The nationalities of the Japanese manga series "One Piece" characters have been revealed and it turned out that its lead character Monkey D. Luffy is not Japanese.
Japan's biggest online bulletin board 2ch recently released a scan of a corner featured in the "One Piece" manga called "Shitsumon wo Boshu Suru" or "SBS" where "One Piece" writer and illustrator Eiichiro Oda answers questions submitted by fans.
One of the questions asked for "SBS 56" was about the real-life nationalities of Luffy's crew. "One Piece" was originally written in Japanese but it hints that the characters speak various languages including French, English and Spanish. Oda recently revealed that only Zoro is the Japanese member of the Straw Hat Pirates crew.
Oda also revealed that Franky is American, Brook is Austrian, Robin is Russian, Chopper is Canadian, Sanji is French, Usopp is African, Nami is Swedish and Luffy is Brazilian.
After this revelation, some fans still proposed that Luffy is of mixed Brazilian and Japanese descent while others pointed out that Usopp looks more like Italian or Indian than African. Many are also confused why Zoro is Japanese, Rocket News has learned.
It must be noted that among the answers Oda gave to the fan question about the Straw Hat Pirates' nationalities, the one given to Usopp was Africa, a continent unlike the answers given to other characters which are specific countries.
With more than 345 million copies sold across the globe, "One Piece" is considered the best-selling manga series of all time with Oda regarded as one of the manga artists who revolutionized manga history.