Fan of the One Piece manga, this YouTuber from Dieppe believes he is “the biggest collector in France”

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on collection would make more than one salivate: more than 5,000 figurines, around 10,000 cards, more than 10,000 original manga documents and between 5,000 and 6,000 goodies, or more than 30,000 objects.

It is not without pretension that Hervé, a resident of the Dieppe region (Seine-Maritime), is practically certain to be “the greatest collector One Piece from France ».

One Piece is a Japanese manga that has existed since 1997 and is today one of the most popular in the world with more than 100 volumes published and more than 1,100 episodes broadcast.

A discovery in the army

It tells the story of Monkey D. Luffy, a pirate nicknamed “Straw Hat”. With his crew, he braves the seas in search of a fabulous treasure: the One Piece.

Hervé discovered this work in 2002. Since his early childhood, this father, now 49 years old, has been passionate about Japanese manga and anime.

He is one of those who watched the television shows Récré A2 on Antenne 2 and Club Dorothée on TF1, offering the broadcast of Japanese cartoons.

He and his friends identify a lot with the characters they read or watch. And when he can, the Seinomarin goes to Paris, where he discovers with his friends the richness of Japanese culture. Very quickly, Hervé became interested in what was happening in Japan.

Moreover, in parallel with his studies, when he did odd jobs, the money he earned was used to buy toys that he did not have as a child, at flea markets.

“That’s how I started collecting,” he explains. However, he is not a simple collector, he describes himself as “impulsive and complete. When I start a collection, I have to have everything and as soon as it comes out.” Even if he says it jokingly, Hervé describes his ardent passion for collecting as “an illness”.

After completing a BTS in industrial mechanics and automation at the Neruda high school in Dieppe, Hervé joined the army, as a commando officer, in Lyon.

There, he does not deviate from his daily life: he plays video games and reads manga, “it has always been an escape,” he says. And it was in 2002, always looking for new works to discover, that he came across the animated One Piece.

“I didn’t like the first episode. The design of the characters is weird, the tone of the series too,” he said at first glance.

He resells his collections to start one around One Piece

Nevertheless, Hervé gave the anime a chance and very quickly, he managed to identify with the characters of the Straw Hat Crew. “I found a depth that I haven’t seen in any other work,” he admits.

On multiple occasions, he cries at the intrigues of several characters. Hervé ends up being won over and even starts reading the manga in addition to watching the anime.

After the army, he decided to leave France to settle in Canada with his wife. There, in 2011, he began collecting arts books, collections of images, visuals or more generally of data and information about a work. Cinema, manga, video games… he collects everything!

The following year, he launched a YouTube channel around arts books. And today, YouTube is one of his sources of income, alongside his work as a speaker on geek culture.

At first, Hervé refrains from collecting objects linked to One Piece. But three years later, in 2014, he gave in to temptation. And to finance his new collection, he makes a difficult decision: to resell his other collections linked to Star Warsthe Blizzard or Warhammer universe: “A collection can be kept and resold to build another,” he believes.

And to grow his collection, he can count on his video content which revolves around One Piece through partnerships and gifts.

“I also buy because it helps me for my job. I managed to make a living from my passion thanks to these two activities, so I have a monthly budget to buy,” says the YouTuber.

But of course, his collection “does not take precedence over my family life”.

For his purchases, he consults numerous Japanese sites. He also visits Vinted and collector sites a lot. Over time, the “impulsive” side of completing one’s collection has faded in favor of sharing.

When he has duplicate items, he does not hesitate to exchange them with other collectors. His dream today would be to exhibit everything he owns around One Piece in order to share his passion and become, in the near future, “a One Piece expert”.

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