'One Piece' Reveals its Shockingly Dark Turn

Eiichiro Oda has been rewarding patient and loyal One Piece fans as the manga's latest Reverie arc is revealing more and more about the finer details about the world of the pirates. But those finer details are also revealing a darker underbelly than fans ever expected.

As fans learn more about who runs the World Government and the Celestial Dragons above them, the series has taken a dark turn into exciting but tense territory.

Last chapter in a nutshell from r/OnePiece

Reverie has officially begun as the kingdoms in the World Government's alliance begin their grand meeting as the Five Elders of the World Government discuss the current shake-ups as two of the Four Emperors form an alliance. Because of this, they desire a "cleansing" which doesn't bode well for the Straw Hats.

What makes matters worse is the Celestial Dragons. Fans have gotten hints of how bad they can be during the Sabaody Archipelago arc of the series, but the latest chapter presents a clear cut representation. After Princess Shirahoshi was nearly kidnapped by one a few chapters before, the latest chapter shows what becomes of their slaves as Bartholomew Kuma suffers in their clutches. Fans don't know how much darker the series will get, but their exciting to find out.

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.

Eiichiro Oda also revealed some upcoming news for One Piece's future at Jump Festa 2018. Not only will the manga see Wano sooner rather than later, the next villain of the series is "one of the legends which lurks in the One Piece world. The greatest enemy ever for Straw Hats will hinder their way...Can you believe Marineford Summit War will look 'cute' compared to that?

The new live-action One Piece series also got some new information as it was revealed that the series will portray the Straw Hats' adventures from the very beginning, and will take place in the East Blue. One Piece's anime series is currently in the middle of the "Whole Cake Island" arc and is now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.