If you haven’t read the introductory post to this series, be sure to do that before reading on.

So, here we are, the first post of a series that will go through One Piece’s rankings spanning its entire history. For this post I will be going through the Romance Dawn, Orange Town (also known as the “Buggy the Clown Arc”), Syrup Village (also known as the “Kuro Arc”), Baratie, and Arlong Park arcs.

After each graph, I will be providing some background information to bring the rankings in perspective, or at least try. I will not, however, be giving a subjective, opinionated account of each chapter ranking that deviates from the norm for One Piece. I’ll leave that to you fans to do so in the comments section.

Remember that this is a One Piece-oriented website, so I will be slightly biased towards One Piece.

Before I start, however, here’s a quick remedial Jump history lesson:

In the mid-1990s, Jump went through a “Bubble Economy” period — which had series such as Slam Dunk, Dragon Ball, and many others — where each weekly issue sold up to 6.5 million copies. After this so-called “Golden Era” ended, Jump fell into a recession. By the time One Piece started, the last remaining real strong series in Jump were Rurouni Kenshin and I”s.

As you can see, chapter 1 of One Piece didn’t receive as much early attention as one would have expected of a series that would grow to be the legendary manga it is now. Luckily, the series gained some momentum, getting to first place by chapter 3 and even beating out solid contenders Rurouni Kenshin (a series drawn by Nobuhiro Watsuki, one of the manga artists whom Oda had previously worked with as an assistant), I”s (series drawn by Masakazu Katsura), and the almost equally-new series Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! (series by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro).

Chapter 7 concluded One Piece‘s first arc and kept it at a solid first place in Jump rankings. It also brought the series its second color page.

The Orange Town arc had a much better average ranking than the Romance Dawn arc, with only chapter 13 dipping to 2nd place, losing to Rurouni Kenshin. Because other series in the magazine also remained in stable positions, we could conclude that Rurouni Kenshin‘s readership overlapped the One Piece readership, resulting in both series switching places for this particular chapter. Whether it was due to the Rurouni Kenshin‘s chapter being better than One Piece‘s chapter is something I can’t comment on, so I’ll leave that up to your personal judgment.

The lack of data for chapter 9 and 10 in the graph is due to the two-week consecutive lead color pages given to One Piece at the introduction of Buggy The Clown.* This was due to One Piece‘s obvious popularity and the Weekly Shônen Jump editorial department wanting to give One Piece its time in the spotlight.

To put this into a modern perspective, the new hit series My Hero Academia has also gotten numerous color pages in its first few weeks in Jump. More specifically, it had two consecutive color pages for the issue of its 7th and 8th chapter’s ranking. However, other past popular series such as Naruto and Hikaru no Go did not.￼****

The Syrup Village arc continued the Orange Town arc’s trend of seeing One Piece at number 1 in the magazine. This continued for some time, with mainly One Piece, Rurouni Kenshin and Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! occupying the first three spots of the magazine until chapter 30 of One Piece.

The sudden dip to 3rd place could be due to two reasons (as far as I can think of right now): either Rurouni Kenshin and/or Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! were relatively better chapters, or the newest Jump series Hunter x Hunter, cannibalized some of One Piece‘s total votes.** In the next issue of Jump, the first anime adaptation/OVA of One Piece, Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! and Hunter x Hunter were announced. From that point on, Hunter x Hunter joined the Kenshin–One Piece–Takeshi trio as a frequently top ranking series of Jump.

Chapters 37 and 38’s ranking coincided with consecutive lead color pages for One Piece in the middle of the Baratie Arc, thus resulting in the absence of ranking for those two weeks.￼

One Piece, yet again, started off its next arc, the Baratie arc, with a solid first place ranking. The series would remain at first place for most of the arc, but it surprisingly hit third place for the week of the chapter 46 rankings. This chapter coincided with Shaman King‘s first chapter that ranked 2nd place, while Hunter x Hunter hit number one for the first time since the beginning of its serialization.

Rurouni Kenshin was not present in the chapter’s ranked issue of Jump,*** hence the third place showing for One Piece. Interestingly enough, it seems like One Piece was more influenced by Shaman King‘s introduction than Hunter x Hunter. This was, however, a short-lived victory for Shaman King, because One Piece quickly returned to first place spot the week after, while Shaman King‘s second chapter descended to 6th place.

One Piece chapters 59 and 61 briefly fell one spot to a relative new series called Hanasaka Tenshi Tenten-kun and to the infamous Yu-Gi-Oh!, respectively. The dip on One Piece chapter 61 coincided with Yu-Gi-Oh‘s color page issue, but One Piece wasn’t alone. As One Piece fell one spot, so too did Rurouni Kenshin and Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! Strangely enough, One Piece got a lead color page and cover page for that ranked chapter, so it’s interesting to see that lead color pages might not actually be more sure-fire ways of gaining popularity (in the short term) than the regular color page as one might think.

Chapter 68, the last chapter of the Baratie Arc, also coincided with the first chapter of new manga series Hikaru no Go that started at fourth place.

One thing that is also important to note: while One Piece‘s ranking remained pretty stable for this arc, the magazine saw a lot of One Shots appear during this period. Because One Shots only appear once in the magazine, we can’t determine their ranking. It makes you wonder if those dips to 2nd place for One Piece were perhaps due to the One Shots cannibalizing some votes from the series.

The last arc of this post: Arlong Park. Unlike previous arcs, this one started at second place to Rurouni Kenshin. What isn’t shown in this graph is that Hikaru no Go was maintaining virtually the same spot in the line-up for almost six straight issues, jumping to second place past Hunter x Hunter and Rurouni Kenshin, and even overtaking One Piece‘s chapter 77.

As I mentioned in the introductory post, this might all just be virtual ranking “manipulation” by the Editor-in-Chief wanting to give a series more attention by putting it in the front of the magazine, but I assume that this is not the case considering the high number of series that started and ended their serialization during this arc.

Chapter 78 featured a lead color page for One Piece, giving it that solid first place, while Hikaru no Go got a lead color page in chapter 78’s ranking’s issue. After that, Hikaru no Go took back first place from One Piece by chapter 81, perhaps with a boost thanks to its cover and lead color page, followed by Hunter x Hunter taking first place the following week. After that, One Piece mostly kept its first place spot, except for with chapter 90 because of Rurouni Kenshin. It’s worth noting that chapter 89 coincided with another color page for Hikaru no Go, only this time One Piece was able to nab the number one spot, pushing Hikaru no Go to second place.

Now what have we learned from all this?



One possible conclusion we could take from all this is that One Piece had known unprecedented success in Jump for its first few arcs, only losing first place on a handful of occasions to “Golden Era” survivors Rurouni Kenshin and I”s, and series that would later still be well-known in 2015 such as Hunter x Hunter and Hikaru no Go.

Of course, the caveats I mentioned in the previous post still apply: it is possible that One Piece‘s firm first place was due to reasons other than just its popularity in the questionnaires (i.e., the Editor-in-Chief deciding that One Piece‘s popularity was worth inflating by bumping it up a few spots in the line-up every week). It is also possible that, since Jump‘s sales were declining at a rapid rate since 1997. The general line-up in Jump was, besides a few exceptions, weaker than it might be now, making it easier for a strong new series such as One Piece to maintain its top spot compared to recent series in Jump years later (i.e., the series whose fans seem to love looking at its ranking: My Hero Academia).

So while it’s true that One Piece maintained a VERY good average ranking in its early years, one has to keep in mind these and other factors when comparing One Piece‘s ranking and the ranking of series that started post-One Piece‘s serialization. After all, any series that started after One Piece had One Piece as a rival for the top spot of Jump, while One Piece‘s starting period’s line-up in Jump was slim pickings.

Oh, and if you’re like me and was wondering how One Piece‘s first 30 or so chapters fare against other series’s first chapters, then take a look at this list:

Either way, if you liked this little walk down Jump memory lane, then be sure to keep an eye out for the next post that will handle the Logue Town arc up to the Alabasta arc. If you would like me to try and take a look at some other data as well, be sure to leave a comment down below.

This JUMP Files is offered to you instead of Chao Time for this week. Don’t worry, Chao will return with his in-depth look at the series in two weeks. For now, enjoy looking at One Piece throughout the years. This series does not have a fixed release schedule, so keep an eye on our social media and our website.

FOOTNOTES

*Remember that the rank of a certain chapter is shown in the Jump issue 7 weeks later, when Buggy shows up in the manga in this case.

** Hunter x Hunter‘s first chapter ranking was 4th, similar to One Piece‘s first chapter ranking with the big difference that One Piece started at a time when Jump had less strong series than in 1998.

*** Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! got a color page in the issue and was thus taken out of the ranking for that week

**** This does not just attest to a series’s popularity but also to the workload the author can/will take on and to the magazine’s other series’ availability etc.