Japan

Japan’s ‘One Piece’ – Free To Read Online Until January 11th

A full 16 years of the popular Japanese ‘One Piece’ manga have been made free-to-read online as part of celebrations around the series’ 1,000th issue – but – be quick, the offer ends on January 11th!

The actual anniversary of the 1000th issue was January 4th, last Monday, but in news that has struggled to gain traction outside Japan, since that day what is one of Japan’s most popular ever ‘manga’ has been available online, free of charge – gratis – to all fans of the straw hatted pirates.

The long running saga first penned by Eiichiro Oda over two decades ago has been popular since Day 1 when it first hit Japanese shelves as part of the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in mid-1997.

Few in Japan have never cast an eye over the series and it became so popular by the mid-2010s that cafes, restaurants and theme attractions that drew fans from across the world were dotted round the Japanese capital Tokyo as part of the overall hullabaloo surrounding the series.

And, while the 16 years spanning issues 1 – 711 fans and new readers alike can now be viewed by way of the online Shueisha’s Japanese-language Zebrack website this is not the entire series, although it should be more than enough to fill any long missing gaps or whet the appetite of newcomers to Japanese manga over this mid-January weekend.

Lisa Conklin

Lisa is an Eastender from London in her second year in Taipei where she teaches English, and in her spare time writes poetry. She is a practicing vegan and lover of yoga who lives 'off-grid' as much as possible. She is our weekend editor.