Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Netflix
What if I told you that there was an anime and manga franchise which, in Japan, was so beloved it had its own theme park? And its own chain of stores? And that internationally, the manga has sold over 516 million copies? That number makes it not only the bestselling manga series of all time, but the bestselling comic book series of all time—breaking a Guinness World Record in the process.
Now, what if I told you that while this series has blown up in Japan since its 1997 debut, it essentially flew right over Western anime fandoms for two decades? American millennials fondly remember growing up watching Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, or Naruto. Very few, however, were watching One Piece.
However, that conspicuous absence in the mainstream spotlight might be about to change. On Aug. 31, Netflix will debut its live-action adaptation of One Piece. Netflix’s poor history with anime adaptations aside, landing One Piece is a big deal. One Piece’s mangaka (author), Eiichiro Oda, sees the live-action Netflix series as his last chance to make One Piece catch on in the West in the same way as it has internationally.