One Piece Reportedly Eyeing New Character Designer
One Piece is looking to light a fire under fans with its next arc, and there has never been a [...]
One Piece is looking to light a fire under fans with its next arc, and there has never been a better time for the anime to do so. At long last, the TV series will lean into the Wano arc after dropping hints about the story for years. And if a new report is right, One Piece will do all this with a brand-new look.
Recently, an article went live in Japan from Hochi News, and the piece had something interesting to say about One Piece. Fan-translators have confirmed the article says the anime is getting a new character designer, and netizens are rightfully freaking out.
After all, it isn't everyday the Straw Hats get a makeover, and fans have been waiting for the crew to freshen up for more than a decade now.
According to Hochi, the anime will bring in a new character designer when it brings its Wano arc to the stage. This newcomer will be joined by new series director Tatsuya Nagamine. The director of Dragon Ball Super: Broly will be bringing his expertise to the anime this summer, and fans are eager to see what this new talent can do for the crew.
After all, it has been quite some time since One Piece got a character redesign. The last time the TV show brought in new talent to overhaul its leads was in 2009, more than a decade ago. Kazuya Hisada took up the post all those years ago, so fans are ready to see how Wano will treat the Straw Hat team differently.
So, are you excited for the anime to finally enter Wano? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and 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 over 430 million copies sold. The series still ranked number one in manga sales in 2018, which surprised fans of major new entries.