'One Piece' Preview, Spoilers: Anime Introduces Marine Rookie Story Arc; New Arc to Center on Luffy and His Crew

By Vianne Ilagan, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, March 08, 2017

"One Piece" is set to introduce a new story arc. A new preview for the series reveals that the anime will bring in a new filler arc this month before it adapts the new canon installment of the manga. This arc is called the "Marine Rookie" or the "One Piece Supernova Arc."

In the anime, Supernovas refer to the top rookie pirates coming from different crews, including Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro of the Straw Hat Pirates. While the new arc contains facts from the original "One Piece" manga, its story is said to be an anime-only original. Toei Animation producer Hiroshi Oyama previously revealed that they had consulted the original manga creator, Elichiro Oda, in creating the arc.

Based on the preview, the new storyline will bring in new Marine soldiers who will ill-fatedly stumble upon Monkey D. Luffy and his comrades as they try to rescue Sanji and his family on Whole Cake Island.

The preview reveals that Luffy and his crew's mission is to infiltrate a marine forward base that has been spying on Big Mom. This comes as they run out of food during their journey and Luffy's insatiable appetite gets in the way of their mission. To satisfy Luffy, they sneak into the Marine base to filch supplies. However, three new Marines from the crew of Aokiji suddenly stop Luffy.

The most recent issue of Weekly Shonen Jump offers a glimpse of the new characters that will be introduced in the series. The new characters in the new story arc include Natsuki Hanae as Grant, Hiroko Yasumoto as Bonam, and Makoto Furukawa as Sappa.

Meanwhile, the "One Piece" franchise is celebrating its 20^{th anniversary this year and Oda recently teased that more surprises are in store for their avid fans. The Marine Rookie story arc begins on March 19.}