Top 2 greatest One Piece Arcs

Since October 1999, the One Piece animated series has been officially launched and there were a lot of arcs. Most arcs are full of adventure, traveling, fights, discoveries, laughs, character’s development but some also have sad moments and goodbyes. Here we are going to dive into the arcs that could be considered the top 2 arcs of One Piece. For these nominations we focused on the arcs where the Mugiwaras crew members were all evolved on top of the other elements mentioned earlier.

In second place we have Alabasta arc : Episodes: 92-130

There were many build-ups before reaching Alabasta (Wisky Peak, Little Garden and Drum Island). This was the Mugiwara crew’s first and one their biggest adventures after entering Grand Line. The crew team up with Princess Vivi in order to take down a rogue Shichibukai Crocodile acting in the shadows through his criminal secret organization, Baroque Works. Baroque Works’ final operation called “Utopia Operation” was to take over the throne of Alabasta kingdom. All the small missions of Baroque Works were leading up to The Utopia Operation. The Utopia Operation was basically Coup d’etat that would end with Crocodile coming as a hero and taking down the king with the blessing of citizens. In order to achieve that goal Baroque agents were staging a civil war making the citizens of Alabasta think that their king was blind to their suffering and behind some of them pushing them to action against the royal family through war. Noticing that many unnatural things were going wrong in her kingdom, the princess of the Kingdom, Vivi, looked into the matter and eventually discovered the existence of Baroque Works. Princess Vivi decided to infiltrate in secret the organization with the assistance of Igaram the captain of the Alabasta royal guard. In order to do so they had to disappear the Castle and eventually the kingdom to go on missions for Baroque Works. They eventually found the identity of the leader of Baroque Works to be Corcodile but they were also discovered to be moles. It was on Wisky Peak that a Number Agents of Baroque Works (strongest fighters in the organization) tried to kill both Igaram and Vivi while they were on a mission to take out Luffy’s crew. In order to stay alive and go back to her kingdom and wear the king of Crocodile’s plans Igaram and after which Vivi made a deal with Nami and the rest of the crew to help Vivi in her mission to save her home. Thus began the adventure that would lead them to Alabasta. In order to get to Alabasta the Mugiwaras along with Vivi went through the prehistoric island of Little Garden where they met two giants then onto the snowing Island of Drum where they met and recruited Doctor Tony Tony Chopper before eventually arriving at Alabasta. They travel the kingdom, while being chased by the Marines and agents of Baroque Works, to get to Crocodile and defeat him and take down his organization. During this arc, through the sea of send and climate change of the desert, Vivi and the Mugiwaras witnessed some natural scourge like drought and society issues like famine and citizens being fed up with (what at the time) seem to be bad kingdom leadership which led up to a civil war.

Crocodile and Baroque Works were not an enemy that Vivi and The Mugiwaras could beat with just strength. They had to use wits, determination and perseverance through the whole ordeal in order to outsmart Crocodile and his men. There were also unexpected allies (Ace, Robin, Pell, Koza, Tashigi and her men) who aided them to eventually prevail against Crocodile. Every member of the crew went to fight number agents of Baroque Works that really pushed them to the limit of their physical strength and even cleverness for some. At the end of the fighting and the civil war, the crew was completely exhausted and they all fainted and the spot leaving them fully exposed to any enemy and the marine (that has never happened since Alabasta). This shows just how much they put into the fight and how hard it all was.

During this arc, we had many unexpected surprises and for the first time all three different types of devil fruits users where present:

• Paramecia (Luffy, Robin, Mr. 1, Miss Doublefinger, Mr. 2, Mr. 3, …);
• Zoan (Chopper, Pell, Chaka, Miss Merry Christmas and Lassoo);
• Logia (Crocodile, Ace and Smoker).

The last episode of this arc ends with a new recruit for the crew, enemy turned ally, Nico Robin, and right before that another enemy turned friend Mr. 2 aka Bon Clay who sacrificed himself to help the Mugiwaras escape the Marines.

At the end of the arc, the pirate known as Monkey D. Luffy aka Mugiwara no Luffy was unofficially recognized by the higher-ups as the big threat after defeating a Shichibukai (Warlord). Unofficially because they didn’t make known to the public that he defeated a Shichibukai that the Marine let loose resulting in a Kingdom almost being taken over on their watch.

In first place we have Enies Lobby arc : Episodes 264-312

If we count the Water 7 arc as the complete version of Enies Lobby arcs then we would have Water 7 + Enies Lobby arcs : Episodes: 229-263 and 264-312. Since it’s impossible to fully get into the Enies Lobby arc without getting into the Water 7 arc we might as well consider them as one big arc especially since there is no intermission or special episode between the two arcs.

In this arc, the CP9, through the orders of Admiral Ao Kiji and following their mission for the World Government, kidnapped/arrested Nico Robin, tried to kill the mayor of Water 7 (Iceberg) using Robin and frame Luffy’s crew for the murder. It turns out that Robin was trying to protect the crew and having them believe that she try to kill Iceberg and leave the crew. Iceberg later confesses to the crew that Robin was protecting them from her biggest fear and destructive fire power that can be unleashed by the Marine, a Buster Call, the same force that destroyed her home town and all the people she cared about when she was a kid. Those actions from CP9, led to the Mugiwaras going through a natural disaster (the Aqua Laguna) to defy the Marine and the World Government on their turf in Enies Lobby in order to rescue Robin from them and from her own demons, at the same time.

The Cipher Pol Number 9 better known as CP9 is the secret organization of the World Government specialized in covert mission and assassination. CP9 is formed of extremely trained fighters who use the Rokushiki techniques, literally making super soldiers. The main motive for Robin’s arrest was because the Marine wanted to use her special knowledge and the blueprints of one of three ancient weapons of mass destruction, Pluton, the reason behind CP9’s secret mission in Water 7. Turns out Iceberg had the blueprints but never trusted the marine with such power and hid them by giving them to his former colleague Franky who was also kidnapped by CP9 after they discovered the truth, at the same time as Robin. In order to save him and Robin, Luffy and his crew allied themselves with the Franky family and the Galley-La Company workers to go to Enies Lobby.

Before even arriving Enies Lobby, the main power house of the crew Lufy, Zoro and Sanji, were all defeated by Rob Lucci, the strongest member of CP9 in its history, and his men. So the crew had to bring their A game in order for their upcoming rematch against an opponent they couldn’t defeat before. Once arrived at Enies Lobby began a long run and many fights, through several thousand marine and CP9 men, toward the main tower where Robin and Franky were held. They eventually got to the main tower by which time Franky cyborg that he is, freed himself from his cuffs and burned the blueprints. Having no more use for him the leader of CP9 (who was also the weakest) tried to kill Franky by throwing him off the tower but luckily he was saved by the Mugiwaras as they were entering the main tower on the Rocket Man. So Franky decides to fight alongside the crew, thus beginning the fights and each for the key to free Robin from her kairoseki cuffs. During the battle phase of this arc every single member of the Mugiwaras (that were fighting to get to Robin) used a new way or technique of fighting, digging deep into their strength. In Usopp’s case (disguised as Sogeking), he found the only way we could fight effectively in the current environment and situation. We were shown Luffy’s Gear 2 and Gear 3, Zoro’s Ashura form, Sanji’s diable Jambe, Chopper’s Monster Point and Nami new Clima-tact power. Against super soldiers they had no other choice but to go big and Luffy went huge with his Gear 3rd. After all the fight and Luffy’s crushing Rob Lucci which no marine, not even the Vice-Admiral present, were expecting, came the totally improbable escape of the Mugiwara with Robin and Franky from Enies Lobby. After arriving and witnessing the CP9 defeat, the marine defeat and the failure of a Buster Call, Admiral Ao Kiji himself had to accept their utter defeat and he called off the chase for the Mugiwaras’ ship.

During this arc the enemies were powerful, the fights were intense, the situations were sometimes very dire, we had many unexpected surprises, three different races were present (human, giants and a merfolk) and a new awesome opening was introduced, opening 6: Brand New World.

The last episode of this arc ends with the saddest goodbyes for the crew and one of the saddest in the whole series, the loss of one of their members, Going Merry.

At the end of the arc, the pirate known as Monkey D. Luffy aka Mugiwara no Luffy and his whole crew were officially and publicly recognized by the higher-ups as the big threat after defeating all members of CP9, surviving and Buster Call and fleeing with the most wanted member of their crew Nico Robin.

Obviously there are many great arcs in One Piece, it is not easy to choose the top 2 that everyone might agree on. Also there are more upcoming arcs we don’t know about yet.