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Captain of the Straw Hats — Monkey D. Luffy — from the hit anime One Piece, took to the skies above midtown Manhattan in his inaugural appearance on the morning of Thursday, November 23rd, 2023 for the 97th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
According to Macy’s website, the inflatable pirate float is 50 feet (15.24 meters) high, 43 feet (13.1 meters) in length, and 39 feet (11.88 meters) wide, and contains over 20 shades of paint.
His debut appearance was not without problems, as his iconic hat deflated after being snagged by tree branch early on the parade route. Instead of a well-rounded straw hat, Luffy wore a limp bucket hat for the rest of the event. Large balloons like this are difficult to control where severe gusts of wind can tear them apart, as experienced by the dinosaur Barney in 1997.
Joining Luffy was Super Saiyan Blue Goku from Dragon Ball Super and a festive float of Pokémon Pikachu and Eevee seated in a Pokéball sled. Non-anime balloons included Snoopy, Ronald McDonald, Bluey and Spongebob Squarepants.
Missed watching the parade live on television? Global News has the full pageant on YouTube.
Written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece is among the most popular anime and manga series of all time. Since 1997, the manga is serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and available translated into English for North American readers from Viz Media, while the anime is currently simulcast on Crunchyroll in subbed and dubbed formats.
Sources: Twitter, Instagram, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2023
©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation
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