Breaking Down One Piece’s Amazing New Opening 26

one piece opening 26 egghead arc anime (26)

Alright, let’s do it. One Piece’s brand new anime opening, Opening 26, titled “UUUUUS!” released this week, and it’s gorgeous. Like, genuinely stunning. It’s beautifully animated throughout, takes on a bold new art style, the song is a banger, and some of the scenes that the animators chose to include have absolutely sideswiped manga readers that have considered them to be spoilers.

Well, they might be, but we’ll only find out if we take a closer look for ourselves. Today I’m breaking down the entire One Piece anime Opening 26 “UUUUUS!” to see if it’s really as spoiler-filled for anime-onlys as the die-hard manga readers are claiming.

Related: We Are Living In A Golden Age Of One Piece

The opening kicks off with an aerial shot of the Thousand Sunny from above the clouds, before the camera dives towards the ship to show Luffy laying on the deck – this is taken from the moment he announces his dream to the rest of the crew.

The next scene has the One Piece logo remain a constant on the screen while we flash through to different locations and moments in this arc. First up is the full crew strolling, before we pan to the Vegaforce-01 carrying the Sunny, followed by Luffy eating with Chopper, Bonney, and Jinbe, the rest of the crew bouncing through the clouds of the Labophase, and Luffy discovering the ancient robot in the Fabriophase Scrapyard.

Next the top of Vegapunk’s head spins, showing off a diorama and close-ups of the satellites. This halts when the CP-0 gang show up, consisting of Lucci, Kaku, and Stussy, making Vegapunk freak out as the CP-0 masks slide onto the screen.

This is revealed to be on a TV that Luffy and Chopper are watching as they explore the lab, and that pans out and is revealed to be on a TV screen again, just above a sofa where Luffy and Zoro sit.

The TV above them expands to show Vegapunk and all of the satellites, with York sporting a particular cheeky grin, but all of them are quickly pushed out of the way by this arc’s selection of marines, including Kizaru, Helmeppo, and Garp. They flash away quickly took, revealing the Cross Guild of Crocodile, Buggy, and Mihawk. You can see Luffy grab the TV and walk off screen as Buggy and co appear.

Luffy now rockets into the frame from behind the Cross Guild crew in Gear 5 form, washing the background with color before he dons his goggles. We pan around to see Luffy fall towards the lab, and that’s when we get a gorgeous shot of a giant Gear 5 Luffy standing in the lab.

Some quick flashes now, with the camera continuing to feel like it’s panning throughout. Koby runs while on Fullalead, then Luffy, Jinbe, and Chopper have their ages changed with Bonney’s hand in the background, Atlas gets a high-five from a hologram, and we see Law’s sub the Polar Tang filling with water as his gender-bent crew dance panicked. That’s a lot to take in.

Next a rotating shot of the marines on Fullalead, followed by rotating Sentomaru, and then a gorgeous shot of Kizaru rotating in the air above the clouds. The final frame of Kizaru on the left of the screen hard cuts to Kuma on the same side, struggling free of wires and pipes attached to him.

We then see Seraphim Jinbe, S-Shark, fall into the floor, which for him is liquid he can swim in, so he simply dives on in before his eyes light up. This cuts beautifully with Bonney emerging from the water at the beginning of the arc.

Next up we see a young Sentomaru staring at Kizaru’s light powers, before a beam shoots up towards the laser field around the Labophase, exploding pink. We get a flash of Shaka, and then S-Snake with S-Hawk and S-Shark being pet by someone very large – manga readers will know who. S-Snake glances directly at the camera with stars in her eyes before a star-shaped gem falls into frame – the nature of this gem isn’t clear yet, though it could just be a reference to S-Snake’s eyes.

Now we get another stroll scene, Luffy’s clothes rapidly flash backwards through all of the outfits he’s worn in the main series, from Egghead all the way back to Romance Dawn, including Afro Luffy and Nami’s jacket from Drum Island, and then the rest of the crew appears in pairs, in order of their introduction to the team, also flashing through a variety of their main-series costumes. This shot ends with the crew diving off a cliff towards Egghead’s lab.

Battles scenes are finally here! Now Gear 5 Luffy is back and facing off against Lucci, before a stray gear gets sucked into frame, transitioning us to Captain Kidd building his magnetic arm. Kidd faces an opponent that is mostly obscured, and the pose is held while we flash to more clashes, each holding the same position in the frame – next is Blackbeard and Law, Aokiji and Garp, and S-Hawk and Zoro, before finally returning to Lucci and Luffy as their fists collide into the frame and glow red-hot before exploding into a transition. This is, by far, the best part of the opening.

Those flames transition nicely to Sabo, who is with Karasu’s soot crows, likely during the Marijoa escape. The crows transform into seagulls flying above a clock tower that seems to be the same one from Alabasta’s climax – makes sense, as Vivi and Cobra will be important in this arc. So will Wapol and Big News Morgans, against all odds, who are framed with bars on the top and bottom, and the seagulls from before are now falling books.

These books are given a solo shot floating, or falling – to me, this shot is most likely the books floating in the water that saved them from the burning of Ohara. This is solidified by the next shot of two flower bouquets being held by two people, and these are undoubtedly Vegapunk and Dragon visiting Ohara after the Buster Call. A clean cut to a sword now, one of the many planted before The Empty Throne, which is conspicuously not empty.

The bars are removed and now we get a shot of a single piece of animation, flashing between multiple characters. First Sabo, then Kidd, Law, Koby, an incredibly brief flash of Vivi, and finally Bonney reaching out to Kuma’s memory bubble on Egghead. The bubble expands and we see the crew in their default New World outfits stroll forward as the camera pans up and out to see the shining goal at the end of the Grand Line. Beautiful. It climaxes as it began, with Luffy laying back on the deck of Sunny after telling the crew his dream.

Right – that was a lot, and if you stuck with me, thank you. So, let’s make a few things clear: even if you slow this down to x0.2 speed on YouTube, it’s still genuinely gorgeous to behold. Every frame a painting, as they say, and is a wonderful argument against 60fps frame interpolation. Please, YouTube anime uploaders: stop.

In regards to spoilers, well, yeah. I mean, if you’re an anime-only fan, then the fact that Vegapunk and all of the satellites are revealed in this opening is more than enough, but the Seraphim, the hints at their abilities, and not to mention the conflicts like Aokiji vs. Garp. Kidd’s opponent was smartly concealed, but it might be too late.

Manga readers made a big deal out of seeing Kuma struggling against the wires and pipes holding him back, as it reminded them of the most recent manga chapter (as of the time of writing), and I can see why, but I’m sorry to say that it simply isn’t that scene.

Instead, it’s more likely to be the scene taking place on Kamabaka Kingdom shortly after the escape from both Baltigo and Marijoa. This is where Kuma first flies off in a mysterious direction, and it happened several months ago in terms of manga publication. Is it a spoiler? Well heck, Kuma’s involvement in this arc at all could be considered a spoiler, but compared to everything else in this opening? It’s fine.

The fact is, a fast-paced opening like this rarely gives enough context clues to actually “spoil” anything, though observant anime-only watchers could definitely receive a bit more information than they were expecting, especially in regards to fights involving Law, Kidd, and Garp.

In summary, One Piece anime Opening 26 “UUUUUS!” is an absolute banger. That’s it. No notes. Thanks, bye.