One Piece is undeniably one of the most popular anime and manga franchises to date. In case you missed it, the creator of the series himself Eiichiro Oda said that he wanted to end the series in five years.

In a recent interview published by Oricon News on Thursday, manga editor Takuma Naito confirms this statement about the series’ 5-year run. He honestly was just going by what Oda told him about the manga’s development, and Naito was honestly uncertain about finishing One Piece in five years.

However, the editor remains optimistic saying “if Oda says it will be five years, then it surely ends in five years.”

As of this writing, the manga is currently in the peak of the “Wano Country Arc,” and Natio is optimistic that the current pacing of the manga will possibly allow the five-year ending. In an interview that was done in July 2016, Oda revealed that One Piece’s completion was at 65%. The anime adaptation of the is also ongoing as of this writing with over 900 episodes so far.

One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, who gained the ability to stretch his body like rubber after he accidentally ate a Devil Fruit. Together with the Straw Hat Pirates, they explore the Grand Line in search of the “One Piece,” the greatest treasure in the world, and the key to becoming the next Pirate King.

The manga was first released in the Weekly Shonen Jump on July 22, 1997. The anime adaptation began airing in Japan in 1999 produced by Toei Animation. So far it one of the longest-running anime series to date.

The One Piece manga has sold millions of physical copies both in print and digital worldwide. In fact, the series has even won a Guinness World Record for “most copies published in the comic book series by a single author in 2015. One Piece is just one example of a great series that still haven’t lost momentum until this day.

Aside from its anime adaptation, the series also has its own anime movie. Just recently, the official website of the franchise’s recent anime film One Piece Stampede revealed that the movie had earned more than 5.5 billion yen in Japan alone. The movie’s total worldwide earnings are at 9.3 billion yen. The release of the movie marks the 20th anniversary of the One Piece anime adaptation.

The following countries that had screenings of the movie were as following: Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, the United States, Thailand, Taiwan, France, Italy, and Canada.

In The United States and Canada, the movie was screened on selected dates in late October and early November by Funimation. Screenings were in English Dub and in the original Japanese language (with English subtitles). Reports confirm that the movie earned more than USD $1 million in the mentioned countries.

The box-office movie hit premiered in Japan on August 9. The first 3 million who went to the Japanese screenings were able to receive the One Piece Comic Kan-Banpaku bonus manga. On its opening weekend in Japan alone, it earned 1,646,321,500 yen (1,254,372 tickets sold). It is so far the largest first-day attendance record at the Japanese box office this year. It had definitely surpassed the first-weekend box office sales of the franchise’s previous film, One Piece Film Gold.

About the film (As Described by Funimation):

Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat pirate crew are invited to a massive Pirate Festival that brings many of the most iconic characters from throughout the franchise to participate in competition with the Straw Hats to find Roger’s treasure. It also pits the Straw Hats against a new enemy named Bullet, a former member of Roger’s crew.

The One Piece manga is officially published in English by VIZ Media. They have so far released a total of 92 volumes in English.

Due to the hype of the manga series being ongoing, One Piece was not exempted from being a victim of manga piracy. In 2017, the police arrested three individuals for uploading chapters of One Piece online before their scheduled publication date. According to police reports, these individuals have been doing this since July 2016, getting their early copies of Weekly Shonen Jump from stores that sell them earlier and upload them on their website. The names of the arrested are the following: Shizuka Nagaya, a 23-year-old female writer, Yo Uehara a 30-year-old self-employed man, and Ryoji Hottai, a 31-year-old web designer. It has been reported that both Nagaya and Uehara earned around 75 million yen through the website ad revenue from publishing the scans.

In addition, police stated that Hottai has also been uploading the chapters on his own website, which earned him 305 million yen in a span of three years. Uehara has admitted to the crime while Nagaya denies some of the accusations as she claimed that she was no longer involved with them since 2016. Hottai fully accepted the charges against him and said that he created the website and uploaded the manga scans for him to earn money for his everyday expenses.

Manga publisher of the Weekly Shonen Jump Shueisha expressed regarding the actions related to pirating some of their manga series that it “expresses indignation that a work that the creator worked hard and poured his heart into would be distributed in such a way to earn profits illegally”.

We hope One Piece continues its hype as the months and years go by. We are looking forward to how the manga series will end.

Source: Anime News Network