It feels as if the Skypiea arc in One Piece has finally grown out of being the most unanimously disliked arc of the series, eventually being beaten out by a certain “fishy” storyline that I hope to cover another time. It’s not hard to imagine why Skypiea found itself in that position. At the time, it was the longest adventure the Straw Hats had ever embarked upon, and in hindsight its impact was minimal. No new crew members, no new bounties and no permanent developments to the story. However, it still stands to this day as my personal favorite arc of the series.

In a way, Skypiea was my first proper One Piece arc. I was always aware of the show, and watched it occasionally as a young teenager. It wasn’t until 2007, during the transition to FUNimation’s version, when I really became a fan. I followed the show weekly on Cartoon Network just as the Jaya and Skypiea arcs were starting. Eventually, I put up with one cliffhanger too many and decided to do whatever I could to track down the rest of the episodes. I was in middle school at the time, and Skypiea was the seed of my favorite obsession for pretty much my entire young adult life.

It may sound like I’m using nostalgia as an excuse for the bold headline, which I acknowledge is total hyperbole. Everyone’s favorite arc is subjective, and that is awesome and go you, but I feel there’s more to Skypiea. To this day, I really admire Skypiea as an incredible stand-alone adventure. I don’t just enjoy the arc as a part of One Piece, but as a work of fantasy literature in general. The fantastical locations, the massive scale, the layered structure of the plot, and the themes of warring cultures and theological ideals scratched a lot of itches for me. I always hoped they would remake this arc as a movie like they did with Alabasta and Drum Island, and that it would be a four hour long Lord of the Rings style epic. I guess I’m just a romantic like that.

“Ring it, Straw Hat!” the great warrior Wyper said on his knees. “Light the fires of Shandora!” The image of Montblanc Cricket looking up to the sky and seeing our hero’s iconic silhouette sprawled across the clouds is still fresh in my mind. I think the finale of Luffy and Eneru’s fight is far and above the greatest of any battle in the series. The defeat of the self-proclaimed god and the ringing of the golden bell aren’t just satisfying, they serve as the convergence point for every subplot in the saga. It’s the moment where every character is moved all at once by the ringing of the sacred bell. We’re asked to think back nostalgically to the beginning of Jaya. Suddenly, the amount of places we’ve come and gone since then and the amount of adventure we’ve traversed feels extraordinary.

I always feel like it is a mistake to separate Jaya and Skypiea when it comes time to critiquing One Piece on an arc by arc basis. Not only is Jaya the beginning of the story of Skypiea, but it serves as an especially strong thesis statement. “I’m just like you. I’m a romantic,” Cricket said as he saw the Straw Hats off on their way to ride a giant explosion of water into the sky. A good adventure can start with something small like a letter or a kiss. A better adventure starts with a decrepit ship full of dead people falling on you from the clouds.

One Piece’s long-windedness has always been its greatest strength as well as its greatest weakness. Nowhere is that more evident than in Skypiea. For a lot of people, this arc was just too much of a detour. It was too long and it wasn’t what the fans wanted. However, for me, there’s something truly wonderful about its winding paths. More so than any other part of the series, every story beat, every surprise, and every twist escalated the narrative with purpose. All of it served the overall rhythm of the story, and slowly built towards the aforementioned finale.

I think the thing that really struck me in particular was just how insane Luffy’s personal limits were. Again, this was me truly seeing the real One Piece for the first time. The idea of a hero who doesn’t give up, no matter how dire the situation, has always been a bit of a cliché in fiction. However, Skypiea was the first time I really felt the weight of a character’s unconditional determination as if it was brand new. I remember trying to put myself in Luffy’s shoes and knowing for sure, in my heart, that I would have given up a long time before him.

This is definitely a reoccurring theme in the series, but I still think Skypiea had the best examples of this than in any other arc. Every now and then, it occurs to me how seminal it was to my scrawny, greasy, fourteen-year-old self to really value a character like that. Colleen Clinkenbeard, the English voice for Luffy, often jokes about how much she hated recording the episodes where Luffy continuously chases Eneru up that damn beanstalk. Hearing that always made me laugh because she has no idea how much Luffy’s decision to just keep going, no matter what, really made an impact on me as a teenager. That damn beanstalk changed me as a person.

I haven’t even started on how great the setting and the villains are. I love the scene where Eneru is just sitting on a branch, letting Kamakiri attack him, demonstrating the true height of his invulnerability. We get an amazing image of the forest of Upper Yard and how huge it is compared to the man calling himself God. Somehow, despite this, Eneru still manages to feel all-powerful, omnipotent, and in control. The “survival game” is like watching a series of puzzle pieces fall perfectly in place, one by one, with Eneru having a constant presence even when he’s not on screen.

It would probably be easy to discuss religion and how it factors into One Piece, especially Skypiea, with its themes of gods, priests and angels. However, I’m not interested in those topics because on of my favorite elements of the series is how uninterested Oda seems to be in that conversation. The various theological titles given to certain characters function little more than to give a bit of flavor to some already commonplace terms like “kings” and “knights”. There’s an interesting conversation to be had about Noland and Calgara’s relationship, but ultimately their story is one of friendship over anything else.



I’ve always had a real soft spot for the sky as a fantasy-adventure setting. What’s not to love? Flight is a universal dream of mankind and the ultimate expression of freedom. Even cooler than that is actually achieving the ability to fly, and using it to discover a whole new world worth exploring. There’s something dream-like about Skypiea. I know I’m part of a small group of people who really value this arc, but it’s enough to get me all giddy and excited just thinking about it again.

I love Ganfall and Pierre. I love the snake. I love Giant Jack. I love Noland and Calgara’s bromance. I love the white and green color-scheme. I love the flying Going Merry. I love Sanji’s trial of love. I love Gedatsu’s goofiness. I love Ohm’s white-barbed iron deathmatch. I love the “quintet for the finale”. I love the bajillion false-climaxes. I love islands in the sky and cities made entirely of gold. I love the whole gosh darn adventure. “We just came from a pretty extraordinary place, didn’t we?” Sanji said once the crew made their descent back onto the blue sea. Yes you did, Sanji. Yes you did.