Posted in: Anime, Netflix, Preview, TV | Tagged: anime, netflix, one piece, preview, Toei Animation

One Piece: Toei Animation Reveals Logo for Anime's 25th Anniversary

With the 25th anniversary of the One Piece anime being celebrated in 2024, Toei Animation revealed the official logo honoring the occasion.

It's pretty safe to say that 2024 is going to be a pretty big year for One Piece fans – though it technically kicks off next month at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade when a Monkey D. Luffy balloon will be making its holiday debut. Next year, we can expect filming to get underway on the second season of Netflix, Tomorrow Studios & publisher Shueisha's live-action series take on author Eiichiro Oda's manga. In addition, 2024 also marks the 25th anniversary of the long-running & influential anime take – and Toei Animation is making it clear that it's going to be a big year for animated pirates. To kick things off, the animation studio released a look at the special logo for the event – flashing back to that moment when Shanks gives Liffy his hat.

Here's a look at the announcement video from Toei revealing the official anniversary logo – followed by the special moment:

On Monday, the streaming service shared a look at the official writers' room for the second season – a very good sign, indeed (with our fingers, toes & other body parts crossed in the hope that SAG-AFTRA & AMPTP can reach an agreement this week):

Thanks to an interview with Variety that was released earlier this month, co-showrunner Matt Owens offered more details on the efforts to bring Jamie Lee Curtis aboard as Dr. Kureha. The elderly Drum Island doctor (called a "witch" by some) is also the mentor and adoptive mother of Tony Tony Chopper – who is already confirmed to appear in the second season. In addition, Owens had some great news to share about how things were looking when it came to the writers' room and Season 2 scripts.

Owens Offers Season 2 Writing Update: Owens confirmed that the writers' room officially reopened this week, "getting scripts done so that we can get into design work, scheduling and pre-production, all of that kind of stuff." Though the writers' room was open briefly before the WGA strike, the writers "didn't get much further than starting to plan out what the season is going to be and got a couple of outlines done," so no scripts were written pre-writers' strike. In addition, Owens shares how they're looking over the first season to see what they could learn from it for Season 2 – and that Oda has had a major role in the early work on the second season. "We've got some outlines, and we have a really solid plan that we had communication with Oda about," Owens explained. "Part of my trip in April was to talk to him about some of the early ideas that we had, talking to him about things that I want to include to just make sure that our ideas are in line with what he thinks" (with Owens adding that the "communication has been open, and we've gotten some insight from him [Oda], we've gotten some things approved, and we had started our process").

Owens Updates Jamie Lee Curtis/Dr. Kureha: "We have opportunities to stunt cast some roles, some rules that are very important, and it came out that Jamie Lee Curtis is a 'One Piece' fan. As soon as she said that, we were like, okay, we have to try and get her on the show. What can we do? And Doctor Kureha, very luckily, is a character who is coming up in our story and is someone who is perfect for Jamie Lee Curtis," Owens revealed. "So we tried to start manifesting this dream of ours. After she won her Oscar, the writers' room sent her a figure of Doctor Kureha with a nice note that said, 'Congratulations on your statue, here's another one to put next to it. Hope to speak to you soon.'" Owens continued, "When she reposted that, it got a lot of fan interest, and I commented on it. We're trying to manifest it. Yes, as of right now, SAG is still striking, so there have not been real conversations. But as soon as there can be, I'm ready. I will take her out to dinner, we'll talk about it. We'll do all of it because, at this point, we're writing for her — we really, really want her to come and play with us in Season 2."

And here's a look back at the final official trailer – as well as at a Japanese dub of the official trailer with voices we're sure that you will recognize. That's because the original anime Straw Hat voice actors (Mayumi Tanaka, Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Kappei Yamaguchi, and Hiroaki Hirata) are reprising their roles for the streaming series (news that we first learned about back in July):

Previously, fans were treated to a behind-the-scenes featurette, giving us a chance to see how the classic made the jump from ink to live-action. The streamer has never-before-seen interviews with the cast and the creative team (done well before the SAG-AFTRA & WGA strikes) discussing bringing Oda's iconic work in a brand new & exciting way, what went into finding the perfect cast, the impressive stunt coordination that we'll see this season, and much more.

Here's a look at the official trailer for Netflix's One Piece, with the streaming series adaptation currently streaming – and following that, we have a look back at the previously-released teaser trailer and additional information on the streaming series adaptation:

Netflix's One Piece: What You Need to Know…

Netflix's One Piece stars Iñaki Godoy (Who Killed Sara?) as Monkey D. Luffy, Peter Gadiot (Yellowjackets) as Shanks, Mackenyu (Ruroni Kenshin: Final Chapter) as Rornoa Zoro, Emily Rudd (Fear Street) as Nami, Jacob Romero Gibson (All Rise) as Usopp, Taz Skylar (Boiling Point) as Sanji, Morgan Davies (The Evil Dead) as Koby, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino (The Sex Lives of College Girls) as Alvida, Aidan Scott (Action Point) as Helmeppo, Jeff Ward (Hacks) as Buggy, McKinley Belcher III (Ozark) as Arlong, Vincent Regan (Troy) as Garp, Langley Kirkwood as Captain Morgan, Celeste Loots as Kaya, Alexander Maniatis as Klahadore, Craig Fairbrass as Chef Zeff, Steven Ward as Mihawk, and Chioma Umeala as Nojiko. Now here's a look back at the behind-the-scenes featurette showcasing just how massive of production the live-action series take on One Piece has become (including some amazing looking examples of how the concept art is coming to life):

The streamer's 8-episode series highlights the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew as they explore a fantastical world of endless oceans and exotic islands in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as "One Piece" to become the next Pirate King. Steven Maeda (Lost, The X-Files) serves as writer, showrunner & executive producer, with Matt Owens (Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel's Luke Cage) also writing as well as producing. Oda serves as an executive producer alongside Tomorrow Studios' Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements (with Netflix and Tomorrow Studios co-producing).

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