Mighty Leaders Face Each Other Down! Heralding the "New Era"!

With Luffy still hovering between life and death, the news that the great battle has finished races across the seas, and crowds everywhere celebrate what they hear as a Marine triumph. The festive mood, however, masks fresh dangers. Marshall D. Teach is already in motion, having gathered recruits drawn from the deepest cells of Impel Down. The collapse of Edward Newgate has knocked the balance of power off its footing, and because his dying breath affirmed that the legendary treasure truly exists, ambitious pirates across the world begin to stir.

Sengoku formally closes the war, but Lieutenant Commander Brannew brings grim word about Impel Down: Magellan lies badly hurt and racked with guilt, many inmates have fled, and a handful were carried off by Teach. When Sengoku demands their files and bounties, Brannew refuses, explaining that the World Government wants the matter buried, which sends Sengoku into a furious outburst. In a Marineford alley, Gecko Moria is set upon by Pacifista units under Donquixote Doflamingo, who tells him he is too feeble to keep his Warlord seat and hints the order came from above Sengoku himself. The remaining Supernovas watch the fallout from afar, with Scratchmen Apoo, Basil Hawkins, and Eustass Kid each puzzling over Trafalgar Law's rescue of Luffy and the dawning of an unfamiliar age.

This installment launches the Post-War Arc and marks the debut of Faust and Brownbeard, along with the locations G-3, G-2, and Foodvalten. Aboard the Heart Pirates' submarine, Bepo swelters as the vessel passes an underwater volcanic stretch, and a new scene shows the sub surfacing beside a Marine ship where Boa Hancock arrives after petrifying its crew. The anime expanded several beats, including worldwide reactions across the four Blues and the Grand Line and additional Level 6 escapees roaming loose. Originally slated for the Dream 9 block on March 13, 2011, its broadcast was delayed a week due to coverage of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.