Bustercall Project is an official project licensed by Shueisha that began on Instagram in September 2019 by artists from around the world. It features over 200 One Piece-themed works, some detailed and some abstract. The promo in particular caused quite a stir. Later, the works were presented in exhibitions. First at “ComplexCon Long Beach” in Los Angeles in November 2019, then at “innersect” in Shanghai in December 2019, and finally in Japan from November 20 to December 27, 2020. The date was initially set much earlier, but the worldwide COVID-19 caused postponements.
Contents
Promo
In late September 2019, shortly after the release of Chapter 956 and during the release of Chapter 957, where a lot of new information was released, some posts on official channels, most notably Instagram, created a sense of wonder and excitement. A later announced countdown to October 4, 2019 and small teasers reinforced this feeling among fans. In addition, Oda’s official channel was briefly renamed “Bustercall” by Oda’s staff, pictures of windowpanes daubed with “Bustercall” and “surveillance videos” recording it were posted. In particular, a video called “Origin of Everything”, in which a tree loses a devil fruit, which was posted just before the countdown ended, caused discussion. This later turned out to be the first artwork of the project. Behind this work are the artists of Perimetron.
After the countdown, through Instagram stories, was counted down, a list of some of the participating artists then shed light on the project.
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Artworks
In total, over 200 artists from all over the world participated in this project and presented their works. These varied and mostly showed pictures, sculptures, graphics or videos with reference to One Piece. The styles differed greatly. Here are some examples of the works:
 No.004: Roronoa ZoroTakuya Kamioka |  No.005: Usopp BigfootL2C |  No.008: TegamiBlue Aoi |  No.010: Dr. Anthony T. ChopperDoctor A |  No.011: BUGGY’S BAD TRIPDirty Workers Studio Japan |  No.014: Sailing OutMark Conlan |
 No.020: Gomu Gomu no OnoKris Andrew Small |  No.032: The Tale of the Marine admiralKeiji Yano |  No.096: EXTINCTION – THE SHIPChino Lam |  No.150: Icons8% |  No.183: Behind the SceneFools Paradise |  No.197: untitledKosuke Kawamura |
Bustercall = One Piece Exhibition
As already mentioned at the beginning, the works were presented at exhibitions in addition to the official Instagram channel of the Bustercall project. The first two exhibitions were rather small booths, while the exhibition in Japan is a large, multi-week exhibition of the works. Moreover, the exhibition has now been renamed Bustercall = One Piece Exhibition “Dreams, ambitions, the swell of the passing times: eternal questions in the pursuit of freedom”.
- “ComplexCon Long Beach, Los Angeles: November 2019.
- “innsersect”, Shanghai: December 2019.
- Asobuild, Japan: November 20 to December 27, free admission. Initially scheduled from March 29 to April 12, 2020, but postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
- Langham Place, Hong Kong: 7 January 2021 to 17 January 2021, but only six artworks were exhibited here.
Bustercall One Piece Art Book
At the end of April 2021, it was announced that an artbook would also be released for the exhibition. However, this was initially only available for pre-order until June 14, 2021, and the release date was November 4, 2021. In addition to the artbook, customers will also receive the special edition Devilish NAMI -Dark Color Limited Edition-. Exactly 200 artists were selected whose artwork will be printed and featured in the artbook.
External links
- official homepage
- Instagram channel
