Next week, on August 30, it will have been exactly 5 years since Eiichiro Oda’s statement about ending the One Piece series in five years’ time. The acclaimed Shonen Jump title has been running for 27 years, spanning over 11,000 chapters, but how realistic is the creator’s timeframe for the manga’s ending?

Making a guest appearance on the Japanese YouTube channel Fischer’s back in 2019, Oda expressed his desire to end the One Piece manga in the next five years, and his editor at the time later confirmed that this would be possible. Then, in 2021, when One Piece celebrated its 1000-chapter-milestone, the mangaka commented that “the adventure already had one foot in the ending” (source: Oricon News).

One Piece is certainly at the beginning of its conclusion at least, with the ongoing Egghead Arc being the first arc of the story’s Final Saga and unravelling many of the mysteries Oda has laid out during the series. However, most fans can agree that regardless of how fast-paced the story may be at the moment, the final conclusion still feels at least a couple of years away.

Oda himself has been giving mixed signals on the topic. In 2023, the series’ 25-year-anniversary, he seemingly backtracked a bit by commenting, “It was me who stirred things up by talking about how it’s the final stage, but it won’t end that quickly, so I’d like readers to relax and enjoy reading the story” (source: Oricon News).

In addition, the prolific mangaka is not exactly known for accurately predicting when he will finish the series. As the author revealed to The New York Times, he used to believe that the entirety of One Piece would wrap up in five years when he was at the beginning of his journey.

Shonen Jump fans have been through a lot recently with series like My Hero Academia finishing and Jujutsu Kaisen being only a few chapters away from its conclusion, but it seems One Piece will still go on for a while, despite its 5-year-deadline drawing near.