Hello all!
I thought in this blog post I go into the history of the connection between Bonfirecherry, a small Northampton based printmaker/small business and One Piece, a huge Japanese anime/manga series.
I’ve been a fan of Japanese anime/manga series the early 2000’s, I believe around 2006 where I came across a shop that sold manga in my home town which I was visiting on my birthday and bought the series Trigun which I talk about in a very old blog post which you can find here.
I discovered One Piece around 2010 which was the time I was in Northampton and Bonfirecherry was a fictional t-shirt business as part of my graphic design college course I was on at the time but that was the only connection at the time.
By 2014 when Bonfirecherry was back from the dead as a linocut printing business that you see it now, I became such as a fan of Anime and Manga watching/reading One Piece a lot and when it came to coming up names I looked at the names used in One Piece as a tribute to the series and it’s author Eiichiro Oda.
From the Bonfirecherry archive
— BonfireCherry (@Bonfirecherry) August 27, 2018
Private Ace (Turquoise) A4 Linocut Print. Originally got produced in 2014, still got some copies of the print if ever interested pic.twitter.com/sIlrRxQtm9
If memory serves me correctly the first Bonfirecherry design that got inspired by One Piece was the A4 linocut print called Private Ace, the name Ace comes from a popular character in the series.
From the Bonfirecherry archive. Yonko's Messenger (Black) A5 Linocut print https://t.co/ImW7jHewDZ pic.twitter.com/VASnSH8tOu
— BonfireCherry (@Bonfirecherry) May 4, 2016
When I came up with the stamps/owls inspired design Yonko’s Messenger, I got the name Yonko from One Piece which translate as the Four Emperors.
Two Toned
— BonfireCherry (@Bonfirecherry) July 28, 2017
RAF & Steam Punk inspired
"Robin's War" pic.twitter.com/2wYfL8KWNy
I borrowed one of the main characters name for Robin’s War.
#TBT
— BonfireCherry (@Bonfirecherry) August 30, 2018
Chopper (Black) A4 Linocut Print. Inspired by a Sika Deer pic.twitter.com/wqf6Bp8upr
Likewise for Chopper because the character is a reindeer.
FRIDAY DISPATCH
— BonfireCherry (@Bonfirecherry) April 12, 2018
EACH SALE SUPPORTS NEW DESIGNS!
Revolutionary Soldier (Blue) A4 Linocut Print https://t.co/4wYyLIsG4M #art #printmaking #woodblock #soldier #military #linocut #print #homedecor #lino #eshopsuk pic.twitter.com/1nSy9NXYJh
The Revolutionary Soldier get it’s name from an army called the Revolutionaries in One Piece
From the archive
— BonfireCherry (@Bonfirecherry) December 18, 2017
The original 2014 version of Lily The Owl Princess.
A #linocut #print design inspired by Japanese Anime/Manga pic.twitter.com/ShPzP21ECH
and the 2015 version of Lily The Owl Princess. What version do you like the most? This 2015 version or the one from 2014 (see previous post)? pic.twitter.com/NbbscgCnQ8
— BonfireCherry (@Bonfirecherry) December 18, 2017
Both 2014 & 2015 versions of Lily The Owl princess where I got inspired with the style and hair from the series.
PRODUCED YESTERDAY Fish inspired print "Jinbei" What do you think?? pic.twitter.com/5VcxpLlycZ
— BonfireCherry (@Bonfirecherry) September 28, 2017
The fish inspired design Jinbei get it’s name from the fishman character of the same name.
I hope to have Oden & Raizo available at the BC Etsy shop tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/9GZ7OoUhIt
— BonfireCherry (@Bonfirecherry) February 9, 2018
Raizo is one of my current designs inspired by a Samurai character in the series
A design I produced earlier this year, Oden was an interesting choice. As it’s a name of a One Piece character that has been mentioned a few times but we don’t have a clue what he looks like. Hopefully not like the design haha.
That’s all the tributes that I have done over the years, just my way of respecting the anime/manga series that I adore. If I won the lottery I would travel to Japan and find out where the office where Eiichiro Oda works and soak in the Japanese culture I adore so much.
I did produce a custom lincout print of the main character, Monkey D Luffy for a client awhile ago that I wish I still had the lino for.
There is just something about the series I get a lot of inspired from be it the designs or the names of the characters. It's a long running series, at the top of this blog post being published there has been 852 anime episodes and 916 manga chapters and still got another 5 to 10 years left til it's finished so I'm committed to the series!
I think that’s everything going into the connection between One Piece and Bonfirecherry. Maybe there might be some more tributes in the future?
Thanks for reading!
Matthew