One Piece Celebrates Milestone with Luffy’s Visit to the International Space Station

One Piece has seen the Straw Hat Pirates moving across several major environments within the world of the Grand Line over the course of the decades of history within Eiichiro Oda’s titanic story, but the one-hundredth volume of the manga has helped bring Luffy into a brand new locale, outer space. In partnering with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, aka JAXA, the Shonen franchise of One Piece gave us a live broadcast that saw Luffy appearing alongside Japanese astronauts who were currently visiting the International Space Station as a part of the Kibo Discover Project. 

The one-hundredth volume of One Piece’s manga is a giant accomplishment, with the series receiving a special letter from Eiichiro Oda to celebrate and the Shonen franchise passing one thousand chapters of the series that premiered and continues to run in Weekly Shonen Jump. With the War For Wano Arc giving us some of the biggest battles of the series to date in both the manga and the anime, it seems that Eiichiro Oda is throwing in everything and the kitchen sink as the story of One Piece enters its final act. While the Straw Hats have never officially journeyed into the far beyond above the world of the Grand Line, this is definitely the next best thing. 

One of the broadcasters for the recent One Piece/JAXA collaboration shared the details about Luffy’s big visit to the International Space Station, which fans can also see above in the Youtube video at the top of this article:

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Luffy was joined by astronaut Akihiko Hoshide for this monumental event, celebrating the milestone chapter in the story of One Piece and proving how big the Shonen franchise has become over the years. Another of the big celebrations that took place recently entailed One Piece releasing a series of short videos that explored the impact of the series on the real world via a dramatic story. With said series also giving fans their first look at the anime version of Yamato, the offspring of Kaido, it’s clear that this milestone chapter is pulling out all the stops. 

What do you think of Monkey D. Luffy’s visit to outer space? Where do you want to see the Straw Hats go in the future of the series? 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 world of the Grand Line.