Eiichiro Oda's joke live-action drawing of One Piece's Tony Tony Chopper has appeared in Volume 107 of the manga.
Earlier this week, a drawing of Chopper by Oda began circulating on social media. The X account @newwoldartur posted the drawing with the caption, "Oda (jokingly) draws Live Action Chopper #OnePiece." The drawing then appeared in Volume 107 of the One Piece manga, which was officially released on Nov. 2.
The Live-Action One Piece Season 2 and Tony Tony Chopper
The live-action adaptation of One Piece released on Aug. 31 on Netflix this year and was met with overwhelming support. It has quickly become one of the most popular live-action adaptations of a manga or anime franchise to ever be created, with a second season announced only two weeks after Netflix released the first one.
With the official announcement of Season 2 comes the anticipation of new characters being introduced in the live-action series. This includes the appearance of the Straw Hat Pirates' sixth member and team doctor, Tony Tony Chopper. Chopper, who has become something of the team mascot over the years, appearing on many pieces of merchandise, is a reindeer who ate the Devil Fruit Hito Hito no Mi, transforming him into a reindeer-human hybrid capable of speech and deep thought. Chopper is taken in by Dr. Hiriluk after being shunned by his reindeer herd and learns medicine as Dr. Hiriluk's apprentice. He meets the Straw Hats while working as a doctor on Drum Island and officially joins the crew at the end of the "Drum Island Arc."
Working on Chopper's character design for the live-action One Piece is Jaco Snyman, head of prosthetics and creature design for the series. Synman has said that he looks forward to designing Chopper and has hinted that the crew will approach Chopper's live-action design in the same way as it did the Fish-men.
Oda's One Piece manga debuted in 1997 and continues to be serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. The anime premiered two years later in 1999. The One Piece anime will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, making it one of the longest-running animes in existence with over 1,000 episodes. The story of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew of Straw Hat Pirates has become beloved around the world and continues to draw in new fans today,
So far, there has been no announcement regarding the release date of Season 2 of the live-action One Piece. The first season is available on Netflix, while the original anime is streaming on Crunchyroll. The One Piece manga is available in English from Viz Media.
Sources: X (formerly Twitter), One Piece Volume 107