One Piece’s most divisive arc is streaming on Hulu — and it includes one of the anime’s best fights

Whole Cake Island has notorious lows and iconic highs

The final stretch of One Piece’s Whole Cake Island arc, alongside the short but lore-heavy Levely Arc, is finally heading to Hulu. These episodes cover the Straw Hats’ frantic escape from Totto Land as a feral Big Mom hunts them down, Luffy’s all-time-great showdown with Charlotte Katakuri, and Carrot finally unleashing her Sulong form. It’s a messy section of the story, one that absolutely contains some of the arc’s lowest points, but it also delivers several of One Piece’s most iconic moments.

Episode 845 drops right into what many fans consider Whole Cake Island at its most exhausting: Big Mom chasing the Straw Hats while screaming about her wedding cake on repeat. The destruction is the result of her hunger pangs, a condition that sends her into a violent, sweets-fueled frenzy where she bulldozes anything in her path. Her own territory, her allies, and even members of her crew — most of whom are her 85 children — are all in danger.

This rampage is a direct consequence of the failed assassination attempt carried out by Luffy and Bege, a fellow Worst Generation pirate working under Big Mom. She’d been obsessing over Sanji’s wedding cake, so when it’s destroyed during the attempt on her life, she completely loses it. On paper, the chase only lasts about a dozen episodes, but the constant repetition and the way it keeps cutting away from far more interesting plotlines have made it one of the most widely criticized stretches of the entire arc.

That said, Luffy’s uphill battle against Katakuri is easily one of the best fights in the entire series. It’s less about straight-up fighting and more focused on pure endurance, with Luffy forced to stall Big Mom’s top officer and the family’s second son for as long as humanly possible. The problem is obvious from the start: Katakuri completely outclasses him. His Haki is sharper and more refined, and his control over the Mochi-Mochi no Mi lets him create, manipulate, and reshape his body with terrifyingly awesome precision.

But the fight isn’t just physical. It’s also a battle of will and honor, one that slowly peels back Katakuri’s image, revealing him as a deeply principled and surprisingly respectful opponent despite his family. As the clash drags on, Luffy’s Haki evolves, and he even unveils a new transformation, yet this still isn’t enough to decisively surpass Katakuri. That’s what makes the fight so satisfying: if both men weren’t fighting two wars at once (one of endurance, the other of honor), Luffy would have lost. The mutual respect that builds between them is what ultimately tips the scales, with Katakuri choosing to fall on his own terms. Between his design, personality, and the sheer scale and dignity of the battle, Katakuri stands as one of One Piece’s most unforgettable villains.

The icing on the (wedding) cake? The amazing follow-up arc, Levely, pulls viewers back into the sacred gathering of the world’s kings and queens, and unleashes a wave of revelations that completely reshapes the series' direction.

Overall, Whole Cake Island is a phenomenal arc, and even though this stretch has earned a rough reputation (for some pretty valid reasons), it also contains one of the best fights in the entire series. If you haven’t watched it yet, you’re standing right on the edge of some truly incredible One Piece, and skipping it would be doing yourself a massive disservice.v