No, that title isn’t a mistake. Sixteen long years ago, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace hit theaters in Japan. But prior to the movie’s release, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, along with other Weekly Shonen Jump manga artists Takeshi Obata, Akira Toriyama, and Nobuhiro Watsuki, went to work creating Star Wars-related drawings.

As many of us already know, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda is a big fan of numerous famous science fiction and fantasy movies, and if the life-sized R2-D2 robot in Oda’s office is any indication, the Star Wars movies are no exception. In fact, considering how universal the characters, story, and structure is of the original Star Wars trilogy is, it makes sense that the manga artists of the time were so heavily influenced by it. As such, Oda, along with the rest of his contemporaries, likely jumped at the chance to give an homage to the first installment in the science fantasy prequel trilogy.

Tomorrow (Japan Time), will be December 18, 2015, the day when Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters in Japan, so we at the One Piece Podcast thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane to when Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released. So, without further ado, here you have four of the nine drawings made by these extremely talented manga artists, brought and translated to you by us at the One Piece Podcast with special thanks to @Kaitou_Ace on Twitter for the awesome job cleaning up and lettering these drawings!

In other Star Wars-related news, Luffy and the other Straw Hat Pirates will be featured in a small video before the screening of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Japan. Be sure to keep checking our website for more information on that when Star Wars: The Force Awakens finally releases.