Why Is One Piece's Movie Tie-In Airing After Red's Premiere?

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The next couple of episodes of One Piece will be a tie-in to One Piece Film: Red, but what’s odd is that the episodes will be airing after Red premieres in Japan. If Red is already going to be out when the episodes air, then having a tie-in meant to build up to the movie can come across as rather pointless. That being said, the timing of the episodes probably wasn’t intentional, and there’s a logical explanation for why that would be.

One Piece episodes 1029 and 1030 will put the Wano arc on hold to tell a story about Luffy’s friendship with Shanks’ daughter, Uta. The episodes will serve as a tie-in to the new One Piece movie, One Piece Film: Red, but the problem with that is that Red has already been released in Japan and the tie-in won’t start airing until a week later. While it’s not a problem for people living in Western territories who won’t be able to see Red until the fall, at least in Japan, any buildup the episodes try to provide will be rendered moot because people will have already seen the movie the week before.

Related: Netflix's Live-Action One Piece Is Already Doomed Because Of One Problem

The timing of the tie-in episodes to One Piece Film: Red doesn’t work with the movie’s release in Japan, but there’s a good explanation for it. In March 2022, Toei Animation was the victim of a ransomware attack that forced a lot of the anime they produced to go on hiatus for over a month, including the One Piece anime. This is the most likely reason why the episodes are airing when they are because if the hiatus hadn’t happened, then the episodes likely would have aired in July before Red came out, which would have allowed for them to properly build up to the movie.

With the One Piece anime devoting time to have a