After more than 25 years, the shonen manga One Piece marked a historic moment on Monday as it finally landed on its 1000th chapter!
On January 4, the publishing company Shueisha celebrated the remarkable milestone of the manga One Piece with not only the launch of its first worldwide character poll but also a full-page color ad in the New York Times.
The poll’s website opened on Sunday. Until February 28, the poll will allow participants to vote for their favorite character once per day.
Furthermore, throughout the poll’s run, participants can receive an AR (augmented reality) model of the series’ popular characters. Simultaneously, different models will also be added.
“One Piece” ad on The New York Times
In The New York Times‘ newspaper, the poll’s full-page ad will appear on January 4. This appearance of the anime in NYT is not its first time as Luffy previously appeared in the newspaper. It was as part of the 2013 Sanoku ThanX (“300 million thanks”) campaign.
Moreover, to mark the manga’s milestone and promote the poll campaign, the publishing company also released two commemorative videos. The two videos center on the slogan “We Are One.”
Simultaneously, the creator Eiichiro Oda also published a letter to mark the publication of his 1,000th chapter.
He shared, “1000 Chapters!! … Words pretty much fail to describe the whirlwind these past 23 years have been.”
He went on that half of his life has revolved around the almighty weekly serialization literally.
Oda also shared that same as him, Luffy and the Strawhats also have navigated themselves to so many different islands. Through their journey, they found themselves caught up in so many adventures.
Although he doesn’t know how many lives the characters touched along the way, he is still thankful that because of them, so many special people have entered his own life. “First and foremost among them being my family,” he added.
What fans should not miss
Luffy will be featured on the cover of this year’s third, fourth, fifth, and sixth combined issues of Weekly Shonen Jump. The images of each issue will make one combined image when placed together.
Kōhei Horikoshi, Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, Boichi, and Gege Akutami, the Shonen Jump manga artists, will draw their favorite One Piece characters to appear on the cover art.
Extra-large posters will be bundled in both issues. This will be the largest ever included in Weekly Shonen Jump.
Image courtesy of IGN/YouTube Screenshot