One Piece animator Henry Thurlow is hyping up anime fans for the finale of Wano Country by assuring them the best has yet to come.

Henry Thurlow, an American animator working for Toei Animation in Japan, assures fans that the year of One Piece is far from over.

Per Anime Senpai, Thurlow used his personal Twitter account to buildup excitement among One Piece fans for the upcoming episodes of the Wano Country arc. “You’ve gotten tons of great sequences already, with the most insane, historic episodes still head,” Thurlow said. Thurlow had this to say when asked about competing with series like Bleach and Jujutsu Kaisen: “The longest One Piece saga in the whole series is ending with (I promise you) the best-animated episodes in the series. Bleach and Demon Slayer etc (while great! I’m a fan of these, not a hater) are not showing their biggest climax battles. 2023 is One Piece’s year. No doubt.”

One Piece Animator Hypes Up the Series

This isn’t the first time Thurlow proudly hyped up the One Piece anime. Back in Nov. 2022, Thurlow told fans that “extremely exciting” things were on the horizon for everyone’s favorite pirate-themed franchise. While there’s a possibility that fans of Bleach and Demon Slayer might interpret Thurlow’s comments as a dig toward their series, the animator made it clear he isn’t being a “hater.” He’s merely excited for everyone to see how the anime adaptation of Wano Country reaches its end.

As Thurlow stated, Wano Country is currently the longest story arc in One Piece. The story began in 2018 and concluded in 2022, accumulating 16 volumes of storytelling. It takes place after Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates successfully rescued Sanji from the grasp of Big Mom. The story arc explores Wano Country, a country inspired by Feudal Japan that serves as the base of operations for the Beasts Pirates. There, Luffy meets his strongest opponent, Kaidou of the Beasts, regarded as the “Strongest Creature” in the world. The Straw Hat Pirates also meet Yamato, the son of Kaidou, and the female samurai Kikunojo of the Lingering Snow.

One Piece Creator Assures Fans Over the Live-Action

In addition to the Wano Country finale, One Piece fans have the live-action Netflix series to look forward to. Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, assured fans that the streaming series won’t launch until it meets his standards of quality. This is a reassuring fact for fans who may have been persuaded by false reports of the Netflix series performing poorly in test viewings.

One Piece is currently streaming on multiple services like Netflix and Tubi.

Src: cbr.com