Monkey D. Luffy and his crew have had a lot of adventures throughout the One Piece series, and this anniversary video celebrates every leg of that journey.
The official One Piece YouTube channel released the video in celebration of the manga's 25th anniversary. Opening on a shot of a single G-pen, a standard tool for manga artists, it begins rapidly spinning as pages of the first few One Piece chapters appear around it. Luffy's earliest battles and initial meetings with Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji throughout the East Blue Saga can be seen until the pen slows and a trail of pen tips leads over the edge. The trail continues running with the final pages of the Loguetown Arc and the introduction of the Arabasta Saga. Throughout the video, art supplies and various volumes of the long-running manga can be seen in the background.
The pen's path and its surroundings take on aspects of Luffy's adventure such as cotton clouds for the Sky Island Saga, Water 7's railroad tracks and even the separation of the Straw Hats before their journey through the second half of the Grand Line known as the New World. As the adventures in the New World close, the trail of pens ends at a stack of manga issues, art supplies and lamps. The video ends on this stack of items which when lit up shows the silhouette of Shanks placing his straw hat on top of a young Luffy's head.
This video arrives just hours ahead of the official anniversary date, July 22, and a special event for One Piece Day. The first day of the event begins at 1:50 AM PST on July 22. Fans who tune into the live stream can see footage from One Piece Film: Red's world premiere which includes special appearances from the film's cast. The second day kicks off at 6:00 PM PST when the musician of One Piece's first anime theme song, Hiroshi Kitadani, will give a live performance. Aside from these special performances and celebrations of One Piece's anniversary, there have been hints of new announcements for upcoming manga, anime, games and more for the best-selling manga.
After 25 years and over 1,000 chapters, One Piece is entering its final arc. The Wano Saga has ended with Kaido's defeat at Luffy's hand, and the author of the series, Eiichiro Oda, promises that this last part of the journey will be the most exciting. The first chapter of it debuts in Japan on July 25.
Source: YouTube