Overview

One Piece (ワンピース, Wan Pīsu), stylized in all caps as ONE PIECE in Japan or sometimes abbreviated as OP, is a shonen manga by Eiichiro Oda featuring Monkey D. Luffy, a boy who became a pirate, and his quest for the "One Piece" to become the next King of the Pirates.

While it is a story that takes the high road of shōnen manga, with themes of adventure and friendship, battles, gag scenes, and moving episodes, it is also a story with a deeply developed and magnificent worldview and elaborate settings, and it is a story of war, power, territorial issues, religious issues, discrimination issues (ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc.), and various other social issues.

It is also known as a non-killing manga, in which both sides and enemies are rarely killed (except for incidents in the recollections). In some cases, characters who appeared in the past are given important positions and reappear hundreds of episodes later.

In addition, many of the characters who die continue to uphold their beliefs until the moment their lives end, and in many cases, they die a spectacular death with a smile on their face. Their overwhelming presence leaves a strong impression on viewers, and it is not unusual for characters who have long since died to be ranked high in popularity polls.

Synopsis

The only person in history who conquered the Grand Line

Pirate King Gol D. Roger (common name: Gold Roger).

The world was shaken by the words he said just before his execution, saying that he had obtained all of his wealth, fame, and power.

"Is it my treasure? If you want it, I'll give it to you. Find it! I left everything in this world there"

The words created a great swell, driving many fierce men to the sea.

Surrounding the One Piece left by the Pirate King,

Some seek ambition, others seek romance, pirates fight under the flag of conviction and make a name for themselves.

In such an era full of turmoil and adventure, a boy set out into the open sea with the aim of becoming the Pirate King!

(Quoted from the official website Overview)

Characters

Straw Hat Crew

• Monkey D. Luffy
• Roronoa Zoro
• Nami
• Usopp
• Sanji
• Tony Tony Chopper
• Nico Robin
• Frankie
• Brooke
• Jinbee

There are well over 1,500 named characters in this work.

Refer to the article of List of One Piece Characters for details.

Evaluation, Sales and Impact

The original is 1000 episodes with Jump magazine (5/6 combined issue) released 2021, January 4, and in the same year September Comics The 100th volume has been published, and it continues to be serialized as Jump's signboard manga (by the way, TV anime version reached its 1000th episode in the same year). As of August 2022, the cumulative circulation in Japan is 410 million, the cumulative circulation overseas is 100 million, and the cumulative circulation worldwide is the world's highest record for a manga work5. It has sold over 100 million copies. Among the successive serializations of Jump, it is the second long-term serialization after KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops (serialized from 1976 to 2016), and is currently serialized. Book sales in Japan exceeded 100 million at the time of 7 years and 36 volumes, the fastest in history, and 60 volumes set a record for domestic publication with first edition circulation of 3.4 million copies and initial weekly sales of 2.094 million copies.

Reaching a cumulative circulation of 200 million copies at the same time as the 60th volume was released, and exceeded 300 million at the time of the 72nd volume. In volume 98, it surpassed 400 million copies, being the only manga in the world that has. Weekly sales of 66 volumes reached 2,275,000 copies, and the first edition of 67 volumes recorded 4,050,000 copies, a record for the Japanese publishing industry. Translated versions have been sold in more than 30 countries overseas, with annual sales of 6 million copies in France.

In that sense, it can be said that it has surpassed Dragon Ball, which was the invincible king of shonen manga.

Strictly speaking, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has the longest serialization period and number of volumes of this work, and is second only to Kochikame, but there is a long-term hiatus in each department due to the transfer of the serialization magazine. A simple comparison cannot be made because of what they are doing.

The story is one of the reasons why it has been so popular for so long.

Over 20 years of serialization, there are elements that have changed since the beginning, but there are no contradictions that make the story go crazy, and the hints that were put up in the early days (in real time) are recovered after more than 10 years. The story of the magnificent world view and excellent setting that has been deeply elaborated is the factor that keeps it popular.

In addition, even if you look at the episodes of each island, kishotenketsu (a narrative structure from the east) is incorporated and established as a single story (at that time, does not forget to put important foreshadowing that leads to the main story). In addition, as mentioned above, various social problems are interwoven, and the feelings of the characters (guest characters, so to speak) that are unique to the island are also interwoven with those problems. There are also characters that have remained popular even after more than 10 years since their appearance ([Wiper>Wiper (One Piece)] and Pawley are often talked about).

Furthermore, not only serious, but also battle scenes using abilities that can be unfolded using the entire magazine, starting with the lives and townscapes of each island, and even the newspaper pages are filled with information. Also, there are quite a lot of gag scenes.

Also, in the frontispieces, there are short term intensive cover series where characters who are out of turn are drawn, and readers' ideas and situations are posted as "door painting requests". This is also an element that can not be overlooked because it has elements that lead to the main part (especially the former). In particular, the frontispiece is an unimaginably large amount of work for a weekly serialization that there are essentially two stories, one for the main story and the other for the frontispiece, and this shows the author's outstanding skill.

As for the book, by including a question corner and an illustration introduction, etc., readers who are reading mainly on Jump are also taken in. In particular, the question corner, SBS, reveals many behind-the-scenes settings of the main story, character profiles, etc., and the author's jokes are also popular. There are a certain number of readers who buy books just to read the SBS.

It's these factors that make it so popular over the years.

However, perhaps because of the fate of long-running works, there is a new problem that it is difficult for newcomers to enter the huge volume of over 100 volumes of manga and over 1000 episodes of anime.

Of course, the official side is aware of this.

Adaptions

Anime

For more details refer to the article Aniwan.

Stage Version

USJ Premier Show

An action-oriented stage that has been held almost every summer since 2007 and 2010.

Super Kabuki Second One Piece

It was held in 2015 starring Ichikawa Ennosuke III, a kabuki actor.

Replayed with additional characters in 2017. At this time, Ennosuke's left arm was broken, so he performed with Ukon Onoe the second as a substitute.

Overseas Drama Version

For more details refer to the article One Piece (Netflix).

Others

In 2018, a live-action version was made ahead of the overseas version in a collaboration commercial with the job site Indeed.

The degree of reproduction of the Straw Hat Pirates, especially Chopper's appearance as a "real reindeer", became a hot topic.

The following year, they collaborated in the Cup Noodles commercial Hungry Days series (official site).

Although this is two-dimensional, the characters has appeared as a high school students.

Digression

In the 50th issue of 2014, where the final story of Naruto was published, the author, Eiichiro Oda, put a small story in the cover art of the 766th volume "Smile" of One Piece to encourage the end of the serialization of this work.

In addition, when the number of volumes is lined up in the final volume of Dragon Ball, there is plenty of respect for other manga works, such as adding tones to the frontispiece.

Overseas Popularity

In France, where Japanese subculture is very popular, the 1000th episode of the anime is being shown as a special screening.

Precautions to prevent spoilers from being created or edited

Currently, the content of this work, which is scheduled to be published in the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, gets obtained by illegal means before the release, and from the latter half of the previous week, mainly Twitter, YouTube, cases of spread on TikTok too, so-called Early Barre have been confirmed.

Leaking or disseminating pre-release content on the internet is a respectable criminal act.

Let's distinguish between "spoilers" where you post content before it was made into a book or anime, and "choi show" where the first page is posted on the official website on the Friday of the previous week.

Even in this pixiv Encyclopedia, creating and posting articles about pre-release content falls under the above-mentioned diffusion, so of course it is prohibited.

For users, if you see such a nuisance in an article related to this work, in order to prevent further spread of the content

• Revert to before editing
• If the user who made the edit is malicious, report it
• Posting a cautionary note stating that the content remains in the editing history (and calling for a report)

Thank you in advance.

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