“One Piece” began as a manga series in Weekly Shōnen Jump in July 1997.

Quick Scoop

  • The very first chapter of the One Piece manga was published in 1997 , in Shueisha’s magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump.
  • Fans generally point to July 1997 as the start date, when chapter 1 officially appeared in the magazine.
  • An often-cited detail from fan timelines is that the first chapter ran in the issue dated July 19, 1997 , marking the true launch of the series’ long-running serialization.

In simple terms: One Piece “started” for readers when chapter 1 hit Weekly Shōnen Jump in July 1997, kicking off Luffy’s journey that’s still going strong decades later.

TL;DR: When people ask “when did One Piece start,” they almost always mean the manga, and that start is July 1997 in Weekly Shōnen Jump.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.