The anime characters in One Piece love the adventure of Ash and Pikachu, just like us. As revealed by creator Eiichiro Oda, Pokémon is a thing that exists in the anime series universe, in the pirate equivalent to manga.
This was mentioned as part of the ‘Shitsumon o Boshuu Suru’ section of One Piece’s latest volume, where Eiichiro answers questions from fans of the manga and fantasy series. The book is available in Japan slightly earlier than shelf date, and details have made their way to Reddit.
“‘Picture books’ and ‘illustrated stories’ do exist in One Piece,” he says. “Picture books are just picture books, but think of illustrated stories as the manga in the world of One Piece. Since there is no concept of speech bubbles, the story is told through text and dialogue within a frame, similar to manga. Some famous titles in the One Piece world include: Sora, Warrior of the Sea, Fire Dog, Pokémon, Monkey Ball, and Marco-san.”
There you have it, right at the end there – pocket monsters illustrated stories are a thing on the Grand Line! Now we wonder what Monkey D Luffy’s favourite starter Pokémon is. Squirtle or Bulbasaur are our guesses. But then what about all the other One Piece characters? We need answers
One Piece volume 105 covers chapters 1056 to 1065. It’s just ahead of the ongoing TV series, which just breezed by episode 1053. Will One Piece ever end? Don’t bet your life on it, as you can tell, there’s still plenty to learn about the franchise. We recently had the anime movie One Piece Film Red as well, so the wind is still strong in these sails.
Have a look at our One Piece Film Red review if you want to know more about that. Sibling site Pocket Tactics has a list of the best mythical Pokémon if you’re keen for more of those. Our best horror anime list will give you more watching recommendations, and we have new anime and new movies guides to tell you what’s coming out.