One Piece Will Likely End in Five Years

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga will probably end  five years from now. So said Oda Sensei himself in a recent interview, according to Comic Book Review and Anime News Network, among other outlets. I know that to some of you, five years sounds like forever, but listen. For me, for any self-respecting One Piece fan, that’s merely the blink of an eye. My favorite anime in the world, a twenty-or-so-year staple of my life will likely end in five years time and the mere thought of it swamps my heart with all kinds of nostalgic feels.

I’ve been a fan of One Piece since somewhere between 1999 and 2003, maybe. I remember catching the first episode on Toonami (or was it Adult Swim?) by chance and I was immediately hooked. Back then, though, I didn’t have much of a chance to follow the series, as so had to wait an eternity until Crunchyroll started streaming the series. Once I started catching up, I went on a 300-plus-something episode binge-fest.

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The story of Monkey D. Luffy, a straw hat-wearing young man made of rubber, bent on becoming the King of Pirates totally tickled my shonen heart.

Girls have shonen hearts now, you may ask? The short answer is yeah. Yeah, we do. Pretty sure mine’s located somewhere in the vicinity of the left ventricle of my inner universe... but, I digress.

Luffy’s reckless determination makes him quite a star in my book.

He journeys to and along the Grand Line, picking up crew members along the way. I think that the amazing thing about One Piece is that every one of Luffy’s crew members was a trope-defying character at the time they surfaced.

The wanna be pirate king who can’t swim. The pirate hunter turned pirate with zero sense of direction. The damsel in distress who is actually a bold, cunning thief and brilliant navigator. The liar with a heart of gold. The elegant chef with a violent disposition and a mean mouth. The spy who is actually a royal princess. The shape-shifting reindeer that desperately wants to be human. The evil archeologist who turns out to be just a scared and lonely girl in need of a kind place to call home. The ship-building cyborg. The congenial skeleton with amazing swordsmanship and musical talents. The fierce warlord of the sea with the stalwart heart.

Curious yet? It might interest you to watch Crunchyroll ambassador (?) slash One Piece superfan, Tim slowly descend into madness as he hilariously… I mean expertly explains the One Piece anime’s timeline from 1999 thru 2019.

Those of us who have been watching this show for decades have laughed at the character’s antics, sang along with their merry making, and cried as their hearts were broken time and time again are immensely grateful to Oda Sensei for bringing this story into our lives. All good things must come to an end, as they say. Even so, whether it’s 5 minutes of 5 decades from now, a final ending to One Piece would be a bittersweet ending too soon. It seems we have 5 years left to watch this wonderful series, so we should make this most of this time to enjoy it for all its worth.

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I’ll be sad to say goodbye to Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin Franky, and Brook… not to mention Vivi, Jimbei, Shanks, Sabo, and a slew of other memorable characters whenever the time comes. These characters, through their silliest of moments, righteous furies, and most tear-jerky traumas have grown, matured and found a lasting place within my heart.

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