I think many of you have already seen that Kazuki and Sota suddenly posted messages hoping that Naniwa Figure Skating Festival will go smoothly and that everyone will enjoy the show, along with that One Piece image. Since some international fans may not fully understand what happened, I wanted to explain the situation briefly.

Originally, tickets for Naniwa Festival were supposed to be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, meaning whoever accessed the website and completed the reservation first would get a ticket. However, the sales time was set for 12:30 p.m. on July 18, which overlaps with the time when Prince Ice World, where Sota is appearing, is taking place.

Some fans expressed that they hoped the ticket sales time could be adjusted. These were not direct demands to the organizers, but rather personal comments on their own X accounts. However, one fan behaved very inappropriately and directly quoted the official post to express their opinion. Since that post has already been deleted, I cannot confirm whether that person was a Sota fan, nor do I know exactly what they wrote. But regardless of whose fan they were, I do think it was not appropriate to say things in that way.

After that, the Naniwa Festival staff first changed the sales time to 8:00 a.m. Then, about two hours later, they changed the ticketing system again, this time to a lottery.

This led to some conflict among fans. Some Kazuki fans felt that nothing like this had happened during the previous three Naniwa Festivals, and that this time, because Sota’s fans joined the audience pool, the ticketing system ended up being changed from first-come-first-served to a lottery.

In short, these circumstances caused some friction between fans. I would not say it became a huge fight, but the reaction was definitely not small.

Personally, I think this was also an issue about the boundary between “public” and “private” spaces, and about what kind of public statements are reasonable. But at this point, the matter has already passed.

Then Sota posted this image.

https://x.com/so_ta0110/status/2076535778625331362?s=46

The image is from a famous scene in One Piece, featuring the character Shanks. In the story, during the Marineford War, the battle had already become extremely chaotic and tragic, with many sides involved and the situation continuing to escalate. Shanks appears on the battlefield and says:

“I’m here to end this war.”

Kazuki then replied with another nationally famous scene from One Piece.

In an earlier part of the story, Shanks saves the young Luffy from a sea monster, but loses one of his arms in the process. Luffy then cries out:

https://x.com/naniwatomono/status/2076550271824810050?s=46

“Your arm…!!”

After that, both Sota and Kazuki posted messages saying that they hope Naniwa Figure Skating Festival will be completed safely and successfully, and that everyone will be able to enjoy the performance.

https://x.com/naniwatomono/status/2076553187209940994?s=46

“Please come, watch, skate, and enjoy the event with all your heart. It will be a warm and home-like event where everyone can fully enjoy skating.

Sota will also be joining the second show!

Everyone, please come and have fun.”