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One Piece Creator Eiichiro Oda Plans to End Manga in 4 to 5 Years

One Piece manga creator Eiichiro Oda said during an interview in an episode of the Arashi band's a la tubo variety program on Thursday that he plans to end the story in four or five years. Arashi member Masaki Aiba had asked Oda, "Have you decided about how many more years the plot has?"

Oda noted in response to a question from Arashi member Satoshi Ohno that he has decided on the ending. Oda added that "We have to talk about everything every time my editor changes," and the editor sitting near him during the interview confirmed that he also knows the ending.

Publisher Shueisha and the editors of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and the Jump Comic imprint announced on August 14 that they are delaying three One Piece publications from September 4 to September 16 due to production issues related to COVID-19 concerns. The three publications are One Piece manga volume 97, One Piece Oda Eiichiro Gashū Tiger Color Walk 9 (One Piece by Eiichiro Oda Tiger Color Walk 9 art book), and One Piece Magazine Vol. 10.

The series also experienced delays in the spring due to COVID-19. Oda warned in May that more delays are possible, as his staff reorganizes the workplace to facilitate social distancing.

In an advertisement for the upcoming One Piece Magazine volume 10 on September 4, this year's 35th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine teased August 2 that One Piece is "headed toward the upcoming final saga."

Oda reported in a YouTube video posted in September 2019 that he "wants to end [the One Piece story] in five years." An interview in November then reaffirmed that plan.

While he was still in high school, Oda was a runner-up for the Tezuka Award for new creators from Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1992. He began serializing the One Piece manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump manga on July 19, 1997. As of April, the manga had 390 million copies in print in Japan and 80 million copies in print in over 42 other countries and territories, for a total of more than 470 million copies in print worldwide. The manga won the 41st Japan Cartoonist Awards in 2012, and set a Guinness World Record in 2015 for "the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author."

Source: Sponichi Annex