An unusual discovery was made by a Chinese manga fan while reading through old issues of Dragon Ball.  In a panel following one with Cell hovering over a village, a resident can be seen with the distinctive straw hat and tank top commonly associated with Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece fame. How come no one noticed it until now?

At first glance this may seem like a simple homage Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama made to his heir apparent Eiichiro Oda, creator of One Piece.  Especially since both comics are published by the same company, these kind of cameo appearances are not unusual.

The only problem is the Dragon Ball series was finished in 1995, two years before the first issue of One Piece. Therefore the chances of that straw hat belonging to Luffy are slim to none.

On the other hand, what are the chances that Oda, an avid fan of Dragon Ball, was inspired for the design of Luffy based on that single panel?  If that were the case, he probably would have picked it up sub-consciously and not even remember it now.

We’ll just have to wonder and chalk it up as another of life’s great mysteries like those cave paintings of spacemen.

Source: orzzs (Chinese) via Byokan Sunday (Japanese)