UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The official website for Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga announced on Monday in Japan that the manga has set a Guinness World Record for “The most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author.” As of the end of December 2014, the manga has 320,866,000 copies printed worldwide.

Oda commented on the award through a written statement: “Thank you for this certification for the Guinness World Record. Manga is an amusing way to pass time, but when I receive reports that say ‘through One Piece I made friends,’ or ‘through One Piece I found my sweetheart,’ I am really happy.” He continued by saying, “I feel like this record number has the possibility to bring the same number of people together. I will not forget my predecessors in the manga world, the colleagues whom I work with, and my readers, and from now on I want to continue to draw a work that will not shame this record.”

A ceremony was held in Tokyo on Monday to present the award. Oda was not in attendance, but Weekly Shonen Jump editor Yoshihisa Heishi attended on his behalf.

Oda launched One Piece in 1997, and the manga has been published in more than 30 countries.Shueisha released the manga’s 77th volume with an initial print run of 3.8 million copies on April 3.