Niko A – Prompt 2

I’ve been watching One Piece as of late, and one episode that stood out to me based on its animation style was special, the One Piece: Fan Letter (2024) episode. It was an episode directed by Megumi Ishitani, an Animation Director under Toei Animation. Her art style simplifies the linework, focusing on the fluidity of the animation and the volume of the drawings despite its simplistic art style, creating complexity through its movement.

While there are no awards for the standalone episodes that she has directed, in my opinion, the episode heavily impacted me as the loose adaptation of Tomohito Ohsaki’s writing of the side story emphasized an outsider view into this fantasy world emotionally, even though being inside of it, as it focuses characters that would normally be in the background of the story. It creates a moment of resonance as being this grounded, almost puts you in this world. Complemented by Ishitani’s directing and the animation of her team, it became a story that held a lot more emotional weight through the fluidity and composition.