The Four Color Media Monitor

Something I missed from last month: France 24 reported One Piece, the manga that's run a quarter century and led to a TV show that's run for over a thousand episodes, is coming to a close soon:

After 25 years and 490 million copies sold worldwide, the beloved Japanese manga "One Piece" is entering its final chapter, according to its creator Eiichiro Oda.

The manga, which follows the adventures of the swashbuckling pirate Monkey D. Luffy, has captivated millions of fans worldwide as its characters hunt for One Piece, the treasure coveted by all pirates.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Oda announced he would be taking a month off from his usual publishing pace of one instalment per week, citing various demands, including his work on the last part of the long-running series.

The animated series, if we take that into consideration, is easily one of the longest running I've ever known, and will presumably be coming to an end soon as well. Which is surely best to do, if one wants to end the story on a good note and thinks the quality up until now has been good enough.

However, there is some decidedly bad news provided here too:

A live-action adaptation by Netflix is also in the works, with fans speculating it could catapult the franchise to global household name status, on par with "Star Wars" or "Harry Potter".

A bad idea, IMHO, even now that they've been moving away from more woke-influenced productions, because what if there's any forms of PC in what Netflix has planned that would simply dumb down the whole creation? If the short-lived series based on Cowboy Bebop was a failure, who knows if they've learned their lessons this time? I may not be a reader of One Piece, but even if I were, I wouldn't be so desperate to see the umpteenth live action adaptation of such a product being brought to the screen. Some cartoonish concepts are best left in animated form, and if Oda didn't consider that before selling the rights to Netflix, he's honestly making a mistake.

Labels: Europe and Asia, history, licensed products, manga and anime, msm propaganda