One Piece 20th Ceremony (Assignment 3 - Entertainment)

One Piece is an animated series in Japan that had been growing in popularity since 1997. It had been continuing the series for almost 20 years. An event was held in 2017 in ISETAN the Japan Store Kuala Lumpur in Lot10, Kuala Lumpur.

The series received multiple awards including the top selling manga with over 416 million copies were sold, more than Spider-Man with 360 million copies. While Barman was sold for 460 million copies. The top best-selling comics of all time goes to Mickey Mouse, which sold over 1 billion copies!

In Malaysia, we had our own fan club and I was one of the pioneers of Budak Getah, an official One Piece Malay site that provides Malay translation for the Malay and Indonesian readers.

As a former member of Budak Getah, we had been invited to cover the story of the opening ceremony of ‘Hello One Piece; Luffy is here!” It is an anniversary event where an exhibition was held to showcase all the artworks and posters, as well as displays of props and 3D VR.

According to Ken Fukutake, the Dai Nippon Printing (NP) Co. Ltd manager, he said that many other countries were asked for the event to be held at their country, however, only Malaysia was chosen.

Hiroyuki Nakano, the Chief Editor of Shounen Jump, Shueisha Inc. said that One Piece remained as the top 10 manga since 1997.

“One Piece is not only loved by the fans from Japan, but they were adored by fans from all around the world. That is why we decided to provide exhibition like this outside of Japan as well. There are many exhibitions being held in Japan but none was ever made in other countries, therefore, this will be the one and only experience that fans from Malaysia can ever experience” he said.

He also said that the Virtual Realiti (VR) 3D One Piece is the first ever in the world, not even fans in Japan had ever experience it.

YBHG, Datuk Seri Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, the General Director of Malaysia Tourism expressed his gratitude to One Piece for choosing Malaysia as their destination for their 20^th anniversary.

He recommends the people to come and experience the exhibition in order to get the feeling of the event that was never held before.

I also had the chance to get an interview with the Chief Editor of Shounen Jump, Hiroyuki Nakano, along with a translator as our mediator.

 

He said that he had no plans to open an exhibition like this to other countries, aside from Malaysia. And that if other country wants to held an exhibition in their country as well, all they need to do is ask.

What’s mind blowing is that, he said that he is looking forward to the 30^th One Piece anniversary! Which means that One Piece will still be ongoing 10 years from now. That is surprising and we, as fans, are all looking forward to it.

He added that Eiichiro Oda (the author of One Piece) had already planned the ending and only he knows it.

When he was asked why is Eiichiro Oda unable to attend this event, he replied that Oda sensei does not have the time to spare to come and celebrate it here. He is busy working and drawing manga for the next chapter, every week. Sometimes, he even spends 30-40 hours of work without rest in order to serve the best for his fans.

Hearing that, I felt torn but grateful as well that we had this dedicated author who would do his best for his fans. I would never again complain if he wanted a break for a week or two. What he had done to us, fans and entertainer, is more than what we could ever repay him.

I told Nakano to send my regards to Oda sensei and hoped that he would take care of his health and take a rest if he must. He nodded in agreement.

That experience alone was one of my first, without having any background basic on how to be a journalist or how to interview. It was just on a whim and my article was shared and translated around the world.

Since our site was in Malay, my article was translated to English, Spanish, Arab and many more. It was even featured in multiple One Piece youtubers who discuss this issue in a more elaborated manner.