TOKYO — After 25 years and 490 million copies
sold worldwide, the beloved
Japanese manga “One Piece” is entering its final
chapter, according to its creator Eiichiro Oda.
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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, the treasure coveted by all
pirates.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Oda announced he
would be taking a month off from his usual publishing pace of one instalment
per week, citing various demands, including his work on the last part of the
long-running series.
“A break for me!” he wrote in a
handwritten announcement posted on the series’ official Twitter account.
“I want to rearrange the structure (of
the manga) so that I can wrap up the final chapter as soon as possible.
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 — the world’s
biggest manga and anime market after Japan.
A live-action adaptation by
Netflix is
also in the works, with fans speculating 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 Tuesday that the cartoon would be
relaunched following the death of its creator, Kentaro Miura, just over a year
ago.
Miura’s friend Kouji Mori will continue
the author’s work based on discussions they had about the direction of the
series, the publishing house Hakusensha announced.
“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.”
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