299 episodes of Pocket Monster adventures and 594 chapters of pirate voyages offered for free to keep Japan’s spirits up as people avoid going outside.
With the coronavirus outbreak an ongoing situation in Japan, the country has indirectly been told to stay home as much as possible. Technically, health officials have just told people to avoid crowded places, but if you want to abide by that advice in Japan’s high-density population centers, oftentimes the only non-crowded place is inside the walls of your house/apartment.
Couple that with many companies instituting telecommuting systems and schools cancelling classes, and there are lot of people feeling sort of trapped in their own homes these days. Thankfully Japan’s anime/manga publishers are stepping up to help turn that voluntary confinement into something fun, and now two of the biggest franchises in the industry’s history are joining the cause.
Manga publisher Shueisha has announced that, as of March 9, it’s made the first 60 volumes of pirate saga One Piece free to read through its Shonen Jump + app and Zebrack digital distribution platform. While those 60 volumes don’t comprise the entire series (One Piece is currently at 94 collected volumes and counting), Volumes 1-60 consist of 594 manga chapters, which were serialized over the course of 13 years following the series’ 1997 debut in the pages of anthology Weekly Shonen Jump. “For all manga-loving kids and adults for whom it’s difficult to go outside these days, we hope you will enjoy Luffy’s adventures,” said Jump’s editors in announcing the volumes’ free-to-read status.
On the other hand, if you’re more of an anime fan, you’ll be happy to know that Amazon Japan is making a huge chunk of the Pokémon anime free-to-watch. Ordinarily, the series is available through Amazon Prime Japan’s paid video streaming service, but the company has decided to open up access to anyone with a free-to-create Amazon Japan account. As with One Piece, Amazon is doing this to boost the morale of kids (and also grown-up fans) staying home to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. In contrast to One Piece giving free access to the start of the series, Pokémon is letting Amazon Japan users start from the mid-point through to the newest available episodes, with a total of 299 episodes making up all of the Pokémon XY, XY&Z, Sun and Moon, and brand-new Pokémon (2019) arcs of the franchise, equating to a little over six years’ worth of TV episodes.
Both the One Piece chapters and Pokémon episodes will be free until April 5, and if that’s somehow still not quite enough to keep you occupied, don’t forget that there are 450 volumes from other manga series going free-to-read too.
Related: Shonen Jump +, Zebrack
Sources: Livedoor News/Oricon News, Amazon via IT Media
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