After 25 years and 490 million copies sold worldwide, the beloved Japanese manga One Piece is entering its final chapter, its creator, Eiichiro Oda, said on Tuesday.
The manga, which follows the adventures of the swashbuckling pirate Monkey D. Luffy, has captivated millions of fans worldwide as its characters hunt for One Piece, a treasure coveted by pirates in the comics.
Oda wrote on Twitter that he would be taking a month off from his usual publishing pace of one instalment per week, citing demands including his work on the final part of the long-running series.
“A break for me,” Oda wrote in a handwritten announcement that was posted on the official Twitter account of the series.
“I want to rearrange the structure [of the manga] so that I can wrap up the final chapter as soon as possible,” he wrote. “Soooo... Forgive me, but I will take a short breather to prepare for it all.”
One Piece first appeared in manga form in Japan in 1997, with an animated TV series version following two years later.
Since then, the franchise has become a global cultural phenomenon, and Oda holds the Guinness World Record for “most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author.”
Last year, the 1,000th episode of the TV series was released, with special screenings in the US and France.
A live-action adaptation by Netflix is also in the works, with fans speculating that it could catapult the franchise to global household name status, on par with Star Wars or Harry Potter.
Meanwhile, the publishers of another cult manga series, Berserk, announced that the cartoon would be relaunched following the death of its creator, Kentaro Miura, a little more than a year ago.
Miura’s friend Kouji Mori would continue the author’s work based on discussions the two had about the direction of the series, the Hakusensha publishing house said.
“I will only write the episodes that Miura talked to me about,” Mori said in the statement released by Hakusensha. “I will not flesh it out. I will not write episodes that I don’t remember clearly. I will only write the lines and stories that Miura described to me.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese