Yo! Here’s how the story goes you find out. About a manga in Shonen Jump, there’s no doubt. The podcaster whose eye is on it he’ll say “I’ll be making a podcast, s’what I’m gonna be making!” So we set sights on One Piece, Eiichiro Oda’s monolithic manga that has been enthralling fans worldwide for over 20 years. To help us commemorate this hardy occasion, we brought aboard Sam Leach, a shipmate over at the One Piece Podcast, to help us make merry over our One Piece memories.
During the course of our three hour reminiscence, we’re reminded how through it all - through all the troubled times, through the heartache and through the pain - we know that One Piece will be there to stand by us, just like we know we’ll stand by it. We are on a cruise, and have been for the last twenty years. No matter how much longer this journey may last, know that there is always room for you if you want to be our friend and join this adventure with us. Together we will find everything that we’re looking for. So come aboard and bring along all your hopes and dreams! Being a One Piece fan will satisfy them like no other manga will.
Oh, and we talk about news for a bit too. It was a pretty great month for manga in North America! Lots of Bookscan representation, Berserk was finally made available digitally, and there were some great licenses from Viz Media at Comic Con! Back in Japan there was a controversy over Yuna of Yuragi Manor that we spend quite a bit of time dissecting, and probably will come back to as a broader discussion topic on fanservice down the line. It was pretty fortuitous that the One Piece live-action tv show was announced the week we recorded this so we wouldn’t have an awkward transition between topics!

Editor's Note, 2020: This podcast was recorded before the revelations about Nobuhiro Watsuki and the subsequent failure to prosecute him for his crime. As a consequence of the Watsuki situation, we've since reevaluated our feelings on Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro's own allegations and are less enthusiastic and supportive of him and his work. We still feel our discussion of his comic essay about Eiichiro Oda is worth including, but we wanted to note that our feelings on this comic and its creator are more complicated and critical now. This podcast is very much a product of its time, and we humbly ask you to keep this in mind as you listen to it.

PODCAST BREAKDOWN:

00:22 - Intro & Show Plans
News:
04:18 - Bookscan Top Graphic Novels of June 2017 List
07:14 - Psycho Pass: Inspector Kogami Manga Ends with 6th volume 
07:55 - Bleach Novels on Hiatus
08:23 - Kimi ni Todoke Takes 1-Month Break Before Entering its Final Arc 
09:43 - Silver Spoon is Back on Hiatus
10:58 - Hiromu Arakawa to Draw New FMA Manga for Film Screenings
12:26 - DMI Launches Crowdfunding Campaign to Reprint Older Titles 
13:13 - Tokyopop to Release Bloodivores Digitally 
15:03 - Berserk is Now Available Digitally 
17:48 - Udon Licenses Otherwordly Izakaya
19:08 - Viz Media Licenses from Comic-con International 
22:03 - Viz adds MHA: Vigilante to Shonen Jump Free Section 
26:26 - Hiroyuki Nakano Listed as the New Editor in Chief 
27:30 - Mizuki Productions Posts Discovered Plot Details for Unreleased Shigeru Mizuki Work 
28:40 - Maso Maruyama Wants to Make an Anime Adaptation of Satoshi Kon’s Opus Manga
29:30 - Otakon Warns of Fake Hotel Booking Website 
30:30 - Yuna of Yuragi Manor Controversy
43:50 - City Hunter Gets French Live-Action Film in 2019 
One Piece Discussion w/Sam Leach:
45:50 - One Piece Live-Action TV Show News
58:44 - How We Got Into One Piece
1:30:30 - How We've Expressed Our Fandom 
1:44:44 - Thoughts on Eichiiro Oda & One Piece’s Storytelling
2:07:00 - What One Piece Means to Us
2:32:23 - How We Recommend People Get Into One Piece
2:37:10 - Which is Better - Anime or Manga?
2:46:46 - The State of One Piece in North America

Q&As:

2:53:38 - How Much Longer Do You Think the Series Will Run?
2:55:44 - Do We Expect Any Impending Major Character Deaths?
2: