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Eiichiro Oda Teases Developments for One Piece Manga in 2018

One Piece manga creator Eiichiro Oda teased future developments for the manga via a handwritten message during a stage presentation at the Jump Festa 2018 event on Sunday. In the message, Oda said that the manga will enter the Wano Country arc next year. He added that he said the same thing last year, but explained that at the time he thought he would be able to enter the arc this year.

Oda also stated in the message that he plans to introduce a "lurking legend" in the One Piece world next year. He also added that it will be "Luffy and his crew's greatest enemy." Oda teased that this enemy "might be related to Whitebeard." Oda also teased that the Paramount War storyline in the series will "look cute" compared to "that."

Oda had said in an interview in the Super Kabuki II One Piece ''Idai Naru Sekai" photo collection and information book that shipped last month that he thought that he will get to the Wano Country arc within 1-2 years, but he will also "probably" draw a story related to Ace within the arc.

Oda said in an interview in July 2016 that he had finished around 65% of the manga.

The manga currently has 430 million copies in print worldwide — 360 million copies in print in Japan and 70 million copies in print outside of Japan. Oda began serializing the manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997, and the manga has been published in more than 30 countries. Shueisha released the manga's 87th compiled book volume on November 2, and Viz Media released the 84th volume on November 7.