VIZ Media has announced that Eiichiro Oda’s Wanted! will be coming westward later this year in the Fall. The short story collection shows the author’s early works, many of which laid the foundations for his long-running magnum opus, One Piece. This will be the first chance overseas fans have to look at Oda’s prior work in official English, and see the pieces that would eventually assemble into Monkey D. Luffy’s sprawling ocean adventure.
The book collects five short stories Oda wrote before starting One Piece. Together, they provide a unique insight into the author’s early days. While Wanted! was originally published in 1998, officially licensed English translations did not exist until this year.
The release seems to be well-timed amid renewed interest in One Piece and its creator, thanks to a variety of Oda-related adaptations.
One Piece’s Prequel Monsters Is Officially Canon To The Series
One Piece’s highly anticipated prequel, Monsters has been confirmed to be canon, following the same Shimotsuki Ryuma from Wano who gave Zoro Shusui.
Wanted! Shows Oda And Luffy In Their Humble Beginnings
The short stories unveil concepts that predate and ultimately shaped One Piece.
Wanted!’s collection consists of the following five stories:
- Wanted!
- God’s Present for the Future
- Ikki Yakō
- Monsters
- Romance Dawn
The first story, which shares the same title as the physical compilation, is Oda’s very first manga, created in his senior high school year that was submitted for the Tezuka Awards. The other four stories shed light on Oda’s creative process, showing his evolving artwork and even prototypes of future One Piece characters, notably a previous draft of Luffy as he appears in the tale Romance Dawn. Meanwhile, Ryuma from Monsters appears to have been revised for Zoro and One Piece’s subplot about the world’s greatest swordsmen. Inserted between the stories are various commentaries written by Oda, expressing his thoughts on the creation of each story.
The VIZ Media release of Wanted!, which was announced on their official X account, comes amid a wave of Oda-related adaptations being led by Netflix. The streaming service has already launched a successful live-action adaptation, and only last January premiered an adaptation of Monsters created by E&H Production. Furthermore, it has been funding a reboot of the early story arcs, to be produced by WIT Studio of Spy x Family fame under the title The One Piece. For VIZ, it seems it is time to strike while the iron is hot and give fans the unadulterated paperback Oda experience.
Currently, there is no indication what form Wanted!‘s new publication will take, be it digital, physical, or both. Given the X post, though, it can be inferred that the localization will use “Eiichiro Oda before One Piece” as the official subtitle, whereas the original collection from Japan used “Eiichiro Oda Short Stories”. While it is not essential reading for One Piece, which has long surpassed any of Oda’s old stories in both length, scope, and quality, Wanted! still presents the first opportunity in a long time to acquire more works from one of the anime industry’s most celebrated writers.
One Piece is available on Crunchyroll.
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