Top 5 One Piece moments that broke the Internet.
One piece is among the longest-running anime series since its release in 1999, the anime has since earned a class by itself, staying on the most-sold manga and watched anime lists for the last two decades.
5. Luffy uses Gear 2
The Enies Lobby arc of One Piece was among the most exciting arcs of the series.
With Nikko Robin being set for execution, Luffy and his crew duke it out with the Cipher pol 9 (Cp9 for short) during which the straw hats declared war against the World Government.
Though the most anticipated fight of the Arc was to be between Luffy and Rob Lucci; Luffy's fight against Blueno goes down in the books as a moment that breaks the Internet and here is why, After Luffy faced off with Cp9 and admiral Aokiji he was painfully taught that his current level of strength wasn't enough to protect his friends.
Realizing this, being the prodigal genius he is, Luffy quickly learns a method that the Cp9 used to fight at high speeds.
On implementing the method to his devil fruit Luffy developed a skill that we now know as the Gear 2.
Before the fight began, fans were treated to a conversation between our protagonist and Blueno.
Luffy thanks blueno with a cheeky smile and yet with sincerity; this by itself left fans raving in anticipation.
On releasing the new found technique, he stood in a stance that fans hadn't seen before; his skin turned pink while giving off steam.
An epic moment indeed but it wasn't until he made the first move did the fans realise how powerful Gear 2 was to be.
Luffy was so fast that Blueno could no longer see his movements, he had drastically increased his speed as well as strength, so much so that the fight was completely one-sided.
The fight lasted mere minutes before its end, right after which fans were teased to the Gear 3 but it didn't receive the same love Gear 2 had gotten.
4. Usopp leaves the straw hats
Though this is no epic moment, it is one that broke the Internet with it's painful episodes of fellow crewman Usopp fighting Luffy.
Although most fans criticised that it wasn't a necessary addition, many would argue that it was a great addition that showed the strong bond the straw hats had to their ship 'The going merry'.
When 'The going Merry' was left in the hands of Franky (future shipwright of the straw hats) the straw hats received devastating news, their ship can no longer sail the sea.
Faced with the inevitable fact, Luffy showed maturity and decided to leave the ship behind.
Usopp who took care of the ship in the absence of a shipwright couldn't stand to let go of the going merry, so much so that he challenged Luffy to a battle.
The winner would take the ship as his own, Zoro and Sanji being level-headed pointed out that a battle as such would deem to challenge Luffy's title as a captain, and hence if Luffy wins the battle, Usopp would have to leave the crew.
When the battle ensued, Usopp, the once cowardly crewman, showed great promise against Luffy.
On realizing he had no chance of winning a battle against his captain, Usopp devised a strategy to duke it out against his old friend.
Using his knowledge of the way Luffy does battle, Usopp used his weakness to gain an upper hand on Luffy.
Inevitably Luffy won the battle, sealing Usopp's fate to leave the crew. Luffy gave the Merry to Usopp and decided to get the crew a new ship.
It wasn't until the crew had saved Robin from Enies Lobby and the complete loss of 'The Going Merry', would Usopp make up with Luffy and set sail on their new ship 'The Sunny'.
3. Sanji leaves the Crew
Yet again the straw hats were tormented with grief, when Sanji learnt that his past had finally caught up to him, Sanji would leave the straw hats in order to protect the crew he loved being part of.
After Sanji's family 'the Vismokes' had learned of Sanji's whereabouts, his father plotted to marry his banished son 'Sanji' to the daughter of the yonko 'Big mom' as a political advantage.
Sanji faced an irrefutable decision to leave the crew quietly or have Big Mom defeat Luffy and his crew and take Sanji by force.
Having thought of all the outcomes, Sanji had come to the conclusion that Luffy could not defeat one of the yonko in his current state and decided to leave the crew in order to give Luffy the time he needed to grow into the future 'Pirate King'.
And thus began the 'whole cake island arc' with Luffy and his crew infiltrating the island in order to bring back Sanji.
After finally finding Sanji, a battle soon ensued between Sanji and Luffy.
With Sanji knowing the rules of being in a crew; he sabotaged himself into fighting Luffy in order to leave the straw hats.
Upon Luffy's refusal to fight back against his fellow crewman, Sanji unleashed a powerful kick to Luffy's head causing him to lose consciousness.
On Sanji's departure, Luffy regains consciousness and yells out to Sanji saying, "Sanji, without you... I can't become the pirate king" After which he claimed that he would wait for Sanji in that very spot without food or water.
This scene alone broke fans hearts, and also broke the Internet.
Sanji would return to Luffy with a lunch box after learning that Big mom never intended to keep her promise. On finding Luffy at the brick of his death, he quoted "a king can't rule the sea on an empty stomach".
After Luffy had eaten Sanji's food, the crew banded together to fight Big
Mom and left back to sea.
2. Luffy is referred as the 5th emperor of the sea.
After Sanji had taken back his seat among the straw hats, Luffy and crew plotted to defeat Big Mom under the pretext that she has a weakness.
On banding together with Capone Bege and his crew, Bege revealed that big Mom weakened if and when a picture of 'Mother Caramel' her Foster mother's picture would break.
Although the plot was a good one, it would not come to fruition due to (one of Big mom's sons) Charlotte Katakuri's ability to see the immediate future.
On predicting the outcome Katakuri puts a stop to their plans, leaving the two groups with no choice but to fight another day; the straw hats and the Bege pirates attempt to flee the scene.
One of the Minks, Pedro, sailed with the Straw Hat Pirates to Whole Cake Island to save Sanji and to steal Big Mom's Poneglyphs.
Succeeding in doing both, Pedro ended up sacrificing himself to save the crew and pave the way for them to move forward.
On losing a fellow ally Luffy enters the mirror world (an ability of mira mira no mi fruit used by Brulee, the daughter of Big mom) where he faced off with Katakuri who excelled at using observational haki, so much so that he could see the immediate future.
Katakuri possessed the 'mochi mochi no mi' fruit which allowed him turn into mochi (Japanese rice cake, sticky glutinous rice made into paste to form any desired shape) having this flexibility Katakuri was similar to Luffy and his gomu gomu no mi fruit (rubber properties).
Having faced someone with similar but superior attributes Luffy unleashed a new form of his Gear 4 "snakeman" a counterpart to his much slower form "bounce man" and "tankman".
After defeating Katakuri and successfully leaving the whole cake island, Morgans the president of the economy newspaper wrote an article about the incidents in which he quoted "the 5th emperor of the sea emerges" with Luffy's wanted flier bounty showing 1.5 billion Belly.
This sudden raise in stakes set the Internet on fire with memes and reposts.
1. Death of Portgas D.Ace and White beard
Most fans of the franchise did not see this day coming and still wish it never hadn't.
While most deaths in the One piece franchise were of characters of the past, for the first time in the series Oda got away with taking two characters from the current time-line.
After the straw hats were separated by Kuma, a former warlord of the sea. Luffy follows Ace's burning vivre card to Marineford where Ace is held, with the help of Boa Hancock and Emporio Ivankov he attempts to set his brother free from his execution.
At the battle between the Whitebeard pirates and the marines, Luffy emerges from a falling ship in the sky and joins the battle alongside Whitebeard (Edward Newgate) the battle ensued with many epic moments but to no avail as the marine admirals stood firm and defended the Fort.
Only after Luffy unleashed a power that would be now known as conquerors haki would the allies have a chance of saving Ace.
After Luffy sets Ace free of his handcuffs (made from sea prism stone) Ace and Luffy attempt to flee the scene.
Akainu quickly caught up to the two, and on protecting Luffy; Ace was punched through the chest by Akainu.
Akainu's devil fruit magu magu no mi (magma) had destroyed Ace's chances of survival, having all his organs burnt from the inside, Ace thanks Luffy for everything and everyone else for loving him.
On losing Ace, a crewman who was considered as his own child, Newgate carelessly went into a furious battle and after being severely outnumbered Newgate died in battle still standing tall, not giving way to the end.
Black beard the man who betrayed the White beard pirates and the villain who captured and handed Ace over to the marines, stole Newgates devil fruit.
At this moment many fans teared and mellowed at their screens back home.
Luffy was struck with grief and went into a manic state which soon left him conscious, Garp Ace's Foster parent and former fleet admiral charged at Akainu but was soon stopped by Sengoku.
The white-beard pirates soon charged furiously into battle, many of them prioritizing Luffy's safety and helped Jimbe flee with Luffy using Trafalgar Law's submersible ship.
Soon after the execution the battle still ensued, among them, Koby a fellow friend of Luffy and a marine saw the worthless fighting and begged Akainu to stop the war, Akainu attempted to relinquish Koby from the marines but was stopped by Shanks of the redhead pirates.
Shanks with his presence alone stopped the war, a war that went on to be known as the 'Paramount war' and also the war that took away two great characters of the series.