'One Piece' Fan Goes Viral Over Straw Hat Graduation Photo

One Piece has gathered millions of fans during its 20+ years, and the series has come to mean many different things. For some, the anime is a way of escaping everyday life. And, to others, One Piece has become something more.

Over on Facebook, a fan named Alyannah Cambaliza showed the world what One Piece means to her. The woman brought the Straw Hats into her graduation, and she has zero regrets about the crossover.

Cambaliza shared her love of One Piece with netizens when she posted her recent graduation photos online. In one headshot, the girl can be seen tilting her head down, and she is cradling Monkey D. Luffy's straw hat to her chest. The pose is one which the pirate has adopted several times in the anime, and Cambaliza says she took the photo to honor a show which helped her see her dreams through.

"It may seem silly for some people but One Piece has played an integral part of my life. It taught me to never give up and to chase after my dreams. Luffy and the Strawhats taught me to love my family and friends and to never give up on them no matter how many times they pushed me away and vice versa," Cambaliza wrote.

"Throughout the years, I feel like I became part of their crew, and most especially I became their friend and I theirs. I know I sound crazy but this is the truth. Every character has taught me a lot of things; even the villains actually did leave lessons that I may use in this real world," she continued. "To Eiichiro Oda-sama, Luffy and the Strawhats, thank you for inspiring me so much. Thank you for being with me for the past 5 years. Please take care of me as well for the coming years until we reach the final point of this journey. I may not be there when you first set sail but I promise, I won't leave until we finally make it to the very end. As a sign of respect and gratitude, I offer this photo to all of you."

So, would you be down for a photo shoot like this? 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.

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