'One Piece' Creator Pens Coming-Of-Age Message to Adolescent Fans

2017 may have passed, but there is one person wanting to hold on to the bygone year for a bit longer. Recently, the creator of One Piece penned a special message to his adolescent fans, and Eiichiro Oda shared some words about growing up. After all, the artist wanted to welcome his biggest fans into adulthood as those who were born in 1997 along with One Piece have now turned 20, and Oda felt he could give those growing fans some advice.

Thanks to a fan-translator called Sandman AP, you can read Oda's inspirational message below:

"Congratulations for becoming an adult!! How do you feel right now? You might want to drink, smoke or become a pirate. Well, piracy is a crime. I'm writing this message for 2 reasons; One is to encourage young people in Kumamoto, my hometown which got hit by a large earthquake in 2016. The other reason is the reason that children who were born in the same year where I started One Piece become adults this year.

About 5 years from now may be the most important 5 years for you since now is the time to determine how you live. You have lived for 20 years, right? If you have live up to 80 years old, how would you spend the rest 60 years of your life? Now is the time to face this questions with your heart and soul.

People will tell you that you can feel free to drink and smoke. In other words, you are entitled to do whatever you want, but you need to take full responsibility for your actions. My words might sound scary, but as someone brought up in Kumamoto like you, I trust your potential to start rowing towards [an] unknown sea named society.

Be sure to consider your own future more than anything else. Even if you are selfish, your parents will feel happiest if you only tell them some day in the future, "I'm sailing this sea on my own!" My message [is] longer than I imagined. I'd be glad if you learn something from my words. Congratulations for becoming an adult! I'll bee on your side!!"

Oda may have addressed his Kumamoto comrades in particular, but his message is a truly universal one. The artist has a special bond with adolescent readers as many manga lovers grew up admiring One Piece's heroes. Characters like Luffy and Zoro inspired them to forge their own paths, and Oda hopes his fans will continue to walk towards their dreams. That is, so long as that dream isn't piracy - Oda knows how risky that business can be.

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.

One Piece is currently in the middle of the "Whole Cake Island" arc and is now streaming on Crunchyroll and FunimationNOW.

Did you grow up loving One Piece? Hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to let me know and talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!