One Piece Releases New Look at Most Devastating Episode Ever

One Piece’s anime is back in full swing, almost as if the hiatus never happened, blessing fans with excellent episodes week after week. Ever since the second half of the Egghead Arc commenced all that fans have been looking forward to is the big flashback of the arc centered around Bartholomew Kuma and Bonney. The highly anticipated flashback has only been teased in bits and pieces so far in One Piece’s anime, only adding to the intrigue. Episode 1129 is finally expected to kick off Kuma’s flashback, and One Piece just gave fans a whole new look at the titular father-daughter duo ahead of its release this weekend.

A post on X by one of One Piece’s official handles, @Eiichiro_Staff, has shared a new poster for Episode 1129 ahead of its release this Sunday, May 15th, hyping fans for the beginning of Kuma’s flashback in the upcoming episode. The poignant poster features Kuma holding Bonney as an infant inside what appears to be a church. The poster is captioned, “I saw a rainbow beyond the heavy rain,” which makes up the text on the top right of the image while the text on the bottom left translates to “Episode Kuma: The Little Jewels Left Behind,” which is likely meant to be the title of the art piece. The artist of the poster has not been credited, so it is unclear whether this piece was drawn by Oda or one of One Piece’s many talented animators.

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One Piece Hypes Kuma’s Flashback in New Promo

Despite having to wait a week longer due to the filler special recap episode being released last week, fans are still on the edge of their seats for Kuma’s full flashback. There’s no doubt this flashback will be one of the biggest highlights of Part 2 of the Egghead Arc. The production staff at Toei is sure to have put in a lot of effort into animating this flashback, as evidenced by the opening and ending themes, the glimpses in the anime so far, and now the stunning new poster.

The poster, which is almost in the style of a religious oil painting, is quite laden with symbolism both in the art itself as well as the title and caption. Kuma’s face is completely obscured while a single ray of sunshine illuminates young Bonney’s face, likely symbolizing how she is the rainbow in question that Kuma found after the heavy rains of suffering and misfortune that his life had been until then. The poster likely depicts the moment Kuma first met young Bonney and held her after her mother’s death, and it is easy to imagine that Kuma’s obscured face is likely one full of tears.

Meanwhile, the title of the piece, “The Little Jewels Left Behind,” is likely a reference to how Bonney was the only thing left behind by her mother and may even be alluding to Kuma and Bonney’s forced separation later on in the flashback. But of course, to get the full story and context, fans will have to wait till One Piece’s new episode releases this weekend.

Source: @Eiichiro_Staff on X.