The long-running One Piece anime series has entered its “Egg Head Arc,” which features a new opening song in the form of Hiroshi Kitadani‘s “Assu!” (the series’ 26th opening). Accompanying the new song is a fresh opening animation sequence, which is now available for viewing on the One Piece YouTube channel.
Like the previous opening song, “The Peak”, the opening animation for “Assu!” features the storyboards and direction of Megumi Ishitani (One Piece Episode 957, 982, and 1015; “Where The Wind Blows” music video director) and is just as eye-catching and visually pleasing as Ishitani’s previous works. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ishitani credited the style of the opening to her team-up with “super animator” Keisuke Mori, writing that she wouldn’t have attempted an animation with this “taste” otherwise. Mori served as animation director here and was previously involved with the opening animation for “The Peak” and the “Where The Wind Blows” video.
Ishitani also teased that there would be minor changes to the opening animation’s footage in the near future.
Some of the other staff members for the new opening include Sayoko Yokoyama (One Piece Film Red) as color designer, Tomoya Hosaka (One Piece, “The Peak” opening animation) as compositing director, and Yoshiaki Honma (One Piece, “The Peak” opening animation) as art director.
One Piece‘s new ending sequence was also officially released on YouTube:
The Toei Animation-produced series began the “Egg Head Arc” on January 7 JST. The first episode of the anime, which is based on the Shueisha-published manga by Eiichirou Oda, debuted in 1999. Crunchyroll and iQIYI are streaming the show outside of Japan.
VIZ Media describes the manga, which started serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997 and has been collected into 107 tankoubon volumes as of November 2023, as:
As a child, Monkey D. Luffy was inspired to become a pirate by listening to the tales of the buccaneer “Red-Haired” Shanks. But his life changed when Luffy accidentally ate the Gum-Gum Devil Fruit and gained the power to stretch like rubber…at the cost of never being able to swim again! Years later, still vowing to become the king of the pirates, Luffy sets out on his adventure…one guy alone in a rowboat, in search of the legendary “One Piece,” said to be the greatest treasure in the world…
The anime series was preceded by a Production I.G-produced OVA released earlier the same year. The 15th and most recent One Piece movie, One Piece Film Red, became the sixth highest grossing movie of all time in Japan after an encore run in late 2023. A WIT STUDIO-produced remake anime was announced in December 2023.
