Toei Animation Gives Fans a First Look Inside the Immersive Dome for the First-Ever ‘One Piece Fest’

Anime festivals have increasingly leaned into full-sensory spectacle over the past few years, but few franchises have the built-in fervor to justify an entire immersive dome experience quite like ‘One Piece.‘ With the manga now closing in on its final stretch after nearly three decades of storytelling, fans have been hungry for ways to feel physically closer to a world they’ve only ever experienced on the page or screen.

That appetite is finally being met in a genuinely unprecedented way. Toei Animation has spent months building anticipation for what it’s calling the first-ever ‘One Piece Fest,’ a two-day celebration designed specifically for the franchise’s devoted fanbase, and the studio has now shared a sneak peek at the immersive centerpiece fans have been waiting to see.

Toei Animation confirmed the event is officially underway, sharing a video preview of The Dome at Cosm Los Angeles ahead of ‘One Piece Fest,’ which runs Aug. 25 and 26 in Inglewood, California. The centerpiece of the event is a specially produced “Elbaph Experience” projected onto Cosm’s massive 87-foot diameter LED dome, giving attendees a 5,000-square-foot, 12K-by-10K immersive presentation themed around the story’s current giant-filled arc.

That scale isn’t an exaggeration. According to event organizers, the dome allows the floor, ceiling, and every surrounding wall to move in sync, creating what past attendees of a similar Tokyo edition have consistently struggled to fully describe, often landing on the same comparison: the closest anyone has come to physically standing on the Grand Line.

Access to ‘One Piece Fest’ hasn’t been simple to secure. The event is capped at an estimated 7,000 fans total across four sessions, split evenly between the two days, with entry determined entirely through a ticket lottery system rather than a traditional box office sale. That scarcity has reportedly pushed fan communities on Discord to organize group registration efforts in the months leading up to the event.

Beyond the dome experience itself, each session includes panels, live performances, partner activations, and exclusive event-only merchandise unavailable anywhere else. Toei Animation has also confirmed that English voice actors and Japanese musical artists will make appearances throughout the festival, though specific names for those guest slots have been rolled out gradually rather than all at once.

Lisa Yamatoya, senior director and head of marketing for Toei Animation Inc., described the event as the studio’s first-ever “All ONE PIECE” concept celebration built specifically around the fanbase, framing the combination of featured guests, panels, and the immersive dome presentation as a genuinely packed experience no fan would want to miss. The timing lines up deliberately with this year’s One Piece Day, the annual worldwide celebration held each July marking the manga’s anniversary.

Held at Cosm Los Angeles, a 65,000-square-foot experiential venue that opened in 2024 within Hollywood Park’s entertainment district, the festival also included a private VIP preview for special guests and media the evening before the public event officially began. With sessions running throughout both days of the festival, guests have repeated opportunities to experience the Elbaph presentation regardless of which time slot their lottery ticket assigned them.

Given how much anticipation has built around this format since it debuted overseas, ‘One Piece Fest’ feels like Toei Animation testing just how far the franchise’s immersive potential can be pushed for its Western audience.

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