An excited buzz rippled through the Roppongi Hills plaza on March 5 as throngs of “One Piece” fans bundled up against the sharp snap of an early spring wind, clutching their phones and merchandise emblazoned with characters from the show as they angled for a good view. 

With many decked out in straw hats, face paint and homemade costumes, the fans were gathered to finally enter a world they had mainly experienced through their screens and manga. Packed in around the winding red carpet on which the cast of “One Piece” would eventually walk, the crowd hummed with quiet but palpable anticipation.

The Tokyo event was part of a global rollout for the March 10 premiere of the second season of Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s manga. The story follows the supernaturally stretchy-limbed Monkey D. Luffy and his ragtag band of friends named the Straw Hat Pirates as they sail around the world in search of a legendary treasure that will crown the discoverer “King of the Pirates.” Oda’s manga has been serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since 1997 and is Japan’s bestselling manga ever, recently surpassing 600 million copies in circulation worldwide.