Beloved show One Piece made its TV debut 26 years ago and has become one of the most successful of all time. Here are six facts you need to know about it.
It was 26 years ago this week that Monkey D Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, burst onto TV screens in Japan, bringing their adventures to millions. The show soon went around the world and has gained legions of devoted fans who still regularly tune in to the latest episodes.
One Piece is still going strong 26 years later – in its original manga and in TV form, as well as various spinoffs and a live-action incarnation on Netflix. To celebrate this milestone, here are six facts you need to know about One Piece.
Record breaker
One Piece is huge. Really huge. In 26 years, there have been 1,146 episodes made of the show and it has been exported to more than 80 countries. In 2022, it was the most watched show in the world. It has also got the world record for most DVDs released for a serial anime TV show. Earlier this year, YouTuber IShowSpeed gained permission to stream episodes on his channel – a rare privilege.
One of the more obscure records the show holds is for the largest gathering of people wearing straw hats.
Dragon Ball Z influence
The creator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, cites another much-loved, long-running and hugely successful anime, Dragon Ball Z as a major influence on his show, including its humour, spirit of adventure and over-the-top battles.
Volume sales
It is not just the animated version of One Piece that breaks records, the manga has accrued several too. By August 2022, there were more than 516.6 million copies of One Piece in circulation across the world, which made it not just the best-selling manga series of all time, but the best-selling comic series in volume format. It also holds the world record for the most copies published for the same comic book series by the same author.
Careful what you eat
Luffy is famous for having a body that has the properties of rubber – useful in fights when you can keep a distance from your opponent and still punch them – and this power came from accidentally eating a Devil Fruit when he was young. Over the course of One Piece, Luffy’s power has increased by transforming his body through various ‘gears’.
The creator sleeps just three hours a night
To produce so much One Piece content – the manga is still published in Weekly Shonen Jump and the records held have already been mentioned – as well as any involvement in the TV shows and other associated media requires a busy schedule to say the least. Indeed, Eiichiro has previously talked about only sleeping for three hours per night and rarely taking any holidays to ensure he keeps up with the production schedule – he doesn’t have people that ghost for him while he is away.
Real life inspirations
With the pirate life theme of One Piece, it is perhaps unsurprising that Eiichiro has looked to famous real-life pirate stories for inspiration on occasions. For instance, the Whitebeard and Blackbeard characters were based on real-life pirates of the same name. Meanwhile Bartholomew Kuma is said to be based on Bartholomew ‘Black Bart’ Roberts, who was active during the ‘Golden Age of Piracy’.
Various locations in One Piece take their inspiration from real-world places too. For instance, Water 7 is based on Venice in Italy, while the Impel Down prison takes its inspiration from the notorious Alcatraz prison.
