One Piece Fan Letter was a special new anime commemorate the 25th anniversary broadcast of One Piece’s first anime episode, and it really proved that Marineford really is the best arc in the series to date. One Piece might be taking a lengthy break for the anime as the staff behind the scenes gets ready for the next phase of the Egghead Arc, but it’s impressive that the series has been running weekly for as long as it has even with some of the huge events it’s been adapting from Eiichiro Oda’s original manga series. Looking back, the biggest of which is definitely the Paramount War at Marineford.
Marineford was a major turning point for One Piece that marked the halfway point of Eiichiro Oda’s original manga and the TV anime adaptation. It was the culmination of years worth of buildup in a massive war bringing in tons of characters to the frontlines for the first time, and ended up changing the rest of the series in the years to come. Some of these changes we’re actually still seeing revealed for the first real time, and that’s especially true thanks to the new perspectives and characters offered from the anime special, One Piece Fan Letter.
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One Piece Fan Letter Reveals New Side of Marineford
Directed by Megumi Ishitani, One Piece Fan Letter adapts material from the One Piece Novel: Straw Hat Stories spinoff novel written by Tomohito Ohsaki. Taking place right after its big timeskip, it showcases how others in the One Piece world see everything that Luffy and the Straw Hats had been doing up to that point. But the most revelatory aspect of the new special was the new look at the Paramount War that took place at Marineford. While the series was fully revealing in just how many people were actually involved in the conflict, the new anime helps to fully emphasize just how many unnamed people were involved in it all.
Marineford was game changing for everything that happened to Luffy alone, and it’s impact on the Marines changed them forever as well. It led to them wanting to dissolve the Seven Warlords system not long after, and develop powerful new weapons to make sure they were never caught in this kind of conflict again. This was also a new era for pirates as while Luffy suffered a massive loss through it all, he was since inspired for he and his crew to reach a suitable level of power to really make a name for themselves in the New World in the years to come.
Why Marineford Still Matters
One Piece might have had other huge battles (with years long build up) happen since such as the climax of the Wano Country arc, but Marineford really was the end of an era both literally and figuratively. Because it’s where Whitebeard died, it was the first real shake up to the world powers in balance as one of the four Emperors of the Sea had fallen for the first real time. It was also where as a result of this, Blackbeard made his first big move that helped to firmly put his place as a new Emperor of the Sea to replace him. But unbeknownst to us at the time, the Marines were also making their move.
As a result of this, we’re seeing the Marines making some big changes to their arsenal in the current Egghead arc of the anime. The fallout of Marineford led them to develop a new wave of Pacifistas modeled after the Seven Warlords, and moved King Imu to start collecting the ancient weapons once hidden from history. It’s such a shake up for the world that Luffy is still seeing everything falling out from this key piece of his past. It made him a bigger target than ever before, and it’s what’s going to follow him through to the end of his journey.