Voyaging across the internet’s vast pop culture landscape over the years, you may become somewhat familiar with an animated straw hat-wearing pirate in a red vest who goes by the name Luffy. And, if you’re anything like me, up until very recently, you presumed his name was pronounced ‘Luh-ffy,’ not ‘Loo-fy.’
That tangential familiarity took a drastic shift in recent weeks with the debut of Netflix’s live-action adaptation of One Piece, which, to the shock and awe of anime and manga fans who have been burned by the streamer’s previous efforts in this realm, didn’t blow chunks. As a matter of fact, it actually turned out to be pretty good – and as such, a whole new wave of fans have been drawn to the series.
So, you’ve finished binging season 1, and you’re hungry to dive deeper into the source material. 1000+ episodes of anime will get you pretty close to up-to-speed, sure, but even further ahead is Eiichiro Oda’s original manga of the same name. So, where can you go to read One Piece, and catch yourself up on the most up-to-date adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates?
Where to find the One Piece manga
The most bang-for-your-buck option to get started with the One Piece manga as a newbie to the medium, is the Shonen Jump app, available on both iOS and Google Play stores. The long-running publisher of Eiichiro Oda’s decades-old manga is smartly capitalizing on the wave of hype spurred on by Netflix’s live-action adaptation, and is offering the first 108 chapters of One Piece for absolutely free. No need to stretch your purse strings further than you need to with yet another subscription.
Beyond those first 108 chapters, however, you’ll need to become a Shonen Jump member. Membership will set you back $2.99 per month after a 7-day free trial, and grants access to not only One Piece, but every other popular manga series under the publisher’s umbrella; including Dragon Ball, Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen – the list goes on and on.
However, with One Piece on its own edging towards 1100 chapters, it’ll undoubtedly keep you plenty busy before you tackle anything else. At the very least, it should help shorten the wait for the (hopefully) inevitable second season of Netflix’s live-action adaptation.