Viz Media Licenses One Piece: Ace’s Story Novel

Viz Media is certainly making use of the New York Comic Con 2019! With a number of announcements revealed from the popular publisher, Viz hasn’t forgotten about the many, MANY fans that follow the epic pirate manga/anime franchise that is One Piece. Now, with the Wano Country arc heating up in both the anime and the manga, the publisher has picked the perfect time to release the news that they will be published a spin-off story for the Straw Hat Pirates which follows the adventures of Luffy’s adopted brother: Ace! Read on for more details about One Piece: Ace’s Story!

Viz Media released the bombshell on their Official Twitter Account, stating that the spin-off story would feature more details about Ace’s pirate crew, as well as a closer look at the fire abilities he gained after ingesting his Devil Fruit:

Ace has been a tragic example of just how ruthless the world of the Grand Line can be. In an attempt to save his adopted brother Luffy’s life, Ace lost his own and his flame unfortunately left the One Piece franchise. Luckily, we’ve managed to see Ace return to the series through a flashback recently, as the fire pirate’s history with Wano country has been revealed. With the new art style, Ace was given a stylish, updated look that offered a brand new interpretation of Luffy’s brother, even though he is no longer of this mortal coil.

Ace’s legacy continues to live on in the franchise, not just through his brother, but through the other pirates and citizens that he’s touched, as either a part of Whitebeard’s crew of swashbucklers or on his own.

Will you be picking up this One Piece spin-off story focusing on Ace and his pirate crew? What stories do you think this new Viz Media product will dive into? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the Straw Hat Pirates of the Grand Line.

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.