One Piece Vol.0

Do you know the Japanese manga (comic book) and TV anime (cartoon) titled 「ワンピース」 (“One Piece“)?

Do they sell the manga or show the anime in your country?

One Piece is about a boy called 「ルフィ」 (Lufi (pronounced: “loofy”)) who grew up in a port town idolizing the pirates.

He decides the he wants to find the “One Piece” treasure that will make him the “King Of The Pirates”.

He also mistakenly eats a magical fruit that makes his body become elastic and rubbery.

The story revolves around the adventures that Lufi and his pirate crew have while they search for “One Piece”.

Anyways, a new One Piece movie titled “Strong World” has just been released in Japan a few days ago.

I have never watched any of the One Piece movies…but my kids like to watch the anime on TV on Sundays and they have a few of the manga.

So I started watching the anime with them sometimes, and I read a few of their manga…it’s a fun story.

Well, the “Strong World” movie has been released at the ten year anniversary of the release of the first One Piece movie.

So to celebrate, they’re giving away free Volume Zero One Piece comics and 「ワンピーベリーマッチダブル」 (“OPBMW“) game cards to people who buy tickets to the new movie.

A flyer telling about the Vol. 0 comic and "OPBMW" cards

One Piece vol. 0 comic

Some "One Piece" game cards

Do they show One Piece movies in your country? Have you ever watched any?

Do you like Japanese anime and / or manga?

Here’s a trailer for the new movie:

デスノート

Do you know the Japanese manga (comic) titled 「デスノート」 (“Death Note“)?

It’s about a bored 死神 (Death God), which could be called a Japanese equivalent to the Grim Reaper, who purposely leaves his Death Note(book)* in the human world in hopes that a human will pick it up and use it.

(*「ノート」 (“Note“), by the way, is the common word in Japan for “notebook”. So the English title of 「デスノート」 (“Death Note“) should be “Death Notebook” to be technically correct.)

A Japanese high school boy who believes that the world is too full of criminals and generally bad people is the one who finds the 「デスノート」 (“Death Note“) left by the 死神 (Death God).

It looks like an ordinary notebook until he opens the cover and sees the notebook’s “rules”. The rules basically state that if someone writes the name of a specific person in the book that that person will die soon after their name is written.

At first the boy is skeptical that the 「デスノート」 (“Death Note“) is real until the 死神 (Death God) appears in his room.

After being convinced that the book is real, the boy decides that he will use to “clean” the world of criminals.

Slowly the 死神 (Death God) reveals more facts to the boy…such as:
– no human can see or hear the 死神 (Death God) unless they touch the 「デスノート」 (“Death Note“),
– when a 「デスノート」 (“Death Note“) is found by a human, it belongs to that human and the 死神 (Death God) can’t get it back until either the human dies or every page in the book are filled, and
– when a 死神 (Death Gods) looks at a human, he can see their name and how many days are left in their lifespan.

I saw both the first 「デスノート」 (“Death Note“) movie and the sequel when they aired on television here.

A scene from the "Death Note" movie.

After seeing the movies, it made me interested in reading the manga.

A criminal is tricked into touching the "Death Note"...which causes him to be able to see and hear the "Death God"---which is scarier than the police to him.

Of course I saw the movie and read the manga in Japan, so they were in Japanese…but I heard that 「デスノート」 (“Death Note“) has become popular overseas in English.

Have you seen the 「デスノート」 (“Death Note“) manga or movies?
Do you like them?