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‘One Piece’ sails into Guinness World Records

Eiichiro Oda celebrates the record with this illustration. (Photo: GameoverHK)
Eiichiro Oda celebrates the record with this illustration. (Photo: GameoverHK)


‘One Piece’, a Japanese manga series set in the world of pirates and marines, has officially became the best-selling comic book series in history.

320,866,000 copies of the manga, created by Eiichiro Oda, was printed worldwide from December 1997 to December 2014. The manga’s 77th volume was released on April 3 with an initial print run of 3.8 million copies.

The previous Guinness World Record for “The most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author” was held by Akira Toriyama’s legendary Dragon Ball manga series.

A ceremony was held in Tokyo on Monday (June 15) to present the award, but Oda didn't attend and was represented by Weekly Shounen Jump editor Yoshihisa Heishi.

“Manga is just entertainment that kills time, but I feel happy when my readers tell me that they have made friends or got a sweetheart by talking about One Piece,” Oda said in a statement.

He went on to thank his readers, supporters and past manga artists for their support.

“I will continue to draw a work that will not shame this record,” Oda added.

'One Piece' has been published in more than 30 countries since its debut in 1997.