VIZ Media has released the English localization of Naoshi Komi's One Piece cover chapter for free online.The free chapter can be read online via VIZ's website. The "cover chapter" is a complete redraw of the "Vivi's Adventure" chapter from the original One Piece manga, which takes place near the end of the Alabasta arc. This release is the second chapter from Eiichiro Oda's long running manga to get a "cover" from a different Shonen Jump manga creator; Dr. Stone creator Boichi previously redrew an earlier chapter in the series, which was also released by VIZ online. The cover chapters are being released as part of the celebration surrounding the recent publication of One Piece's 1000th chapter. The manga will also soon release its 100th collected volume.
Naoshi Komi is best known for the romantic-comedy Nisekoi, which was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2011-2016 and was adapted into a two season anime series that ran from 2014-2015. The series tells the story of Raku Ichijo, the son of a Yakuza boss who dreams of living a normal life. His dreams become more complicated when his father pulls Raku into an arranged marriage with the daughter of another Yakuza boss in order to end a long-standing conflict between the two crime families. In order to prevent a gang war, Raku is forced to maintain a fake relationship with his new fiancé, the proud and capable Chitoge Kirisaki, but he continues to pursue a relationship with his long-time crush, the kind but shy Kosaki Onodera.
Komi has previously cited One Piece as one of his major influences. The new cover chapter is not his first time working on a property from another Shonen Jump creator -- in 2012 Komi collaborated with Haikyuu!! creator Haruichi Furudate to create a crossover between their series.
One Piece, meanwhile, remains as popular as ever as it continues its 24th year of publication. The series was originally created by Eiichiro Oda in 1997 and was considered one of Shonen Jump's "Big Three" franchises during the early 00's, alongside Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto and Tite Kubo's Bleach. The manga was adapted into an anime series in 1999, which is currently on its 20th season and will soon air its 1000th episode. The original manga has almost half a billion copies in circulation and is the best-selling manga series ever, while the anime series has maintained consistently high ratings throughout its twenty year history.
VIZ Media localizes and distributes both the One Piece and Nisekoi manga series in English. The One Piece anime series is available for streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, VRV and Funimation, while both seasons of the Nisekoi anime are available on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
Source: VIZ Media