Manga and
anime series by Eiichiro Oda. Monkey D. Luffy is an eager young village
boy who idolizes the
pirate Red-Haired Shanks. Luffy decides to make his hero proud by performing the impossible task of locating the legendary
treasure known as the "One Piece" and becoming the Pirate King.
In a Ranma-esque twist, Luffy accidentally ingests the "Devil's Fruit" which makes him unable to swim (a handicap for a pillager of the high seas) but turns him into a stretchy human rubber band. He assembles a crew of misfits and sets off in search of adventure. Hilarity ensues!
When I recently visited the Mitsuwa Japanese department store, the shelves at the bookstore were brimming with One Piece merchandise. As of this writing, the manga series is still running in Weekly Shonen Jump, and the television series airs on Fuji TV -- so it'll probably be a while before us round-eyes get a chance to see it subbed. It looks like nothing but fun.