Monkey D. Luffy is already eyeing up his replacement for The Thousand Sunny ship, as an image of this year’s annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has surfaced showing Luffy chasing the Disney Cruise float. The folks at Toei Animation teased their One Piece float yesterday in preparation for the Thanksgiving parade. The float depicts Luffy with his classic early look, sporting the classic red shirt and blue shorts with his signature straw hat. The tease yesterday showed Luffy during the inflation process, but fans have finally seen the float in action… and it’s ominous.
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Held in the air by dozens of parade walkers, Toei Animation’s One Piece float shows Luffy about to fire off a Gum-Gum Pistol. But, an image is going viral online as the friendly Luffy looks like he’s targeting his Gum-Gum Pistol towards the Disney Cruise Ship float. Hilariously, the photo looks like Luffy is trying to claim the cruise ship as the next vessel in his fleet. How well would the Disney Cruise Ship hold up on the Grand Line?
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One Piece’s Luffy Returns to NYC Behind Disney Cruise Line Parade Float
Over One Piece‘s 1122 episodes, Luffy and the Straw Hat crew have had to fight some tough opponents, like Kaido, Blackbeard, and Bartholemew Kuma, to name a few. But the crew of the Disney Cruise Ship could be the toughest foes yet. To claim the ship as his own, Luffy will need to defeat Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen single-handedly and Donald and Daisy Duck before moving on to their pirate captains, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.
This is the second year running that Luffy has been featured as part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Last year’s parade showcased a very similar float, with Luffy sporting his iconic first look again, rather than the current Gear Fifth form. Check out the image below:
Anime Is Taking Over the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
As anime’s popularity in the US grows, the medium has found its way into our annual celebrations as well. Fans wear anime sweaters during the winter holiday, dress up as their favorite characters on Halloween. But now they can also watch giant balloon iterations of popular anime characters float ominously above them at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
This year saw three floats depicting characters from immensely popular anime. As well as the aforementioned float of Luffy, Goku saluted viewers as he floated through New York. The float depicted Goku in his signature orange gi. Although, unlike previous floats which showed off his Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan fluorescent blue hair, this year’s showed Goku with his natural black hair. The float looked amazing, and left fans were expectedly looking at the subsequent floats thinking, “Could they beat Goku?”
The anime procession was rounded out by most people’s introduction to anime: Pokรฉmon. The float featured (arguably) the two most recognizable Pokรฉmon ever created, Pikachu and Eevee. The creatures rode atop a Pokรฉball snow sled, with Pikachu wearing a winter scarf and Eevee wearing a red Santa hat.
For more anime updates from this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, follow Team Anime on ComicBook.com.