ONE PIECE BUZZ — 2026 Elbaf Predictions & Key Foreshadowing

Hi, this is Zorilover — the unapologetic blogger who knows she should be finishing her New Year’s cleaning, but her love for One Piece keeps dragging her back here anyway.

This whole “I still haven’t finished cleaning” bit has basically become an annual year-end tradition at this point.

Story of my life.

 

Before writing this article, I reread the “Predictions for 2025” that I wrote last year. Turns out I got a lot of things right!

The parts that missed were mostly the things that didn’t progress as much as I expected this year.

Since I’m now on my year-end/New Year holiday break and finally have some time, today I want to take a good long look back at this year and talk about the key points to watch for in 2026.

 

Zorilover’s blog tends to be less about predicting the future and more about “crying out my love for One Piece at the center of the world” and obsessively analyzing nerdy details.

But once a year, we have our big flashy Year-End Grand Prediction Festival—so let’s go all out!

 

The Gospel according to Oda

As always, let’s start with the annual tradition: the greeting message that the absolute god of the One Piece world, Eiichiro Oda-Daimyojin, sends to Jump Festa at the end of the year.

Oda-cchi, who holds even Im-sama’s power of life and death in his hands, gives us a Log Pose pointing toward next year’s developments. And this year’s message is this!

 

To everyone attending Jump Festa, hello! “Towards a brighter future for all”!!! This is O-myaku-da Myaku-ichiro!* In preparation for writing this letter, I asked my editor to list up everything we have planned for next year, and we ended up with a very long list of things that are coming up. But he tells me, “We can’t talk about this, this, this or this. Hmm, I guess we can’t say anything!? But looking at the list, it does look like many of our projects are aimed at a global audience (needless to say, that includes Japan).

The previously announced anime re-adaptation The ONE PIECE is made for a worldwide audience, and is well in progress. And on March 10 next year, the live-action ONE PIECE Season 2 will finally launch! We’ll finally get to see Chopper! Every time I see new scenes of him, I find myself saying, “Sooo cuuute!” Next March, all of you will be saying the same thing. I hope you’ll also enjoy seeing all of the quirky new cast members as well as seeing how perfectly Iñaki and the others embody the Straw Hats. In fact, filming has already begun on Season 3, which will
conclude the Alabasta Saga. Please look forward to it!

As for the new anime film-they haven’t said I’m allowed to say this—| can’t say it’s going particularly well. But maybe saying this will light a fire under everyone, LOL. But it’s about something that I’m sure all of you will be very interested in, so I hope you’ll wait patiently for it.

Since this is Jump Festa, I should talk about the manga on Jump! After what you could call a very long flashback, or at least a little glimpse into history that I’m sure has given you a different perspective on Elbaph, we ended things with a bang, and now things are about to get crazy. Will we get to the island that only King of the Pirates had previously reached? “The man with the
burn scar” will appear! Characters who’d never met before will finally meet! Another pair of characters will come face to face! I think next year will be a year of encounters. The story will be moving at a breakneck speed, but since l’ve aged-much to my chagrin-I’ll take the liberty of maintaining my
own health as we continue sailing next year at the fastest ONE PIECE speed.
Festivities ahead! Get ready for a spectacular year!

@Eiichro Oda

 

We’ve got tons of exciting news for One Piece fans—like the Hollywood live-action Season 2 starting in March, and a new anime film project.

But since today’s article is about predicting the manga’s developments, let’s focus on the last paragraph!

 

First, the Elbaf arc will “end with a big DOOOON!!” sometime this year.

And next—are we finally heading to Laugh Tale!?

He writes, “Will we get to the island that only King of the Pirates had previously reached!?“

That little end “!?” is tricky.

 

Once they leave Elbaf, the next destination might indeed be Laugh Tale, but I doubt they’ll actually arrive in 2026.

Not so much a reason as a gut feeling based on experience.

 

Who’s about to run into whom?

The line “The man with the burn scar will appear!!” is also a very intriguing foreshadowing-resolution announcement.

Since it’s “!!”, he’s definitely appearing.

And since he says “appear,” maybe it’s someone the readers haven’t met yet.

 

But the part that interests me the most is: “Those two who had never met will finally cross paths! And those two will meet too!! Next year might be a festival of encounters!” This part!

Hmm, I really want to dig deep into this one.

If he says “those two who had never met,” then it must be two extremely important characters.

 

Personally, I’m dying to see Jinbe and Koala reunite, or Brook and Laboon reunite.

But that’s not it here.

It’s not a reunion—it’s “two major figures who should have met by now but somehow never have.” Maybe Loki and Mosa-ko? A twist where Mosa-ko turns out to be a surprisingly major figure (and someone the readers already know) would be fun.

 

Another one that would make me really happy if realized is reunion of Shanks and Grandpa Garp.

Well, they did see each other at Marineford, but they didn’t interact. If Shanks, who declared he’s going to “take the One Piece,” storms Pirate Island to defeat Teach and ends up saving Garp in the process, Zorilover will dance with joy.

 

But the top contender is still Shanks vs. Teach.

They did briefly clash at Marineford, but at that time Teach judged that his crew wasn’t strong enough to fight Shanks yet and backed off.

If these two finally meet, it absolutely fits “those two who had never met will finally cross paths.”

 

There’s also the possibility that Luffy finally meets Shanks, but personally I want that to happen much later.

But Luffy meeting Shamrock?

That could happen. Shamrock returned to Mary Geoise ahead of the others, but the Straw Hats will likely have more run-ins with the God Knights (and Brook’s connection with Gunko is also interesting).

A scene where Luffy is shocked to meet Shamrock, who looks exactly like Shanks, feels very possible.

 

Oh—and speaking of Koala, I just realized: what about Dragon and Luffy finally meeting as father and son? That fits “never met before” and “finally” perfectly. It’s about time for that parent-child encounter.

 

Now let’s summarize the possible “those two” encounters Oda-cchi hinted at (Zorilover’s analysis):

[Top Pick] Shanks & Teach

 [Strong Candidates] Luffy & Shamrock, Luffy & Dragon

 [Wild Card] Loki & Mosa-ko

[Personal Wish] Garp & Shanks, Jinbe & Koala.

It could be one of these—or since Oda said “a festival of encounters,” maybe several will happen!

The story is entering its final phase, and the big players are starting to converge. It’s exciting!

 

Unresolved Foreshadowing and What Comes Next

This year’s One Piece was Elbaf from start to finish, so not much else progressed.

So some of this overlaps with what I wrote last year, but here are the things that worry me so much I can only eat one bowl of New Year soba.

In no particular order.

These are also key points to watch next year.

1. How will Luffy and the others repel the God Knights?

Even though Shamrock, the leader, returned to Mary Geoise, Gunko-sei, Sommers-sei, and Kiringham-sei are still extremely strong. Yassan—Scopper Gaban—was gravely injured, and the Elbaf children are still in danger.

And Im-sama is remote-controlling them. Even Dorry and Brogy, who should be leading the giant warriors, have fallen to the dark side under Im’s power.

 

The Straw Hats will probably team up with Loki to defeat them, but it’s going to be a tough fight.

I doubt the final showdown with the God Knights will happen in the Elbaf arc, since Shamrock isn’t there.

But for now, the Straw Hats, Loki, and Hajrudin will have to drive them off somehow.

 

Let the new generation save Elbaf without relying on the world’s oldest Yarl-sama or the Pirate King’s gravely injured left hand.

 

2. What is the connection between Gunko and Brook?

This is intriguing. Right before Im took over his consciousness, Gunko seemed to remember something about Brook.

I think this will be resolved before the Elbaf arc ends, but if we get a Brook flashback, the arc could be long.

I hope it’s long.

Totally fine!

The longer, the better!!

 

3. Will Loki join Luffy’s crew?

Luffy seriously tried to recruit Loki. Loki refused, and Hajrudin opposed it, but as we saw in the flashback, Loki isn’t evil at heart.

Depending on future reconciliation and Loki’s actions, it’s not impossible. Though physically, he’s too big for the Sunny, and there are food supply issues…

 

Alternatively: Even though Loki was imprisoned as a fallen prince for six years, Hajrudin still hasn’t become king of Elbaf.

So maybe the misunderstanding about Loki will be cleared, and he’ll become king as Harald’s will intended.

 

4. The Red-Haired Pirates’ true objective.

Shanks holds a crucial key to the shifting era of the One Piece world.

In the Elbaf flashback, he was shown “returning home” to Mary Geoise for some purpose.

He witnessed the tragedy at Castle Aulst 14 years ago, and the next year he attacked a Navy ship, obtained the Zoan “Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika” (then called the Gomu Gomu no Mi), and for some reason went to the East Blue and stayed in remote Foosha Village for a whole year.

That’s when he met six-year-old Luffy.

 

This whole sequence of Red-Hair Pirates’ actions is mysterious.

Despite being a Celestial Dragon by blood and a former crew member of the Pirate King, Shanks bet everything—including his left arm—on Luffy, the symbol of the new era.

So why is he now declaring he will “wrest the One Piece,” standing in Luffy’s way? And not “take,” “claim,” or “retrieve”—but “wrest.”

He fully intends to take it from someone.

 

Shanks seems to be carrying something unimaginably heavy.

It feels as though he is shouldering a weight beyond anything we can fathom.

I can’t take my eyes off him next year.

 

5. What is Teach plotting against the Celestial Dragons?

This storyline hasn’t moved forward much in a while, but Teach and the Blackbeard Pirates’ next actions are crucial.

He has Lafitte monitoring the World Government near Mary Geoise, and with Garp as the ultimate bargaining chip, Teach will surely make moves toward his dream of “founding a kingdom.”

 

In the Elbaf flashback, we learned about the heroic figure of Teach’s father, Rocks, and that Teach is a descendant of Davy D. Jones.

This makes it even more likely that Teach will be deeply involved in the final world-shaking conflict.

 

As a surviving member of the Davy Jones lineage—whom the World Government wants to exterminate, along with Kuma’s Buccaneer tribe and King/Alber’s Lunarian tribe—will Teach ultimately be an enemy or an ally?

It’s becoming harder to tell.

 

6. The unpredictable moves of Cross Guild.

And then there’s Buggy—the greatest trickster in One Piece—leading CROSS GUILD, who will surely stir chaos and ignite the flames even further.

Oda-cchi is a genius for pairing the ultra-serious Crocodile and Mihawk with Buggy.

 

Crocodile only wanted money, and Mihawk only wanted a stable cover identity.

But thanks to Buggy’s mysterious charisma and his newly revealed burning desire to become Pirate King (well, he was on the Pirate King’s crew), Cross Guild is probably heading in a very entertaining direction.

Watching Crocodile and Mihawk—who saw Buggy as nothing more than a punching bag or puppet—get dragged around by “Buggy’s Great Adventure” will be hilarious.

 

That’s my year-end write-up, long as always because I wrote whatever came to mind.

Predictions are hit or miss, but one thing is certain: One Piece will only get more exciting.

 

Thank you for reading my blog throughout the year. Please continue supporting me next year as well.

Wishing you all a wonderful New Year.

 

© Zorilover
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