Written by One Piece is already reputed as one of the longest-running shonen anime series in the history of the genre, and that only means one thing – a constant stacking of storylines and narratives by none other than Eiichiro Oda himself. While Oda created some of the masterfully executed action and adventure sequences, he also left a fair share of tragedy and emotionally devastating narratives.
Let’s revisit all those moments in the anime where most of us found ourselves shedding tears and sobbing over the overwhelmingly emotional narratives. Without further ado, here are the most emotionally devastating One Piece arcs in our opinion, ranked by impact and emotional toll.
TITLEOne PieceCREATORSEiichiro OdaRELEASE DATEOctober 20, 1999IMDb RATINGS (as of July 22, 2026)9/10WHERE TO WATCHCrunchyroll
7. Fish-Man Island Arc: Otohime’s Dying Wish To Forgive Her Killer
Queen Otohime from One Piece | Credits: Toei Animation
Queen Otohime spends years getting fish-men, merfolk, and humans to sign a petition just to prove peaceful coexistence is possible, fighting a tide of resentment left over from slavery and violence nobody in her family caused. Hody Jones, one of the One Piece villains fans love to hate, burns the petitions, shoots her in the chaos, then frames a human to make sure the hatred she spent her life fighting gets worse instead of better.
She dies begging her children not to hate whoever did it. A decade later, that same hatred nearly gets her whole kingdom slaughtered. It closes the list at 7th not because it hurts less, but because its cruelty is quieter: a good woman murdered for trying, used as ammunition by the same hate she died fighting.
6. Drum Island Arc: Dr. Hiriluk’s Cherry Blossom He Never Saw
Chopper and Hiriluk from One Piece | Credits: Toei Animation
Dr. Hiriluk is a joke to everyone on Drum Island, mocked as a “Quack”, but he spends thirty years trying to bloom cherry blossoms he believes will cure a sickness that doesn’t even exist anymore, purely because he thinks belief itself can heal a frozen, hopeless country.
He dies years before the story even starts, drinking his own experimental formula. The payoff lands anyway: villagers fire cannons loaded with pink powder into falling snow, turning it into the blossoms he never lived to see, and Chopper sails off carrying his dream. It’s ranked 6th as it’s quieter than the others: no war, no execution, just a man who never got to see if his faith in people paid off.
5. Whole Cake Island Arc: Pedro’s Final Words Before He Exploded
Pedro from One Piece | Credits: Toei Animation
The crew is trapped, candy-coated and cornered, with Perospero closing in and no way out. Pedro, the mink who trained Carrot and treated her like a little sister, straps himself with explosives, tells her she’ll understand someday why he’s doing this, and detonates himself to blow a hole in their escape route.
Carrot doesn’t process it in real time; she just keeps fighting until it hits her all at once. Sanji, still grieving his own family mess, has to be the one who tells her it’s okay to fall apart. It sits 5th because Carrot’s delayed grief, watching someone process a loss in real time, is a rug-pull the fandom didn’t see coming.
4. Arlong Park Arc: Nami’s Eight Years Of Silence To Buy Freedom
Nami from One Piece | Credits: Toei Animation
Bellemere, a woman with zero blood connection to Nami, takes a bullet rather than deny being her mother, in front of both her daughters. Nami spends the next decade pretending to love the fish-man pirate who did it, stealing treasure to buy her village back one impossible payment at a time, while the villagers she’s secretly saving throw rocks at her to keep the act believable.
She gets betrayed the moment she’s finally close. The scene where she stabs her own tattoo, sobbing, asking Luffy for help, still wrecks people. Ranked 4th because it’s tragedy stacked on cruelty – a murdered mother, a decade-long lie, and a betrayal that hits right when hope finally showed up.
3. Enies Lobby / Post-Enies Lobby Arc: Robin’s Silent Scream And The Ship’s Sacrifice
Going Merry’s Funeral in One Piece | Toei Animation
Nico Robin spent her whole life believing she was a burden nobody should love, so when CP9 corners her, she quietly chooses death rather than “cause trouble.” Then Luffy blows up a government flag from across a canyon just to yell that he doesn’t care what she’s done; he’s still coming.
Days later, the Going Merry, already dying from months of unfixed damage, drags herself through a war zone one last time to bring them home, then falls apart smiling. Two goodbyes back to back, and neither lets you breathe. It lands 3rd because it’s a double gut-punch – a person and a ship – both saying goodbye the same way: quietly, and on their own terms.
2. Wano Arc: The Hour Kozuki Oden Boiled Alive To Save His Men
Kozuki Oden from One Piece | Credits: Toei Animation
Kozuki Oden could’ve died fighting Kaido; instead, he spends his final hour submerged in boiling oil, holding nine grown men above his head on a wooden plank so they don’t have to touch the surface, laughing through it, telling stories to keep everyone calm. He survives the hour.
They shoot him anyway. He dies smiling, having spent five years letting an entire country think he was a coward, just so it would survive Orochi’s rule. Wano’s whole present-day war exists because of this one afternoon. It sits at the 2nd spot because, unlike most tragic backstories, Oden’s death actively haunts every single fight happening in the present, decades later.
1. Marineford Arc: Where Luffy Lost His Brother and Couldn’t Save Him
Luffy at Ace’s death in One Piece | Credits: Toei Animation
Luffy breaks out of Impel Down, drags himself through a war zone, finally reaches Ace, and Akainu still gets him, punching straight through Portgas D. Ace‘s chest as he shields Luffy from the blast. Whitebeard falls minutes later, standing to the very end, and the strongest man alive still couldn’t stop a father figure and a brother from dying in the same afternoon.
Luffy doesn’t even cry right away. He only screams at the top of his lungs until he passes out. That silence-then-scream is the moment when the One Piece arcs stopped being a fun pirate story for a lot of people. Ranks first because it’s the single event the entire series pivots on – the point where the found-family stakes became permanent and irreversible.
RANKINGARCANIME EPISODESMANGA CHAPTERS1Marineford Arc459-489550-5802Wano Arc890-894, 897-906, 908-1028, 1031-1085909-10573Enies Lobby / Post-Enies Lobby Arc227-263322-3744Arlong Park Arc31-4469-955Whole Cake Island Arc783-877825-9026Drum Island Arc78-91130-1547Fish-Man Island Arc523-541, 543-574603-653
What are your thoughts on our list of the most tragic and emotionally devastating arcs from the One Piece anime series? We’d love to know your top picks and opinions in the comments below.
The One Piece anime series is currently available to watch on Crunchyroll.
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