One Piece: Episode of Merry - The Tale of One More Friend

ワンピースエピソード・オブ・メリー～もうひとりの仲間の物語～ (One Piece: Episode of Merry - Mou Hitori no Nakama no Monogatari)

10.0(1)

OtakuDen

8.2(34,800)

MAL Score

Ranked #468

Popularity #2757

Action
Adventure
Fantasy

Episodes: 1
Duration: 1 hr 46 min
Aired: Aug 24, 2013
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

After Brook wonders where the name “Mini Merry” came from, Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper look back on the Straw Hat Pirates’ time with their cherished ship and companion, the Going Merry. Their memories revisit the bond the crew formed with Merry and the trials that tested that connection.

Tensions peak when Usopp breaks away from the crew after a dispute over the Going Merry, and Nico Robin disappears into the hands of the World Government’s elite assassin unit, CP9. Determined to reunite everyone, Monkey D. Luffy and the remaining Straw Hats set out after Robin to bring her back.

Otaku Consensus

Episode of Merry succeeds as a concentrated emotional edition of One Piece’s Water 7/Enies Lobby material, with Toei’s brand-new animation, Kouhei Tanaka and Shirou Hamaguchi’s familiar musical language, and the Going Merry’s unusually romanticized role giving the special real commemorative weight. Its strongest selling point is adaptation focus: it treats a ship as a crew member and makes that idea land for longtime fans. The recurring complaint is compression, with viewers noting that the abridged pacing can feel rushed and that some action, especially around the final fight material, plays less naturally than the original TV arc.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Episode of Merry if you want the emotional peak of One Piece’s ship-as-family mythology without committing to the full Water 7 and Enies Lobby stretch in TV-episode form. It is best for viewers who already know the Straw Hats and want a polished memorial piece rather than a clean entry point. The appeal sits between a shounen recap special and a character elegy: it has the forward motion of classic action-adventure fantasy, but its real hook is how seriously it treats memory, loyalty, and a vessel’s place in a pirate crew. If the crew bonds in Hunter x Hunter’s Chimera Ant aftermath or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’s found-family conflicts are what stay with you more than power scaling, this special scratches that same sentimental shounen itch.

Key Characters

G
Going Merry
The special’s title calls Merry “one more friend,” reflecting how One Piece fans often discuss the ship less as equipment and more as an emotionally recognized crewmate.
U
Usopp
Usopp is the emotional pressure point of the special, turning what could have been a simple recap into a study of attachment, pride, and the cost of loving something the rest of the world sees as replaceable.
T
Tony Tony Chopper
Chopper functions as one half of the memory-frame with Usopp, giving the special a softer crew-level perspective rather than treating the events as pure battle history.
B
Brook
Brook’s curiosity about the Mini Merry gives the special its retrospective doorway, making him a late-crew audience surrogate for one of the Straw Hats’ defining earlier bonds.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Toei Animation produced the special as a single finished TV episode that aired on August 24, 2013, positioning it as a curated anniversary-style retelling rather than another weekly installment.
2
The structure is built around Brook asking about the Mini Merry, with Usopp and Tony Tony Chopper turning the story into a crew memory piece instead of a neutral narrator-led recap.
3
The special recreates the Going Merry material with brand-new animation, a production choice highlighted by One Piece reference sources and central to why fans treat it as more than a clip compilation.
4
Its subject matter is unusually specific even by One Piece standards: AniList tags it heavily as Shounen, Ships, Pirates, and Tragedy, while MAL lists no formal theme category, showing how the special’s identity is driven more by fan-recognized motifs than database taxonomy.
5
Its reputation is strong but niche: MAL lists it at 8.19 from about 34,800 votes with a rank around #468, while AniList records a 78/100 score and 165 favourites, suggesting high approval among viewers who seek out One Piece specials.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Episode of Merry is identified in web listings as One Piece TV Special 7, not as a theatrical film or standard arc episode.
Fun fact 2: Eiichirou Oda is credited as the original creator, while Eisaku Inoue carries an unusually broad visual role across character design, art direction, and chief animation direction.
Fun fact 3: The music credits pair Kouhei Tanaka with Shirou Hamaguchi, the same names associated with much of One Piece’s orchestral identity, while moumoon performed the theme song.
Fun fact 4: Animation direction is credited to both Kazuya Hisada and Masayuki Takagi, giving the special dedicated animation supervision beyond its chief animation director credit.
Fun fact 5: Fan discussion often splits between affection for the Water 7/Enies Lobby emotional core and frustration that the special’s compressed version cannot reproduce the full arc’s buildup, a criticism especially common around the later action material.