One Piece has been airing on TV for a long time over here. So long that younger children who love the show have likely missed huge chunks of the early material. This is kind of a problem when you consider the fact that artist and writer Eiichiro Oda loves to revisit old material, incorporating old arcs into brand new ones. Case and point, Fishman Island. 

The currently airing arc on Japanese TV has significant ties to the Arlong Park story arc from many years ago, which no doubt makes it kind of difficult for the little ones to understand what's going on. Fortunately, Toei has taken this into consideration and will be airing a two hour TV special on August 25 called Episode of Nami: Koukai no Namida to Nakama no Kizuna. While I wouldn't blame you if you expected a compilation movie of some kind, it turns out that that it's being advertised as a completely new production. Whether this is just a way of saying they've animated a few new scenes or that they've completely reanimated two full hours remains to be seen. I'm hoping for the latter.

The Arlong Park arc was the point in which One Piece sank its hooks into me and never let go. Many a tear was shed, and it was then that I decided I wanted to ride this ship until the very end, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with this story.

You can check out some of the new character artwork over at Toei's official One Piece website. It's nice to see the old designs get polished up a bit.

Any other big One Piece fans out there? Don't make me feel all lonely now!

[via Hachima]