One Piece Heroines Anime Reveals First Character Designs
The One Piece News livestream shared some exciting news for fans of the franchise on October 28. First character design visuals for Nami and Nico Robin were revealed from the upcoming anime adaptation of One Piece Heroines, the light novel spinoff series written by Jun Esaka and Sayaka Suwa. No premiere date for the anime has been announced yet.
One Piece Heroines was originally serialized in issues of One Piece Magazine in 2019. The novel series is published in Japan by Shueisha and in English by VIZ Media. Each story in the series spotlights a different female character from the franchise: Nami stars in a fashion show storyline, Robin works alongside Koala and Sabo to decipher an ancient tablet, Princess Vivi receives an unexpected love letter, and Perona ends up in a battle over the last bottle of wine with Zolo and Mihawk.
Separately, the livestream confirmed that a new mini album for the Koisuru One Piece short anime series will be released on November 14 across music distribution platforms including Spotify.
As for the main One Piece anime, the Egghead arc is wrapping up and will be followed by a hiatus running from January through March 2026. The Elbaph arc is then set to premiere in April 2026 in a two cour structure with up to 26 episodes. English dub episodes covering the Egghead arc are also coming this November in regions including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Southeast Asia.
My take: Seeing character designs for the Heroines anime is a welcome update, and the premise of spotlighting Robin and Nami in their own stories has a lot of potential. The Elbaph arc beginning in April 2026 is also something longtime fans have been genuinely looking forward to for years.
