'One Piece' Preview Pays Homage To 'Power Rangers'

One Piece is one of the most popular anime and manga series in Japan, and a large part of this is due to series creator Eiichiro Oda's playfulness when it comes to his world and characters.

With many character designs referencing different aspects of pop culture, the anime series is finally putting to screen something fans have wanted to see for a while: the Vinsmoke Family's raid suit transformation. Why? Because it's an overt reference to Power Rangers and Super Sentai.

The preview for Episode 839 of the series is teasing the full transformation of the Vinsmoke Family into their powerful suits. The Vinsmoke Family commands the military force Germa 66, and these suits are the peak of their technology. Along with giving them enhanced strength and abilities, these suits are color coded and numbered according to each member of the family.

This parallels a major design feature in many Super Sentai teams, which also feature five members fighting in fantastically colored suits. Some series even number the members of their team much like the Vinsmoke Family does in One Piece. The transformation sequence in the anime seems to take these influences one step further by cutting to a major sequence, much like a Power Rangers episode, that cuts away from the action to have the heroes morph into their suits after the use of a "henshin device."

These moments further cement why One Piece still captures fans' hearts after such a long run, and it's good to know the anime will be providing much more Power Rangers goodness in the future as the Vinsmoke Family takes action.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Eiichiro Oda also revealed some upcoming news for One Piece's future at Jump Festa 2018. Not only will the manga see Wano sooner rather than later, the next villain of the series is "one of the legends which lurks in the One Piece world. The greatest enemy ever for Straw Hats will hinder their way...Can you believe Marineford Summit War will look 'cute' compared to that?

The new live-action One Piece series also got some new information as it was revealed that the series will portray the Straw Hats' adventures from the very beginning, and will take place in the East Blue. One Piece's anime series is currently in the middle of the "Whole Cake Island" arc and is now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.