 Ahem. I have an important announcement to make regarding the future of the Ground Line Review. So due to ongoing global concerns, the subscribe jokes that I make at the beginning of all of my videos will be going on hiatus until I determine that it is safe to start using them again. And I determine that that time is now. So take an awfully good look at this very awkward shot of Usopp and subscribe to the Ground Line Review for regular One Piece content uploaded straight into your YouTube feed. Hello and welcome to the Ground Line Review, your source for everything One Piece and I say I come bearing some very unfortunate news for those of you who have not already heard, which is that due to the current goings on in the world, which I'm still paranoid about mentioning on YouTube, the broadcast of the One Piece anime is being suspended and Toei has conveyed this on social media with the following message. To all our fans, due to the state of emergency in Japan caused by the pandemic, we have carefully considered the safety measures for the spread and have decided to suspend the simulcast and Japanese broadcasting for both One Piece and our new series Digimon Adventure for the time being. Once on the return of both series will be provided as soon as we know. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. Please stay safe and healthy. And I think we can all concur with that last statement of course, but this is pretty devastating news for One Piece fans. And I know that this sentiment is maybe a bit ironic coming from me as someone who has been traditionally quite critical of the anime, especially with one of my more recent videos which had the sole task of detailing why Manga readers tend to dislike it. However, at both the beginning and the end of that video, I did go on to state that the most important thing was that you were a One Piece fan, no matter how you choose to consume this wonderful series. So as such, this is horrible news for anime watchers. However, I think we all completely understand the need for this sort of hiatus to occur. And of course, as of right now, we have not been given any indication of even a vague return date for One Piece, which is a pretty big scary question mark to have hanging over the series because who knows, things might get under control and we might have it back in full swing in say a month or it may take significantly longer than that because no one knows. Now, of course, this obviously does not just affect One Piece. That's just where this channel is designed to focus on. But the announcement from Toei also mentioned Digimon, but also Toei is not the only studio under these conditions. As other anime series that have been affected by this include Pokemon Sword and Shield, as well as the second season of Re Zero, which I was very much looking forward to because I am in glutton for punishment in that brutal, brutal world. And also the world of cinematic releases have been hit pretty hard as well with the third Fate, Stay Night, Heaven's Feel film and the Violet Everguard movie being delayed amongst a slew of others. And obviously that's probably less of a production concern, but more an issue with people not necessarily being able to go out to a cinema to see a film. And also if anybody is interested in Samo Dubs for whatever reason that may be, Funimation is also delaying those, which will affect series like My Hero Academia, Black Clover and Darwin's Game. The latter of which I recently started watching actually. Not the dub though, definitely the sub. But yeah, One Piece is far from the only affected property, although it is the only series that this channel is particularly concerned with. And also just for Manga Readers, be aware that our situation is also not looking too great as there was a confirmed case in Shueisha's office, which has resulted in the weekly shown in Jump Publishing schedule being put on a temporary two week cycle. So we have one chapter, then a break, then another chapter, then a break. Although one of those breaks is for Golden Week, so we would have had that anyway. And I guess I think when it comes to the manga, there is a bit more optimism to be had just simply in regards to the nature of its production. Manga is drawn by artists and small isolated officers with a couple of assistants for major titles like One Piece, so it's much easier to enact social distancing. And that's probably much less true for the main Shueisha office which would function like any other. But oddly enough, the manga industry seems almost designed to weather a pandemic because when it comes to artists, social distancing is effectively their lifestyle. And that is not true when it comes to the anime production, however, because they obviously work with much larger teams in very communal areas and so the risk factor is much, much higher, which sucks. It really does. And I feel for the anime fans at this time. But the most important thing is that the staff of Toei and in fact all of Japan stay safe as well as the rest of the world. Now to address some other less than fantastic things, I have seen some comments on social media which look rather unfortunately to be from manga fans and very sorry. But a select few are celebrating this hiatus and I just want to take a brief moment to say, please don't do that. It is very, very unhelpful and it serves no real purpose. The anime going on hiatus does not help anybody in any way. Obviously it doesn't help anime fans who are now deprived of their weekly injection of the One Piece drug, but it also doesn't help people like me who want the anime to be better because this won't actually change anything. It's not as if this time will allow Toei to restructure their business model and make episodes with less filler or better animation. This is nothing like that. Instead it would just appear to be something of a freeze on current operations. So with that in mind, celebrating this sort of thing is just an exercise and sharding for it I guess. Very pointless and it's bad for manga fans as well because it is absolutely undeniable that the anime provides a consistent flood of new manga fans because it acts as an easy gateway into One Piece. So make no mistake, the anime coming to a sudden halt does hurt this community at large. Now for those of you anime fans who are a bit devastated at this sudden lack of One Piece to consume, I would be remiss at my job if I did not mention the possibility of, you know, giving the manga a go. And I will show you exactly how you can do just that. But here's the thing, I do understand the arguments that anime only fans make. You guys prefer the experience of having a fully realized world in front of you with great audio visual depth, you know, music and voice acting. And also some of you have mentioned that having a clear image with colors and a single shot focus is also very helpful in your personal experience of One Piece. I do fully accept and understand that. However, under all of the conditions that this world is currently facing, I really don't think there has ever been a better time to give the manga a go. Now, if you do want to pick up exactly where the anime is left off for now, which was episode 929, then you will want to start with chapter 934. The anime episode does adapt most of this chapter just over two thirds of it, I'd say. But if you go through the whole thing, then you will be caught up and you can just proceed with the glory of Wano. Now exactly how do we do this if we so desire? Well, the entire series thus far is available at viz.com with a monthly subscription of $2. That is it, two American dothere dos and it will give you not only close to a thousand chapters of One Piece, but also access to a ton of other series which you can see here, stuff like One Punch Man, Dragon Ball Super, Black Clover, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, The Promised Neverland, Dr. Stone, and a metric ass ton of other stuff. And no, I am not sponsored by Viz, I wish I was, please give me money, Viz. But what I am trying to convey is that $2 a month can go an awfully long way towards entertainment in this world at this time. But if you do elect to go down this route, I have a very important note here because the Viz website layout kind of really annoys me because if you say go into the search bar and type in One Piece, then it'll just take you to a page where it prompts you to buy copies of the volumes which we certainly do not currently want as the website gives us all of these chapters anyway. So what you actually need to do is click on the show and jump tab and then find One Piece in that list and it will take you to a complete collection of all the chapters of which there are many. Oh, just look at them all. And then you just read away to victory and let me know how your experience was in the comments below. And really, Anime Peeps, Wano has a lot to offer you in the manga because there is some stuff that has yet to come in the anime which is absolutely mammoth and well worth reading to discover. But just while we're talking about current events, there was some other bizarre news announced recently that the One Piece anime will be coming to Netflix in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which is a very intriguing idea actually. And I have no doubt that this is being done to kind of synergize with the One Piece live action series which is in active development. I imagine that the basic idea is to build up a base of One Piece fans on Netflix. And then when the live action series comes out, there will be more people willing to bite given how they've already had an assumedly positive One Piece experience on the Netflix platform. Two huge caveats at this stage though. The first of which is that according to Netflix, at the moment, this will only be the first to quote unquote, arcs of the series by which they actually mean to say sagas. So they will have all of East Blue and Alabasta which does sound ancient, but it's actually quite a fair chunk of the series actually, like a whole 130 episodes, which is a lot of content, but it continues to synergize nicely with the idea of the live action series because that is unlikely to get past East Blue in its first season. And if it does, then something has gone very, very wrong. But this is pretty good news for these particular English speaking countries because it is reintroducing One Piece into something of a mainstream vessel, I guess. As much as it might be completely redundant for all of us fans, it will undoubtedly introduce new people into the series and continue to build a nice legion of global One Piece fans. But the second caveat is that this is only happening on June 2nd, I believe. So if you had any hope of introducing some of your more normie friends or family into One Piece at the moment, then there is still quite a while to wait before that may be possible. But this is still generally good news, and I think we really do need at least a bit of that at the moment. But yeah, sadly, that's about it. One Piece anime is on hiatus for an unknown amount of time and the manga is in a kind of precarious position as well. With all of this said though, this is not necessarily reason for despair and it might actually present a fantastic opportunity to reread or rewatch the series because One Piece has such an incredible amount to offer beyond its initial experience. In fact, that's the entire reason why I have this channel exclusively for One Piece because there is so much to dissect and reflect upon beyond just discussing new chapters, episodes and future theories. So if you've never done a big reread or rewatch, then I highly recommend it because there is a lot that you've either probably missed or forgotten about. And not only that, but experiencing the series in retrospect is very different because you also pick up on a lot of cool foreshadowing and you can just see how much things have really evolved in One Piece over time. So I can't recommend that idea enough if you are caught up with the anime and or the manga. And not only that, I also don't think there's ever been a better time to try and get people into One Piece in general. Given that at least the anime is frozen in place at the moment and the manga is moving slower than usual, this is a pretty grand opportunity for people to become invested in One Piece without feeling a bit too overwhelmed, maybe. It's still an overwhelming thing to take on. But at the same time, there's also no excuse for not having the time to read or watch the series now because an awful lot of people out there have unparalleled time on their hands that they will probably never see again once this period comes to a close. So if you do have friends or family that you want to get into the series, then now is probably when you should be doing it. And maybe you could even make it a bit more fun for them by watching or reading along with them somehow. Like hosting a long distance watch party, maybe have like a regular One Piece evening or something along those lines. And with the manga, you could do something similar like a weekly catch up where you just talk about the volumes you've read. And yes, I know it does sound like a wanky book club but just do something because it's always much easier for someone to plunge into One Piece when they have that bit of social backup. But yeah, that is about it. Dark times, but dark times filled with lots of potential. And however, where you go about your life, I just hope that One Piece continues to be a very strong part of it. But what do you guys think? Please do leave your thoughts in the comments below or even join my Discord server. And if you'd like to see more videos like this then please do go and check out some of my other content or even subscribe to the channel for more glorious One Piece business uploaded straight into your YouTube feed. But for now, this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.