story is how it manages to cram in such a staggering amount of absolutely powerful characters into a single battle. In most other One Piece arcs, one Shichibukai, or maybe a Yonko at most, is enough to raise the stakes high enough. For Marineford though, everyone's here, from the Whitebeard pirates to the Shichibukai, all the way to the entire Marine army featuring the likes of the Vice Admirals and even Sengoku.
This is only counting those who show up at the beginning of the fight, as there are also others who appear later on to make things even more unpredictable. After Shanks officially brought an end to the war, fans were left to reflect on the insane carnage they had just witnessed, which has become one of the most epic and over-the-top conflicts of the entire series.
1 Dressrosa
Dressrosa's Length Allows It To Incorporate All Kinds Of Weird And Outlandish Plot Points
- Episodes: 629–746
While Dressrosa starts fairly normal with Luffy and the Straw Hats hunting down Doflamingo and seeking to rid Dressrosa of his tyrannical leadership, things start getting a little strange. Not long after arriving, it's revealed that the country contains a coliseum with pirates from all around the world, including Jesus Burgess, and even Sabo, who was previously shown to have been killed during Luffy's childhood.
It doesn't stop there though, as the arc also features a sub-plot centered around the Toys; people who have been turned into small figurines and whose real identity is forgotten by the remaining humans. There's also the Tontattas, dwarves that seemingly come out of nowhere and decide to help the Straw Hats out in their fight against Doflamingo. Needless to say, it feels as though Oda let his imagination run wild when writing this arc, meaning while it may be divisive, it's still remembered by many for being incredibly over-the-top and memorable.
- Release Date
- October 20, 1999
- Network
- Fuji TV
- Directors
- Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
Cast
-
Mayumi TanakaMonkey D. Luffy (voice) -
Kazuya NakaiRoronoa Zoro (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
One Piece is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The series follows protagonist Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew as they explore the Grand Line to find the King of the Pirates' ultimate treasure, the One Piece, in order to become the next king. The manga's popularity helped it spin off into a larger media franchise, including an anime with more than 1,000 episodes.
