One Piece May Have Been Published Elsewhere If It Weren't for Dragon Ball

One Piece, like so many other popular anime franchises, originally debuted as a manga series as a [...]

By Evan Valentine

One Piece, like so many other popular anime franchises, originally debuted as a manga series as a part of the regular publication of Weekly Shonen Jump, but the creator of Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates revealed that this almost didn't happen, if not for a big save from Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball! Eiichiro Oda has been working on this tale of swashbucklers and Devil Fruit for decades at this point, and with the ending of the story only a few years away, anime would definitely be far different if One Piece had never hit the shores of Shonen Jump!

Eiichiro Oda recently went on record for some interviews where he discussed numerous aspects of One Piece, breaking down his creation process and what the future holds for Luffy and his crew that are attempting to make him the King of the Pirates. One Piece originally appeared as a part of Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997, introducing the world to the treasure of the same name and the seas of the Grand Line. Shonen series in general will tend to focus on brawlers from different environments, looking to achieve an ultimate goal through trials and tribulations that usually appear as fisticuffs.

Twitter User New World Artur shared this passage that notes that Eiichiro Oda has attempted to submit One Piece to Weekly Shonen Jump time after time, receiving rejections as a result, but persisting so that he could make his manga take the same road as Dragon Ball, created by his idol in Akira Toriyama:

Dragon Ball and One Piece have officially crossed over, with Son Goku and Monkey D. Luffy meeting in the animated special dubbed "Dream 9". With both of these anime franchises being Shonen properties, crossovers are definitely not out of the question when it comes to these two worlds meeting once again down the line.

What do you think of this ironic story regarding the origins of One Piece? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Shonen!

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