One Piece – The Japanese Phenomenon
What do you think is the hottest manga right now? It’s okay, I know that, unless you’ve researched this, you probably don’t know the answer off the top of your head, but take a wild guess. “Attack on Titan”? Close. “Naruto”? That actually ended last year. “Bleach”? Hahahahahaha, no. Give up? Well, if you’ve read the title of this article, you should know that the answer is “One Piece”, a manga that has been running continuously for 18 years and shows absolutely no signs of stopping. How popular is it? Well, take a look at this chart of the best-selling manga in 2015. When we examine them by series, “One Piece” is at the very top with 14 million total volumes sold, which is 4 million more than the second place. But it doesn’t stop there! “One Piece” is also first when it comes to the number of individual volumes sold… And also second, third and fourth. May I remind you that there were only four volumes of “One Piece” released in the entirety of 2015, and those four are at the very top of the bestsellers list.
This isn’t a new phenomenon – the overwhelming majority of “One Piece” volumes have been at the top of the charts, barring unnatural circumstances. Even so many years after its inception, the series is still going as strong as it always has while other manga series have slowly dimmed away until nobody even cared about them. Why has “One Piece” persevered? Well, there’s three main things, really. First and foremost, it’s very well-crafted, almost to the point of perfection – nothing feels ham-fisted or heavy-handed. Second, its themes and characters are timeless. “One Piece” is about following your dreams regardless of what they are. In its world, even the most pathetic person can train and become a fierce warrior – we’ve seen several examples of this where utterly laughable characters put in the necessary work and eventually manage to become soldiers and fighters, acquiring the means to fight for their dreams. It’s a theme that resonates equally with all generations, and will continue to do so. And last, but not least, the manga seems like it knows where it’s going.
A lot (and I do mean a LOT) of mangas lose their steam after the first few arcs. A fantastic example is “Bleach”, where following the first two arcs (which seemed very well-crafted and thought out) we literally just got a repeat of them for the next two arcs, followed by some pointless fighting to close off the series… Except it didn’t end, it just kept on going, but nobody kept reading because nobody cared. In 2006 I still read “Bleach” every time a new volume came out in English. In 2016, I don’t even know if it’s still going or not. “One Piece”, on the other hand, has a very clear direction that it has established from the very first pages. We know exactly where the characters are going, and thanks to the manga’s structure, we even know just how far into their adventure they are. It never feels like the writer has ran out of ideas.
Overall, I think that’s really the most important aspect of a manga that hopes to live a life as long as that of “One Piece” – the mangaka (writer and artist) needs to know exactly where he or she is going with it, and make the story just as long as it needs to be. Readers don’t mind long stories. They do mind bloated ones, though. And on that note I shall leave you, dear reader! If you haven’t read “One Piece”, give it a shot – omnibuses of the first several volumes are available for pretty cheap on Amazon!