A “cover chapter” of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, drawn by Nisekoi author Naoshi Komi, is now officially available online and in English.
The free chapter can be read online on the VIZ website. The “cover chapter” is a complete redraw of the “Vivi’s Adventures” chapter from the original One Piece manga, taking place near the end of the Alabasta arc. This release is the second chapter in Eiichiro Oda’s manga series to receive a “cover” from another manga author on Shonen Jump; Author Dr Stone, Boichi previously rewrote an earlier chapter of the series, which was also released online by VIZ. Cover chapters are being released as part of the celebration surrounding the recent publication of the 1000th chapter of One Piece. The manga will also release its 100th volume soon.
One Piece: Naoshi Komi Covers Vivi’s Adventure: It’s a special One Piece chapter by the Nisekoi mangaka, Naoshi Komi! Read it FREE from the official source! https://t.co/oWimNBKymx pic.twitter.com/RVKfLhPom2
— Shonen Jump (@shonenjump) August 29, 2021
Naoshi Komi is known for the romantic comedy series Nisekoi, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2011-2016 and adapted into a two-season anime series from 2014-2015. The story follows Raku Ichijo, the son of a Yakuza boss with dreams of living a normal life. His dreams become more complicated when his father drags Raku into an arranged marriage with the daughter of another Yakuza boss to end a longstanding conflict between the two crime families. To prevent a gang war, Raku is forced to maintain a sham relationship with his new fiancée, the proud and capable Chitoge Kirisaki, but he continues to pursue a relationship with his longtime lover. In his year, Kosaki Onodera was kind but shy.
Komi previously cited One Piece as one of her major influences. The new cover chapter isn’t the first time the author has worked on a story from another Shonen Jump creator – in 2012 Komi teamed up with Haikyuu!! The author is Haruichi Furudate to create a cross between their series.
Meanwhile, One Piece is still as popular as ever as it continues its 24th year of publication. The series was originally created by Eiichiro Oda in 1997 and is considered one of the ‘Big Three’ Shonen Jump franchises in the early 00’s, alongside Naruto’s Masashi Kishimoto and Bleach’s Tite Kubo. The manga got an anime adaptation in 1999, currently running its 20th season and will soon air its 1000th episode. The original manga has nearly half a billion copies in circulation and is the best-selling manga series ever. while this anime manga has maintained consistently high ratings throughout its twenty-year history.
VIZ Media localizes and distributes both One Piece and Nisekoi manga in English. The One Piece anime is available for streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, VRV and Funimation, while the full season of the nisekoi anime is available on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
