Hard Knock Days

"Hard Knock Days" is the 18th opening for One Piece and the fourth opening of the second half of the series.

Opening
Luffy uses Gomu Gomu no Gigant Pistol to punch out of a Marine Base. It is followed by the individual shots of the Straw Hats and followed by a full shot of them altogether with Luffy sporting their Jolly Roger. Luffy cheers as his crew then run and jump off a cliff to the Thousand Sunny. The ship sails on the background as the title logo comes up.

The next scene is an overhead shot of a island, then to the Sunny which is sailing near the island. A seagull flies by the mast, passing where Luffy sits on the top of the crow's nest before flying off into the sky. The Straw Hats then are seen shopping at a marketplace, followed by a scene on the deck of the Sunny where Usopp is "singing" as Brook plays music while Luffy and Chopper laugh and Robin is watching over them. Luffy is looking out at sea on the railing while Chopper examines a Log Pose, Nami looks over a map and Zoro doing exercise on the upper railing. Just as Nami points something out, Sanji exits out of the kitchen with food. All of the Straw Hats then eat together in the galley.

Luffy then eats some meat while running across a rocky surface. The background dims as he is running with a spotlight placed above him as images of Corrida Colosseum gladiators scroll by in the background. Luffy continues eating while running toward the Royal Plateau. A shot of Bartolomeo using his Bari Bari no Mi powers, followed by Cavendish slicing giant toy soldiers briefly transforming into Hakuba as Luffy runs by. The next shot comes several almost shadowed figures of Marines walking led by Sakazuki, then Blackbeard using his Yami Yami no Mi powers. An explosion then knocks Luffy back but regains himself and continues charging forward.

Luffy runs to the Sunny which is flying in the air at the moment. His crew waves and smiles at him. Luffy stretches his arms to them to which they grab them and fling him past the ship to fly over an island. The Straw Hat Pirates are then shown doing a few attacks: Luffy does a few Gear Second attacks and stretches up his leg up followed by an Elephant Axe and a Red Hawk, then Zoro demonstrating his swordsmanship, Sanji using Diable Jambe, Nami performing Thunderbolt Tempo using her Sorcery Clima-Tact, Usopp riding on an Impact Wolf while firing a Pop Green that turns into vines which carry Robin, Robin using her Hana Hana no Mi powers to sprout wings and takes off into the air while making a string of limbs on which Brook lands and runs, Brook performing a Soul Solid attack before being interrupted by Franky who swings past firing his Weapons Left and a Radical Beam and finally, Chopper pops in morphing to his Heavy Point and then to Monster Point before the rest of the crew form a circle in front of him.

The Straw Hats then run alongside their allies from the Dressrosa Arc, including Kyros, Riku Dold III, Viola, Trafalgar D. Water Law, Kin'emon, Momonosuke, Kanjuro, and the Straw Hat Grand Fleet. In the background, allies from previous story arcs can also be seen, including Jinbe, Boa Hancock, Shirahoshi, Emporio Ivankov, Inazuma, Silvers Rayleigh, Hatchan, Keimi, Pappug, Lola, Kureha, Dalton, Nefertari Vivi, Paulie, Kokoro and Chimney.

Luffy runs past Sabo as the camera circles to the front of him. Sabo uses his Mera Mera no Mi powers with Ace in the background. Senor Pink fights Franky with Kyuin and Senor's fangirls fall in love. Some of the dwarves (Wicca, Cotton, Inhel, Bomba and Flapper) cheer for Franky. Zoro is shown fighting Pica. Then Rebecca, Robin and Kyros appear on Flower Hill. Usopp uses Super Grow Up. Kin'emon, along with Kanjuro, who is using his drawing powers (up to Episode 688, this part was highlighted in dark colors, being set in the underground garbage dump, while from Episode 689 onwards they are in full color, being set on the surface), and Corazon are shown together with the young Law.

It fades into a now adult Law as Luffy and he run towards the screen and the latter continues on to face Doflamingo. Afterwards, the Sunny is slowly sailing with the Straw Hats having a picnic on the deck. Luffy then puts on his straw hat and smiles. In the end, the crew poses while standing on a map of the world.

Trivia

 * This opening shows the faces of Corazon, Kanjuro and Kyuin before their actual introduction.