One Piece anime schedule confirms the impending debut of Gear 5

Luffy as seen in One Piece
Luffy as seen in One Piece (Image via Twitter/@AGOTv2)

Ever since One Piece manga revealed Luffy's Gear 5, fans of the franchise have been looking forward to Toei Animation animating the same for the anime. That being said, it seems like fans would not have to wait for long. As revealed by the episode schedule, One Piece anime will debut Luffy's Gear 5 in July 2023.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece follows the story of Monkey D Luffy, a boy who mistakenly ate a devil fruit and acquired the properties of rubber. Following that, he began his journey to find Gol D Roger's treasure and take over his title as the Pirate King.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the One Piece manga.


One Piece's episode schedule reveals Luffy's Gear 5 debut date

With the One Piece anime close to the end of the Wano arc, manga fans are looking forward to the Straw Hat Pirates' captain's return. That's when Twitter user @unknowndud shared the episode schedule for the upcoming episodes of the anime.

As per the episode schedule, One Piece anime is set to debut Luffy's Gear 5/Joy Boy in episode 1071. The episode will be released on Sunday, July 23, 2023, as per the release time in Japan. This means that fans will only have to wait six more weeks before they could see Luffy's Gear 5 in the anime.

However, before that, fans will also be able to witness Kidd and Law defeat Big Mom and Raizo defeat Fukurokujo. Only after that will the anime focus on Luffy and his fight against Kaido.


Fans were divided upon seeing the episode schedule before Luffy's Gear 5 animation

While Luffy's Gear 5 was the main focus for fans, many joked about how they were more excited about the fight between Raizo and Fukurokujo. The fandom seem to love Raizo and want to see some justice be done to his fight. While they are aware that his fight does not have much impact on the anime, they know that it is a huge deal for the character. Thus, regardless of the fact that fans are joking, they do want to watch his fight.

After learning about the episode schedule, one fan noticed how July 22, i.e., the release date of the Joy Boy episode in the United States, was special to the franchise. Apparently, July 22 had been declared as "One Piece Day" to commemorate the manga's first publication. Thus, it was evident to fans that the anime's episode 1071 getting scheduled to be released on July 22 was not a coincidence.

Nevertheless, fans were not too optimistic about the episode schedule as Toei Animation has the tendency to release special recap episodes before a big fight. The same happened before the fight between Zoro and King as the anime released a recap episode. Otherwise, the anime would have been one episode closer to Luffy's Gear 5 reveal.

Fans believed that the anime will pull this move once again for the upcoming episodes. As of now, the fandom has been expecting recap episodes before two events - Law & Kidd vs Big Mom and Luffy's Gear 5. Additionally, there may be a chance that the anime will go on a break in the upcoming weeks, so fans tried to remain cautious of such events.

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Edited by Priya Majumdar
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