On Sunday Dec. 20, the doors opened at Tokyo’s Makuhari Messe for the second day of Jump Festa 2016. One of the final events of the day included the annual One Piece Super Stage Event, where new information related to One Piece Film: Gold and the manga was revealed.

One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda said himself two years ago that he would not be appearing in any One Piece Super Stage Events in the future, and he has subsequently ignored his own resolution during a brief surprise guest appearance in last year’s Super Stage Event and again in this year’s One Piece Super Stage Event…sort of. Oda gave several remarks on Film: Gold and the manga in the form of a letter introducing himself as Hashimoto Kanna.

To celebrate the upcoming movie, this year’s Jump Festa One Piece Super Stage Event’s theme was “gold.” This included gold-colored costumes for the voice actors of all the Straw Hat Pirates who attended and new character model drawings of Luffy wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses for the One Piece Film: Gold were revealed.

The origin of the manga’s Cat Viper was also revealed: Brook’s voice actor Cho’s own made-up “song” about “going off to meet the Cat Viper,” a song which Oda liked, impressed him enough that he decided to integrate Cat Viper into the manga. Talk about manga and anime synergy!

Furthermore, it was also revealed that we would see Sanji’s voice actor Hiroaki Hirata make his comeback next year and that the manga would be revealing Sanji’s origin story (to be more precise: “his birth,” was indicated at the event in Japanese) in 2016! Will we finally know the meaning behind that Sanji wanted poster?! The year of Sanji is upon us!

Oda says lots of fans ask him when Sanji is coming back. Please be assured. Next year, is the YEAR OF SANJI — Greg (@ochimusha108) December 20, 2015

Oh, you could probably guess but we'll find out the mystery of 'Alive Only' within the year. — Greg (@ochimusha108) December 20, 2015

Oh, we'll also find out about 'Sanji's birth' this coming year. Hmm. ★ — Greg (@ochimusha108) December 20, 2015

Lastly, during the Jump Festa One Piece Super Stage Event, they recorded the public’s cheers, applause, stomping into even more applause and screams which will later be integrated into the upcoming movie as well as in the upcoming Birdcage scenes in the anime’s Dressrosa Arc. I wonder if that means everyone at Jump Festa is now allowed an IMDb account?

They've recorded segment of cheers, applause, stomping into applause and screams. — Greg (@ochimusha108) December 20, 2015

For more information on this year’s Jump Festa and the Super Stage Event, be sure to listen to a future One Piece Podcast episode when One Piece Podcast’s very own “One Piece mania” Greg Werner will give us more details about everything that went on!

Close with 'I Am The World' song. That's it for me folks! Jump Festa is a wrap. See you on @OnePiecePodcast — Greg (@ochimusha108) December 20, 2015

Also be sure to read up on the newest information on the upcoming One Piece Film: Gold by reading this post or any other posts here on the One Piece Podcast!