One Piece

title_name=One Piece

Manga

One Piece was created by Eiichiro Oda, a former assistant to Rurouni Kenshin author Nobuhiro Watsuki. The series began its run in 1997 in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump and is still being serialized. As of September 2005, there have been over 380 weekly installments, collected into 38 tankobon volumes.

Related Topics:
Eiichiro Oda - Rurouni Kenshin - Nobuhiro Watsuki - Shueisha - Weekly Shonen Jump - Tankobon

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One Piece is set in a fictional world, where pirates run rampant in an era known as the "Age of Piracy". The story of One Piece follows the adventures of a young pirate named Monkey D. Luffy whose body was turned to rubber after he ate a cursed fruit known as a Devil Fruit (Akuma no Mi). Luffy's particular fruit was the Gum-Gum Fruit, or Gomu Gomu no Mi in the Japanese release ("gomu" means "rubber"). While Devil Fruits grant their eaters fantastic powers (Luffy, for example, can stretch like rubber), it comes at the cost of never being able to swim, and in fact becoming complete deadweight upon being submerged in water. (This weakness may have a historical basis, as many real pirates were unable to swim.) The story features many pirates with super powers gained from the Devil Fruit, but the main focus of the story is that of Luffy and his crew striving to achieve their dreams while fighting those who would crush the hopes and dreams of others. While the Straw Hat Pirates are technically outlaws to the World Government and its Naval/Marine forces, they are much truer to their ideals than both other pirates and the corrupt establishment.

Related Topics:
Pirates - Devil Fruit - Rubber - Straw Hat Pirates

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Because of its strong story, colorful characters, intense fights, and clever plot twists, One Piece has become the most popular current shonen manga published in Japan, and is now almost as recognizable a pop culture icon as Dragon Ball . In February of 2005, the comic set a record in Japan for the fastest manga publication to reach 100,000,000 copies sold.

Related Topics:
Shonen - Dragon Ball

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One Piece Manga Volumes

:See: One Piece manga volumes and chapters

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