Not My Hero Academia, not Attack on Titan. Did the pirate pun give it away? As always, One Piece is dominating the streaming charts as it continues airing its twentieth season, which chronicles the happenings of the Wano Country Arc.
Beginning in 1997, Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece has published over 103 volumes in its extensive manga, which is still going strong even 20 years later. Two years after the manga began circulating, One Piece was translated from page to screen with an anime series originally directed by Kōnosuke Uda and many others thereafter as the mantle was passed down through ten different visionaries.
One Piece has been airing the Wano Country Arc for three years and counting, starting in 2019 on the tail-end of the Whole Cake Island Arc. Following the founder, Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece tells the tale of the Straw Hat Pirates, a vibrant and dishonorable band of misfits who sail the seven seas in pursuit of individual goals. Luffy dreams of finding the coveted “One Piece” treasure, which he hopes to attain and become the King of the Pirates, inspired by his childhood idol, Red Hair Shanks.
On LiveChart, One Piece is outdoing all other anime in the “popularity” category, as we count down the days until the next episode, titled “Settled! Luffy’s Accelerating Fist of the Supreme King” and succeeding “The Dawn of the Land of Wano — The All-Out Battle Heats Up!”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise for One Piece to be performing well above the competition; it’s been insanely popular among anime fans since conception, both in literature and cinema. In fact, One Piece is often cited as one of the greatest Japanese animations ever made — which isn’t far off.