Since the previous ONE PIECE Day last year , the series has sailed away from the destruction of Egghead and into the massive arms of Elbaph, along with the entire lore dump that comes along with the long-awaited land of the giants. For anime-only’s, you might wanna skip this piece because ONE PIECE Day’25 dove straight into the current manga chapters, including bringing Loki to life — and making people walk through his mouth to enter the event! Let's explore the biggest day on the ONE PIECE calendar as “We Are!” plays on repeat in Tokyo Big Sight, a move from Makuhari Messe from last year. ONE PIECE : Brick by Brick, Merch to Merch This month saw the release of the first-ever Lego ONE PIECE set, focused on the first season of the live-action version of the series. The large booth had two play areas on each side with impressive sets. I’m not here to advertise them, but I couldn’t help but feel the need for the Going Merry. The first-ever Lego set I built as a kid was a pirate ship, so I’d love to get a Going Merry for my son, but the bricks have gotten a little more expensive since the 90s. Of course, Lego was a core part of the booth's decoration, with the walls and wanted posters even made out of the bricks. It felt very early, Elbaph! Shanks, who is part of the Foosha Village set and a mini-fig, got a big blocky upgrade with a giant statue of his most iconic scene made with Lego bricks! Two other massive booths in the central area were the ONE PIECE Luffy’s, a generic-shaped Luffy statue with different prints, and a preview of the ONE PIECE Base shop. ONE PIECE Luffy’s was a bit smaller than last year, but had two exclusives for the event: an Elbaph colored Luffy and a ONE PIECE Card Luffy, in the trademark blue and the logo. ONE PIECE Base was flashier, bigger, and had more Berries to go around — literally. The store is opening later this year as a place for exclusive ONE PIECE merchandise rather than the Mugiwara Stores, which have their merchandise and other stuff that can be found all around. Obviously, they had some cool-looking things, like goggles that mimic the iconic eye-out-of-head surprised face and actual Berries, though I don’t know if they’re legal tender or not. The World Figure Colosseum also made a return with the coolest-looking upcoming figures from the ONE PIECE universe. These included the most detailed sculptures of Marco in full flight and Carrot in her awakened Sulong Form. Buggy got the most inventive figure here with the clown jumping out of his wanted poster. ONE PIECE Day ’s Elbaph Arc Exhibition The meat of the event (Luffy’s favorite!) was the Elbaph Arc exhibition, spanning from the end of Egghead to the entrance of the Holy Knights and the start of what may be the final war between the World Government and the Straw Hat Fleet. Last year’s ONE PIECE Day focused heavily on Kuma and the backstory between him and Bonney, which absolutely tugs at the heartstrings. While we all had to wait over 20 years to get to Elbaph, those heartfelt moments are not here yet. It’s just been revelation after revelation, the biggest of which was the mural — which was masterfully displayed here — and Shanks’ brother. Anything past that was not here. Maybe next ONE PIECE Day will be God Valley-focused? Walking through, I noticed that part of the exhibition was the giant displays, including a huge Nami (one of Oda’s noted favorites). The other part was reproductions of original manga pages, complete with scribbles, faint draft lines and even the box around the text when they added it in digitally. I wasn’t allowed to take photos of these, but it’s always nice to see the art up close and in such detail. Capping off the exhibition was a bunch of photo spots from the arc, including a summoning circle where you stand side-by-side with the Holy Knights. What is there to do at ONE PIECE Day ? Speaking of photo spots, there were two types at the event: One with blown-up panels where you can add yourself into iconic scenes, and cute little stickers around the event hall to find your favorite character. If you find them, you could show a staff member and get an exclusive item. It was really fun discovering characters like Wapol on the trash cans or Luffy on the roof in the mouth of a bird. Nestled away near the stage was a cute theater showing ONE PIECE Log: Fish-Man Island Saga episodes. What was fun about this was that Dolby Atmos remastered all the sound in the episodes to have heavy bass and really break through to your heart. The opening and ending songs really rocked the room, as did every single punch, Jinbe’s fishman karate against Luffy, especially! It wouldn’t be ONE PIECE Day without the card game, which got its own exhibition area showing all the cards from every release set and scaled-up versions of some of the game’s most popular art. When I first walked through the space in the morning, there was a large display covered by a sheet. Following the ONE PIECE Card Game stage, the sheet was removed and the newest Luffy manga (a rare red edition) was displayed. ONE PIECE DAY’25 Stages and Special Concert When not enjoying myself, such as trying to pull a special DON! card from a giant vending machine , I spent a lot of my time watching the stage events. A highlight of the day was Iñaki Godoy running past me during the Netflix stage, where the Season 2 trailer got the second biggest pop of the day . The new ONE PIECE cards were the first, and of course, the special concert at the end of the day. Much like last year, the special concert featured artists connected to ONE PIECE , most from the opening and ending theme songs. Sadly, due to being in the same hall as the event itself, it didn’t hit as hard as last year’s, which had its own arena. Image: Supplied ”Us!” from Hiroshi Kitadani began the concert itself. It’s already one of the greatest ONE PIECE openings and is a treat to hear live with some of the best cuts of animation on display to extend the opening. This included the Garp fight, Shanks taking out Kid and more. There’s just something great about seeing those cuts with ”Us!” the bass of playing live. Image: Supplied Kitadani then sang the GRe4N BOYZ opening theme, “ANGEL & DEVIL,” and smashed it. The band even gave him the blessing to sing it at the event in a cute message. The song was perfect for the Kuma flashback in the series and never fails to move me. Having my heart pump to every beat made it all the more emotional. It also helped that they picked some choice scenes to bring that emotion out to play behind Hiroshi. Image: Supplied Muque followed up, first playing one of their original singles before transitioning into “The 1.” It’s nice because the band is relatively new, so hearing some of their own work outside of ONE PIECE broadened their horizons. But of course, “The 1” is the perfect anthem for Bonney and her feelings towards Kuma as she chases her own emotions in the current anime episodes. As a full band, muque has that raw emotion that just isn’t there when there’s a backing track. Image: Supplied Kitadani came out after, praising the band and calling the song “cool,” making the lead singer melt in front of the legend. He then led the audience to start singing “We Are!” without music or lyrics, starting a chorus of hundreds of people singing one song from the heart. Truly a generational tune. Finally, CHAMELEON LIME WHOOPIEPIE knew how to get the crowd going with the newest ending theme song for the series “Punks!" It debuted at the event before debuting on that night’s episode. It also premiered part of the ending animation, which showed Lilith as the final satellite. Image: Supplied CHAMELEON LIME WHOOPIEPIE has a very different sound than ONE PIECE has had before. It feels more like being in the club rather than part of the climax of one of the most lore-heavy arcs in anime history. That being said, the live house style was played up, and the anime version is lighter on the DJ riffs. It’s funny listening to ballads like ”Us!” and then CHAMELEON LIME WHOOPIEPIE ’s very house music. It shows that ONE PIECE can span every type of genre and medium. The lead singer said that she’s been following ONE PIECE since she was basically born, making her a girl who grew up in a ONE PIECE world. Image: Supplied The concert then switched back to the ballads, with Kitadani singing his Wano opening theme song, “OVER THE TOP,” as a massive musical whiplash. Kitadani then went back to Marineford with "One Day" and footage of a young Luffy in the arms of Ace as he dies. Talk about more emotion! Just like last year, everyone, including Inoki, came out to sing “We Are!” for the final song. Only that opening could feature three theme artists, their bands, the voice actors and live-action actors together for the love of ONE PIECE . Image: Supplied And that is the main point of ONE PIECE Day : to bring together all the fans of the series into one place and give them a bunch of fun things to do. While I felt that ONE PIECE Day’25 was a lot smaller than last year, in both scope and depth, it’s still a great time and one I would not give up for anything, not even the treasure on Laugh Tale! All images taken by Daryl Harding unless otherwise noted. ©Eiichiro Oda/SHUEISHA ©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation ©2025 The LEGO Group. ©Eiichiro Oda/SHUEISHA ©Netflix/Tomorrow
