One Piece Author Eiichiro Oda Literally Hid the Manga Series' Final Secret at the Bottom of the Ocean

One Piece, Japan’s fashionable pirate-themed manga series, yet has immoderate real-life sunken treasure. Author Eiichiro Oda has seemingly written the concealed to One Piece connected a portion of paper, which has been placed successful a pressure-resistant solid sphere and submerged successful the ocean. This is simply a publicity stunt to observe the long-running manga selling implicit 600 cardinal copies worldwide, nevertheless the reply that fans person been waiting for won’t beryllium revealed until the story’s climax.

The One Piece manga started successful 1997. It follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his motley unit arsenic they hunt for a legendary treasure called “One Piece," which was near down by Pirate King Gol. D Roger. Since past it has spawned a highly fashionable multimedia franchise of anime series, movies, and games. But what precisely One Piece is has remained a secret.

However, this week Oda has virtually turned the eventual extremity of his 28-year-old bid into pirate booty. With the assistance of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Oda has submerged the concealed to One Piece astatine an undisclosed determination 651 meters beneath oversea level, arsenic reported by The Sankei Shimbun.

As a teaser, a mock-up of fractional of the portion of insubstantial has been printed successful the March 4 greeting editions of Japan's Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun newspapers. Fans are urged to support the mock-up until the concealed is revealed.

The teaser doesn’t uncover thing juicy though. The mock-up conscionable says, “One Piece is… and… Monkey D. Luffy is…” Talk astir cryptic! There’s besides a melodramatic documentary-style video of the treasure being submerged connected One Piece’s authoritative YouTube.

Over connected societal media, radical are joking that immoderate One Piece fans are diehard capable to really effort to find the treasure successful existent life. One commenter quipped successful Japanese, “What if this marks the dawn of The Great Pirate Era successful our modern times?,” referencing the clip play from One Piece. Some fans person already started the detective work, with 1 Redditor proposing that the concealed to One Piece could beryllium lying determination connected the seabed of Suruga Bay, disconnected Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture.

Oda volition uncover what is connected the insubstantial successful One Piece's last chapter, and determination are plans to retrieve the solid sphere from the water then. However, determination is inactive nary authoritative timeline for erstwhile the bid volition end. Perhaps this teaser suggests that we tin expect the reply to what One Piece really is sooner alternatively than later.

Verity Townsend is simply a Japan-based freelance writer who antecedently served arsenic editor, contributor and translator for the crippled quality tract Automaton West. She has besides written astir Japanese civilization and movies for assorted publications.