Eiichiro Oda’s “One Piece” Manga is 20 years old today and there are 746 Episodes SO FAR

[wpsm_dropcap]E[/wpsm_dropcap]iichiro Oda’s One Piece action adventure manga started its serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in July 1997 and finally reached its 20th anniversary this week.  To celebrate the anniversary, the magazine’s official YouTube channel has posted two special videos featuring readers in the real world and the characters’ “Thank You” moments in the manga.  In the latter, it is confirmed that the manga has printed 350 million copies in Japan and 66 million copies in over 43 countries/regions in the world.

There are 746 manga episodes so far, with the last one being released in 2016.  They are currently working on animating all the series for readers and expect to have 695 done sometime in 2018.  Talk about A LOT!

この１ヶ月のカウントダウン、そのゴールである明日７月２２日は、
２０年前にONE PIECEの連載が開始した、
まさに「ONE PIECEの誕生日」です。

本日、日本記念日協会により７月２２日を「ONE PIECEの日」として認定していただきました！#OP20th pic.twitter.com/3724WX5t6B

— ONE PIECE スタッフ【公式】/ Official (@Eiichiro_Staff) July 21, 2017

In addition, Japan Anniversary Association has officially recognized July 22 as “One Piece Day” since the manga’s first chapter was published in Weekly Shonen Jump’s 34th issue of 1997 released in Japanon July 22, 1997.

Happy One Piece Day!