The anime One Piece and the car maker Nissan are collaborating on a one-of-a-kind decorated vehicle (itasha) to celebrate the November 29 launch of the redesigned Nissan Serena mini-van. The "Thousand Serena" features many of the details from the anime's pirate ship Thousand Sunny, such as the (two-dimensional) lion figurehead on the hood, the skull-and-crossbones fore-mast sail's design on the roof, and the signature soldier-dock system on the sides. A costumed Monkey D. Luffy unveiled the "Thousand Serena" at the campaign launch event at Tokyo's Odaiba island on Friday.
Eiichiro Oda's original One Piece manga just reached the milestone of 200 million copies in print last month. Meanwhile, the previous generation of Serena mini-vans has been Japan's #1 minivan by sales volume for three years, with a grand total of 1 million sold.
Starting on December 5, the "Thousand Serena" will appear in a television commercial campaign animated by One Piece's Toei Animation.
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