When Does One Piece Film: Red take place? Although the 15th anime movie to stem from the beloved One Piece series isn’t canon, its place in the sacred timeline is still causing somewhat of a debate in the pirate-loving fandom.
One Piece Film: Red tells the story of the Straw Hats facing a brand new foe – the pop star Uta, who is Shanks’ estranged daughter and childhood friend of Luffy. In the anime movie, we saw the gang team up with the Big Mom Pirates and even rock some of their newest abilities and designs from the anime series’ latest episodes. This has caused quite a stir among viewers, and trying to place One Piece Film: Red has become a tricky ask for anime curators for sure.
So to help make sense of it all, The Digital Fix has made like Robin and done some research of our own. Here we answer the big question – When does One Piece Film: Red take place in the swashbuckling timeline?
When does One Piece Film: Red take place?
One Piece Film: Red takes place in a strange space in the One Piece sphere. It doesn’t exactly happen after the Wano Country Arc or before it, as it is part of its own non-canon timeline.
We mention the Wano Country Arc – which is the latest Arc in the animes series – because One Piece Film: Red is a muddle of both pre-and post-Wano details. The Big Mom Pirates are still a strong foe in the film, and we don’t see any anime characters from the Raid of Onigashima appear, so we know that One Piece Film: Red isn’t strictly after Wano.
But saying all of that, there are post-Wano developments that the Straw Hats gained following the Onigashima raid too. Luffy’s Gear 5 is shown, and Zoro’s possession of Enma is also referenced in One Piece Film: Red…a bit confusing, isn’t it?
In short, One Piece Film: Red takes place in connection to the Wano arc but exists in its own grey area of it. At the end of the day, the animated movie has its own timeline, so its placement is fair enough in the grand scheme of things.
For more animated fun, here is our list of the best One Piece characters and the best horror anime of all time.