第162回：Eye Care About ONE PIECE

WHOOOOOOOA!
ZORO!!
LUFFY!!!
MORE BEASTLY THAN BEAST PIRATES!!!!

This time Luffy and Zoro are too hot to handle so we’re going to look somewhere you wouldn’t normally expect to find a lot of drama, the splash page art! This cover art has quite a story to tell!

The request for a scene of Pudding using eye drops was made by a ‘Mattsuu-san’. Although it might raise an eyebrow for being oddly specific, the concept seems fairly straightforward, Pudding using eye drops is eclectic due to her third eye. End of story, right? Nope, just the beginning and it all has to do with this being Chapter 1010!

Since 1947, October 10th has been ‘Eye Care Day’ in Japan. Why October, 10th? Turn 10 and 10 clockwise, place them side-by-side and they look like a pair of eyes! Now consider Chapter 1010 and separate it into 10 10 aka October, 10th! Okay, so *that’s* why Odacchi picked up this request, it matches the chapter number! But we’re still not at the bottom of this!

Why the heck did Odacchi even consider this in the first place??? And why did he make the connection to ‘Eye Care Day’??? Believe me, October, 10th might be ‘Eye Care Day’ but that’s far from common knowledge. To understand this, you’d have to be a fan of Japanese television!

Once a month, Fuji Television airs a ONE PIECE variety television program, ‘Kaizoku-ou ni Ore wa Naru TV’.

On the February, 26th episode, Japanese comedian Ryosuke Kono launched a crazy prediction into the ether!

He declared that Zoro would open his scarred left eye in Chapter 1010!

Why? Because the 1010 represents ‘Eye Care Day’!

In the end, Zoro didn’t exactly ‘open’ his eye but he did *AWAKEN* his Supreme King Haki so in a way, Ryosuke’s prediction was right and Odacchi deliberately called attention to it! Bravo, Ryosuke, bravo!