Luffy and crew return to the City of Angels this summer.
Luffy and his One Piece cohorts are always ready to set sail for new adventures in places they’ve never been before, and this summer that spirit is guiding them to Dodger Stadium for a collaboration with Major League Baseball.
When the Los Angeles Dodgers face off against the Chicago White Sox on July 3, not only will it be the eve of Independence Day, it’ll also be One Piece Night. The stadium will be decked out in special decorations featuring the cast of the hit anime/manga, and there will also be a number of One Piece “activations” set up around the venue, some of which will be distributing an exclusive One Piece Card Game card illustrated by series creator Eiichiro Oda himself.
Luffy’s pitch being a “strike”-type attack is a clever bit of wordplay, and another cool design detail is the combination of his banded straw hat and the Dodgers’ iconic LA-logo cap. Speaking of headwear, while giving away baseball caps at the stadium is a long-standing fan-appreciation night fixture, on One Piece Night the first 40,000 fans in attendance will receive, appropriately, straw hats with both the Dodgers and One Piece logos.
This marks One Piece’s third sports stop in the City of Angels, following their team-ups with pro football’s Los Angeles Rams in 2023 and pro basketball’s Los Angeles Lakers in 2024. One Piece’s affinity for the city might have something to do with it being where Toei Animation’s American HQ is located (unlike the just-announced Netflix One Piece Lego sets, the sports collaborations are specifically for the anime/manga arms of the franchise). It’s also hard to ignore that the presence of Shohei Ohtani on the Dodgers’ roster has turned pretty much all of Japan into Dodgers supporters, so the partnership is sure to please home-country One Piece fans too.
It’s worth noting that the Rams and Lakers both won their One Piece games, and this season the Dodgers have had two anime-related success stories, winning games featuring Pokémon’s Pikachu and the Sailor Moon theme song, so hopefully Luffy will lead them to victory too.
Source: Major League Baseball via Anime News Network/Ken Iikura-Gross
Top image: Instagram/toei_animation
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