Nami Gets the Spotlight, Shoes and All
The special adapts ONE PIECE novel HEROINES, a collection of prose short stories that follows the franchise's female characters between the main story's adventures. This first anime outing is billed as "episode: NAMI" and adapts the Straw Hats navigator's chapter, "The Shoe Must Go On!" The setup is about as far from a pirate battle as One Piece gets: Nami buys a pair of shoes that end up hurting her feet, marches back to the shop, and meets the designer Lebno, who offers to make her a brand-new pair from scratch on one condition. She has to be his model. The artisan Miucha crafts the shoes, and a fashion story unfolds from there.
Nami won't be alone, either. Anime News Network reports that the special includes anime-original content featuring Nico Robin.
The Fuji TV program listing, quoted by Japanese entertainment news site Dengeki Online, pitches the special as showing sides of the One Piece heroines that the main series doesn't. Given that the novels feature stories about Nami, Robin, Vivi, and Perona, there is plenty of material if this one-night experiment goes over well.
A One-Night Takeover of the Sunday Slot
ONE PIECE HEROINES airs Sunday, July 5, 2026, at 11:15 p.m. JST on Fuji TV, taking over the slot where the main TV anime normally airs. The flagship series isn't going anywhere for long: episode 1169 follows one week later, on July 12 at 11:15 p.m.
The special also gets its own theme song, "Blue Shining Star," performed by singer-songwriter AiNA THE END.
On the production side, Haruka Kamatani directs at Toei Animation, with Momoka Toyoda on script and Takashi Kojima on character design. An official trailer is up on the ONE PIECE Official YouTube channel.
The Novels Behind the Special
ONE PIECE novel HEROINES began in June 2021 under Shueisha's Jump J-Books imprint, written by Jun Esaka and illustrated by Sayaka Suwa, based on Eiichiro Oda's original work. Each story stands alone: Nami's fashion-show misadventure, Robin helping Sabo and Koala decipher an ancient tablet, Vivi caught up in trouble over a love letter, and Perona squabbling with Zoro and Mihawk over a bottle of wine.
English readers don't have to wait on translations. VIZ Media publishes the novels in English, starting with volume 1 in April 2025, so the exact story this special adapts is already readable ahead of the broadcast.
Where to Watch
International fans get the special fast. Crunchyroll streams ONE PIECE HEROINES the same day it airs in Japan, July 5, and Netflix adds it worldwide on July 11. That puts the whole rollout inside a single week: Fuji TV and Crunchyroll on Sunday, Netflix the following Saturday, and the main series back with episode 1169 on July 12.
No word yet on whether more HEROINES episodes are planned beyond this one-night special. With three more heroines' stories sitting in the novels, the source material is ready if Toei wants it.