The One Piece anime recently released its 1015th episode, titled "Straw Hat Luffy - The Man Who Will Become the Pirate King!" and every fan of the series has, since then, been in awe of how good the episode actually was. Having been hyped up to be a spectacle by the staff working on it for weeks, the One Piece team was more than excited about the episode and made sure fans knew what was coming their way was a product of love, care, and effort towards the series and, above all, incredible hard work.
Despite having great expectations, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that One Piece Episode 1015 went above and beyond and delivered what could even be the greatest animated episode of all time and all the credit for that goes to one person – Megumi Ishitani, the director behind the episode.
Who Is Megumi Ishitani?
Megumi Ishitani is an incredibly talented anime director and storyboarder whose name is very well known among One Piece fans. Surprisingly, she only sprung to the forefront of the industry recently. Megumi Ishitani's skill and talent have always been mind-blowing and she graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts' GEIDAI program, which is known to admit only a dozen or so people every year. That alone makes Ishitani worthy of attention and saying that she has, since then, established herself as one of the greatest directors of all time would be an understatement. Ishitani's first year of work there included a short called Oh Dear, which is nothing short of sublime and showcases her immense skill at animation, framing, and directing very well.
Her graduation project, called Scutes on my mind, is, once again, spectacularly animated and is worth looking at. To Ishitani, working on something that immediately showcases why animation is so special is important. She loves working on things that mesmerize not only people who are fans of the material but also those who are not quite fond of the media and, above all, convey the love for the media and leave a lasting impression.
Following her graduation in 2015, Ishitani went on to join Toei Animation, where her immense talent was immediately taken note of, as is expected of the studio that is especially known for nurturing young talent extremely well. With someone of Ishitani's caliber, it wasn't long before she started handling big projects and she directed the ending 5 of Dragon Ball Super in 2015, and then ending 7 in 2017. Ishitani also served as the assistant episode director on the show, especially in the Tournament of Power arc, however, her true talent only shone when she made her directorial debut with Episode 131 of the series.
At Toei Animation, Ishitani also worked on a short which, once again, goes to show how immense her talent is. Being allowed to direct something akin to your own project for an up-and-coming director isn't all that common, yet, Ishitani ended up working on a short called Jurassic!, which highlights her love for Dinosaurs in a profound manner.
Eventually, Ishitani moved over to One Piece and has, since then, become extremely well-known among the fans of the show. Her directorial debut on the show came with One Piece Episode 957, and she followed it up with Episode 982, before finally directing the mind-blowing episode 1015 recently, which blew the fans away and went down in history as one of the best animated and directed episodes of all time.
Why Megumi Ishitani's Direction Is Special
One Piece Episode 1015 was quite special and, to many, the greatest piece of animated media that they've ever experienced. Surprisingly, this didn't even come as a shock to the fans because of how high Megumi Ishitani set the bar with the previous two episodes – 957 and 982. Furthermore, legendary animators, such as BahiJD, among others who also worked on the episode as a part of the talented staff under Megumi Ishitani, spoke about how great the episode they worked on was. According to Bahi JD, the moment he saw the storyboard for Episode 1015, he realized he was going to be a part of something historic as even he had rarely come across something like that throughout his entire life.
After becoming a core part of One Piece's staff, Ishitani has gone on to surpass her own work on the series every single time, with episode 1015 being the absolute peak of her work. Ishitani's talent speaks for itself as she somehow managed to direct two theatrical episodes in a year and, what's more shocking, in a weekly-running anime.
Now, One Piece's Wano Country arc is a production spectacle in itself despite being a weekly anime. Ishitani certainly isn't the only great anime director on the show and fans still get to see people such as Aya Komaki, Yasunori Koyama, Tatsuya Nagamine, and Kohei Kureta, among others, work on the episode on a regular basis, however, no episodes come close to delivering a cinematic experience to the ones directed and storyboarded by Megumi Ishitani.
When it comes to direction and storyboarding, Ishitani is, simply put, phenomenal. Her approach to the boards is incredibly direct and ensures that every single scene gets the gravitas that it deserves. The framing of the shots throughout the episode is terrific and the attention to detail is simply spectacular. In an Ishitani episode, nothing seems to stay still and everything keeps moving, meaning the episodes are incredibly dynamic. To complement all that, Ishitani's episodes have magnificent lighting, which only adds another layer of depth to things.
As the director, Ishitani has control over everything from the choice of music to be used, to deciding how to pace the episode perfectly, and how and when to transition from one scene to another. One of her key strengths as a director is that she has a terrific grasp of how to structure an episode and how to use seamless transitions between scenes that simply make everything flow all the better.
As a storyboard artist, Ishitani illustrates what specific scenes should look like and how they are supposed to appear to fans when animated. She has an eye for terrific storyboarding, which is mostly what sets apart her episodes from the rest and is a massive reason why her episodes appear so cinematic and theatrical. Everything from the pacing, to the composition of a scene, is decided by her terrific storyboarding skill, which is what the animators then use to work on specific scenes to bring her vision to life. All this meticulous work takes quite a lot of time and effort (not the budget, as anime fans are often wrongly led to believe), which is why a Megumi Ishitani episode in One Piece only happens twice a year at most.
Her storyboards and episodes take months upon months to complete, but when they do, they deliver. Compared to regular storyboards, it is quite easy to see why Ishitani's boards stand out so much and the detail that she puts in her shots is simply jaw-dropping.
Megumi Ishitani is currently working on One Piece, however, it won't be a surprise if she eventually outgrows the current projects and will want to work on something much bigger, such as her own movie or series (perhaps something related to dinosaurs since she seems to adore them), and realize her dreams and ambitions on independent animation projects that leave her mark on the anime industry as a whole. Megumi Ishitani is a special director, and she will eventually go down as one of the greatest to ever exist, leaving quite a stamp on the media as a whole.