Manga Passion

Manga passion is clearly identified by One Piece, one of the most popular manga series of all time. If you have true passion for manga, then you can catch One Piece series in a variety of forms including magazines, books, films, cartoons, and video games. One Piece is a shonen manga, meaning that it is aimed at a male demographic of school age boys. Written and illustrated by the Japanese manga artist Eiichiro Oda, it is his most notable work. One Piece has been serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since August 4, 1997 and continues to be published today. The individual chapters of One Piece manga series are being published in tankobon (books) volumes by the Japanese publisher Shueisha, with the first volume released on December 24, 1997 and 53 volumes released as of early March 2009. With more than 140 million copies sold, One Piece is the third highest selling manga in the history of Weekly Shonen Jump. Additionally, it is considered the company’s most acclaimed and all-time third-best-selling title in Japan.

The American company Viz Media licensed One Piece for release in English language in North America . The individual chapters are being serialized in Viz's Shonen Jump manga anthology and being published in tankobon volumes. In the United Kingdom, VIZ Media now also releases One Piece, replacing the previous publisher Gollancz Manga. Madman Entertainment is releasing the manga series in Australia and New Zealand.

One Piece was adapted into an original video animation (OVA) that was produced in 1998 by Production I.G. The manga series was later adapted into a full anime series by Toei Animation that premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on October 20, 1999. As of Early March 2009, more than 390 episodes of the series have aired. The anime series was licensed for a heavily edited English dubbed broadcast in North America by 4Kids Entertainment. It has since been licensed for a full Region 1 DVD release and broadcast by Funimation Entertainment in it's original and Uncut form. On April 12, 2007, Funimation Entertainment acquired the license for the One Piece series. After producing a new English voice dub in, the company released its first unedited, bilingual DVD box set, containing 13 episodes, on May 27, 2008. Similarl sized sets were produced with two sets released as of September 16, 2008. The Funimation English dubbed episodes premiered on the Cartoon Network on September 29, 2007 and aired until they were cancelled on March 29, 2008.

Since One Piece made its debut on television, Toei Animation has also produced nine One Piece feature films, traditionally released during the Japanese school spring break since Early 2000. The first three films of the manga series were less than an hour long and played as part of a double-bill with other anime movies. In typical fashion for movies based on serialized manga, the One Piece films feature self-contained, completely original plots with animation of better quality than what the weekly anime presents. The list of the films includes "One Piece: The Movie", "Clockwork Island Adventure", "Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals", "Dead End Adventure", "Curse of the Sacred Sword", "Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island", "Giant Mecha Soldier of Karakuri Castle", "Episode of Alabasta: The Desert Princess and the Pirates", "Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in the Winter, Miracle Sakura.”

You can feel true manga passion with video games. One Piece manga series also translated well into the video game industry, with more than 25 videos games releases based on the manga series. The video game series features various genres, mostly role-playing games and fighting games. One Piece: Mezase Kaizoku Ou! Was the first video game of the series which was released in Japan on July 19, 2000. Some of the most recent video games include One Piece: Unlimited Cruise: Episode 1 and One Piece: Unlimited Cruise: Episode 2, released in late 2008 and early 2009, respectively. Video games of the One Piece series have been released for platforms and console such as Play Station, Play Station 2, Play Station Portable Nintendo Game Cube, Nintendo DS, Wii, Wonderswan, Wonderswan Color, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance. The games of One Piece series were published by subsidiaries of Namco Bandai Holdings.

If you have passion for manga then check out the great original plot of the series. A boy named Monkey D. Luffy, inspired by his childhood hero "Red-Haired" Shanks, goes out on a journey to find the legendary One Piece, to become the new Pirate King. To fulfill this task, he must reach the end of the most deadly and dangerous ocean: The Grand Line.

Luffy captains the Straw Hat Pirates first through the sea of East Blue and then through the Grand Line. He follows the path of the deceased Pirate King, Gold Roger, wandering from island to island on his search for the great treasure One Piece. On his way his crew grows to include a swordsman, a navigator, a sniper, a cook, a doctor, an archaeologist, a shipwright, and a musician. Throughout the story, the crew compete with both other less moral pirate crews and the Navy. The Navy are the subordinates of the World Government, who apparently look for justice by ending the Golden Age of Pirates. Many background story elements involve the delicate balance of power between the World Government and the world's most powerful pirate crews.