One Piece Episode 1147 Review: Vegapunk’s Message Backs the Five Elders Into a Corner
After weeks of build-up, One Piece Episode 1147 trips at the start before exploding in bursts of brilliance. The set pieces thrill, but a sluggish open and sagging middle make for a stop-start ride.
Spoilers for One Piece episode 1147 ahead. After last week, I went into this one braced for fireworks. What we got was a mixed bag: some very cool beats, a slow start, and a whole lot of setup orbiting Vegapunk’s worldwide broadcast. I was into the scope and the cameos, less into the pacing. Big revelations are clearly loading in the chamber, but the episode itself doesn’t quite stick the landing.
The Five Elders slam the brakes, the Straw Hats get in the way
The episode does a strong job selling how dangerous Vegapunk’s transmission is to the status quo. The Five Elders respond fast and loud, throwing their weight around to kill the feed before too much truth leaks out. The funny part is the Straw Hats aren’t even trying to defend the broadcast directly; they’re just doing Straw Hat things — protecting their own, trying to move — which puts them right between the Elders and the Den-Den Mushi whether they want to be there or not.
- Sanji gets a clean, crowd-pleasing kick in on Nusjuro.
- Nami, Brook, Usopp, and Chopper close ranks around Nico Robin and fend off Saturn.
- Cutaways let familiar faces around the world react to Vegapunk’s message, which is a nice use of the broader cast.
- The vibe is: the Straw Hats vs. the Five Elders has quietly started, even if no one’s calling it that yet.
Those quick clashes are the action high points. The downside: momentum. We spend a lot of time revving the engine, easing into confrontations that feel like they should hit faster. You can feel the show saving ammo for a bigger moment down the line — good for the arc overall, a little rough for this specific half hour.
Vegapunk’s broadcast is massive… and kind of a pacing anchor
The content of the message is a bomb: Vegapunk says the world is sinking, and the implications could flip the entire power structure on its head. That’s thrilling on paper. In execution, the anime is deliberately slow here — heavy on foreshadowing and reaction shots, light on immediate consequences. It works for scale, not so much for speed.
If you’re expecting constant brawls or rapid plot dumps, temper expectations. The speech keeps interrupting the fights and stretching scenes, and it looks like the next chunks of this broadcast will keep that rhythm. We’ll get bursts of combat, but the message is the metronome, and it slows everything down.
Where this leaves Egghead
Frustrations with pacing aside, the board is set for real fallout across the Egghead Island arc. The broadcast threatens the Elders’ secrets on a global stage, the crew has collided with multiple Elders, and the show is clearly winding up for a big swing. I’m curious how much the Straw Hats can actually dent the Elders’ plan in the short term — and I’m bracing for more build-up before the payoff.
One Piece is streaming on Crunchyroll.