It has been twenty years since fans watched the premiere of One Piece on TV, and the series has grown bounds in that time. Thanks to creator Eiichiro Oda, the pirate series has become one of the biggest franchises to ever come out of Japan, and it shows. With millions if not billions of fans around the world, the Straw Hat Pirates are well known, and it seems audiences will get a special look at Luffy’s origins next week.
For those who do not know, Monkey D. Luffy existed in a story long before One Piece came around. Oda started to draft his now-iconic manga back in high school, and it was there he came up with the hero. Before One Piece was fully realized, Oda put Luffy in his early draft of Romance Dawn, and that special two-part series is getting an anime adaptation. And if you want to take a look at it, then you’re in luck.
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All you got to do is check out the clip above, and then you’ll see. Luffy may look much the same, but Romance Dawn is a very different series from what you’re used to.
As the preview shows, fans are introduced to Luffy in his usual outfit, but it seems his adventures are off to a different starter. Sure, Garp does appear in the trailer, but he doesn’t seem to be the surly Marine fans have come to love. What’s more is that the Straw Hats are all missing. Nami and the gang are gone, but they are instead subbed with a blue-haired heroine named Anne. As for its villain, a pirate known as Galley shows up to wreak havoc, and it will fall to Luffy to protect his town and set on his journey to become the King of the Pirates.
This special 20th anniversary episode will pay homage to how One Piece got started decades ago. The series has come a long, long way since Romance Dawn was first drawn; In fact, Luffy might not even recognize his current self if he were to meet himself in Wano Country. Now, fans will get the chance to meet the man who Luffy once was, and their first-look at Romance Dawn seems to be a good one.
What do you think about this special’s big teaser? 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.
