One Piece Creator Admits They Never Planned to Go Over 100 Volumes
One Piece's creator is now reflecting on the manga heading into the final saga of the series, and they opened up about how they never really planned for the series to run for over 100 volumes. Eiichiro Oda recently came back from a hiatus over the Summer in which he was preparing to launch the final saga of the long running series overall. With the manga celebrating its 25th Anniversary in the pages of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, Oda has been opening up about the journey so far and how much longer it could be before it all comes to an end.
In a special interview between One Piece series creator Eiichiro Oda and Detective Conan series creator Gosho Aoyama as part of a collaboration between Shueisha and Shogakukan celebrating the massive franchises, the two creators opened up about both of them going over the 100th volume milestone. As Oda explains, there is really no secret to it as it was not like he had set out with a plan to illustrate so much material. He's got so much more that he just wants or need to add to the series before it can come to an end.
When asked what the secret was to keeping a serialization going for over 100 volumes, Oda responded, "To begin with, it's not like it was my intention to surpass 100 volumes." Elaborating on this further, Oda then explained that while he wanted to end the series, there was still more material he also wanted to add, "I've always wanted to end the series. That being said, I also think about how there's so much I still want or need to draw." But unfortunately, in this same interview Oda indeed confirmed this is the final saga.
One Piece's long running series is now gearing up for the grand finale of the series, and the creator has been setting the stage with some very important new pieces of the puzzle following the events of the Wano Country arc. It's been clear by the returning chapters that the final saga really is meant to be the ending, but there's still no way to gauge just how much longer the series will actually run before it all ends forever.
How do you feel about One Piece running for so long? When do you hope to see the series come to its conclusion? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!