One Piece, the “goofy pirate manga” about a kid made out of rubber hellbent on becoming the King of the Pirates, has done something only a select number of written works have done: sold 500 million copies. As you can see, not only does this place the series above any other of its Japanese manga peers, it also means outselling the likes of Batman and Spider-Man, with just Superman left to pass.
Now that’s certainly impressive for the comic book sphere – but how does that stack up against “real books”? Well, let’s take a look and – oh, it stomps those guys, too.
One Piece, much like its protagonist Luffy, is a sheer force of nature we haven’t really ever seen the likes of. Crazes come and go, franchises get hot and burn out. But not the Straw Hats – they’ve been on top of the world for over two decades when author Eiichiro Oda first published his pirate comic in Weekly Shonen Jump all the way back in 1997.
Now you may recall in the first paragraph, I referred to the series as a “goofy pirate manga.” Now, that may be true. But saying that is like referring to a Lamborghini as a “car” or twice baked wild caught Alaskan salmon over lump crab meat golden mashed potatoes “food.” There are plot lines, themes and messages explored in One Piece that could keep me here until the dawn rises. Things like slavery, tyrannical governments, freedom, liberation – again, I could be here awhile. I’m not going to dive too deep into these things here today. I’ll save that for another time.
One might call it fate that the series would achieve such a milestone this week, on the eve of what could possibly be the single most explosive chapter in the series to date, chapter 1044. I won’t post the spoilers here, but I have read them. And let me tell you, well over 1000 chapters in, Oda is hitting us with surprises we couldn’t have predicted with 2000 chapters worth of source material.
The anime hit a milestone this year with the release of episode 1000, and we also recently saw volume 100 come out as well. (For those of you who don’t know, a manga series like One Piece releases weekly in a Japanese magazine called “Weekly Shonen Jump” in chapters. After about 7 to 12 chapters, a volume is released, which is a collection of said chapters in book form.) These are all accolades few manga have accomplished.
I love One Piece. It’s without a doubt my favorite show. Look down at the bottom of the post. See that goofy laughing pirate next to my name? That’s Gol D. Roger, King of the Pirates. Maybe you knew that already – either way, I’m not shy about my admiration for the series. Seeing how many records it’s breaking, milestones it’s achieving, brings me a sense of genuine joy. That’s a fantastic word to encapsulate the series: joy. It brings about joy in all of the things that spark that flame in great people: adventure, wonder, mystery, freedom, togetherness. There’s a ton of things happening here, but really it’s just about a bright eyed kid who wants to party with the whole world. I consider myself lucky to be a part of the run this “goofy pirate manga” is on, and if anything were to ever happen to me, just know that I’d be in the afterlife, pissed as hell that I wasn’t here to see how it ends.
Hub World 