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One Pieceis the best-selling manga of all time, with a hugely popular anime and a multimedia franchise spanning nearly thirty years, yet when it was introduced to me, it was still relatively new. I could see it plain as day that this was a cultural event developing, and I was one of the first consumers in my market to see it. However. I fell off from this series in high school, and while I rediscovered other favorites of mine, likeNaruto,later in life, it was astonishing to seeOne Piecego a thousand chapters beyond what I’d read at the time.
The series hit North American shelves in January 2003, while continuously running in Shueisha’sWeekly Shonen Jump. The appeal ofOne Piecehas exponentially expanded in the past twenty years, with it outlasting all other contemporaries inWeekly Shonen Jump,reigning as king of the Shonen Big Three.
Now, in its final saga, I no longer wish to miss out on the grand adventure that’s captivated the world for nearly thirty years withOne Piece. It can feel intimidating to pick up a series that’s run for so long, butit’s also absolutely worth it, and I’m going to explain the reasons why I could not resist getting back intoOne Piece.
“I Want to Continue This Forever”: One Piece’s Remake Director Hints at the Length of the New Series
The One Piece remake has a great chance of being a long-running anime, according to a recent statement by the series' director.
Reading One Piece from the Start Is Intimidating
Binging Is an Arduous Task for 1,000 Chapters
If you’re especially serious about catching up onOne Piecewhile supporting its release in 2024, you may sacrifice reading time for other stories.
One Pieceis not the longest-running series in manga history and has nowhere near the most chapters, withDokaben, KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Coops, Hajime no Ippo,andBaki the Grapplereach having longer runs.Having previously only read up to chapter #123, I couldn’t help but feel like I was the victim of a silly cosmic joke. ReadingOne Piecewill mean several dozen chapters a day; it’s an entertaining exercise, but try any more and numerous difficulties arise.
ReadingOne Piecelegitimately means picking up one of over one hundred volumes of its physical media or digitally through MANGA Plus or VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump manga reader apps. For any passionate reader, this task seems reasonable, and even subscriptions for either service are incredibly reasonable.Still, there’s a hard limit on VIZ’s side at 100 chapters a day, and most back issues on MANGA Plus are a one-time-only option.If you’re especially serious about catching up onOne Piecewhile supporting its release in 2024, you may sacrifice reading time for other stories.
I was introduced toOne Piecethrough its manga and quickly charmed by Eiichiro Oda’s lively and wildly imaginative art style, full of endless original creations that are as instantly recognizable as the creations of the late Akira Toriyama. While the series is a smash hit anime,manga will always be my preferred medium, especially as so much of the excitement is built around major developments first laid out in print before being animated. Even in light of these limitations, I’m no stranger to a manga binge, and while I doubted it at first,One Pieceseems truly worth it.
One Piece Stays Consistently Good While Becoming Great
Ignore the Benchmarks, One Piece Was Good From the Start
What people are advocating for is whenOne Piecegoes from good to great, an important distinction.
One of the funniest consistent responses I would get to my skepticism about getting back intoOne Pieceis the “it gets good after (x) amount of chapters” given in the ranges of 250-300, 500, or even 800, indicating thatthe fan base doesn’t commonly agree on when the series gets good. My take is that it’s always been good; what people are debating is whenOne Piecegoes from good to great, an important distinction.
Making a persuasive recommendation to get intoOne Pieceis crucial because people can’t freely invest in hundreds of time-consuming installments before they enjoy themselves unless they know it is worth it. The truth is,Oda’s charm has always been strongly represented, even just in the Alabasta Saga with a young, wiry Roronoa Zoro, about to be encased in Mr. 3’s wax, instinctively either trying to strike a pose or cut his legs off to keep fighting. I don’t find reading hundreds ofOne Piecechapters bothersome becauseit’s hilarious and fun.
One Piece Is Far More Intriguing Beyond Its Comedy
Eiichiro Oda’s Fans Investigate Every Chapter’s Details for Clues
One thing that strikes me about the series ishow passionately and intricately the readers analyze panels, forced perspectives, and intimate details of eachOne Piecechapter. This delightful exercise endears me to the franchise, such as power-scaling Emet or investigatingImu’s true weakness. This habit amongOne Piecereaders has always been there, as fans spot inconsistencies like Tashigi’s nearsightedness in volume #11 and earlier in the SBS sections.
SBS, standing for Shitsumon o Boshū Suru or “I’m Taking Questions,” and it refers to Oda’s recurring segment in which he responds to questions from fan letters, featured within manga volumes ofOne Piece.
For readers who have been following for 1100+ chapters, the Devil Fruit’s in the details, and Oda’s open attitude toward answering those questions is refreshing. In light of how some mangaka fly by the seat of their pants, resulting inmy favoriteDragon Ballquotebeing related to Toriyama’s idiosyncrasies in designing Krillin, it’s interesting to see consistent discussion about practically anything that matters to the fans. Butseeing this engagement with the fans and a consistently strong outputreminds me of how much respect I have for Oda.
Eiichiro Oda Is Both a Hero and an Unrealistic Mangaka Idol
His Work Will Stand Among the Greats in Manga History
Oda famously has been quoted to claim he would sleep three-hour nights on work weeks in 2012’sShūkan One Piece Shimbun#2,and while he makes it work, this is unusual in the manga sphere.Tite Kubo had to rushBleach’sendingdue to his deteriorating health exacerbated by a shoulder tendon injury; Yūki Tabata moved to the seasonalJump GIGAto prevent an overwhelming workload from harming his well-being; and Yoshihiro Togashi consistently worries fans with updates on his condition while continuingHunter x Hunter.One Piecestands as an exception, not as a fair ideal.
One Piece’screator is famously amiable with fans, and, as indicated in the WIT Studio anime remake, he encourages the new adaptation to take some artistic liberties. His habits should not be the norm to which all mangaka should aspire, but he is worthy of admiration for a long-running shonen masterpiece. This excites me to readOne Piece, especially as it’ll prepare me for a remake by one of the best contemporary anime studios, fitting for a series I’ve slept on for far too long.
One Piece
Created by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece is a multimedia franchise that began as a manga series and follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates as led by Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy, an enthusiastic pirate with a thirst for adventure, is afflicted by a mysterious curse that gives him various powers he uses to protect himself and his friends. The manga eventually gave way to the anime series, with the two being some of history’s longest-running anime and manga series. Along with over fifty video games made over the years, the series entered the live-action world with Netflix’s 2023 adaptation.
