One Piece Episode 1049, titled “Luffy Soars! Revenge Against the King of the Beasts,” aired on January 29, 2022.
This episode was very similar to the previous one, as it primarily focused on the Yamato vs Kaido battle.
The first half of the episode continues from the epic final battle sequence of Episode 1048. We see the aftermath of the clash between Yamato and Kaido’s Thunder Bagua. Not only was Yamato able to injure Kaido in the head, but she also defended herself from his attack using Mirror Mountain.
Yamato flashback
Yamato attacks Kaido with her Hallowed Glacial Slash and smashes his face into the ground. But it does nothing to Kaido but makes him angrier.
After Kaido yells at Yamato, saying she is all alone and has no friends, we get another Yamato flashback.
As little Yamato was running around Onigashima hiding from the Beast Pirates in the cold, there was one Best Pirates member who helped her with food and a blanket. But he was caught by his crew and mercilessly executed for this.
We also get confirmation that the three Daimyo of Wano that were locked in the same cave as her are all dead.
Momonosuke flies
I thought Momonosuke would take a lot of time to overcome his fear of heights and fly, but I guess I was half wrong. Since Luffy and Momo don’t have much time, Luffy forces Momo to try to fly but to no avail. So Momo decides to keep his eyes closed the entire time he is in the air, and voila, he can fly.
Luffy tries to give Momonosuke directions as his eyes are closed, but they end up crashing into the castle. They both end up crashing through every floor of the castle before moving up toward the roof where Kaido is.
As Momonosuke finally reaches the rooftop and Luffy spots Kaido, the animation quality goes bonkers for the final sequence. Just like the final sequence of the last episode, Toei gave this sequence movie-level animation.
Yamato charges toward Kaido using Divine Swiftness, and Luffy transforms into his G4 Snakeman form. They both hit Kaido using White Serpent and Jet Culverin and sent him flying.
Once again, I can’t wait to see how Studio Toei Animation handles the final fight of Wano since the animation quality of these clashes is so incredible.
You can watch the latest One Piece episodes every week on Crunchyroll.