The World is Stunned - The Fifth Emperor of the Sea Emerges!

Newspaper in hand, Shanks reflects on East Blue twelve years prior, where a seven-year-old unable to swim pleaded to join the crew and wound up swallowing the Gomu Gomu no Mi. The recollection runs through Higuma's bandits shaming the captain, the kidnapping that left a Sea King eating the bandit boss, and Shanks sacrificing an arm to pull the boy to safety. Before departing, he placed his straw hat on the child's head. In the present, the same tide of memory ripples outward as Makino, the Ryugu royals, and the Marine leadership all absorb the Totto Land report. On the Sunny, the captain finds a concealed Raid Suit, the cook refuses to wear it, and a paper Carrot carries down reveals new bounties and an astonishing new rank for the captain.

The episode returns to the captain's early years among the Red Hair Pirates, including the time he plunged a blade beneath his own eye and, years on, felled the harbor's resident Sea King with a single rubber-powered punch. The Raid Suit canister Niji had slipped to the duo surfaces, but the cook rejects his family's equipment outright. His bounty rises above Zoro's yet now bears the name Vinsmoke Sanji, which leaves him crestfallen. Holding command of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet and credited as the brain behind the Totto Land raid, the captain is declared the sea's Fifth Emperor. Neptune places Fish-Man Island under the crew's protection, Shirahoshi readies herself for the world council, and Fleet Admiral Sakazuki scoffs at the new title.

This opens the Levely Arc. Inserted scenes cover Woop Slap passing Makino the newspaper, the captain discovering the dropped Raid Suit, and him with Chopper picturing themselves in a yellow rendition of the gear, along with Sakazuki remarking on the Fifth Emperor news. The opening sequence presents the Revolutionary Army's commanders and the Empty Throne. Makino, Woop Slap, and Makino's child each appear in the anime for the first time since the timeskip in this installment.