On June 15th, Eiichiro Oda’s iconic shounen manga, One Piece, won it’s place in the Guinness Book of World Records, listed as “The most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author.” One Piece currently has 320,866,000 printed as of December of 2014, with its first volume being published in 1997. One Piece currently has 790 chapters and 77 volumes thus far.
Even though Oda could not attend the celebratory event, a presentation ceremony was held at the “Tokyo One Piece Tower,” a One Piece theme park in Japan, with professional cosplayers as main attractions.
[エンタメ]人気漫画「ONE PIECE」ギネス世界記録に！ http://t.co/8unrLNaUb0 pic.twitter.com/ZVw1wspsPe
— シネマトゥデイ (@cinematoday) June 15, 2015
While Oda was not present, he gave a public service message distributed by in Weekly Shounen Jump. Oda said, quote:
“Thank you very much for certification for the Guinness World Record. Though manga is just entertainment for killing time, I am happy to have heard from people that they were able to make friends, a boyfriend or girlfriend, thanks to the topics aboutOne Piece. I feel the number of this record suggests the possibility to connect the people with the same number. I will not forget the gratitude to the predecessors and supporters in the manga industry, as well as my readers, and I will keep working on the works that will not shame the record.”
「ONE PIECE」ギネス世界記録に認定！単一作者による最多発行部数で http://t.co/7XHufry8EQ pic.twitter.com/4lGYZm0oRV
— コミックナタリー (@comic_natalie) June 15, 2015
Source – Crunchyroll, Kotaku, “One Piece” official portal site, Cinema Today, Comic Natalie
