One Piece and the Legendary Anime Director You've Never Heard Of 

I wrote and recorded this before the episode actually dropped, and I can double confirm that 1015 was genuinely one of the best episodes of anime I’ve watched in my entire life, and I would probably be hyperventilating the entire vid if I had recorded it after watching. Check it out!!

Megumi Ishitani graduated in 2015 and by March of 2018 she was the person to direct the final episode of dragon ball super (even back then you can see some similarities to the monster of episodes she would go on to create.) But think about it Dragon Ball, one of the biggest series in the whole world, let alone the biggest one to come out of Japan, and this "kid" who graduated 2 years ago was picked to direct the last episode of such a monumental series. Let it sink in. She's going to be an absolute Titan.

People are only hype at the Red Roc scene, I'm like WHAT! This episode telling a stories with so much symbolism and truly intricate on it own with such a perfect flow to the narration and purposeful transition, This is a masterpiece of an episode and this is what One Piece as a story deserved not just occasionally one.

“Ishitani loves dinosaurs.” Maybe that’s why she wanted to work on Wano, since it has dinosaur characters? Shame she’s never animated any of the Tobi Roppo yet.

Megumi Isitani will be legendary once she becomes a series director. A Pretty Cure series in particular would be amazing under her watch.

Megumi Ishitani is the only person who can make a filler scene in One Piece become a canon as if it was on the manga.

The best thing about Her Directing i the animation doesn't have to be as beautiful as it is. It's the way she decides to present the information visually.

This is how Ishitani Megumi imagined when reading the manga panels. That's some out of this world talent.

Such a genius this woman. Imagine One Piece being seasonal and Ishitani on the Front. Damn.

Dang, she nailed it. That scene where Luffy and Roger being compared side-by-side. Never imagined that scene to give such impact. That panel in the manga itself gives me goosebumps, but what she did made me shiver down to my soul. Instead of separating them, she was like why not combine them. Excellent transition and color palette of choice, truly gives that dreamy like vibe. From start to finish, she never disappoint us. She understood how to convey the story well, making everyone to look forward to.

Many important OP episodes in the future will also be directed by her. especially "that" scenes with luffy

I'm absolutely in love with Megumi Ishitani sensei's work. Her imagination & skill is truly marvelous. After watching ep 1015, I felt so inspired by what I was seeing onscreen. I really want to see her helm an anime original project. She deserves all the accolades.

I usually don't watch the anime if I already read the manga but it's exactly episodes like these where I still watch them

Something I really love about Ishitani is that she knows how to use lens flare well. Contrast her to someone like JJ Abrams where he does lens flare because rule of cool(The Force Awakens is a good example of this). Yet in Ishitani's case she uses the color of the lens flares to create atmosphere/ mood. Take this latest episode, you saw a lot of darker reds and blacks to emphasize darkness/ threats. This notable when the Worst generation confront Big Mom and Kaidou. You see this on full display with the flashback before Luffy's Red Roc going through the buildup to that moment. Brighter colors are allowed to pop to showcase jovial, good moments whereas the darker reds and oranges emphasize bad moments or something lingering. Ishitani really should be given her own series. She's an incredible talent and as far as I am concerned she's on her path of joining some of the all time great animators.

There's no "bigger" project than One Piece to be on, except for a One Piece reboot with more production value Making her own movie would give her more creative freedom and more time/money per scene, but nothing will be bigger or more ambitious than One Piece as an artistic project anytime soon

The best One Piece director, the best One Piece episode. Probably one of the greatest episodes in anime history. A 20yo journey actually coming to fruition.

I think another reason her work on one piece is so good is because it’s very clear that she’s a massive one piece fan. Or if she isn’t, she really understands what makes the characters so good. The scenes she directed of the crew just bickering amongst themselves felt so good. The scene of Sanji and zoro comes to mind. Kinemons face as he leads the soldier charge sells how much he NEEDS this to succeed. The same face he makes, bleeding out on the rooftop does the same thing. It’s beyond masterful

The starting moment when Yamato said to Ace "You aren't dead are you?" I become strangely aware something is different. The episode was bravely directed with a joke before tragedy, two instance, the previous quote and zoro's flying fall. I really admire the goddess director talents for transitioning emotions. It really shows that she is confident in getting the message across.

Every time a One Piece episode that's directed by Megumi is about to drop, everyone gets to know about it before it drops. That's how iconic she is among the One Piece community. An amazing talent and I would also like to see her animate her own passion project, but I, selfishly, also don't want her to leave One Piece before it ends. Finding out that she loves dinosaurs, it's a stamp of confirmation that she'll be animating more episodes in Wano since it's full of them. I hope she'll animate the Zoro flashback episode. And I hope the guy who animated the Katakuri fight, I keep forgetting his name, animates all the fight heavy episodes starting from roofpiece.

the episodes she directed were so good that people actually learned her name. I don’t know the names of anyone else on One piece but I took the time to learn hers

4:41 - 4:47 one of the best scene in the ep. 1015. I don't know how to describe the transition in this scene but a word "genius". I mean, for the manga readers we knew what we would see after Luffy pass by both Kaido and Big Mom, but they enhanced the emotional damage by made it looked a like a cheerful scene, where we're greeted by Kin'emon smiling with other Akazaya members and *THEN... INSTANTLY* turned it into a dark and gloomy scene

I just watched the episode. I don't even know what to say. I got so emotional, out of breath and suprised so many times, Ishitani's sensibility to not only elevade the manga events but improve on them makes me so happy. idk am just drowing in my tears as I type this. You can clearly see how much passion the staff put into this, it made me fall in love with One Piece and animation all over again. Am literaly shaking to my core, this episode was absolutly amazing, her talent is fucking insane. Am, just.... trying to process everything I saw omg. Am. speachless.

Hope for her to make her own movie that as impactful as Makoto Shinkai’s or Mamoru Hosoda’s.

Ishitani just perfectly captures the feeling that reading One Piece gives me, but opens it up to be enjoyed without much context while staying just as impactful. I love that person so damn much; wishing them ultimate success in their career.

The best thing about Ishitani is that even if the episode she gets isn't an insane action packed episode, the animation/direction/stroyboarding is so perfect it remains very interesting to watch and engaging. The scene in 1015 where Yamato hears Luffy's dream and says she won't laugh because it's what Roger also said, compare that to the manga counterpart and Ishitani immediately draws back on the scene with Roger Oden and Whitebeard while basically superimposing Luffy Sabo and Ace to show this in a much more visually engaging and yet more meaningful way than the source material does. That's not to fault Oda, but it's telling when everyone is waiting for roofpiece to start and yes it technically starts this episode but 85% of the episode isn't even on the roof, it's just a flashback of Yamato and Ace but yet here we are singing the episodes praises as the greatest episode of One Piece of all time. That's the power and vision of Ishitani.

I would love to see her directing a One Piece movie. My favorite movie from OP is Baron Omatsuri, the only one that is artisticaly and "scriptily" different and a truly masterpiece. If she was able to bring her own story in this universe (with NO restrictions from the studio), surely it would be one of the greatest anime movies of all time

GIVE THE LADY HER DINOSAURS

"If they ever reboot one piece, she's the first one I'd say I would love to be the one in charge" YOU CALLED IT, LET'S GET THE PETITION STARTED!!!!!

I swear this lady deserves everything, God bless her soul she made legendary episodes

She literally makes it look like a color book coming to life ✨💞

Megumi has proven that she is just another fan of One Piece. She is one of us , and I greatly appreciate the direction she has chosen for every episode she has delivered on.

Megumi Ishitani is my #1 inspiration in storyboarding, animation, and art as a whole

I really want her to be rewarded. Idk what goes in the studio with the animators and directors etc. i have no clue how things work but based upon the stereotypical situation of studios not rewarding their employees i wish nothing like this happen to her that breaks her will an creativeness.

8:48 i haven't caught up on OP in a long while but i knew EXACTLY what was going on even without any recent context surrounding the episode of 1015. truly one of the best episodes of one piece produced of all time

thanks so much for making a video about her! I have been admiring her work and can recognize her style in every episode she makes, I really hope she has the opportunity to direct her own series or movie, this girl of full of potential and only getting started, I am so so excited to see where she goes

great video, i'm glad i found out more about megumi through this, it's so great to see such talented people put their all in a piece of art and i'm glad she and the rest of her team gave such incredible work for one piece, 1015 was a really special episode

As a one piece fan I hope the anime will switch from weekly production to seasonal. Can you just imagine if we get the elbaf arc as a seasonal anime arc with ishitani as its director? I think if we get something like that one piece will truly peak in its adaptation

There’s nothing bigger and greater than one piece

This was a fantastic video. I've been obsessed with Megumi's animation since OP episode 982, and when I found out she was doing 1015, I knew off the bat that it was going to bang. The little additional information she adds in her animations is very beautiful, it definitely gives more life to the scene and makes it feel like we can connect w/ the character(s) on a personal level. I'm very excited to follow Ishitani's work from here and thank you for making a video about it

Megumi Ishitani truly is a "blessing" to any work that she works on

yo I love one piece but THIS VIDEO was so well edited and made bro! Currently binging your channel!

I don't remember why or when I subscribed to this channel, but I do know that this is up there with the best video essay type (you know what I mean) RU-vid videos that I've watched. I'm glad that I got recommended this video, will try to watch more of them.

Thank you for making this video about her, she really deserve some big credits for a big episodes in onepiece.. she is really talented

absolutely great video please please keep up the good work :)

Never heard of her till recently but hope she goes far and becomes one of the greats.

all hail Ishitani she is Godly 🙇‍♂️🙏🙏

thank you for this work

It’s not just that epiphany moment that Yamato had with Luffy infront of Roger that’s so great but the way she’s had Yamato relating all of that to Momosuke and the layers of the episode when she’s discovering the connection between Luffy and Roger when talking to Ace. How all that stacks together and the viewer doesn’t get lost.

Being in Toei probably it will allowed her to make in the future a movie on her own. Im sure she will be a star. Also, it really shows the love she has for the series. Because the bits that she introduced to the episode it was not out of place at all, was very in tone with the feelling of the source material. I dont think she could have made a episode like this in dragon ball for example.

Really like the vid, and I'll probably mention it elsewhere but I would say be careful what you wish for when it comes to Ishitani moving on to her own projects. That's not so much in regards to OP but getting to see THIS degree of standout talent directing episodes is rare, and they come with their own advantages that differ from helming an entire movie or TV series. I would LOVE this extent of quality for a whole movie or TV series helmed by her, and she's probably capable of that, but there's SO many other factors that determine the right conditions for that quality to be realized. She should do what she wants, who am I to dictate what she should/shouldn't do haha I'd just say where she's at with episodes on such a high profile series is a perfect place to be, and I wish we'd see more of it elsewhere. Like yeah it's great that Hosoda and Matsumoto moved on to grander pastures, but Hosoda in particular I honestly sorely miss as an episode director, I think a standout episode of a show like this recent 1015 can exceed projects that are entire packages, I might be a weirdo but truthfully I prefer several of Hosoda's episodes to any of his original movies lmao

It was beautiful and thank you for this

Love the video, and I know it's even more work, but it would be really cool to see the names of the shows on screen when showing other anime!

I think the recreation and connection to the parallels between Luffy and Roger was more impressive than the flashback sequence for Red Roc

wow her dream is coming true for sure because that's what I've felt watching the roof scene. I have absolutely no context about what's happening I just started the series, and I was overcome by emotion it was amazing.

I LOVE THIS VIDEO. Thank you for shining some light on Megumi Ishitani. Her love for Dinosaurs is the perfect fit for Wano arc and I cannot wait to see her animate (no spoilers here) the King and Queen fights. Both of whom are ancient Zoan type users.

very interesting video thank you!

This is the kind of shit that needs to be in women's history month. Women have been an amazing part of anime culture, and you need to look no further than Fullmetal Alchemist with its creator Hiromu Arakawa.

10:33 "if they ever reboot one piece, shes the first person who should be in charge" Well...maybe she'll join WIT for this?

You are truly underrated keep up the good work !

awesome video !

IMO the way she transitions/cuts between scenes (4:46) as well as the flow/following of motion (0:18) is the reason her directed episodes stand out, they're masterfully done. The animation quality just amplifies that 💙

so basically what im getting here is megumi ishitani is like the conductor of an orchestra in terms of animation?

great video

Finally! I’ve been trying to explain the difference between 1015 and most of the other one piece episodes to my roommate, but couldn’t describe it. This is a fantastic video, very well written and thank you for shining light on this amazing talent!

People who watch the episode: Damn this looks insane! People who watch the whole series: *AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

my wish is that when one piece eventually ends, and the anime following a couple years after, we get a reboot series just like toei did to dbz in dbz kai, make a one piece kai, with ishitani directing every episode, increase the pacing, leave out the fillers and make the animation godlike this will not only make early one piece better, but it also allows newcomers to get into the series easier instead of having to sit through hundreds of episodes of 20 year old animation to get to the end

Those extra panel were really awesome.. Loved it.. ❤️‍🔥 lezzz go.. 1016.. Waiting for Nikka..

This videos gonna keep popping off

Now she's gonna make gear 5 🗿

We need a Megumi Ishitani full length One Piece movie it would literally be the best anime movie of the decade if we had a full hour and 30 to 2 hours of her directing with a good story

excellent video.

Great Vídeo! She it's amazing and súper talented.

As someone who is honestly intimidated by the amount of episodes One Piece has, this animation is honestly beautiful.

Seeing Megumi tackle her own (OVA) series, whether it's adapted or original, would be interesting to see.

Incredible video and a brilliant writing. Do you do the writing yourself tho?

Loved ur intro lol.

Wano anime looks good but unfortunately I don't want to go though all the new world arcs with really weak production quality to get to them, so I have just been sticking to the manga.

One Piece 1015 broke me. It was like Demon Slayer 19 all over again. Edit: Lemme clarify that I am not comparing these two anime. I just wanted to share how two particular episodes from two different anime came outta nowhere and broke me. It's just something incredible about these episodes that's unlike any other episode from the same anime. It catches you off guard and you find yourself tearing up. I experienced the same in Deku vs Muscular episode and I don't even like MHA that much.

i don't even watch OnePiece and those scenes you just showed make me wanna cry they are ridiculously stunning

Thanks for shining light to her! I think she's really amazing and it shows in her work!

Toeichads just keep winning

First man

I LITERALLY GOT GOOSEBUMBS IN THE WAY EVERYTHING JUST WAS SO FLAWLESSLY SEAMLESS!! I especially loved the sudden transition from a happy ‘flashback’ to the horrifying present (ie, Yamato finding out ace’s life went *poof*, and Luffy finding kine’mon’s body with the rest of the samurais)

THE episode, I look forward to her episodes a lot, exceptional work and feel

you don't know what i have or haven't heard of.

When all is said and done, Megumi-san will undoubtedly be regarded as one of the greats in the industry (if she isn't already :)). Nothing short of an incredibly hard working talent, and force to be reckoned with. It's been a long journey, but I'm so glad to be alive in this moment to witness and experience this incredible story! Amazing video as well on your part Mr.Sage! I can't remember the last time I watched one of these types of videos with such well articulated intention, and coinciding direction. (Straw)Hats off to you! 👏

thank you for this video, i really had no idea who she was before. That women is amazing . Im just so happy she exists 🤧

It could be just me but ever since Wano Arc started I noticed a massive change in animation style. Sure in between the arc the quality was going up and down but not very frequently. It can be easily said that the entirety of Wano Arc had the best animation in One Piece. Those camera blurs and camera motion at the perfect times, the soundtrack and everything else was spot in, especially in Episode 1015.

i love ishitani and i love her work but we really have to give praise to everyone involved in this masterpiece. the interaction between ace and yamato feels so real and alive for me because the voice actors were just so vivid. especially for characters that we dont see much or havnt seen in a while, ace, whitebeard, roger, sabo. all of the voices were so alive and full of charcter and push the into a league of its own

I did not know that episode 1015 was created by such an amazing director but the moment the episode started I could already tell something was different. The lighting the music and the mood the whole episode gave me goosebumps and I had to rewatch it 3 times

This is epic! 🙏

Her and the animators used the 3 weeks wisely and created a actual fucking movie Even the pacing was sexy, I was 7mins in and thought the ep was already over Everything was perfect

this woman has put the best work my eyes have ever seen, I wish her the best life anyone could possibly dream off and I really hope no one ever stops praising her work, this talent does not deserve silence!

Made me want to rewatch the episode again

Even as the scenes is showing in this video while the guy is talking, I'm getting chills.

Man I can't for 'THAT' scene to get animeted i am soooo freaking hyped

This is next level!

1015 gave me goosebumps and this video too 💥

You were absolutely right! Best ep ever!🔥

i am wanting to catch up with the series because i *need* to watch this with full context. the clips i've seen look exquisite