One Piece To Get 20th Anniversary Anime Special

This year, One Piece is celebrating a very important milestone. The classic shonen title turns 20-years-old next month, and the folks behind One Piece are ready to honor Luffy's crew in a big way. Later this summer, the anime will get an anniversary special, and the extended episode will make all of the Straw Hat Crew's fans cry.

The latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump comfirmed One Piece will be getting a two-hour anime special on August 26. The special is titled "One Piece Episode of East Blue: Luffy and His 4 Crewmates' Big Adventure." The anniversary episode will feature an entirely new story and walk back through Luffy's crew as each lead member joined the Thousand Sunny.

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According to Anime News Network, the One Piece special's "completely new work" will feature reanimated scenes from throughout the anime. Several key visuals for the anniversary were released to promote the special, and the stills feature familiar faces like Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji.

The One Piece anniversary special will be directed by Takashi Otsuka. Tomohiro Nakayama will write the episode's script, and Masayuki Sato will design its revamped characters.

Aside from its new story, the One Piece special will also give fans a look back into the show's history. The special is said to feature an anime version of one original manga cover. There's no word on which cover will get the anime makeover but more details will be released soon. The upcoming episode will also send fans down nostalgia lane by releasing a commemorative version of One Piece's original opening theme song "We Are!"

Viz Media's synopsis for One Piece can be read below:

As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of the Pirates. But his life changed when he accidentally gained the power to stretch like rubber—at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, Luffy sets off in search of the One Piece, said to be the greatest treasure in the world…

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Eiichiro Oda began his manga career in 1992 at the age of 17, when his one-shot cowboy manga Wanted! won second place in the coveted Tezuka manga awards. Oda went on to work as an assistant to some of the biggest manga artists in the industry, including Nobuhiro Watsuki, before winning the Hop Step Award for new artists. His pirate adventure One Piece, which debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1997, quickly became one of the most popular manga in Japan.