It has been announced that the total number of copies of Eiichiro Oda's popular manga "ONE PIECE" (Shueisha) published worldwide has surpassed 600 million. In the 29 years since its serialization began in 1997, the series has sold over 450 million copies in Japan and over 150 million copies overseas, bringing the total to over 600 million. From volume 57, released on March 4, 2010, to the latest volume 114, released on March 4 this year, 58 consecutive volumes have recorded first print runs of over 3 million copies.
To commemorate the 600 million copies sold, original author Oda has written down the secret "What is ONE PIECE?" for the first time on a piece of paper. The paper is torn from top to bottom, and a full-size copy of the top half, which reads "What is ONE PIECE? And Monkey D. Luffy," will be published in the morning editions of the Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun on March 4th. The "truth" written on the bottom half will be sunk to the bottom of the ocean along with the treasure chest until the story is completed, and will be made public afterwards. At midnight on March 4th, a project video showing Oda writing down the secret was released on the official "ONE PIECE" YouTube channel.
The first global character popularity poll in about five years, "WT100 (World Top 100)," will be held from March 4th. Voting is open to 1,560 characters, and participants from countries and regions around the world can participate. Voting will be accepted on a special website and elsewhere. From March 16th onwards, the weekly top 5 for each region will be announced every Monday, with the final results announced at the "ONE PIECE DAY '26" event scheduled for August. Characters that rank highly will have original illustrations drawn by Oda, and plans are in place for them to be developed into anime, games, merchandise, and more.
"ONE PIECE" depicts the adventures of Luffy, a young man with a straw hat whose limbs are stretchy like rubber, as he and his crew journey across the ocean in pursuit of becoming the King of the Pirates. The series began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997 and reached its 1,000th chapter in January 2021. July 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the series.
The 57th volume of the manga, released in March 2010, had an initial print run of approximately 3 million copies, the highest in the history of Japanese publishing, and the 67th volume, released in August 2012, had an initial print run of approximately 4.05 million copies, breaking its own record. In June 2015, it was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the "most widely distributed comic book series by a single author."
The TV anime series began airing in October 1999 and reached its 1,000th episode in November 2021. Season 2 of the live-action drama will be available exclusively on Netflix from March 10th.
