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Hiroshi Kitadani Returns to One Piece Anime to Perform New Opening Theme Song
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
This year's 31st issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine revealed on Monday that Hiroshi Kitadani is returning to the One Piece anime to perform the show's new opening theme song "Over the Top." Shouko Fujibayashi is writing the lyrics, Kōhei Tanaka is composing the song, and Takayuki Negishi is arranging the song.
Kitadani previously performed the first theme song "We Are!," the 15th theme song "We Go!," and the 19th theme song "We Can!" (the latter was performed with the group Kishidan). Fujibayashi and Tanaka also worked on the "We Are!" and "We Can!" songs.
The new theme song will debut on July 7 with the debut of the "Wano Kuni" arc.
The anime is getting a new series director and character designer with the new arc. Tatsuya Nagamine (One Piece Film Z, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Super: Broly) will serve as the new series director, and Midori Matsuda (chief animation director for One Piece Episode of East Blue: Luffy to 4-nin no Nakama no Daibōken, animation director for One Piece Film Gold) will serve as the new character designer.
The One Piece anime entered the new "Reverie" arc in April, after finishing the "Whole Cake Island" arc that premiered in April 2017.
One Piece is getting a new film in the franchise titled One Piece Stampede on August 9 to commemorate the TV anime's 20th anniversary.
Sources: Weekly Shonen Jump issue 31
