LLearn Japanese

I DID IT! I READ ALL OF ONE PIECE IN JAPANESE

  • December 31, 2025

This post probably means nothing to you guys but it’s a major achievement for me and I’ve been dreaming about making this post for almost a year and a half.

My fiancée who is a fan of the series had been asking me to read one piece for a while and I finally relented. She had framed reading and the series as a studying opportunity which is what finally convinced me to give it a try.

Ive read an entire manga serenade before but the series I read I had already read in English so if I didn’t understand something that was fine because I could just rely on the knowledge I already had to fill in the blanks. But Ive never read One Piece before.

So not only was it incredibly long (113 books, 1155 chapters) but I had no context for anything that was going on. I spent 2 years reading the series with a Japanese dictionary so that I understood every word. It was great! I had so much fun and I’m SO PUMPED I finally finished!

P.S. I have only read as far as the available tankobon on bookwalker so if you’re a caught up please no spoilers from anything past ch.1155)

by Pelekaiking

44 comments

  2. Congratulations. 

    I think I read about the same amount. But just not one series or manga only.

  3. Congrats. 

    That is on my list. I am slowly reading やがて君になる　

    I will have to pick up One Piece at some point. Still got a lot of learning to do to improve my reading

  4. Pretty impressive. Catching up with One Piece is a massive undertaking even just in one’s native language lol

  6. Such an accomplishment, congratulations
    I am half through it but in french. That helped me be fluent in french.
    What is the name of this app? And can I access it outside japan.
    I am currently N4 and planning to read manga after passing N3.

  8. Thats amazing! I keep on starting manga, getting around 70 chapters in and then drop it… it kinda sucks but if you’ve ever read “choujin X” maybe you’d understand why I stopped reading that

  12. I just bought One Piece 1-4 to dive into the series and read it.

    In English!

    One day I would absolutely love to revisit this series in Japanese. I will push hard in 2026 to learn.

  15. May I ask what app this is, becuase I’d like to have a go at reading manga in Japanese

  16. Congrats! I had a friend who made it his goal to watch One Piece all in Japanese. It was one of his main goals for learning Japanese, but he was getting burnt out near the end as it was becoming One Piece overload for him.

    Reading One Piece is more of an accomplishment so kudos to you. Glad to hear it was an enjoyable process all the way through.

    How long did it take you to finish a volume when you first started, then how long at the midway point, then how long near the end?

    I imagine you were eventually flying through the volumes at a certain point.

    I remember reading my first manga, Doraemon, and it literally took me hours to get through several pages. My reading ability was so bad back then. Eventually I could read a single volume under an hour, then it gradually took less and less time where I could just start relaxing and enjoy the story.

    I had to do a similar process once I started reading seinen manga with more advanced vocabulary, although the first volume of a series didn’t take me anywhere as long as my first Doraemon manga since I wasn’t a beginner, but I did notice that as you get further along in a series, you can really start to read super fast because you already know most of the unique vocab to the series by then.

  17. Which dictionary did you use? A digital one like Jisho or a paper-made one? I’m trying to do the same but with dragon ball

  19. Ok this definitely going to be new year’s resolution by next year atleast 500 chapters
    You truly inspiring

  20. I almost perfectly know hiragana and now I’m learning the katakana, when did you start reading mangas? Do I need to know the grammar?

  21. How long had you been studying Japanese before doing this? This is a goal for me as a huge fan of the manga

  23. no but that’s insane because you could have picked something like 1/10 the length and still gotten a great learning and storytelling experience from it but *one piece* is so friggin long 😭

  24. What a TITANIC task my dude! I actually envy you haha. Any tips on how to tackle this?

    At which “level” of Japanes comprehension did you start reading mangas? (and where do you found mangas in Japanese?)

  29. Im doing more or less the same with Naruto. The slang and weird speech can really be a challenge!

  30. Damn congrats

    I actually kinda did the same thing !

    I bought the entire collection in 2018 when I started japanese but between life commitments and crippling eye fatigue I have only read 83 volumes in 7 years, which is not an incredible track record lol

  32. Oh wow I Imagine you had a good japanese base? That sound rough unless you are at a intermediate level, unless you really love shonen.
    Otherwise congrats I wish to be able to do that one day.

  33. That’s pretty awesome, congrats. I have a similar goal and the last I went to Japan I picked up 60 manga books. They were easier stuff like よつばと, nichijo, しろくまカフェ,the original dragon ball, and some others. I only read the like 5 books before it became too much for me lol. I plan on going back to them in 2026 since I already have them on my shelf.

  37. This is actually goated and I’m low-key jealous. Probably means nothing to you, but I’m proud.

  42. Very impressive!! i remember i had hard time reading the manga growing up. one piece is not easy japanese sometimes. and im a native Japanese speaker

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