English-speaking fans of Eiichiro Oda’s masterpiece will be participating in the upcoming One Piece Day celebration activities.
According to the Official Press Release, One Piece Day will take place on July 21 and 22; On Monday, several main stage events will be streamed live on YouTube for the first time with English subtitles. The first day will include a special screening of One Piece Film: Red, the newest film in the series.
One Piece Day Surprise
One Piece Day will also feature loads of exhibits and merchandise as well as a special surprise announcement. For those unable to attend the celebration in person, as the event will take place in Tokyo, Japan, some of the new collections are now available for pre-order on Sideshow. For example, MegaHouse has revealed two gorgeous and rather expensive figures of some of the most popular characters in One Piece; The Trafalgar D. Water Law statue retails for $242 and comes with interchangeable hands that allow for different posing options, while the Bentham of the Wild (aka. is Mr. 2 Bon Clay) sold for $296 and showcased the flashy pirate’s colorful fashion sense.
There have been other recent developments for the One Piece franchise beyond new merchandise and One Piece Day details. Most notably, the Netflix live-action adaptation will premiere on the streaming service at the end of August. The show stars Iñaki Godoy as protagonist Monkey D. Luffy with Mackenyu as the lead character. Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp and Taz Skylar as Sanji. In a promotional interview for the new Netflix Original, Gibson praised the special effects team, explaining how he’s most excited when viewers get to see the live-action Sea Kings.
Live-Action One Piece actors discuss the series
Additionally, Skylar shared her thoughts on the incredible length of the One Piece story — the manga has over 1,000 individual chapters — and the length of the live-action chapters. “I want people to be proud of where we ended up. I don’t want it to end short and I don’t want it to be long. That’s my ideal,” he explained and Godoy agreed.
While Netflix’s cast may not want to stick around for long, One Piece fans continue to share their love and excitement for Oda’s work by attending events like Day One Piece and create their own content, especially cosplay. Recent examples include the attitude-filled take on Donquixote Doflamingo and a vibrant version of Soul King Brook.
Source: Stories International