One Piece Reveals Completed Volume 101 Cover

One Piece has revealed the cover for the series' upcoming 101st collected volume.

The new cover was revealed through the official One Piece Twitter account. The new volume, which will be released in Japan on Dec. 3, will complete the interconnected illustration that began on Volume 99 and continued onto the series' landmark 100th volume, which was released late last summer. The illustration was created by series creator Eiichiro Oda to celebrate the publication of the 100th volume. In-progress versions of the illustration were previously glimpsed in making-of videos, but this is the first time that the cover has been shown in its completed state.

The new art showcases Nami, the Straw Hat Pirates' fashionable navigator, and Kaidou, the governor-general of the Beast Pirates and one of the Four Emperors of the New World.

Kaidou was also featured heavily in the preview art for the One Piece anime's 1000th episode, which recently premiered on Nov. 20. The episode featured the series' original opening animation sequence, redone with new animation and updated with each character's current costumes and appearances. The anime adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's work originally premiered in 1999, two years after the manga began its serialization, and still continues to be one of Japan's highest rated anime programs more than two decades later. Crunchyroll recently created a retrospective video that looks back on the series' entire history by clipping together 1 second from each of the series' 1000 episodes.

While the big celebration for the series' 1000th episode is now over, fans of the series can now get hyped for the next animated movie in the franchise, One Piece Red. The movie will focus on the pirate captain "Red-Haired" Shanks, who is another one of the New World's Four Emperors and is the man who inspired series protagonist Monkey D. Luffy to pursue the life of a pirate. Oda is supervising production on the movie, which will be directed by Code Geass' Goro Taniguchi.  The film is scheduled to be released in Japan in Aug. 2022, while an international release date has yet to be announced.

In the 24 years since its original release, One Piece has managed to become the best selling manga series in history, with an astounding 490 million copies in circulation worldwide. Oda and Weekly Shonen Jump publisher Shueisha have both hinted that the series is nearing its conclusion, but the franchise may continue on with its new live-action adaptation, which is being produced by Netflix and Tomorrow Pictures. Oda will serve as the executive producer on this latest reimagining of his work.

Source: Twitter