One Piece Manga Takes 1st Ever 4-Week Break
The 39th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine has confirmed on Monday that Eiichiro Oda will put his One Piece pirate manga on a four-week hiatus starting on September 6. This will be the first time that One Piece has gone on hiatus this long. While Oda has occasionally taken one-week breaks since launching his manga in 1997, he has not taken a four-week break until now.
As of last week, One Piece has sold 20.328 million copies this year - the first time that any series in any book category has sold more than 20 million copies in one year since Oricon began posting its Japanese book ranking charts in 2008.
The last three volumes of One Piece, #57 through #59, have each sold over 2 million copies. In particular, volumes 57 (1.691 million copies) and 59 (1.853 million copies) each have held the record for the most books sold in the first week.
Another long-running manga, Kyosuke Usuta's Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar, happened to end its decade-long run in the same magazine last Monday, and Oda marked the occasion in his author's note in the current issue of Weekly Shonen Jump.
source: ANIME NEWS NETWORK