It's a pretty weird story, though. When One Piece was initially published in Italy (I think it was 2000 or 2001) Shueisha gave all the rights to the Italian publisher but the one of using the original logo and the map used as background on the covers. Only God knows why. So they have to redraw it from the scratch.
Then, with the reprint starting in 2009 they conceded the right on the logo as well, but for consistency the first serie kept the original layout
Some weeks ago I posted about how the Italian publisher was going to publish a special variant edition for Volumes 98-99 covers.
Today they showed how they will look. They just took the Luffy from the Jump covers of chapters 999 and 1000 and added a showcase of all the characters in background.
So…There is no special cover at all. Here's a picture...sorry for the bad quality. [
I can't post it. Just add the link
The final version of the volume 98 cover omitted the dragon body in the background, so I can't see how it's going to work. Is it possible the publisher is using alternate cover artwork, the same the French one did for their 20th anniversary special editions?
I can't see the picture. Anyway, they actually did change covers a couple of time for the 20th anniversary reprint and another celebration like that, but never for the regular series covers.
How else the two covers can be possibly linked? Maybe they use the alternate volume 98 version with the dragon? It does exist, being published in a Japanese magazine
Hello everybody.
Not sure if it is worth saying but the Italian publisher of One Piece announced today that volumes 98-99 will come out in a special edition with high-quality pvc covers and posters reproducing the cover illustrations without writings, logos etc.
What's interesting is that they told that the covers (and the posters as well, of course) can be aligned to create one single big illustrations. It's possible that One Piece publishers worldwide have already access to the definitive cover of 99 in order to announce these kind of initiatives. And of course it can give us some more ground to speculate on how the cover will be.
The easiest way to link the cover could be using Kaido's dragon form looming in background behind the main characters. If the focus will be the battle on the roof, I can easily think that there will be the 5 SNs, Big Mom and dragon form Kaido.
What do you guys think?
I already found it unbearable
by the way,can't they just coup the burst away from the tsunami?how much time is needed to initiate the whole thing?
brook replenished the cola in the last chapter and in this one he is doing something else, so i suppose he already done it?
still,narratively speaking it would be a bit weak to resolve with another coup de burst..but i fail to see how they can survive the tsunami otherwise
Maybe Jinbe can counter it with some fishmen karate water based move? Even with the help of other Sun Pirates.
Just a guess
So the other patient on the 4th floor is Cracker? Or did they mean Sanji?
And what does Hidoikotosuruwa mean?
More or less "I do terrible things"…
BTW good chapter even though I am really afraid that Big Mom will end up getting beaten this arc
Any link to download japanese volumes 73/74/75?
The ones posted in this thread are no longer available.
Thanks
@Monkey:
That somehow doesn't seem clever enough to be it.
The "Kan" is the reference. If you're struggling to think of an example of Japan referring to Chinese things with Kan….then uh...remember Kanji?
Only if you are under the impression that the Han dynasty and word "Han" are just sort of a random Chinese dynasty and name that aren't huge deals. Which is not the case whatsoever.
The Han are considered the most important Chinese dynasty of all, they weren't the first to unite China (they're second), but they were the first to make it count and actually make China a viable united state for the first time after the Stalinist nutters who ran the three-man first dynasty.
If people think of "important old China period where they were strong and doing cool shit", they're probably going to be thinking of Han before any other.
Its such a big deal that the actual name Chinese people call themselves is literally "Han". Even the basic reason Kanji is called that is from the "Hanzi" name for the same characters in China whence they came from. And of course both Kanji and Hanzi mean "Han Characters".
If Wa and Yamato are fancy terms the Japanese use to stir up thoughts of an important and formative time in their history? Han is the equivalent for China. And I shouldn't have to explain how China is basically the end all be all for the whole East Asia region in terms of so much of their shared culture.
I can keep going too. It was during the Han that we have the earliest known diplomatic contacts between Japan and China (or what was to become Japan anyway), and the Han dynasty was the China that gave Japan the name "Wa" in the first place!And while we're talking what would be natural or unnatural for a Japanese person to think, this should not be obscure in Japan. The Han for all intents and purpose were East Asian Rome. I trust you (well shit ESPECIALLY you, lol @ location) should understand how a reference to such an entity is a really big cultural deal.
And even then that's not quite my point anyway, as it appears that "Kan" is an old fashioned name for China, and the 漢 na kanji designates various things as Chinese. Especially it would appear older more classic Chinese things.
So I take it you can read the following, 漢方薬, 漢文,漢詩? Then you can see the point.
But I think I've saved the best for last. I think. Obviously I don't actually read, write or know Japanese. But roving through Japanese wikipedia for various names of China (using yes crappy translator tools) I found a sentence that I couldn't quite figure due to the garbage grammar of the translator service. But if it says what I think it says? Then my point is proven entirely.
So what is this saying?Because if its saying what I think its saying, that just about establishes "Han/Kan/漢" as being a term that really carries a lot of weight in terms of old fancy cultural grandpappy China to Japan.
If its seeming strange to you that one country could simultaneously have various names for the Japanese to use to reference it (aside from their own of course), well I dunno. Its common. Especially for really old areas. Like Iran/Persia.
Knowing nothing more linguistically, but feeling very confident culturally I will hazard that the more common modern name for China (中国) will make a Japanese person roll their eyes or shrug uncomfortably as their head fills with images of island disputes, riots, WW2 scars and CCP politicians glaring. But if you mention 漢 (and probably some of the other old fancy China names I noticed while researching) their mind might fill up with images of great palaces, powerful emperors, dragons, ancient philosophy, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Journey to the West.POINT IS
All that taken into account you just can't really tell me that completely by coincidence Oda has chosen to name One Piece China Kanokuni without it being a punny reference of some sort. Especially not with the old name for Japan from the EXACT same period given by the EXACT same Chinese dynasty being the reference name for Wanokuni.
Obviously, Han dinasty is well known in Japan as well. But I was talking only about a linguistic issue, not historical one.
The point is…the "kan" 漢 you are talking about is different from the "ka" 花 in kanokuni. And for a japanese, as I wrote before, it would be an unnatural to mentally split every single letter of kanokuni and to grasp the "kan" part. Japanese people see it as KA-NO-KU-NI. That's all. Not KAN-O-KU-NI. It is not written nor pronounced in the way you suggest it. Japanese doesn't simply work that way.
The wiki part you quoted says: "there are also various examples in which, in Japan, the reading "kara" is given to the character 漢". Just to say, I have never found such a reading of that character, and even my dictionary doesn't report that reading. It must be an historical reading, not used anymore.
Anyway, as I have written before, there could be another reference to the China in the name, but not the one you are thinking about. There could possibly be other kanjis read as "ka" that refer to China. I am not excluding that possibility at all, just I can't see where the pun could come from.
@Monkey:
But technically correct as you might be I think you're missing the possible intention on Oda's part?
Yes we see the Kanji Wa in that one panel….sure...and yet why would Oda choose to write it in phonetic form whenever the actual name is used in dialogue?Kanokuni is a pun mixing flower with the "n" in no to get "Kan", an old name for China (from "Han" Dynasty I think).
Which makes me really really suspicious that his odd choice of phonetic Wa can't just be a straight down the line usage of the historical name.
I'd think he did it because the Wa Kanji was obscure Kanji kids might not know....except from what I've seen that isn't an obscure Kanji.
About Wa… The kanji wa 和 is really a basic kanji which children learn in elementary school. I think that Oda decided to write it as ワノ国 and not 和ノ国 because it is Japan, but not the same Japan of the real world. Something like this. Just because it is written in kana and not in kanji, the translation is "country of Wa".
About Kanokuni, if I remember correctly it is written 華 ノ国 that means, as you said, "land of the flower". As far as I can tell, there are hardly any references to China in the name itself, even though they can be found in many other things. That is because, japanese language doesn't permit to split syllables as you suggest (ka + n of no) and japanese people tend not to think in single letters but in kana. It would be quite an unnatural mental process to do ka + n = han dinasty = china reference.
Even though, there could be another hidden reference to China that I couldn't grasp. I'm not a japanese mothertongue.
