Almost no one gets taxis in Tokyo because of the steep fares, but they sure do get around. What better place to stick a load of One Piece panels to celebrate the upcoming release of volumes 99 and 100?
In collaboration with THE TOKYO MOBILITY GALLERY Canvas, 100 famous scenes from 100 volumes of One Piece will be displayed on the rear windows of 100 Tokyo taxis. This is thanks to the Glascene technology used by the company to display dynamic ads: when there is nothing displayed, the window looks invisible to the naked eye. Yet, when a passenger enters, it changes to project an advertisement.
Apparently, the technology uses GPS data and the timing of the taxi request to determine what kind of advert to display, so presumably anyone coming from the otaku hubs of Akihabara and Nakano will get these One Piece Tokyo taxi advertisements. It’s a novel way to celebrate the series’ upcoming milestone releases: what better way to tell the entire city that One Piece is hitting volume 100 than putting it on the windows of the vehicles that are the enemy of pedestrians and cyclists alike?
The full range of panels was shared via Mantan Web, demonstrating that this is indeed a wide selection from across One Piece’s storied history. Peer closely enough and you might just be able to make out Ace’s death, Nami’s first appearance, as well as Sanji’s reintroduction. I’m just a little disappointed that the famous panel of Gol D. Roger laughing isn’t there!
You can check out One Piece panels when they hit Tokyo taxis on 31 May, just before volume 99 releases in Japan on 4 June.