Hello One Piece fans,
This New Year's Eve, One Piece is going to air a very special edition epilogue for everyone to enjoy.
The special edition is to be an extended addition to the series' ninth film as an epilogue based on previous manga art that has never been animated. One Piece: Episode of Chopper + Fuyu ni Saku, Kiseki no Sakura will have new animated footage to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the hit Japanese television show, One Piece. The New Year's Eve special will air on Fuji TV as well as the company's other affiliates on December 31st, 2014 at 9 p.m. (7 a.m. EST). This past Christmas, Fuji TV had released a teaser video for the New Year's Eve special and is below for your viewing pleasure!
One Piece: Episode of Chopper + Fuyu ni Saku, Kiseki no Sakura Official Trailer
Here is the original official video for the ninth movie of One Piece: Episode of Chopper:
When watching the video, the narrator describes the special edition as a miracle that happens to a cry-baby of a reindeer on the island he resides on.
The text says something along the lines that it will be the “most tear jerking episode” in the history of One Piece. The ninth film for One Piece had originally released in Japan in 2008 and was presented at the Italian Future Film Festival the following year.
The announcement for the New Year's Eve special was in last month's 52nd issue of Weekly Shonen Jump and states that the movie's time slot is against NHK's very popular music program, Red & White Song Battle. We'll see if that becomes a problem for the show.
The ninth movie is an alternate tale of how Tony Chopper, the beloved blue-nosed reindeer who is the ship's doctor for the Straw Hats, first met Luffy and the crew in the Winter Island/ Drum King arc of the series. Eiichiro Oda, who was the original manga creator, helped with the film in the early planning phase. While the film had featured Franky, Nico Robin and the Thousand Sunny, they never appeared in the original manga arc of Drum Island.
Until now, the opening page art of the original manga showed what happened to the characters later in the story and was the only detail for the stories epilogue.
Therefore, the 2014 special edition for the film will be adding new special animated footage with Dolton, Dr. Kureha and more.
The really cool thing is, at the end of the New Year's Eve special, fans will get a very special surprise message from the Straw Hat Pirates specifically for them. This is a way for Toei Animation and series staff to show gratitude to everyone for a great 15 years of airing One Piece.
As a huge fan of One Piece, I really want to see this special edition! But in doing research, it only seem s to be airing in Japan!
No other news has been released if the New Year's Eve special will be available for viewing later on. One can only hope that FUNimation, Crunchyroll, Hulu, or even Netflix will be able to acquire the license for everyone in the rest of the world to enjoy! Stay tuned as we try to keep everyone posted!
If you live in Japan, will you be watching this New Year's Eve special? If you live outside of Japan, what are your thoughts on not being able to see this? And just out of curiosity, who's your favorite character in One Piece? Let us know in the comments below, it could be a Villain or Hero!
Author: Alfonso "Fonzy" Ortiz