Warning: Contains spoilers for One Piece episode 1049 and One Piece volume 105.One Piece episode 1049 was recently released, and the anime staff celebrated that with amazing art referencing Star Wars. With the advent of social media, it’s become common for creators to release bonus art in celebration of new installments of their stories. My Hero Academia author Kohei Horikoshi posts new art on Twitter whenever a new volume of the manga or episode of the anime is released, and Bleach creator Tite Kubo even periodically releases art to go along with the airing of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War.
Naturally, those involved specifically with anime also do this, with animators and storyboarders often posting art for episodes they were involved in. The One Piece anime is a recent example of this, with animator Katsumi Ishizuka drawing art in celebration of their involvement with One Piece episode 1049. The art, just like their work on the episode, is fantastic, but what takes it to an even higher level is how the art appears to be referencing Star Wars.
One Piece Art Is A Perfect Homage To A New Hope
Katsumi Ishizuka’s art for One Piece episode 1049 is especially great for how it appears to be a clear reference to A New Hope. The pose Yamato takes with their club, Takeru, is highly reminiscent of Luke Skywalker’s pose on one of the movie’s classic posters, with Takeru even glowing similarly to Luke’s lightsaber. Luffy being next to Yamato could be putting him in Leia’s position on the poster, and the juxtaposition of Momonosuke in the background can also be seen as a reference to Darth Vader’s placement on the poster.
Seeing a One Piece animator pay homage to Star Wars: A New Hope with their art is great, and it’s made even better by the episode, itself. Like other episodes of the Wano arc, episode 1049 received high praise from people for its fluid and stylistic art and animation, with it featuring some of the best of the arc to date. Episode 1049 was a highlight of the anime, so the fact that it’s being celebrated with a reference to one of the most cinematic movie posters of all time is nothing but on point, with the quality of both clearly enhancing one another.
One Piece’s Star Wars Homage Actually Works Thanks To Yamato
The best thing about Katsumi Ishizuka referencing A New Hope in their art is that it actually fits the story of One Piece‘s Yamato in the Wano arc. Yamato’s story is about them rebelling against their villainous father and the evil empire they’ve created, teaming up with other rebels to do so and playing a critical role in their ultimate victory. All of that, of course, is very reminiscent of Luke and Leia’s story in A New Hope and the original Star Wars trilogy as a whole, even if they didn’t always know Darth Vader was their father, so Ishizuka’s art referencing A New Hope was likely intentional.
The ending of Yamato’s story in the Wano arc also has clear parallels to Star Wars. At the end of the Wano arc, Yamato stays in Wano to help Momonosuke protect it from outside threats, and that can be seen as a parallel to Leia working to rebuild the Republic after the fall of the Empire in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. It’s unknown if One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda had any Star Wars parallels in mind when he wrote the Wano arc, but it’s great that Katsumi Ishizuka was able to find some and produce some truly great art because of it.
Source: Katsumi Ishizuka