After yet another incredibly intense cliffhanger, One Piece fans are anxiously waiting for episode #1071 to release, although luckily they won't have to wait as long as they did for #1070. This is a major relief given the vast amounts of hype that already surround #1071, which will likely feature a moment that manga readers have been waiting to be adapted for a long time. Even without that hype, the plot of the series at this point is already exciting enough to cause fans to desperately await the next installment.
What Time One Piece #1071 Releases
One Piece's episode #1071, titled "Luffy's Peak - Attained! Gear Five", will air on Sunday, August 6th, at 9:30 am Japanese Standard Time (JST). It will then be simulcast on Crunchyroll on August 5th at 7:00 pm Pacific Time (PDT), 9:00 pm Central Time (CT), and 10:00 pm Eastern Time (EST) in the US. It will release on Sunday, August 6th at 3:00 am British Summer Time (BST)for One Piece fans in the UK. Fans of the English dub will have to wait for that version to premiere on Funimation at a later date.
What Happened in Episode #1070 of One Piece?
After Guernica cheated Kaido out of a fair victory over Luffy, the Yonko brutally punished him for it, beating the CP0 agent down. After somewhat satisfying his rage, Kaido transforms into a dragon and announces his victory to the forces of the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance, demanding their surrender. While the members of this group are distraught at this news, they continue their fighting despite now overwhelming odds against them. The most exciting part of the episode is the ending, however, as the giant elephant Zunesha announces to Momonosuke that they hear the Drums of Liberation once again, meaning that Joy Boy has returned. This coincides with Luffy undergoing a shocking but exciting transformation as the episode ends.
One Piece #1071 Will Reveal a New Form For Luffy
Luffy's transformation at the end of episode #1070 as well as the name of episode #1071 mentioning a new Gear Fifth form means that the Straw Hat captain will likely be able to resume his fight against Kaido in the next episode with a completely new fighting technique. The anime has even teased as much through special trailers showing off how Luffy's Gear Fifth form will look animated. The trailers make Gear Fifth look incredibly cool, giving Luffy shining white hair and glowing red eyes. They also show Luffy performing a seemingly effective attack on Kaido, implying that their fight will continue again on somewhat even footing.
Outside the incredibly exciting reveal of Luffy's new fighting form, episode #1071 will feature other major changes to the anime. The episode will feature a brand-new ending theme by the band Chilli Beans., marking the first time One Piece has had an ending theme in 17 years. This is somewhat surprising given that it will likely cut down on the run time of the actual episode itself a little bit, but that may actually enable more animation budget to go towards animating Gear 5, so that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If episode #1071 lives up to the hype fans have for it, then it could become the new best episode of One Piece so far.
One Piece is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.