Nami is officially the star of her own One Piece anime. One Piece: Heroines, a brand-new special from Toei Animation, aired on Fuji TV in Japan on July 5th, and Netflix will stream it worldwide starting this Saturday, July 11th.
The project was first announced at One Piece Day '25 last August, and it adapts "Nami: The Shoe Must Go On!", the opening story from Jun Esaka's One Piece: Heroines light novel, which Shueisha published back in 2021 with illustrations by Sayaka Suwa. Haruka Kamatani directs, Momoka Toyoda handles the screenplay, and Takashi Kojima provides the character designs, which run noticeably softer than the main series' look. It's a single half-hour episode, not a series, so this is a one-night detour rather than a new show to keep up with.
The story itself is a change of pace for the franchise. Nami buys a pair of shoes that turn out to hurt her feet, and when she goes to return them, the designer offers to remake them on one condition: she models in his fashion show. Nico Robin is along for the ride, and Takehito Koyasu and Maaya Sakamoto voice two brand-new characters created for the special.
Akemi Okamura and Yuriko Yamaguchi are back as Nami and Robin, and AiNA THE END performs the theme song, "Blue Shining Star".
Netflix Anime announced the July 11th date on X, promising the special "comes to Netflix worldwide." Japanese viewers got it first in the anime's regular Sunday slot, and Crunchyroll simulcast it internationally the same day, so the Netflix drop is the catch-up window for everyone who missed the weekend.
Why does a half-hour fashion detour matter? It's the first time in the franchise's nearly three-decade run that an anime special has been built entirely around its heroines. One Piece has produced plenty of specials over the years, but Luffy has always been the focus. Handing an episode to Nami, with Robin riding shotgun, is uncharted territory for one of the biggest anime franchises on the planet.
The timing is smart, too. The special aired during a one-week break in the Elbaph arc, which resumes on July 12th and runs weekly through October. So the main story barely pauses, and between this, the live-action Season 3 shoot wrapping, and Wit Studio's remake on deck, Netflix is clearly treating One Piece as a franchise pillar!
Are you checking out Nami's solo adventure on Saturday, and which Straw Hat deserves the next standalone special? Let me know in the comments below!
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