One Piece Film: Red Makes History in The World of Japanese Cinema

There is no doubt that the One Piece franchise will go down in history as one of the greatest Shounen Manga of all time. In fact, it’s probably the greatest manga in existence. With 516.6 million copies sold and 1,043 episodes, Naruto constantly occupies the top 10 best-selling manga charts every year, becoming one of the most well-known pop culture icons from Japan. The One Piece franchise also proudly holds the record for being the best-selling “comic of all time. Overtaking other comic icons such as Batman and Superman. In comparison, Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga is the second best-selling manga of all time, with 300 million copies sold, at least 200 million copies behind One Piece. That gap says a lot! Because of these achievements, One Piece has been dubbed by many as “The King of Manga”. Truth be told, that is a title well deserved.

If the achievements mentioned before weren’t enough, well, I’ve got more news to tell you. According to multiple sources, the newest One Piece film, titled One Piece Film: Red, has now grossed over 19.70 billion in Japan and 246.5 million worldwide. It is now the highest-grossing One Piece film of all time and the highest-grossing film made by Toei Animation. Also, check this out! THE HIGHEST-GROSSING ANIMATION FILM OF ALL TIME IN JAPAN, AND THE EIGHTH HIGHEST GROSSING FILM OF ALL TIME IN JAPAN!WOW!!! すげ!!! The film also achieved a record of being number one at the box office in Japan for eleven consecutive weeks. That is a huge achievement. Want to know why? Because only three Japanese films have ever held that record. Once again, One Piece makes history. Could you imagine how many One Piece fans are going to feel when the franchise soon comes to an end? It will probably be very hard to imagine that.

One Piece Film: Red premiered on July 22, 2022, in Nippon Budokan, Tokyo. To symbolically celebrate the One Piece manga’s 25th anniversary, it was theatrically released on August 6, 2022, in Japan. It was first announced on November 21, 2021, to commemorate the One Piece anime’s 1000th release. The film earned critical praise from both fans and critics alike. The One Piece franchise is known for having fantastic movies. Dating back to One Piece Strong World in 2009.

How do you One Piece fans feel about this? Does this make you proud? Happy? Have you seen the movie? Let me know in the comments!

Sources: Otaku USA

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless Officially Announced For a 2023 Release Later This Year

NIS has announced two new titles. Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless, is one of them. It was announced during the company’s 30th anniversary stream. It is set for a 2023 release around the fall season. It will be available on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC. (Sorry Xbox)

The newest installment adds samurai and catgirls with laser guns. Disgaea 7 is set in the netherworld hinomoto. It’s setting is inspired by historical Japan. The game follows demon warrior Fuji alongside his companion Pirilika, a catgirl with a gun. The game features 40 character classes and include a boxing witch and a gun samurai. The game also introduces a lot changes to it’s mechanics.

The other title announced by NIS was Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles, which bundles two JRPG classics titled Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, is coming to the US and Europe for the first time ever. The new version of the games are improved to modern standards. It is set for a PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC release in the summer of 2023.

Are you looking forward to this? Will you play these Games? Let me know in the comments!

Shinichiro Watanabe On Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop: “Very Tough For Me To Continue”

Shinichiro Watanabe, the renowned legendary director known for his amazing works such as Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy and his most recent work, Carole & Tuesday, had some harsh words to say about Netflix’s failed Live Action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop.

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Toys Revealed for the Super Mario Bros. Movie

Toy manufacturing company Jakks Pacific has revealed the official licensed toys of the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie. The toys will arrive on stores on February 26. Jakks Pacific has stated that more toys will be revealed soon and will possibly be more figures, accessories, playsets, plush and possibly a remote control toy.

The Super Mario bros. movie will screen on April 7. It stars well known actors such as Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Jack Black as Bowser. This will be first official licensed Mario movie in 30 years since the 1993 Mario Bros film, as well as the third Live Action movie based on a Nintendo franchise, after the Pokemon Detective Pikachu film in 2019.

Are you looking forward to these? Are you looking forward to the movie? Let me know in the comments!

The Nintendo Switch Sales May Have Officially Overtaken the Original Game Boy and Playstation 4 Sales

Here we are, almost six years after the Nintendo Switch was released back in March 2017, and the money printing machine is showing no signs of slowing down whatsoever. This is wonderful news for Nintendo, because only seven years ago, in 2016, they were struggling with their failed Wii U system, losing profit after profit. In fact, it was so bad that some thought (including me) that Nintendo was going to end up like Sega. Becoming a third-party video game company for their bitter rivals, Sony and Microsoft. Thankfully, though, that never happened. Instead, Nintendo is healthier, richer, and more powerful than ever. (except for their business practices).

According to a report from VGChartz, Nintendo sold 872,694 units during the week of December 10, 2022. While the units sold weren’t as high as many expected, this is not a surprise considering the economic mess many have been going through recently. From chip shortages to the pandemic to inflation and many other problems. Let’s not forget that another reason could be that gamers have families to take care of. Not all of them can afford to play the games they want. Struggling economic issues for families who are unable to buy a Nintendo Switch for their children are perhaps another reason. None the less, this is still an impressive result for the Nintendo Switch.

As it stands, the Nintendo Switch’s sales should now have reached 118,993 million in total. The Game Boy has a total of 118.69 million units sold, just narrowly behind the Switch. But think about this for a second. It took the Nintendo Switch’s lifetime sales only six years to get this high. While the Game Boy took exactly ten years to reach the lifetime sales it reached. If it only took the Switch six years to reach almost 119 million units, imagine how many units it will have left by the end of 2023. Although this has not been confirmed as official yet, it is very likely that this report is true.

If you think it was only the Game Boy that got knocked into the wall, then I guess I should tell you that it may seem like the PS4 has joined the Game Boy in being knocked into the wall as well. The PS4’s total lifetime sales are 117.2 million units. The PS4 is still in production for the US and European markets, and Sony has so far not shown any signs of discontinuing the console just yet. It is, however, discontinued in Japan and has been for the past two years. It’s not really surprising that sales of the PS4 have dwindled, considering the fact that the PS5 has been running for almost three years now and the PS4 still continues to enjoy some of the new releases that the PS5 gets.

So far, who knows? I truly do believe that this is likely true. The Nintendo Switch has been a money-making machine since its faithful release in 2017. It didn’t even take a year for the hybrid juggernaut to overtake its predecessor, or even half a decade to overtake the rest of its predecessors. The Switch has beaten many old records that consoles of the past once held. As of right now, there is no end in sight for the Nintendo Switch.

What do you think will happen next? Let me know in the comment section!