Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece single-handedly saved Shonen Jump with its popularity. Their weekly readers bumped up significantly and it surpassed even the likes of the Dragon Ball franchise in the 1990s. Now One Piece’s manga has broken Guinness World Records, selling more than 500 million copies.
Monkey D. Luffy became the face of Shonen Jump for years, still being featured on covers here and there. The influence of One Piece on the anime industry and community cannot be ignored. However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Eiichiro Oda, especially at the start.
Kazuhiko Torishima, the current president of Hakusensha and the former editor for Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball, had his doubts about One Piece. He was also the editor-in-chief for Weekly Shonen Jump from 1996 to 2001 and hesitated to let One Piece continue until one young editor stopped him.
Torishima argued about One Piece for two hours until Oda’s editor-in-charge changed his mind
One Piece has been going on for nearly 3 decades, with over 1000 chapters. The Straw Hat Pirates have just entered the Elbaph Arc with new antagonists and old familiar faces. Eiichiro Oda hasn’t lost his touch since 1997. Torishima probably feels grateful that someone stopped him.
The Hakusensha president is incredibly strict and has strong opinions. Even when he was Dragon Ball’s editor, he was known as the strict one and his worst critic. Since the serialization of One Piece began in 1997, he wasn’t convinced it would do well without an ending.
However, now the series sits at more than 500 million copies sold worldwide and the fanbase is still going strong. Kazuhiko Torishima recalls what he felt about One Piece’s potential and how they all argued for 2 hours. In an interview with The Tokyo Shimbun, he states:
The other series were decided on very quickly, but we argued for two hours about what to do with One Piece. They said it had potential, but it wasn’t finished. I was against it, too.
But the young editor in charge was annoyingly enthusiastic, and his superior said, ‘If we pass it up now, both the writer and the editor will go under.’ If they were so adamant, I decided to go ahead with it.
We don’t know who this young editor is but the fandom is eternally grateful to him. One Piece won first place in the reader’s survey and Luffy became the face of Weekly Shonen Jump.
Can One Piece be surpassed after nearly 3 decades?
Within Shonen Jump, there are very few candidates that the anime community believes can take on the mantle. One Piece is entirely too long and influential to be beaten. Nothing can catch up to three decades’ worth of writing, at least not until after the series ends.
Ever since Shanks gave Luffy his famed straw hat, fans were hooked. There won’t be another One Piece. However, other stories do deserve the mantle and respect. Torishima himself is waiting for another series to surpass One Piece.
Overall, a world without One Piece is unimaginable. The sheer influence it can never be replicated nor replaced. If that editor hadn’t been so “annoying enthusiastic,” Shonen Jump would’ve sunk and One Piece wouldn’t have existed.
One Piece is available on VIZ Media.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
