Summary
- One Piece isn't the longest manga series; there are others like Asari-chan, Super Radical Gag Family, & Detective Conan.
- Detective Conan, with 106+ volumes & 1,136+ chapters, predates One Piece & has more overall chapters.
- KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops is the longest manga by volume count, with 201 volumes after a 40-year run.
One Piece is well known for being one of the greatest manga and anime franchises of all time. It is also known as one of the longest manga series of all time, with (to date) 110 volumes, and 1,135 mainline chapters (1,143 if one counts the extras). For many, One Piece is the longest story they have ever read.
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However, One Piece is not even close to being one of the longest manga series ever. Manga as a medium has existed for decades, and many series have managed to stay published for just as long, if not longer. Here are some manga that are longer than One Piece.
Updated January 21, 2025 by David Heath: Few manga get to reach 100 chapters, let alone over 1,000. Most aspiring creators will likely end up with a few projects that get cut short before one catches on. Even then, their creative juices can only last so long. Akira Toriyama found himself running dry after Dragon Ball Z's Cell Saga, and Buronson was happy to end Fist of the North Star with its leads riding into the sunset until the editors told him to keep going.
So, One Piece is one of the few standouts to maintain its momentum for as long as it has, and it's since managed to beat some of the old entries on this list, like Abu-san. But there are still a few strips that exceed Luffy's pirate adventures in either volumes, chapters, or both, from big names to runs largely exclusive to Japan. So, this update includes these lengthy strips, and how they've exceeded One Piece's length.
24 Asari-chan
102 Volumes, 1,738 Chapters
- Written & Illustrated by Marumi Muroyama.
- 1978-2023.
- A slice-of-life strip about a tomboyish girl who often gets into trouble.
One Piece has Asari-chan beat in volumes, but not in chapters. It still needs 600+ more to overcome it there. Though then again, Asari-chan's tales weren't epic tales of heroism on the high seas. Created by sisters Marumi and Mariko Muroyama (jointly credited under the elder sister's name), they were simple gag strips about the different scrapes the titular character would get into at school, with her family, and more.
In other words, it was Crayon Shin-chan before Crayon Shin-chan, and it soon became one of the best-selling shojo manga strips of all time. It lasted a while too, ending regular publication in 2014. But it continued to get the odd volume up to 2023, like Asari-chan in Paris, where the sports-loving young girl would introduce her own brand of trouble to the French capital.
23 Super Radical Gag Family
103+ Volumes, 1,451+ Chapters
- Written & Illustrated by Kenji Hamaoka.
- 1993-Present.
- The wacky, madcap antics of Kotetsu-kun and his family.
Like Asari-chan, Super Radical Gag Family has One Piece beaten in chapters, albeit only by a few hundred installments. Even then, that includes all of its different sequel series. The story is essentially the same across all of them, as Kotetsu, his family, and friends get into surreal, wacky adventures in their hometown of Urayasu, often with gross-out humor (Kotetsu kindly offers up some Chupa-Chups to his friends, who are unaware that he was storing them in his underpants).
Nonetheless, if readers wanted to keep track of the stories in order, they'd have to start with Super Radical Gag Family, which ended in 2001. Then, they move to Ganso! Super Radical Gag Family (ended in 2010), then Maido! Super Radical Gag Family (2018), before getting up to date with Appare! Super Radical Gag Family. It seems so long as there's a rude joke or an adjective out there, there will always be a place for the manga series to go.
22 Detective Conan/Case Closed
106+ Volumes, 1,136+ Chapters
- Written & Illustrated by Gosho Aoyama.
- 1994-Present.
- A classic "whodunnit" mystery series with an unconventional protagonist.
Detective Conan, aka Case Closed in the West, is an episodic detective mystery series about Shinichi Kudo, a teen detective turned into a child by the mysterious criminal organization he was investigating. Taking on the alias Conan Edogawa, he continues his sleuthing in a bid to track the organization down again and restore his body. Detective Conan is a massive franchise, with an anime series that is just as long as the manga and a movie franchise that releases a new entry annually.
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Detective Conan is an interesting entry here as it has fewer volumes than One Piece does (106 to 110). However, it has run for longer, having been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday since 1994 (predating One Piece by three years), and beat Luffy to the 1,000th chapter mark back in 2017, 3–4 years before One Piece. However, the two series now have the same number of chapters, with One Piece being longer if readers count its extra segments. The child detective offers a dense read, but Luffy's adventures are beginning to offer more.
21 Shizukanaru Don-Yakuza Side Story
108 Volumes, 1,175 Chapters
- Written & Illustrated by Tatsuo Nitto.
- 1988-2012.
- The life and times of a man who's an underwear designer by day, and a yakuza boss at night.
Shizukanaru Don-Yakuza Side Story was originally on this list and then taken off because One Piece outpaced its chapters. Which proved to be short-sighted as it still has more chapters than Eiichiro Oda's magnum opus. Even then, creator Tatsuo Nitta came back to the story of the silent mob boss in 2023 via its sequel, Shizukanaru Don-Another Last Chapter, which is currently 3 volumes and 28 chapters into its run. Put the two together, and it's 111 volumes, 1,203 chapters .
Both are about Shizuya Kondo, the son of a yakuza patriarch who chose to follow a legitimate career instead of following in his father's footsteps. But when his father is assassinated, Shizuya is left as the sole inheritor to his "family." By this point, he had already become a fashion designer for women's lingerie. So now he has to do his best to keep his 'second job' a secret from his coworkers.
20 Captain Tsubasa
110 Volumes, 1,026 Chapters
- Written & Illustrated by Yoichi Takahashi.
- 1981-2024.
- Classic soccer manga reaches its conclusion after 40+ years.
Without Captain Tsubasa, fans wouldn't have Blue Lock, Ao Ashi, Days or Be Blues today. It even got some famous soccer players into the sport, like Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane. Even so, it makes for beefy reading, as Tsubasa Ozora's journey from a football hopeful to an Olympic athlete covers 9 parts.
From the simply titled Captain Tsubasa to Captain Tsubasa: Rising Sun-The Final, they form a total of 110 volumes, which is only one volume more than One Piece. Since Tsubasa's journey finally came to an end after 43 years of publication, it won't take long for the still-running One Piece to overcome it. It already has more chapters, but both comics had the same number of volumes at the time of this writing.
19 Nijitte Monogatari
111 Volumes, 1,276 Chapters
- Written by Kazuo Koike.
- Illustrated by Satomi Koue.
- 1978-2012.
- An Edo Period detective story by an iconic author.
Kazuo Koike is one of the most iconic names in manga, writing famous strips like Lone Wolf & Cub, Lady Snowblood, Crying Freeman, and Mad Bull 34. However, none of them ran for as long as Nijitte Monogatari. It's not particularly well-known, with its MAL and Anime Planet pages lacking a proper synopsis for either its inaugural strip or its two sequels.
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It saw Fujikake Iigo and his assistant Yuzo solve cases for Tadasuke Oka, a real-life magistrate famous in Japan for being an effective judge and establishing the country's first fire brigade. The bulk of its run was between 1978 and 2003, making up 1,254 chapters, with its sequels, Shin Nijitte Monogatari and Shin Nijitte Monogatari: Tsurujirou, beefing it up to 1,276 chapters across 111 volumes. One Piece is close to it in volume numbers but needs 141 more installments to beat its chapter count.
18 Oishinbo
111 Volumes, 1,039 Chapters
- Written by Tetsu Kariya.
- Illustrated by Akira Hanasaki.
- 1983-2014.
- A gourmet tour manga exploring the cuisine of Japan.
To commemorate his newspaper's 100th anniversary, journalist Shiro Yamaoka is given the job of coming up with the 'Ultimate Menu'. He's known for being a blunt slacker, but he's also a great cook with a well-defined palate and in-depth knowledge of food and drink. In other words, he's a keen gourmet, or Oishinbo. So, with his partner Yuko Kurita, the two set about to discern which dishes go on the menu.
Oishinbo debuted in Big Comic Spirits and ran for 31 years, where it was put on indefinite hiatus in 2014. Its last storyline, 'The Truth of Fukushima', linked a spate of nosebleeds in the city with radiation from the Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. While refugees from the area had suffered nosebleeds, health officials found no connection between them and radiation sickness. Kariya stood by his research, saying "I can only write the truth", but he hasn't been able to update Oishinbo since, leaving it at 111 volumes, just 1 more than One Piece as of this writing.
17 Haguregumo
112 Volumes, 1,039 Chapters
- Written & illustrated by George Akiyama.
- 1973-2017.
- An Edo-era comedy about a troublesome family.
Haguregumo is a historical comedy that follows the life of Kumo, his wife Kame, and their two children. The family is known for being slackers, with Kumo standing out as an incorrigible womanizer. The manga chronicles their many misadventures and hijinks against the backdrop of feudal-era Edo. It's a surprisingly light affair compared to Akiyama's other historical strip, Asura, which scandalized readers at the time with its depictions of murder and cannibalism. It's like finding out the guy behind House of 1,000 Corpses made a Munsters movie.
The series ran in Big Comic Original for 44 years, where its chapter count was exceeded by its volume count, reaching 112 volumes before its end in 2017. The series was popular during its time, receiving an anime in 1978, and a movie in 1982. But its fame has largely been limited to Japan, with few people outside the country being all that familiar with it.
16 Tsuribaka Nisshi
114+ Volumes, 1,079+ Chapters
- Written by Juzou Yamasaki.
- Illustrated by Kenichi Kitami.
- 1979-Present.
- A guy escapes the drudgery of work through a love for fishing.
Running in Big Comic Original since 1979, Tsuribaka Nisshi ('Diary of a Fishing Nut') is another simple slice-of-life comedy that hit big in Japan but didn't catch on internationally. It's about Densuke 'Hama-chan' Hamasaki, an unambitious salaryman who doesn't care about rocketing up the career ladder. He'd rather relax, preferably by going fishing, as there's more to life than money and plans.
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It doesn't do much to impress his wife, Michiko, or his supervisor, Kazuo. But he cements his place at Suzuki Construction when he befriends Ichinosuke 'Su-San' Suzuki, the CEO of his workplace and a keen fisherman himself. It's a humble comic that's managed to produce over 114 volumes and is still running today. One Piece is likely to catch up, but as it's winding down, Tsuribaka Nisshi could outlive it by taking life at its own pace, as Hama-chan does.
15 Mahjong Hiryu Densetsu: Tenpai
116 Volumes, 1,142 Chapters
- Written by Tomoshi Kuga.
- Illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi.
- 1999-2022.
- A story of a mahjong player's path to becoming a legend.
Mahjong Hiryu Densetsu: Tenpai, or just Tenpai for short, follows the story of Shun Okimoto, who dreams of being a professional mahjong player. As he wanders through Shinjuku looking for new places to play, he meets a variety of mahjong players who challenge his ability and skill at the game. The series ran in Weekly Manga Goraku for 25 years, concluding with 116 volumes in 2022.
Mahjong manga and anime don't tend to be too popular outside Asia, and some Yakuza/Like a Dragon players, but they are quite lucrative within the continent. Alongside Tenpai, some big names in the subgenre include Akagi, by the same creator as Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, and The Legend of Koizumi, where the (then-) Prime Minister of Japan challenges world leaders past and present to the tile-based game.