One Piece celebrates its 1,000th episode, new movie announced

One Piece has been on the air since Oct 20, 1999, but is still going strong today. On Nov 21, the anime aired its 1,000th episode, which fans had been anticipating for months. 

The episode served as a retrospective for each of the titular Straw Hat Pirates, showing snapshots of their best moments throughout the series. 

This is also one of the first times the character Jinbei has been shown on screen after officially becoming part of the Straw Hats. 

The episode also featured a revamped version of the show’s first opening theme, We Are! as an homage to One Piece’s beginnings. Apart from updating the graphics, it also included the newer members of the Straw Hats: Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook and Jinbei. 

As part of the celebration of the 1,000 episode milestone, a new movie was announced by creator Eiichiro Oda’s team. 

The title of the film is One Piece Film: Red. Its announcement poster teased that the character Shanks will play a large role in the movie, as it shows the word ‘Red’ having Shanks’ iconic three scars slashed across it. 

Oda also made a comment on Twitter about the film, mentioning how he was “tired of drawing legendary old men in movies” and revealing that this new film would focus on a female character instead. 

One Piece Film: Red will be directed by Code Geass director Goro Taniguchi, and is slated for release on Aug 6, 2022.