One Piece (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hats, as he searches for the legendary treasure known as the "One Piece" to become the next King of the Pirates. The manga has been serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump since July 1997, with its chapters compiled in 115 volumes . It was licensed for an English-language release in North America and the United Kingdom by Viz Media and in Australia by Madman Entertainment.
Becoming a media franchise, it has been adapted into a festival film by Production I.G, and an anime series by Toei Animation, which premiered in October 1999. Additionally, Toei has developed 14 animated feature films and one original video animation (OVA). Several companies have developed various types of merchandising and media, such as a trading card game and video games. Netflix released a live-action TV series in 2023. Another anime series produced by Wit Studio is scheduled to premiere in 2027.
One Piece has received praise for its storytelling, expansive worldbuilding, art, characterization, and humor. It is regarded by critics and readers as one of the greatest manga series of all time. By March 2026, it had over 600 million copies in circulation worldwide, making it the best-selling comic series in volume format and the best-selling manga series ever. It holds various publishing records, including the highest initial print run for any book in Japan. In 2015 and 2022, it set the Guinness World Record for "most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author". It was the best-selling manga for 11 consecutive years (2008–2018) and remains the only series with over 3 million initial prints for over ten years, as well as the only one with every of its over 100 published volumes selling over 1 million copies. Since 2008, it has consistently ranked first in Oricon's weekly comic chart.
Synopsis Setting
One Piece is set on the Blue Planet, populated by humans and other races such as dwarves (more akin to fairies in size), giants (which also includes the ancient giants and the occasional artificial giants), merfolk, fish-men, long-limbed tribes, long-necked people known as the Snakeneck Tribe, and animal people known as "Minks", as well as the assorted hybrids of different races and artificial races. The Blue Planet is governed by an authoritarian intercontinental organization known as the World Government, consisting of dozens of member countries. The Navy is the military branch of the World Government that protects the known seas from pirates and other criminals. Cipher Pol acts as the World Government's secret police. While pirates are major opponents of the Government, the ones who directly challenge their rule are the Revolutionary Army who seek to overthrow them. The central tension of the series pits the World Government and their forces, such as the Marines, against pirates. The series regularly emphasizes moral ambiguity over the label "pirate", which includes morally bankrupt individuals motivated by selfish gains, but also any individuals who do not submit to the World Government's authoritarian—and often morally ambiguous—rule. The One Piece world also has supernatural objects such as Devil Fruits, which are mysterious fruits that grant consumers transformative powers at the cost of becoming weakened in bodies of water, causing users to lose the ability to swim. Another supernatural power is Haki, which is an innate ability that grants its users enhanced observation and fighting abilities based on their willpower. It is one of the only effective methods of inflicting bodily harm on certain Devil Fruit users.
The surface of the Blue Planet mainly consists of the Blue Sea, two vast oceans divided by a massive continental mountain range called the Red Line, which runs along what would be the Prime Meridian on Earth. Within the oceans is a second global phenomenon known as the Grand Line, which is a sea that runs perpendicular to the Red Line, along what would be the equator on Earth and is bounded by the Calm Belt, strips of calm ocean infested with huge ship-eating monsters shaped like serpents known as Sea Kings. These geographical barriers divide the world into four seas: North Blue, East Blue, West Blue, and South Blue. Passage between the four seas, and the Grand Line, is therefore difficult. Unique and mystical features enable transport between the seas, such as the use of Sea Prism Stone employed by government ships to mask their presence as they traverse the Calm Belt, or the Reverse Mountain where water from the four seas flows uphill before merging into a rapidly flowing and dangerous canal that enters the Grand Line. The Grand Line itself is split into two separate halves, with the Red Line being between Paradise and the New World.
Premise
The series focuses on Monkey D. Luffy, a young man whose body has the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating the Gum-Gum Fruit—who sets off on a journey from the East Blue Sea to find the deceased King of the Pirates Gold Roger's ultimate treasure known as the "One Piece", and take over his prior title. Luffy sets sail as captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, and is joined by Roronoa Zoro, a swordsman and former bounty hunter; Nami, a money-obsessed thief and navigator; Usopp, a sniper and compulsive liar; and Sanji, an amorous but chivalrous cook. They acquire a ship, the Going Merry—later replaced by the Thousand Sunny—and engage in confrontations with notorious pirates. As Luffy and his crew set out on their adventures, others join the crew later in the series, including Tony Tony Chopper, an anthropomorphic reindeer doctor; Nico Robin, an archaeologist possessing the unique ability to decipher Poneglyphs; Franky, a cyborg shipwright; Brook, a skeleton musician and swordsman; and Jimbei, a whale shark-type fish-man and former member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea who becomes their helmsman. Together, they encounter other pirates, bounty hunters, criminal organizations, revolutionaries, secret agents, scientists, soldiers of both the World Government and the Four Emperors, and various other friends and foes, as they sail the seas in pursuit of their dreams.
Production Concept and creation Eiichiro Oda's interest in pirates began in his childhood, watching the animated series Vicky the Viking, which made him want to draw a manga series revolving around pirates. The reading of pirate biographies influenced Oda to incorporate the characteristics of real-life pirates into many of the characters of One Piece; for example, the character Marshall D. Teach is based on and named after the historical pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach. Apart from the history of piracy, Oda's biggest influence is Akira Toriyama and his series Dragon Ball, which is one of his favorite manga.
While working as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki, Oda began writing One Piece in 1996. It started as two one-shot stories entitled Romance Dawn—which would later be used as the title for One Pieces first chapter and volume. They both featured the character of Luffy and included elements that would appear later in the main series. The first of these short stories was published in August 1996 in Shueisha's Akamaru Jump, and reprinted in 2002 in the One Piece Red guidebook. The second was published in the 41st issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump in September 1996, and reprinted in 1998 in Oda's short story collection, Wanted! In an interview with TBS, Takanori Asada, the original editor of One Piece, revealed that the manga was rejected by Weekly Shōnen Jump three times before they agreed to publish the series. Kazuhiko Torishima, then the magazine's editor-in-chief, explained that they debated for two hours on whether or not to serialize One Piece. Although acknowledging that it had potential, he was one of those against the work because it was "incomplete". Torishima ultimately approved serialization due to Asada being so "annoyingly earnest" that another editor suggested both Oda and Asada would be crushed if it was rejected at that time.
Development Oda's primary inspiration for the concept of Devil Fruits was Doraemon; the Fruits' abilities and uses reflect Oda's daily life and his personal fantasies, similar to that of Doraemon's gadgets, such as the Gum-Gum Fruit being inspired by Oda's laziness. When designing the outward appearance of Devil Fruits, Oda would think of something that would fulfill a human desire; he added that he does not see why he would draw a Devil Fruit unless the fruit's appearance would entice one to eat it."Fans Chat with Oda Sensei!" Shonen Jump #84. Volume 7, Issue 12. December 2009. 32. The names of many special attacks, as well as other concepts in the manga, consist of a form of punning in which phrases written in kanji are paired with an idiosyncratic reading. The names of some characters' techniques are often mixed with other languages, and the names of several of Zoro's sword techniques are designed as jokes; they look fearsome when read by sight but sound like kinds of food when read aloud. For example, Zoro's signature move is Onigiri, which is written as demon cut but is pronounced the same as rice ball in Japanese. Eisaku Inoue, an animation director at Toei Animation, noted that these kanji readings were not used in the anime series since they "might have cut down the laughs by about half". Nevertheless, Konosuke Uda, fellow director, said that he believes that the creators "made the anime pretty close to the manga".
Oda was "sensitive" about how his work would be translated. In many instances, the English version of the One Piece manga uses one onomatopoeia for multiple onomatopoeiae used in the Japanese version. For instance, "saaa" (the sound of light rain, close to a mist) and "zaaa" (the sound of pouring rain) are both translated as "fshhhhhhh". Unlike other manga artists, Oda draws everything that moves himself to create a consistent look while leaving his staff to draw the backgrounds based on sketches he had drawn. This workload forces him to keep tight production rates, typically starting from five in the morning until two in the morning the next day, with short breaks only for meals. Oda's work program includes the first three days of the week dedicated to the writing of the storyboard and the remaining time for the definitive inking of the boards and the possible colouring.
When a reader asked who Nami was in love with, Oda replied that there would hardly be any romantic relationships within Luffy's crew, explaining that he deliberately avoids including them in One Piece since the series is a manga, targeted towards adolescent boys, who are unlikely to be interested in romantic pairings."Fans Chat with Oda Sensei!" Shonen Jump (VIZ) #84. Volume 7, Issue 12. December 2009. 33.
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