Recently, we had the chance to sit down with Toei Animation Employee Henry Thurlow, who directed Episode 1066 of One Piece. Henry is the first foreigner to ever direct an episode for Toei Animation across their sixty years of animation. This is a monumental achievement decades in the making for both Toei, One Piece, and the animation industry overall. Over the past year, he contributed to some of the best sequences of the raid, such as the hallway scene from 995 and Big Mom’s attack in 1033.
One Piece, written by Eiichiro Oda, turns 26 years old this year. Toei Animation has been producing weekly episodes of the series since October 1999, when it first aired on Fuji TV. The anime is currently in the ‘Wano Country’ arc, and things are getting close to wrapping up. Episode 1066 covered the climax of Kid & Law vs. Big Mom, which is one of the last major fights in the arc. In our time with Henry, we discussed the episode overall, what it means to him, and how he got here.
Before we get into the interview, a special thank you to Henry for joining us to chat. His Twitter account can be found here, and his website is here. Enjoy!
To kick things off, could you tell us a little bit about your background for those unfamiliar with your work?
Thurlow: I’m from America, or New York if you want to get specific. I studied animation there. I never really planned on moving to Japan; I always assumed I would be an animator in America, but after getting into the industry, I realized they don’t really make what I like there. I thought with the popularity of anime continuing to grow even back when I was in college would result in America producing material like that, but we just never ended up doing it. It didn’t look like we were ever going to do it.
So, I figured I have to go to the country that makes the stuff I like if I ever want to get a chance to work on that. I decided to move to Japan, which resulted in me having to start my career over again because I had to reprove myself from the very bottom. But I ended up cracking into the industry and made my way up from the bottom In-Between Animator to Secondary Key Animator to Key Animator. This was through various places, freelancing, which resulted in a large variety of stuff.
Now, I’m working on the One Piece team at Toei, and finally, after all this time, I was able to direct an episode.
We’re quickly approaching your two-year anniversary at Toei. When you started working with the One Piece team full-time, did you ever think you’d be the first foreigner to direct an episode?
Thurlow: You always hope; at least, that’s how I approach it. I always have bigger, grander goals in front of me, and so I always hoped and worked toward them. Whether or not I was first or if someone would come before me, I didn’t know, but would I get to the point where I would make an episode, and it’d be a great episode? You have to believe that your dreams will come true, so I kind of did think, ‘I can do this’. But that did not make it any easier. You just had to stay positive when things weren’t going great. I just had to remind myself I could do it, and eventually, I did!
What was it like getting the news that you would be the Director of Episode 1066?
Thurlow: I knew for a while that I was going to be directing that episode, so I was focusing on it for quite some time. I knew that the debut was really important, like if my first episode, especially such an important episode, was a disappointment or even average, it wouldn’t be good enough. Even in normal circumstances, an average episode debut would be kind of good enough in a way since you accomplished it and would have time to get better.
But I knew with such an important episode that I would have to deliver something amazing right out of the gate, so there was a lot of pressure on me, but I welcomed that pressure. It helped me make the best thing that I could.
Seeing the episode air this past weekend, how satisfying was it to see it air and all the reactions online?
Thurlow: Seeing it air was great, but I was still nervous. I didn’t know what the overall reaction would be. I felt like I accomplished most of what I wanted to accomplish with the episode, so I wasn’t watching the episode thinking, ‘Oh no, I failed on so many things I wanted to do’. I was watching it thinking ‘Yes!’ as most of the things I wanted to do I was viewing on television right now.
After that, I was nervous as I wasn’t sure how people would react. Sometimes, you can make something you’re super positive it’s great and people are going to love it, then you look online, and everyone is kind of ignoring it or saying ‘fairly average’, or whatever, y’know? So, very easily, that could have been the case I was feeling, so up until I saw the good reactions, I wasn’t relaxed at all. But once I saw people say, ‘Holy crap, this is actually really good,’ and ‘I love how this final battle looks’, then I finally relaxed and felt like I really did create an episode that was worthy of one of the final battles.
In the episode, you did some key animation for a scene with Law teleporting around Big Mom. What was your thought process behind that scene, and how did you accomplish it?
Thurlow: Back when I did some storyboard work on Episode 1017, I was told by the Director, “Consider that Law, Kid, and Luffy. Each of these characters is someone’s favorite character, and then give that person everything they ever wanted. Consider what the fans of any given character you’re working with would really want to see, and then make all their dreams come true.” I’m in a very unique position because I am the person making it, and no one else in the world, at this point, is doing that. I’m the one and only person who can deliver this to the fans. So, I should give them the greatest experience I can, right? And then I attempt to, always.
With this episode, I did the same thing. I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to make some anime original action sequences, so what are the characters going to do? How are they going to fight?’ It was very easy for Law, to be honest. I’m a fan of all three of these characters, but for Law, I’ve been a fan of him for a long time. I felt like, as a fan, what would to me be the coolest Law sequence? As a fan, what would make me jump up and down and scream with joy? For me, it would be if I saw him using his sword more. I feel like he hasn’t used his sword as much as he could’ve throughout the series. I feel like, as cool as his moves are, we could show his moves from a different perspective and really wow the audience.
So, I kept thinking about what would be the coolest thing, even as a fan, I could see Law doing, and then these cool action sequences started coming to me. I started storyboarding it out, and that is what I ended up with.
Who is your favorite character to animate, and who do you want to animate the most next?
Thurlow: That’s really hard. I’m good at monster stuff, to be honest. There’s a process in making any animation at any studio, especially in Japan. When you finish layouts and secondary key animation, it goes through rounds of the Animation Directors altering certain things. That’s just part of the process, not negative in any way. If I draw Luffy, the animation might be retained to the very end, but the way the face looks might change drastically. An Animation Director might alter Luffy’s eyes or mouth. That’s fine, but obviously, as an animator, you like it if your stuff goes uncorrected, if possible. So the stuff for me personally that goes uncorrected the most are characters like Dragon Kaido or Monomosuke, which ends up being just my own drawing. That stuff goes really uncorrected, meaning it’s just my Monomosuke drawing you’re looking at. So, I kind of like drawing monsters and stuff, but I know that’s not a main character in any way. Those are fun for me.
In terms of who I would want to draw, I’m kind of okay with anything. For me, I really like all the characters in One Piece. It’s a rare series where every character, even the side characters, are really fun. Take Kinemon running around the hallway during the black-and-white sequence I did [Episode 995]. Kinemon and the Akazaya Samurai are not Strawhat Pirate-level main characters, but I still found it really fun. But they are great characters in themselves with great backstories, so it was still fun in that way.
I don’t know if there is anyone I want to draw more than anyone else, to be honest. I just hope I can find good scenes in the future that fit my style, so I can be helpful to the production and the fans as well. If I find a scene where I can deliver something great and I am the appropriate person for that scene, then I think that’s the best-case scenario.
Finally, what games are you playing right now, and what’s your favorite game and anime of 2023 so far?
Thurlow: Because of this episode, I haven’t watched or played anything this year. Other than One Piece, I did watch Vinland Saga. I like Seinen series a lot. That’s the only anime I’ve watched all year, so it’s going to be my best by default! But it was really good, and I did enjoy it.
Finally, now that I’m done with the episode, I can get back into games a little bit, so I plan on playing Zelda and am playing Final Fantasy XVI right now. I am enjoying it so far.
