10. Chapter 923 – The Kaido One Shot

After the Katakuri fight and Whole Cake Island a lot of fans (and especially all those power level whores) went into Wano a little scared. They thought: “The way Oda has been portraying Luffy it might just be possible that he will defeat Kaidou in a 1v1 battle after getting a Rayleigh flashback in their first fight. It will be utter trash and I’m gonna have to drop OP.” Well, Oda shut their mouths real good. First of all, we get some awesome action panels with amazing art. Then, it happens: Kaido sighs, grabs his club and defeat Gear 4 Luffy with just a single blow!

Perfect. This sets up the threat level of Kaido, shows that Luffy probably won’t be able to take him on 1v1 or he at least has to get a little more than a Rayleigh flashback and it just gives me those sweet sweet Alabasta vibes when Luffy got hooked by Crocodile.

9. Chapter 909 – The Introduction to Wano

Ah how I remember the times when the consensus in the community was that Reverie will last around 10 chapters lol. To the surprise of a lot of people, myself included, this chapter came around and gave us a great opening to the Wano Arc out of nowhere. First, we get some spicy Whitebeard lore and we finally get to meet Marco (I’m really looking forward to this whole Weevil plot). A pretty good start. And then the curtains rise and just by reading I could hear the shamisen play in the background. Boom.

With probably some of the best art Oda has pulled of in recent years, we get to see a beautiful flower capital and my Japan loving heart was filled with excitement. After like 2 years, we finally get to see our homeboys and girls who weren’t present at Whole Cake Island and it just made me happy. To top it all of, we get some old school badassery by our favourite mosshead casually slicing buildings in half with a seppuku knive. This arc was set up partially since Thriller Bark, and just like that, we were here now. What a feeling. My expectations after a start like that were even higher than before.

8. Chapter 902 – A Satisfying Ending

Look, I know Whole Cake Island had a lot of problems. Some plotlines weren’t finished at all and we don’t even know if they will be addressed again. Some plotlines took disappointing turns and some people’s expectations for this arc just weren’t met. I personally enjoyed Whole Cake Island a lot and I would say, it’s my favourite New World arc so far. It gave me one of my favourite characters in the whole series. This final chapter just made me … very satisfied? Let’s see what this chapter gave us and why it was so satisfying to me.

-Regret: Sanji realizes, that his distrust in his crew’s ability and his actions leading up to WCI had Pedro killed. This is important. For me, this certified that we will never see a Sanji again, that doesn’t 100% trust his crew and knows that they can accomplish anything. Plus Carrot’s attempt to comfort him was some really sad.

-The End Roll: I really like Pudding. I liked her when she was just a very lovable girl and I was hyped when she turned out to be an evil bitch. I liked her when she turned into a two-faced kind of gag character. The sequence which revealed her last request to Sanji was not just aesthetically freaking great with the film roll background, but it turned this character, whom a lot of people hated after her 50 changes of heart, into a very tragic figure. She didn’t get a happy end like all the other “good guys” in One Piece. She was left there sobbing in a back alley. It’s sad, but i really liked this ending to her story. And who knows what else we will see from Pudding (Three Eye Clan you know).

-Katakuri: I expected some kind of flashback to Katakuri’s past. What I didn’t expect was me getting teary eyed about freaking Brulee. This last sequence with Katakuri and Brulee was just beautiful. It made Katakuri, who turned from being a cold badass villain into a lovable fan favourite antihero, so “human”. I just love this character to death because no one else in One Piece feels like Katakuri. Is he good? Is he bad? Is he just protecting the people he loves? I don’t know, but I sure know that we will see him again someday and this day will be glorious. On Brulee’s part: Her “I know :)” after Katakuri tells her his “legend” is just a facade makes me smile to this day. It gave this character, who was kind of “abused” to get the plot going, something more. Did you expect to find out, why this ugly witch looking branch has a scar on her face? Neither did I. (I still wanna know why Katakuri has a scarred mouth tho)

All in all, this chapter had so much closure on things I didn’t even know I wanted. And that’s why it made a pretty rough ending to an arc into a very satisfying one. The little musical going on during this chapter gave off a really good vibe describing this whole arc. Was there actually a winner? This is definitely not the end of Big Mom and co.

7. Chapter 906 – The Giant Strawhat at Mary Geoise

The first of the “out of this world hype level Reverie chapters” in my Top 10 list. Don’t we all love when we get a look at characters from all the previous arcs we love in One Piece? In this chapter, we get a plethora of princesses, kings and animals connected to the Straw Hat Crew actually meeting up in the same place and fanboying over the future king of the pirates. Something I couldn’t have imagined like a year ago. The little trivia panels Oda had to include for newer readers just showed me again how freaking big One Piece is and how grateful we should be for this world Oda gave us. On a sidenote: we also get to see a little bit of the dark background Mary Geoise obviously has with the slaves and the sneak peek of Charlos, which got me really excited for some drama.

But then the thing I love most about One Piece takes the stage again: Mystery. Out of nowhere we get the madman himself, the fallen Sky Dragon, randomly talking to himself (or was he talking to Magellan?) in his prison cell. In his oldschool fashion he gives us a hype ass speech about the national treasure of Mary Geoise. Meanwhile a skinny figure completely shrouded in silhouette opens a huge gate in an ancient looking tomb and B O O M: there is a giant straw hat!

This is the reason i read One Piece. After over 900 chapters, I still don’t dare to predict Oda’s story. Because everything he comes up with just shatters my expectations and I can’t wait to find out what is up with that thing.

6. Chapter 925 – Wano Break Time Show

One of the most recent chapters. Oda apparently just decided Wano itself wasn’t hype enough as it is so he had to give us some Reverie level chapters during the halftime breaks. I mean, just look at all the stuff we got in this chapter:

-We see Mihawk and Perona after like 300 chapters again.

-We see Moriah, a main villain of an arc, again.

-We finally get to see Blackbeard’s crew after the time skip and oh boy, do they have awesome devil fruits (RIP Absalom).

-Blackbeard manspreading with his awesome new design and his epic speech about the war for the throne. Casually dropping a 2,247,600,000 Berries bounty, shattering Luffy’s hype bounty from chapter 903.

-Random info about the Reverie sprinkled in there (abolishment of the Shichibukai system and Revolutionaries fighting Admirals. I can’t wait for the next info dump on that.)

-Because Oda had like a page or two left, he just decided “F**k it” and dropped the long awaited remaining Calamities on us with savage looking designs.

Phew. I really don’t know how he wants to keep up this level of hype for the Wano break chapters or if this was the highlight already and the other ones are gonna be tamer than that. Because if they keep getting more hype I don’t know if my heart can take that. Maybe the only problem I have with this chapter is that the introduction to King and Queen was a little underwhelming. Like I said, it felt like he had a spare page and wanted to fill that. This introduction was nothing compared to Katakuri’s, even tho i really really like their designs. Still, one of the most hype chapters this year and this says a lot.

5. Chapter 921 – Kaido is a Dragon

I was talking about how Oda always exceeds our expectations and like nobody can predict what he’ll do next. I may have to make an exception here, because Kaido being a dragon has probably been one of the most popular theories in recent years. Was this chapter any less hype because of it? HELL NAH. Dude I was literally jumping up and down in my chair after the last page. It may be edgy, it may be generic, but the main antagonist of probably one of the biggest and most important arcs in a series being a flipping dragon ist just so cool (I know I sound like an excited middle school fanboy, but that’s what shonen is mostly for right?)

Anyway, this chapter didn’t just have a dragon, it also gave us the introduction of Ashura Douji as well as the comeback of Jack. And boy, did Ashura Douji surprise me. When I first saw that dude, I was pretty disappointed tbh. Another fat obnoxious dude who’s probably gonna be one shot by Luffy. But because Oda knew, that the “Kaidou is a dragon” has been predicted already, he wanted to at least surprise us with Ashura. So poor old Jack gets to Okobore Town after recovering from the Zunisha’s slap he received a few dozen chapters ago and after talking some smack to Ashura gets sliced straight across the chest. Wow.

This had me so excited as well and I honestly thought, this was going to be the typical hype end to the chapter. It’s so awesome that Wano apparently has samurais that can keep up with Yonko commanders and it also tells us a lot about Oden’s strength (can’t wait for that flashback to fuck me up either).

And then ofc the sky gets dark and Kaidou descends from the heavens like the godly beast he is. What a chapter. Maybe the fact that this obvious and popular theory of Kaidou being a dragon actually was true made this in some way even more surprising than all the plot twists Oda usually does? Idk, but 921 without a doubt deserves this number 5 spot.

4. Chapter 895 – The Best Fight in One Piece

I don’t wanna discuss the actual ending of this fight. I don’t wanna discuss the issues some people have with Oda’s power leveling of Luffy, plot armor and so on. All I know is, that this chapter, just based on action, choreography, art and intensity is the best fight sequence we have gotten in One Piece so far. The only comparable thing I could think of is that one chapter where Luffy and Rob Lucci go at it just 1v1 bare fists in that one storage room in Enies Lobby.

But this chapter was better imo. Katakuri’s character has been developed on so many more dimensions than any other antagonist in One Piece. Like seriously, was there ever a point in One Piece where probably over 50% of the fanbase was rooting for the antagonist? This fight didn’t feel like the typical “this is where Luffy beats the main villain of the arc and everything will be fine afterwards”. This fight felt more like two war veterans who had been close friends for years but because of their backgrounds have to go at each other. And in the end, both just fought for the people they wished to protect. The chapter itself was beautifully simple. We get the hype introduction to Luffy’s new G4 form Snake Man, which is his coolest form yet imo, and then the rest of the chapter is just two determined people throwing hands.

I’m the type of person who reads One Piece because of the story and the mysteries. Fights were never the most important part for me. But Katakuri as a character and all these twists and turns and Luffy’s development in this battle have made it my favourite in the series.

3. Chapter 907 – I don’t even know what the most hype thing about this chapter was!

Let me tell you, the days and hours before I could actually read this chapter were the most brutal wait I have ever experienced for One Piece. We just came off the hype Reverie chapter with the G I A N T S T R A W H A T and speculations online were going crazy. I was never craving a One Piece chapter more than in this week. Every single plotline or revelation in this chapter, even if the rest would’ve literally been blank pages, would’ve made the chapter a 10/10.

-Big Mom and Kaidou discuss Luffy (like wtf Yonkos have casual Den Den Mushi conversations like this), Kaidou and Big Mom past connections are mentioned, Big Mom announces she will be coming to Wano (wtf omg I’m gonna see Katakuri again)

-The Marines overhear this conversation, Kizaru wants to go to Wano (yes please Kizaru come to Wano pls)

-Garp talks about “The Rocks” which apparently were the big pirates before Roger!

-“The Empty Throne” gets introduced, which gives off mad mysterious vibes and we all knew someone’s gonna sit on it.

-Charlos is back in action and is still the most obnoxious living being. Oh and btw CP0, with Lucci, Stussy and Kaku, is back, but not a big deal right hahahahahah. Good thing Mjosgard (omg that dude is back and Otohime’s efforts weren’t worthless and he’s actually part of Doflamingo’s family) smacks Charlos right in the face.

-And ofc the reason why Luffy even started his journey, the character I think literally everone in the community loves to death, randomly shows up before the Gorosei to talk about “a certain pirate”.

I was floored after this chapter. My critique on this chapter was, that it had too much content. I actually didn’t know what I should be hyped about the most. It felt like a fanfic chapter and not an actual one. Idk, i don’t think I can say anything more without repeating myself. But there are still 2 more chapters that got me even more hyped.

2. Chapter 908 – The One True King

So some people might disagree on my ranking after I’ve been gushing over 907 so hard. But for me, 908 and the introduction of Im/Imu-sama is just such massive, immense, unbelievable game changer for the story of One Piece, that I had to put it at number 2. The hype for this chapter was also huge, but not in the same capacity as 907. So maybe because I wasn’t expecting as much of this chapter, it surprised me even more when I actually read it. The first big thing this chapter gave us was the reintroduction of Kuma as well as Bonney.

Now this caused something I never really experienced reading One Piece. The fact, that Kuma is now in this state, being used as a slave by the disgusting Celestial Dragons and especially the fucktard Roswald made me extremely physically upset. Like, with all the heart-wrenching stories and despicable characters in this manga, I still have never been so upset about the fate of a character. I don’t know what caused this, but I literally wanted to get into this manga and free Kuma. Maybe because this was happening in real time and not in a flashback? Idk. Plus the connection between Bonney and Kuma…huh? Just as I read that part, I remembered Bonney’s reaction to Marineford, where she was super upset about the Marines. And then it clicked for me. Bonney wasn’t upset about Whitebeard’s death, but the things they did to Kuma.

And now to Im-sama: Just thinking about the scene in the flower room, I still get goosebumps all over my body. This silhouetted figure, which we had already seen with the giant straw hat, just sitting in this strangely calm and peaceful room, holding out his hand to a butterfly. Imagine a choir singing quietly over this scene in the anime. Then, he gets told that everyone is ready. He gets up and leaves shredded wanted posters of Luffy, Blackbeard and Shirahoshi behind. In his hands he holds a picture of Vivi. He wanders up to the empty throne.

The Gorosei, the highest authority of the “opposing force” in One Piece we have known up until this point, all bowing down to this fragile looking person. He/she sits down on the throne, on which nobody should sit on unless there is a one true ruler of the world. And I guess there is one. The Gorosei ask, which light should be destroyed to bring back order to the world. We get nothing more than his eyes, no answer at all. Like I’ve already stated, mystery is my favourite thing in One Piece. The stuff I wanna know most about is the history of the Void Century, the story behind the will of D, the story behind the One Piece. Im-sama is this entity that just feels like it knows about all of it and even more. I wanna know more about Im-sama.

1. Chapter 903 – Classic One Piece

So there we are. My number 1 One Piece Chapter in 2018. I guess imma keep this one shorter.

What are your fondest memories of One Piece? For me, the most impactful chapters are the ones that created, widened or explored the beautiful, vast world Oda’s imagination has come up with. A pretty big part of this are the transitional chapters between arcs. Anyone remember reading the chapters with Doffy and Kuma’s introduction as well as the first look at the Gorosei for the first time. That was some of the most hype stuff ever.

This chapter is just that. It threw me back in time to when Luffy got his first bounty of 30 Mil, when Mihawk met Shanks to tell him the news, when we got to see Makino in Fusha Village again. This was what got me hooked on One Piece. 903 made me feel like the happy 8 year old reading One Piece in a library again. We got Power-Ups for Sanji and Nami, we got the classic narrator (Big News Morgans i think) telling us about Luffy’s impact and accomplishments. The upcoming “Fifth Emperor”. A reintroduction of our boy Coby and the bombshell of the massive new 1.5 Billion bounty Luffy has achieved.

By being part of this story, by reading weekly and experiencing everything with the Straw Hat Crew, this felt like an achievement for me as well. And that made me unbelievably happy.

*List by Gehweiher