'One Piece' Creator Hypes Manga's "Wano" Arc

One Piece has mastered the art of suspenseful arcs. Since the series debuted, Eiichiro Oda has dragged fans through more than a dozen high-stakes stories, and it is doing so right now. The 'Whole Cake Island' arc is in the mist of its climax, and Oda has another breakout in mind to follow the explosive arc up.

Oh, and he's pretty excited about the whole thing. There is that too.

Recently, Oda sat down with Viz Media for an interview, and it was there the creator spilled details about the manga's future. While the artist would not drop any specific spoilers, he did tease fans about the long-awaited arrival of the 'Wano Country' arc.

According to translation summaries, Oda had one simple thing to say about the new arc. The artist told Viz that One Piece will be "very exciting" once its new story kicks off, and he went so far as to mention why that will happen. Oda said fans will get to "see the big players making their move" while a power shift disrupts the New World. And, as fans hoped, the Straw Hat gang will either reunite or see focus shift from Luffy to Zoro as the swordsman's team will return to the manga soon enough.

Of course, fans are excited to see what the 'Wano Country' arc has in store for everyone. Zoro's team was sent with the Heart Pirates to infiltrate the isolated country while Luffy headed up the Sanji Retrieval Team. With Wano as mysterious as it is, Luffy is bound to run into some trouble when he breaches its borders, and its rule under the Beasts Pirates will pit the Rubber Man against Kaido. The fearsome Yonko may not scare Luffy as much now that he's battled Big Mom, but the Beasts Pirate leader is not one to scoff at. The captain takes joy from war, and his reputation as being the Earth's strongest creature isn't passed around because it is fun to say. He is terrifyingly powerful, and it doesn't sound like the monstrous Yonko will be taken down by any of Luffy's currents gears.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Are you ready for One Piece's new arc? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!