 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece and today it's that time of year again, the One Piece Super Stage event at the annual Jump Festa has come and gone and it has left us with a very, very stupidly intriguing piece of information from Oda, as it usually does, regarding what is going to happen in the manga in 2021 and this is some pretty big stuff potentially. So we're going to go through his Jump Festa message here today and dissect that as well as much much more. But in order to peer into this message you also need to activate your all-seeing glasses by pressing the subscribe button for the Grand Line Review which will also give you the benefit of seeing clear, concise and consistent One Piece content magically uploaded straight into your YouTube feed and in this case it will also provide you with 2021 vision because we are going to look into the future. But just before we do begin I should probably explain exactly what Jump Festa is because more casual fans may not be aware but this is effectively the Shona Manga equivalent of Comic-Con. It's an annual event sponsored by Shueisha who is the publisher of One Piece as well as its publication magazine Weekly Shona Jump and Jump Festa is all about focusing on Shueisha's various properties which include a shocking amount of big titles such as Drag Ball, Naruto Bleach, Hunter Hunter, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, Black Clover and the list goes on and on into Infinity. So you can basically think of this event as one huge marketing stunt that sees roughly 100,000 people attending across two days which for some perspective San Diego Comic-Con sees about 130,000 people attending over its four-day event so Jump Festa is a pretty big deal which is why they have the prestige of hosting things like the annual One Piece Super Stage event where traditionally they not only bring out Etra Oda himself in a very, very rare public appearance but also the voice actors of the Straw Hats where they proceed to talk about the series and give some very intriguing insights. What we're concerned with particularly with this video though is Oda's written Jump Festa message. Now these have been quite infamous in the past because they usually contain a massive hint or even an outright statement of exactly where the story is going. For example, we knew that the Wanoak was going to begin in 2018 because Oda told us through a Jump Festa message but this is also where stuff like the Year of Sanji or the introduction of the lurking legend comes from. You know all of those very famous Oda quotes that get passed around the online fan base like crack. Most of them spawn directly from these messages. So naturally we are going to keep up our addiction by dissecting Oda's Jump Festa 2021 message which yes I know it is still 2020 unfortunately but these events are geared towards the future so it's known as Jump Festa 2021. And this translation of Oda's message comes to us courtesy of the Library of Ohara and a link to the full thing will be in the description below but let us begin. To everyone watching Jump Festa, hello. This has been a truly difficult year hasn't it? I feel that many people have been affected by the strong influence of the virus. And actually let's stop here because this is something I forgot to point out. This year's Jump Festa was an online only event due to that holy and a global pandemic thing. And in fact I think this is the first case of one of these messages directly referencing a global event rather than just talking straight at one piece. So this will be quite an interesting little time capsule to look back on maybe a decade or so from now but he continues. I'd like to applaud all those from various industries who have been doing their best to cheer other people up during this time. Despite the situation looking like something out of a dream it's been quite the year. And I really like this statement because one of the industries that have been doing their best to cheer people up is Manga. And despite being a very turbulent year Oda has been working as hard as ever to deliver one piece and had fate been even just a little bit different we would have quite comfortably reached chapter 1000 this year. Alas it was not meant to be. Anyways on the Jump Front Kimetsu was pretty amazing wasn't it? It brought joy and salvation to the feelings of so many. That's truly impressive. That's how Manga should be. In a way I was really moved. So turning to Jump itself now this is a reference to Kimetsu No Yaiba or Demon Slayer whichever you prefer to say. Which is also the first time in any of these messages that Oda has spoken about another series. And the reasoning behind that has to do with the fact that in both 2019 and 2020 Demon Slayer has done what was thought to be impossible and actually outsold one piece on an annual basis. And for some perspective on that one piece had been the consistent number one spot ever since about 2002 so this was a kind of big deal. But then 2020 came along and obliterated everything because Demon Slayer in an effort that I can only describe as somehow sold 82 million copies in a single year. Which just for some perspective Demon Slayer in 2019 also holding the number one spot sold just over 12 million copies so this whole 82 million thing was a bit of a jump. It's a cultural phenomenon never seen before and so Oda in a very classically humble and Japanese way acknowledged its success and was happy for it which is nice. Now this might be Jump Festa but it's also the one piece super stage event so let's get talking. In some way or another one piece has already ended up at 1000 chapters. By the time you're reading this I'll have already finished chapter 1000 and we'll be meeting up with the anime cast here at Jump Festa or so it was supposed to be. Alas I'm not allowed to go. What a shame. So this should come as no surprise but yes Oda has already completed chapter 1000 which does make sense. It's slated for release on the 4th of January 2021 so it should be well and truly in a complete state by now. Due to the manga production timeline you can generally assume that the author will have begun the drafting stages 4 or perhaps even 5 weeks ahead of where we currently are. Although just to avoid some confusion I should say that spoilers for chapter 1000 will almost certainly be appearing very late in 2020. So all I can say for those of you who don't want the experience potentially ruined is to be very wary of the internet from about the 28th of December onwards. And this includes being wary of comment sections of certain YouTube videos, certain Grand Line Review YouTube videos because I recently had a bit of an issue here where select people went out of their way to spoil a certain revelation of chapter 999 in my comment section. And all I can say is that I am truly truly envious of people who have the time to commit to that. I am jealous in a way you cannot even imagine because I can't imagine having such a vapid purposeless existence that I'd have the time or inclination to just go out of my way to ruin the experience of others. But if chapter 1000 does have some big stuff it will happen so just be careful out there everyone. There are various projects going alongside the celebration of chapter 1000 so please indulge in those as they come up towards the start of next year. And this kind of intrigues me although I don't know if it's anything too special. Currently the only thing I really know of is the One Piece 1000 logs website which I'm not exactly sure what is yet but it looks like a potential release of every one piece chapter cover in colour including the colour spreads which would be pretty exciting. And there is also going to be the dual weekly shown in jump cover for chapter 1000 both parts of which have already been released online featuring other artists in the magazine drawing one piece characters which is very very fun. Furthermore after that in 2021 volume 100 will also release. This is going to be a big year and this is something I didn't even think about until now. I completely forgot that we were on track to see volume 100 released. Although to be fair the English release of volume 100 almost certainly won't be until 2022 because they're roughly a year behind the Japanese releases. So weirdly enough even the anime only watches are ahead of the events of people who only read the English volumes which is a very very niche crowd but there certainly are a fair few of them out there. But finally let's get to the good stuff. As for the contents of the manga as new information goes I wonder if he's soon going to move? The red haired man. Which may sound like a wildly underwhelming statement but this is Oda more or less confirming that Shanks will not only appear in 2021 but also instigate some sort of major decision. Which I think is a fascinating choice. Firstly because Shanks has always appeared as more of a passive character throughout the lifespan of One Piece. He tends to be very diplomatic and focused on making sure things don't happen rather than do happen. And it's also intriguing that Oda has chosen to put some focus on to Shanks rather than stating anything about Wano at all. So he's keeping the current arc a complete mystery in regards to the length remaining which I do like. I am always you know slightly annoyed when he goes out of his way to put a timeline on things. Because putting that sort of fixed point on events is exciting but sometimes takes away from enjoying the adventure right in front of our eyes. But really this could go one of two ways. Either Wano ends in 2021 after which point we shift to a more active focus on Shanks or at least we set his events into motion in the background while the straw hats take on some sort of new arc. That or we see the end of act 3 or even act 4 of Wano ending in 2021 and we get a glimpse of Shanks' action during the interval chapter or chapters plural. And either way is quite possible because to be honest I'm not sure if Wano does end in 2021. I know it looks like we're very much in the end game but even so these sections of mega arcs take a long time to complete. And I know I say this quite a bit but it's a great comparison because from the moment the straw hats fled from Holkek Chateau the Big Mom chase sequence lasted about 30 chapters which is almost an entire year of publication because we tend to average around 38-40 chapters a year. So even if Wano does end in 2021 it will almost certainly be the latter part of it. That is a big if though. All of which is to say that we probably shouldn't take this tease about Shanks as any sort of grand focus. I think it will probably be more akin to the lurking legend situation where Otis said that he would be introducing one of the legends lurking in the world of One Piece and then he proceeded to gobsmack everyone with the introduction of Eam. A very short appearance but completely series redefining. But then when we're discussing what kind of move Shanks will make you'd almost have to assume that it has something to do with Blackbeard. Shanks has been focused on teach throughout the entire Monday of One Piece. You know he goes to Whitebeard to warn him about teach. He goes to Marineford and prevents teach from causing more destruction. He visits the five elder stars to talk about a certain pirate who is more than likely teach. And yeah I don't quite know where Shanks's focus may be at this point but if it is indeed elsewhere then we could find out very soon. And I should say that while these statements are meant to be geared towards getting us excited for the upcoming year of One Piece it should never be taken as fact or misinterpreted in any way. So for example the previous year's Jump Festa message included a statement about the Wano arc entering its final stages and afterwards Oda gave a tease regarding Sabo, Vivian Boa Hancock which I think is clearly referring to events to happen after Wano but I can see how most people took it as an expectation for 2020 because it was included in the 2020 teaser message so yeah can't really blame anyone. But what we have this year is actually an unusually sparse message which really only focuses on Shanks in terms of future manga events. So I do eagerly await whenever that may entail. And notice final statement is, as always the story is pushing towards its finale. Take your time to enjoy yourselves next year. Which is very much in keeping with the whole One Piece mantra. As always it's about the journey not the destination. So as much as we may be hyped for certain things like certain red head things there is still plenty to enjoy with what we have left sitting right in front of us now. Which I think is always important to keep in mind because the internet is always fueled by discussion about the future. It's always about what will happen when it will happen and why it's taking so long to happen. So here Oda is reminding us to just you know sit back and enjoy because we've already been on this 1000 chapter journey over the course of 23 years. So what's the rush? 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 feeds. But for now this has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time.