LA Lakers' One Piece Game Night reveals new anime short of Luffy

Modified Mar 01, 2025 17:45 GMT

Friday, February 28, 2025, saw the LA Lakers’ One Piece Game Night officially take place, with the Los Angeles basketball team collaborating with the anime on merchandise and decorations. However, halftime also excitingly saw the premiere of a new anime short of series protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, seeing him play 1-on-4 basketball against some unnamed Marines.

The roughly 30-second short has since been uploaded to the series’ official English YouTube channel following the conclusion of the Lakers’ game against the LA Clippers. The short also ends by advertising the English launch of the ONE PIECE BASE app, a manga reading app for the series, and more.

LA Lakers’ One Piece Game Night debuts new anime short to promote English launch of BASE app

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The animated short is relatively simple, seeing Luffy playing 1-on-4 basketball against unnamed Marines as mentioned above. The short sees him utilize his Gum-Gum Fruit powers to gain a massive advantage after losing the ball in the opening scenes. The short also features Luffy doing what appears to be an homage to NBA legend Michael Jordan’s iconic “Jumpman” pose, now the logo for Nike’s Air Jordan clothing and sneaker line.

The short ends with Luffy slamming the ball down in a dunk before flashing his trademark smile at the camera. As mentioned above, the ending scene is a QR code and promotion of the ONE PIECE BASE app recently launched in English. The app allows users to “rent” licenses for manga volumes. However, this terminology is misleading, as the act of “renting” seems to give end-users the ability to read a volume in perpetuity until its removal.

In addition to being a new digital ownership reader app for the manga series, the app also offers portrait generation in the series’ art style and in its iconic wanted poster framing aesthetic.

The LA Lakers’ collaborative game night also saw a limited collaboration T-shirt offered, and a Bounty Rush photo booth was featured on the main concourse inside the Crypto.com arena. Franchise stars such as the live-action series’ Iñaki Godoy were also in attendance and highlighted.

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While this sports collaboration for mangaka Eiichiro Oda’s original series is the latest, it’s far from the only one. The franchise previously collaborated with the MLB’s Boston Red Sox in August 2024, celebrating the anime’s 25th anniversary with exclusive experiences and merchandise. The Red Sox are repeating the collaboration in May 2025. The franchise also previously collaborated with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams in December 2023.

Oda’s beloved manga-turned-anime series began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in July 1997. Toei Animation’s television anime adaptation began in October 1999. Both versions of the series are still ongoing today.

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Edited by Joseph Brogan