In celebration of the 200th 'Greg-sensei's SUPER ONE PIECE Course' columnist Greg Werner talks with five international ONE PIECE fans to explore how Eiichiro Oda's record-shattering series is enjoyed by different countries and cultures around the world!
I was having some trouble thinking about how to introduce this second half of our discussion on ONE PIECE’s popularity around the world when I started to reflect on how long I’ve been reading ONE PIECE. I began reading ONE PIECE in 2001 when I was 18 years old and in 2024 I’m now 41 years old. I have been reading ONE PIECE for more than half of my life.
I cannot think of any other form of entertainment that I’ve continually enjoyed each and every week (breaks notwithstanding) with the same level of enthusiasm and joy. And that’s as someone who wasn’t even a reader from the start in 1997! Here’s what really blew my mind though.
In my time as a ONE PIECE fan, I’ve created some frighteningly intricate fan-material. Counting the mistakes in each volume, translating each of Oda’s weekly comments by hand over the course of several years, making lists of the number of attacks performed by each character and listing where/when they took place, memorizing all bounties, memorizing the ranks of all Marines, etc.
But that entire time, while I was traveling to libraries for rare books, clicking through spreadsheets, and taking notes until my fingers bled, there was a man seated at his work desk who was building –from his own imagination- all that I was studying.
To have been accepted by that same creator to be able to bring you these columns remains a great honor and joy. I hope to be able to continue exploring the series alongside Luffy as long as possible and I’m grateful to be able to share that journey with you. Please enjoy the conclusion to our discussion on how ONE PIECE is celebrated and loved by readers and viewers around the world.