One Piece: Fan animation of one of Egghead arc's biggest fights gives Toei a run for its money

As soon as 2024 started, a One Piece animator announced that the "episode of the year" for One Piece would be released "very soon" this year without specifying any other detail.

Since this announcement was made, fans have started to speculate about what part of the Egghead Arc this episode will be about. Most fans speculate that this episode will be the rematch fight between Luffy and Lucci or Zoro and Kaku. Some speculate that it will be the Garp vs Kizaru fight, but we won't know until the official fight arrives in the anime.

While some fans are busy speculating, another fan just went and animated one of the most anticipated fights in the Egghead Arc. A One Piece X account (@pewpiece) posted a video and mentioned its source—a YouTube video from a channel named "eoreh animation." This video was uploaded almost half a year ago and animated the fight between Kizaru and Garp from the Egghead Arc in a chibi style.

---

A fan-animated fight between Garp and Kizaru impresses One Piece fans

On August 14, 2023, a YouTube channel uploaded a fan-animated video of Kizaru versus Garp that occurred during the Egghead Arc. The fight was animated in a chibi style, almost like the Nintendo Pokémon games.

The timelapse of this fan-animated fight was roughly two minutes. The thing fans liked about this fight was how improvised it was, considering its source was a manga series that didn't give much animation details. Although the video is titled Garp vs Aokiji One piece manga 1088 1087, it also adapted the last part of chapter 1081.

The SWORD went astray after Blackbeard kidnapped Koby during his invasion of Amazon Lily. They were worried about the life of their beloved captain, and they had to invade the Beehive Island as soon as possible.

The first SWORD member who made an appearance on Beehive Island was Hibari. She saved Koby from the Blackbeard Pirates who were about to hunt him down. Following her, all the members of SWORD entered, and a surprise entry also made his presence known.

Garp vs Kuzan as seen in the manga (Image via VIZ media)

This surprise entry was Monkey D. Garp, the vice admiral of the Navy, who made his entry with a flashy Supreme Conqueror Haki attack. As soon as he landed on the island, Kuzan arrived, and their battle started. It was later revealed that Kuzan was Garp's former student.

This fight is of fundamental importance as it was a chance for the teacher (Garp) to see how much his student had grown (Kuzan). Garp overpowered Kuzan initially, but due to an unfair trick played by Shiryu, a Blackbeard pirate, Garp was injured. However, he gave his pirates the spirit to fight, and they quickly escaped while fighting the Blackbeard Pirates.

Garp was the only one left behind, with an ice spear pierced through him. Kuzan froze him while he kept laughing hysterically. After this, Garp's life status was updated to "unknown," and has not appeared since then.

---

Reactions from fans

Fans reaction to the fan-animated fight of Kuzan vs Garp (Image via X/@pewpiece)

This One Piece fan's improvisation while animating this fight is worth appreciating, which other fans did to their fullest. One of the cleanest improvisations was the last exchange of blows between Garp and Kizaru as the shockwaves of each of their punches went to their skulls. The fan-animation also urged fans to anticipate this fight even more in the official One Piece.

Appreciation aside, some fans brought up One Piece's pacing issue and compared it to this fan-animated fight. As it stands, One Piece anime's current pacing is 0.5-1 chapter per episode, but in the past, this pacing count has been even lower for fight sequences. So, some fans showed their concerns for the future adaptation of this fight.