One Piece is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Weekly ShĹŤnen Jump since July 1997 and follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as they search for the mythical treasure known as the “One Piece” to become the next Pirate King. If being around for over 25 years is enough of an achievement, wait until you read about 5 One Piece facts that are sure to surprise you, or maybe not if you are a super fan!
Five Interesting Facts About One Piece That You Should Know
Before watching Netflix’s live-action series, here are five interesting facts about One Piece that are sure to surprise you.
5. Origins
One Piece was first published in 1996 as two one-shot stories written by Oda. If you don’t know, a one-shot, called yomikiri in Japan, is a story that is told in its entirety without any continuation and is usually printed in a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly manga magazine.
4. Serialization
It began its serialized publication in 1997 and now encompasses 105 collected volumes of stories (and counting). Roughly three to four months after being published in Weekly Shonen Jump, One Piece chapters are compiled into tankĹŤbon volumes. These volumes contain an average of ten chapters each, including new cover artwork, a question-and-answer column by the author, fan art galleries, and other bonus features.
3. Worldwide Success
The One Piece manga series has sold over 516 million copies across 61 countries. This large amount of sales has led to Oda being recognized for two Guinness World Record titles (more on that in Fact #2).
Related: One Piece: What is the One Piece?
2. Guinness World Record Titles
One Piece holds two Guinness World Record titles:
- Most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author.
- Most copies published for the same Manga series.
Oda received a second certificate of recognition from Guinness World Records for publishing 500 million copies of One Piece in 2023. However, he first achieved this record in 2014 after selling 320 million copies.
1. More Than Just a Manga Series
The global popularity of Oda’s mythology has since inspired the story to be adapted into an ongoing hit anime series with over 1,000 episodes over 20 seasons, 15 animated theatrical films, and various video games set within the world. As of this writing, there are over 1073 episodes, which would take 411 hours of watch time.
