French President Emmanuel Macron and One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda are apparently both fans of each others' work, as the French president recently tweeted out a message of thanks after the manga artist sent him an original illustration.
The new image was revealed on the official Twitter account for the French President on July 23. The illustration features series protagonist Luffy and the other Staw Hat Pirates in the middle of a celebration. In addition to the illustration, the image also includes a hand-written note from Oda, who thanks both Macron and One Piece's French fans for the series' popularity in the country. Macron responded with a thank you message written in both French and Japanese.
Passionnés de One Piece, je partage avec vous ce dessin original offert par son auteur. Merci ありがとうございます @Eiichiro_Staff ! pic.twitter.com/0n5sAaky7j
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 23, 2021
The long-running One Piece series is one of the most successful manga of all time, with over 490-million copies in circulation worldwide. The series was first published in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1997 and continues to this day. The manga was quickly adapted into an anime series in 1999, which is also still being made after 20 seasons and will soon air its 1,000th episode. A collaboration between One Piece and the classic children's book series Where's Waldo? was recently announced. Eiichiro Oda was also one of several manga artists who recently contributed illustrations to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics' official program guide. Netflix is currently producing a live-action series based on the manga, with Oda serving as the new show's executive producer.
The One Piece manga is localized and distributed in North America by VIZ Media. The anime series is available for streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, VRV and Funimation.
Source: Twitter
