The adventures of its straw hat pirate have held millions of fans around the world spellbound for a quarter of a century: the
One Piece
manga celebrates its 25th anniversary before embarking on the home stretch of its endless intrigue.
After a month-long hiatus, it's time for the final bouquet of the work from July 25 in the famous manga weekly
Shonen Jump
from publisher Shueisha, where the new chapters of
One Piece
are published in Japan.
“I will start presenting all the secrets of this world that I have kept hidden,”
its author Eiichiro Oda warned in a handwritten message posted on Twitter.
"It'll be fun.
Please fasten your seatbelt”
.
Since the publication of volume 1 in 1997, the hunt for One Piece, treasure coveted by all pirates and first and foremost Luffy, hero of the series, now has more than 100 volumes to its credit and multiplies sales records. .
With 490 million copies sold, Eiichiro Oda (47) was even awarded a “Guinness World Record” in the category
“largest number of copies of the same comic book published by a single author”
.
Enough to make its 25th anniversary, from the United States to France, the second largest manga and Japanese animation market, a global event that looks like consecration.
«
One Piece
is today not only one of the greatest manga of this world, but one of the greatest works on a cultural scale, all sectors combined",
estimates Chedli Ben Hassine, content creator specializing in pop culture who has 1.7 million followers on TikTok.
Adaptation on Netflix
How to explain such recognition?
"What makes this manga so special is above all the script,"
says Ryuji Kochi, President Europe, Middle East and Africa of Toei Animation, the Japanese company that has been producing the animated series since 1999. Excessive industrialization, racism, slavery, geopolitical intrigues... Beyond the themes addressed and its endearing characters, the immense universe of
One Piece
is crossed by cultural and geographical references (ancient Egypt, Venice, medieval Japan...) which give it a universal dimension.
“By offering totally different universes, the author allows the reader to never be bored in the narration. All of this means that we have a fresco, an epic, which has lasted for an extremely long time and where we cannot say that it is going around in circles, ”
Benoît Huot, manga editorial manager at Glénat, told AFP. occasion of the release of the 100th volume in France last year, printed in 250,000 copies as a
“Goncourt prize”
.
While the plot still promises many twists and turns, what is missing from
One Piece
to reach an even wider audience beyond fans of Japanese animation, like sagas like
Star Wars
or
Harry Potter?
?
"Although Japanese culture is now exported very well, it is still far from the influence of Western creations, driven by a very large market, and by all the soft power that a big machine like Hollywood places at an industrial level",
explains to AFP Julien Pillot, economist specializing in cultural industries.
The upcoming release on Netflix, the streaming platform with more than 200 million subscribers, of a series adapted from the
One Piece
universe is supposed to help it, want to believe its producers.
“History has shown us that Hollywood had all the difficulty in adapting manga.
We all have in mind the disaster of the adaptation of
Dragon Ball
, artistically and commercially.
reminds Julien Pillot.
"If Netflix could make a really high quality product that captures the unique spirit of
One Piece
, that would be a great start
. "
