One Piece

One Piece (Japanese: ワンピース, Hepburn: Wan Pīsu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since July 19, 1997, with the chapters collected into eighty tankōbon volumes to date. One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a funny young man whose body gained the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating a Devil Fruit. With his diverse crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy explores the grand line in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as "One Piece" in order to become the next Pirate King.

The manga has been adapted into an original video animation (OVA) produced by Production I.G in 1998, and an anime series produced by Toei Animation, which began broadcasting in Japan in 1999 and has aired 728 episodes to date. Additionally, Toei has developed thirteen animated feature films, two OVAs, and five television specials. Several companies have developed various types of merchandising such as a trading card game, and a large number of video games. The manga series was licensed for an English language release in North America & the United Kingdom by Viz Media and in Australia by Madman Entertainment. The anime series was licensed by 4Kids Entertainment for an English-language release in North America, before the license was dropped and subsequently acquired by Funimation in 2007.

Monkey D. Luffy

Monkey D. "Straw Hat" Luffy (モンキー・D・ルフィ, Monkī Dī Rufi) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the One Piece manga franchise created by Eiichiro Oda. He is first introduced in the manga chapter "Romance Dawn" (Romance Dawn - 冒険の夜明, Romance Dawn - Bōken no Yoake), first published in Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on July 19, 1997, as a young boy whose body gains the properties of rubber after he inadvertently eats a supernatural fruit called the Gum-Gum Fruit, one of many Devil Fruits that can be found in the One Piece world.

In One Piece, Monkey D Luffy sails from the East Blue to the Grand Line in search of the legendary treasure One Piece to succeed Gol D. Roger as the King of the Pirates. He is the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and along his journey, he recruits new crew members with unique abilities and personalities. He fights several antagonists, such as the Seven Warlords of the Sea and the World Government, during his travels, while also aiding and befriending the locals of various islands. Luffy has a nonchalant demeanor but is quick to become serious whenever he senses that a friend is in danger. Luffy is able to use the elasticity of his body to concentrate his strength and power to execute a diverse range of attacks, the most prominent being his signature Gum-Gum Pistol, in which Luffy slingshots his punches at opponents from a distance.

Piece

Piece or pieces (not to be confused with peace) may refer to:

Music

Albums

Songs

Toei Animation

Toei Animation Co., Ltd. (東映アニメーション株式会社, Tōei Animēshon Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese animation studio which is mostly owned by Toei Company, Ltd.

History

The studio was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films (日本動画映画, Nihon Dōga Eiga, often shortened to 日動映画 (Nichidō Eiga)). In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was reincorporated under its current name. Over the years, the studio has created a large number of TV series, movies, and adapted many Japanese comics by renowned authors to animated series, many popular worldwide. Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Leiji Matsumoto and Yoichi Kotabe have all worked with the company in the past. Toei is a shareholder in the Japanese anime satellite television network, Animax, along with other noted anime studios and production enterprises such as Sunrise, TMS Entertainment and Nihon Ad Systems Inc. The company headquarters are located in the Ohizumi Studio in Nerima, Tokyo.

Until 1998, the company was known as Toei Doga (東映動画株式会社, Tōei Dōga Kabushiki-gaisha) (although even at that time the company's formal English name was "Toei Animation Co., Ltd."), with "dōga" being the native Japanese word for "animation" which was widely used until the 1970s. Their mascot is the cat Pero, from the company's 1969 film adaptation of Puss in Boots.

Eiichiro Oda

Eiichiro Oda (尾田 栄一郎, Oda Eiichirō, born January 1, 1975) is a Japanese manga artist, best known for his manga series One Piece (1997–present). With over 345 million copies in circulation worldwide, One Piece is the best-selling manga series of all time. The series' popularity resulted in him being named one of the manga artists that changed the history of manga.

Early life

Eiichiro Oda claimed that at age four he resolved to become a manga artist in order to avoid having to get a "real job". His biggest influence is Akira Toriyama and his series Dragon Ball. He recalls that his interest in pirates was probably sparked by the popular TV animation series titled Vicky the Viking. He submitted a character named Pandaman for Yudetamago's classic wrestling manga Kinnikuman. Pandaman was not only used in a chapter of the manga but would later return as a recurring cameo character in Oda's own works.

Career

At the age of 17, Oda submitted his work Wanted! and won several awards, including second place in the coveted Tezuka Award. That got him into a job at the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, where he originally worked as assistant to Shinobu Kaitani's series Suizan Police Gang before moving to Masaya Tokuhiro on Jungle King Tar-chan and Mizu no Tomodachi Kappaman, which gave him an unexpected influence on his artistic style. At the age of 19, he began working as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki on Rurouni Kenshin, before winning the Hop Step Award for new artists. Watsuki credits Oda for helping create the character Honjō Kamatari who appears in Rurouni Kenshin.