One Piece (ワンピース, Wan Pīsu, stylized as ONE PIECE in Japan) is a long-running shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, that has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 4, 1997. The individual chapters are being published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997 and the 55th volume released as of September 2009. In 2009, Shueisha announced that they sold 176 million volumes of One Piece manga so far, making it the highest selling manga in history. One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year-old boy who gained supernatural abilities by eating a magical fruit, and his ragtag crew of heroic pirates, named the Straw Hats. Luffy's greatest ambition is to obtain the world's ultimate treasure, One Piece, and thereby become the next King of the Pirates.
One Piece is licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media. The individual chapters are being serialized in Viz's Shonen Jump manga anthology and being published in tankōbon volumes. In the United Kingdom, the series was being released by Gollancz Manga, it is now released by Viz Media along with all of their other manga previously released by Gollancz Manga. Madman Entertainment is releasing the series in Australia and New Zealand.
The series was adapted into an original video animation (OVA) produced in 1998 by Production I.G. It was later adapted into a full anime series by Toei Animation that premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on October 20, 1999. Since then, the still ongoing series has aired more than four hundred episodes. The anime series was licensed for a heavily edited English dubbed broadcast in North America by 4Kids Entertainment. It has since been licensed for a full Region 1 DVD release and broadcast by Funimation Entertainment in its original and uncut form. In addition to the anime series and OVA, One Piece has been adapted into nine feature films by Toei and multiple video games based on the series have been released.