MONKEY D. LUFFY is getting me pumped.

“Miracles only happen to those who never give up!” reads the quote on the wall, opposite the squat rack, under his grinning face. Easy for him to say—he’s not the one holding the weight. But these wise words, straight out of One Piece, the mega-popular manga, anime, and now live-action series chronicling the high-seas adventures of Luffy, his Straw Hat crew, and his quest to become king of all pirates, remind me to keep pushing in this Tokyo gym built to bring IRL exercise into this fantasy world.

Manga murals cover bulkheads. More motivational quotes adorn rope-wrapped masts (“I learned something aboard that ship… to never give up!”). Past the helm, projectors turn a panoramic space into a virtual ship’s deck for group training with One Piece characters. And that gigantic hunk of meat-on-the-bone sitting on a platform near the weight machines? Yeah, that’s a barbell.

I came to the heart of Shibuya on a quest. After two months drifting around Japan, my wife and I were set to end our trip in three days. But I couldn’t leave without checking out One Piece Fitness BragMen. It was my nephew Avonté—nine years old with Straw Hat energy—who put me on to the wild adventures of One Piece. When I learned about this place, I was determined to go and take pictures for him.

Rising with the sun in late October, I walked to Tokyo’s renowned entertainment hub, rode an elevator to the ninth floor of a shopping mall and stepped into the world’s first gym inspired by Eiichiro Oda’s iconic saga.

One Piece Fitness BragMen is filled with the series’s iconography.

We’ve already seen glimpses of anime crossing over into live action on the world’s biggest stage. At the Paris Olympics, American sprinter and gold medalist Noah Lyles pulled out a Yu-Gi-Oh! card of the powerful Blue-Eyes White Dragon. At the Tokyo Olympics, Greek long jumper Miltiádis Tentóglou paid tribute to Luffy and U.S. shot putter Payton Otterdahl struck a pose like One Piece’s Franky, who was hit by a train and half-dead, but rebuilt himself as a cyborg. BragMen isn’t the only anime-inspired gym, either—new spaces like the Anime X Gym in Oklahoma are also using the art form’s iconography to inspire exercisers to work hard to accomplish their goals.

The fusion of fitness and fandom has swept the globe, but these themed gyms are a level up from Dragon Ball Z gear, jacked cosplayers and content creators tackling the super-popular One-Punch Man workout. By gamifying progress, One Piece Fitness BragMen represents a different, deeper kind of influence, where beloved anime characters energize everyday people by tapping into fun and passion to fuel consistent performance.

Here, fitness is more than physical activity; it’s an immersive, full-body fantasy. After joining the gym (as a “crew member”), a physical test determines your “pirate rank.” With dedication, you can advance from “setting sail” to “wanted fugitive” and beyond, earning “bounty points” to stock up on protein during your journey. Memberships start around 10,000 yen per month (around $660), while guest passes start at about 4,400 yen (about $29) for an hour. Sure, this approach is more fanciful than you’ll find in old school gyms and CrossFit boxes where a no-nonsense approach earns respect (and gets people looking for hard-earned gains in the door), but this style of training has been successful beyond the world of anime fans, according to experts.

“Any sort of gamified or narrative-driven approach that supports an individual’s ability to tap into their strengths as a person and as a performer is going to help,” says Dr. Danielle Norenberg, a sports psychologist at the UK Sports Institute, which provides support to world-class athletes. “It’s going to align the training modality to how they think and how they express themselves.”

Find Your Strategy Guide

I’VE BEEN TO different gyms around the world, from rooftops in Kenya with weights made of cement to spots in Mexico adorned with Tupac murals. But this was the first time I had anime characters hyping me up. I found it’s hard to quit when you’ve got Luffy’s cheesing mug all but daring you to crank out that extra rep.

The experts agree I’m not just overly-imaginative. Identifying with anime’s larger-than-life characters can spark real-world perseverance, keep training fresh, and block out distractions in big moments, Norenberg says. And gamifying fitness is a logical step to keep momentum going, especially since “gaming is an inextricable part of anime culture,” according to research in Transported to Another World: The Psychology of Anime Fans.

“Fans of anime are finding characters with the strengths they see in themselves,” Norenberg says. “And what you need are strategies that help you focus and be present as much as you can to help performance in that moment, whether the Olympic Games or training day in and day out.”

Monkey D. Luffy, as portrayed by Iñaki Godoy in Netflix’s live-action adaptation.

One Piece BragMen brought the pirate world into real life to motivate the gym’s members—but others are using anime to inspire exercise in different ways. In Orlando, Josh Philoctete, a product designer, is on a mission to gamify anime workouts via technology. His quest started from a question: How do you give kids who don’t really have a social network around fitness a reason to be motivated and engaged? Then it hit him.

“Maybe if their parents tell them to go to the gym or a coach is like, ‘Hey, I want you to be more active,’ they wouldn’t listen,” he says. “But they might listen to Zoro because they really love Zoro. If I had the chance to train with Rock Lee and Might Guy, I would’ve taken it in a heartbeat.”

Growing up in Miami, the now 27-year-old Philoctete went through an awkward tween phase. He struggled with weight and felt self-conscious about it. But then he discovered Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, a series that depicts a bullied high school student who trains under martial arts masters to become a powerful fighter.

The meat-on-the-bone barbell in One Piece Fitness BragMen.

Inspired to take up martial arts, Philoctete remembers doing push-ups and practicing his horse stance as he watched the series when he was 12, copying everything Kenichi did.

“For a young Black man without a lot of resources, anime was really crucial in my development as a person,” he says. “It taught me how to recover from difficult things and push past my own limits. Alongside my mom and grandma, anime was raising me as well… I aspired to be like the Gokus and the Kenichis and the Narutos of the world.”

These figures and their stories can be potent tools for motivation and modeling self-worth, but Norenberg points out there is a tightrope between emulating a character to summon strength and using them to suppress uncomfortable emotions.

“We have to be careful that there’s not a contradiction,” she says. “So you’re scared or you’re frustrated or you’re anxious because you don’t know what’s going to happen in the rest of this training session or this performance. I’m quite often saying, ‘That’s okay, you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have fears, worries and anxieties.’”

Put simply, Norenberg means that while the anime figures (and the inspiration they provide) can be otherworldly, the exercisers inspired by them are still normal people with real issues that adopting a heroic mindset might not solve—and that’s okay. “I want the people I work with to be able to normalize those feelings and not feel like they have to push them away.”

Build Your ‘Training Arc’

NEXT TIME I’M in Japan, I’ll stop by BragMen again, take the test, and see how I stack up among the pirates. Until then, I’ll continue on my journey and look for other ways to connect with anime-inspired fitness, whether in-person or online.

Of course, in the digital world, anime’s unique appeal to emotions (through intense character development, bold visuals and high-stakes battles) can be a potent tool to get people engaged. You can find “animotivational” videos all over YouTube, from training montages to ranked exercises to epic speeches.

DAREBEE, an independent fitness resource, publishes anime-inspired workouts with names like “Super Saiyan” and “Demon Slayer.” Founder Neila Rey sees the medium as a unique way to bypass mental barriers to workouts, making exercise feel less like a chore than a blast. The goal is the same: Get people fired up to move their bodies by igniting their hearts.

Last August, brothers Walker and Riley Carman, both in their twenties, opened Anime X Gym in Edmond, Oklahoma, drawing inspiration from series like Black Clover, Berserk, and Mob Psycho 100. The space is laid out much like other strength training facilities, with a turf floor, free weights, and squat racks—but if you take even a moment to look at the walls, you’ll see they’re plastered in anime paraphernalia from a wide range of popular properties like Dragon Ball, One-Punch Man, and Cowboy Bebop. Unlike One Piece BragMen, Anime X Gym doesn’t have a fully gamified system—yet. But its theming already motivates members, from the posters and quotes on walls to the shared language of the programming.

The Anime X free weight space.

Walker says that the gym brass will sometimes reference the idea of being in a “training arc,” to members to evoke anime’s common themes of growth and perseverance. “We’re also exploring ideas like anime-themed progress trackers and rewards to enhance the experience further,” he says.

I might not make it to Oklahoma, though, so I could be better served getting my anime inspo digitally. In 2020, with a digital arts and sciences degree from the University of Florida, Philoctete revealed his idea for an anime fitness app. You choose your favorite character and workout, and they guide you through exercises, offering tips and motivation as you power through.

But during development, he faced his biggest obstacle: licensing. Would the publishers of these popular characters give him the thumbs-up to use them? Only time will tell. But Philoctete is determined to build the strongest proof of concept ever, so when he submits licensing forms this month, he will not be denied.

Anime X patrons get pumped surrounded by the art form’s iconography.

Philoctete wants to use his app to make an impact—and he credits anime for encouraging him to stay driven and “push past my limits!”

“That’s a cheesy quote from an anime called Black Clover,” he says, “often shouted by the main character or his leader before doing something really cool.”

When I asked my nephew if he’d want an app like this, he didn’t hold back.

“It would be cool, but I think that would be for you,” Avonté says. “You’re going to be out of shape after I beat you in basketball.”