01. The Day of Becoming a God
I believe that in the past two days, people who watch "One Piece" and do not watch "One Piece" have been swept away by the news related to this comic.
The reason is that in the 1044 episode, the latest issue of the manga, the author Eiichiro Oda revealed a message that was enough to shock the world--- Luffy ate not rubber fruits, but animal fruits called bugs, full name "Human Fruit Esper Species Nika (Sun God)".
This is equivalent to Akira Toriyama telling you from the first words that Goku is just a very strong person, he can continue to grow through exercise, but after 25 years of serialization, he suddenly tells you that Goku is actually a super Saiyan, who has unlimited potential, and the combat power index can burst in an instant, enough to kill many scum who appeared before.
As a result, some Tieba netizens mocked Oda for rarely mentioning Luffy's father, probably because his "real father" was a Super Saiyan.
Such a hypothesis may not be empty, because Oda's worship of Akira Toriyama is well known, so it is not impossible to pay tribute to his idol with his own works to attract the attention of the other party.
Since the fruit that Luffy eats is the existence of the ceiling in the One Piece world, then Luffy is naturally also a being above ten thousand people, and among these ten thousand people, it also includes his brother Ace. Therefore, Ace did not actually need to sacrifice his life to protect Luffy's bug, after all, admiral Red Dog was only a "magma fruit" ability, which was actually not worth mentioning in front of Luffy's "sun god".
In the eyes of the fans, Ace's death was a joke, and when the fans found that the tears they had left behind scratched the makeup on their faces, they found that the clown was actually myself.
Some people say that after watching 1044 words, they look back on Luffy's journey and find that this is the so-called full-level gangster hiding his strength to open a trumpet and experience an adventurous life that began in the novice village.
There are also some old fans who laugh at themselves for the mental journey of chasing after the long road over the years, like buying a watermelon from a melon stall, and when they go home to prepare to cut it and eat it, the owner of the melon stall calls you and tells you that this is actually cantaloupe, and I have been reminding you of it "hahahahaha" when buying melon;
Hahahahahaha, laughing and laughing and crying.
Or maybe he has raised a cute black and white flower cat since he was a child, and as a result, the shape of his kitten has changed significantly over time. You think it's crippled, and it turns out that it's on the "Xiha" routine mentioned above.
You actually have a panda, but because it has the word "cat" in its name and the color is black and white, it is indeed the so-called "black and white flower cat".
In short, after Oda put down this bombshell, the pirate fans lurking on major social platforms were blown up, and some people transformed into satin hands, mocking "One Piece" and its author Oda with one funny strip and meme;
Some people are so disappointed that they choose to say goodbye to this youth in silence; others turn into sea scientists, pick up microscopes, and rummage through past stories.
This phenomenon of multi-polarization is especially obvious in the mixed Tieba bar. "One Piece Bar", as the forum with the longest existence and the most concentrated fans in China, has always been the main front for netizens to discuss the plot and roles, and in the years of follow-up and discussion, the bar has a lot of gods.
When the group learned of Luffy's changes, they began to work hard to win back Oda's reputation, from a key plot to a small expression in the storyboard, which was regarded as Oda's foreshadowing for "Nika".
02. Oda is posting it?
In the setting of "One Piece", the "Demon Fruit" is a fruit that can give the eater superpower, according to the different fruits, the super power obtained by the eater is also different, and the degree of exertion of the ability depends on the strength of the ability.
Demon Fruit's abilities are divided into three categories: Superhuman, Animal (including two rare esper and ancient species), and Natural.
According to the original plot, fans have always thought that the demon fruit that Luffy ate was superhuman, but in episode 1044, Oda indicates that he actually ate an animal or an extremely rare esper species.
However, as the plot progresses, Oda also adds the setting of "artificial demon fruit" invented by Bergapunk to the manga.
Compared with the natural demon fruit that absorbs the essence of the sun and moon, the fruit of Bergapunk has a more obvious side effect, a part of the body of a person who successfully obtains the ability can become an animal, and the person who fails will lose all expressions except smiling, so the eater of the artificial demon fruit can only show a smiling expression.
What the reader does not expect is that this setting, which seems to serve the laughter point, is likely to be Oda's foreshadowing for Luffy's "Nika".
Because in the plot, Beckpunk has perfectly reproduced the demon fruit of Kaido ("Fish Fruit, Esper Species, Green Dragon Form"), but he still thinks that this is a failed reproduction experiment.
This means that Beckpunk's purpose is not simply to make artificial fruit aimlessly, but to reproduce a particular demonic fruit. Combined with the characteristics of "Nika" is "able to make people smile", then the artificial fruit "can only make people laugh" may not be a side effect, but its own incidental effect.
All along, Luffy has faced the bad things that happen around him with an exaggerated smile, at first fans thought that the exaggerated expression was just Oda's painting style, and Luffy's optimistic attitude was part of the human design, and it was precisely because Luffy always showed this optimistic spirit in the midst of difficulties that it attracted a large number of fans.
But at a time when the characteristics of "Nika" are already obvious, it is difficult not to let fans suspect that Oda has already laid the relevant foreshadowing.
In addition, some netizens started from the name "Nika" and sorted out the relevant foreshadowing from various materials.
First of all, Nika is based on a legendary creature called "kenmun", Nika parasitizes on a rubber tree and has the ability to change its form freely; as a "sun god", it can create light and emit flames. It usually inhabits some places close to water sources; its favorite food is some fish, crabs and octopus.
In terms of "like to eat octopus", it is consistent with Luffy's basic setting, and the description of "kenmun" is basically consistent with the appearance of "five gears", so it seems that "rubber ability" is only one of nika's basic characteristics.
In addition, Luffy, as a "rubber man", is full of heat when switching forms, and can play the "rubber fire fist" which is compatible with his own attributes (although it is a move created to imitate Ace, the combination of rubber and fire still makes people feel a little violated).
In the eyes of many netizens, these foreshadowings have their own reasons, but the current "One Piece" has been serialized for more than twenty years, thousands of words, but such a key foreshadowing is only suddenly announced now, according to the normal plot structure, such foreshadowing should be disclosed in the middle of the plot development, rather than suddenly punching the face when "Luffy is a rubber man" has become a consensus.
Of course, some netizens think that the above foreshadowing is really far-fetched, watching more and more "foreshadowing" that cannot withstand scrutiny flood the major social platforms, especially Tieba bar, bar friends have also begun to use various "foreshadowing" to mock this phenomenon of forced examination.
For example, even the onomatopoeia that appear in the comics are used as a foreshadowing of "Nika", which is too far-fetched;
When everyone thinks that the name "Senyo" is because Oda wants to give it some positive meaning, but in the eyes of another group of people, it may be the foreshadowing of the "sun god".
Since "onomatopoeia" can be forcibly related to foreshadowing, are some elements with commonalities also a kind of foreshadowing? --- Like Nika has hair, Luffy has hair...
In addition, there are graduate students majoring in drama, film and television screenwriting, and from a professional point of view, it is pointed out that Oda's foreshadowing this time is very abruptly exposed, and it is impossible to conceive a good setting in the early days of the series.
These are either accurate predictions, or the phenomenon of forced pulling, but also become a joke of netizens, saying that Oda is actually lurking in the post bar, when he does not know how to serialize the follow-up plot, he will get inspiration from the analysis of the bar friends.
Because before the 1044 episode update, some bar friends guessed the real body of the rubber fruit, so netizens could not help but suspect that this person was Oda himself.
In fact, from many of the settings of "One Piece", we can see that Oda is moving closer to "Dragon Ball".
The change in Luffy's gear is like a tribute to the Saiyans; the moves in the fourth gear are also easily reminiscent of Turtle Qigong.
Unfortunately, in the foreshadowing of the pen, Oda cannot do it as freely as Akira Toriyama. For example, neither Akira Toriyama nor Oda had any intention of making a long-term serialization at the beginning of the manga series, but only because of the soaring popularity of the work, they were forced to make compromises due to market pressure.
After Akira Toriyama finished drawing the plot of the "World First Martial Arts Conference", he gradually supplemented the setting of the "Saiyan" and let the square character grow slowly according to the strength of the enemy character, so there was a process of fighting from the earth to outer space.
Oda, on the other hand, is "ascending to the heavens in one step", and after spending thousands of episodes to portray Luffy as a hard worker, he suddenly installs an epic intensity setting on him.
Looking back at the previous plot, fans can hardly perceive the thoughtfulness he has done for this setting.
With the strong change in the excellent role model and the setting itself, it is no wonder that fans are mocking Oda.
Of course, as a comic, "One Piece" is also a bit far-fetched, whether it is cut from some sub-grids and even onomatopoeia, or as the above-mentioned theory of film and television creation is also put into it.
But it is undeniable that as a manga that has been serialized for more than twenty years, the breadth of its script has long exceeded the control of Oda, and the long-term serialization has intentionally or unintentionally consumed the patience of the creators, so even if the form of "Nika" suddenly bursts out, it is beyond the expectations of fans, and it is reasonable.
03. Conclusion
In fact, for most readers, Whether Oda has an ambush pen or not, where to ambush the pen, is not as shocking as the sudden appearance of "Nika", which is why 1044 words can detonate the whole network.
Oda may want to surprise the majority of fans, but in the eyes of fans, this operation is more suitable for being called frightened, and they feel that their years of experience are not at all comparable to Oda's imagination.
It's just that at this point, as readers, we really can't change anything, after all, Oda is not really lurking in the post, and the plot is modified according to our feedback.
In fact, making superhuman fruits into animal fruits is not necessarily all bad, perhaps such a change can let us see more possibilities for Luffy, see Oda expand his own sea, and see "One Piece" leave a wonderful page in the history of Japanese manga.
"After all, in the world of comics, anything is possible." Maybe this is the biggest foreshadowing that Oda laid out with more than 1,000 words?