One Piece Wiki
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On this wiki, we add information from new chapters once they are officially released, and do not add information from unofficial spoilers and scanlations. You may be unsure about when, where, and how chapters are officially released and how to tell official releases from spoilers, so this page is here to explain the differences and rules.

It is helpful to know right off the bat that spoilers, in this context, refer solely to content that has not been officially released. As stated on the main page, this wiki covers all published plot points in the series and does not use any sort of markings for spoilers. Thus, if you are not caught up to the manga, you will likely be "spoiled" by major plot points, so we encourage you to browse this site at your own risk.

Rules Rundown[]

  • Do not add information from a new chapter to any articles until it is officially available in English.
  • Do not upload images from a new chapter until the chapter's official release. Afterwards, images should preferably be taken directly from the Japanese (raw) version.
  • An article for a new chapter can be created when a release date is officially confirmed.

Edits containing spoiler information will be immediately undone. Repeated additions of spoiler material will result in warnings and blocks if the warnings are ignored.

  • Linking to illegal scanlation sites is prohibited by FANDOM policy.

What are Spoilers?[]

When referring to One Piece, "spoilers" can have one of two meanings. The term can refer to plot points that a reader who is not up to date with the series does not know about. This wiki keeps up to date with the series, and covers every plot point from the beginning to the present. Generally, we do not hide spoilers or have special markings for them on articles, so if you are not caught up with the series and do not want to be spoiled, you should browse this site with caution.

These rules cover the other definition of spoilers, which refers to information about plot points before they are officially released. One Piece chapters are officially released in physical and digital formats in Japan on most Mondays of the year. However, the physical copies of Shonen Jump magazine, where One Piece is serialized, are delivered to stores days before Monday. As a result, some stores may start selling the magazines before Monday, or a store or distribution worker may steal a magazine copy when they are being transported, even though both of those actions are illegal. Alternatively, people have also been able to acquire the Chinese and Korean versions of chapters early through the same methods.

Once someone acquires the magazine early, they may post a small amount of information about the chapter online such as a chapter summary and a few scanned panels. Among the fandom, this is what "spoilers" typically refers to.

Scanlations[]

Certain groups who acquire early copies and scans of the chapter then create scanlations, in which they digitally replace the Japanese text with an English translation before releasing the translated chapter pages online. The quality of scanlations varies wildly, with better quality groups working to clean the scanned pages and using reputable translators while worse groups may release very rough-looking scans with bad translations that may not be complete. Typically, the better translators get their scans to translate from the original Japanese chapter, while worse groups tend to translate from the Chinese and Korean versions, resulting in less accurate translations.

If you're reading a One Piece chapter from a site that's not VIZ or Manga Plus, and it was posted before Sunday, you're reading a scanlation.

What is the Official English Translation?[]

VIZ Media is the primary creator and distributor of the official English translation of One Piece. Originally, Viz chapters were only distributed to English-speaking locations, primarily North America and the United Kingdom. Viz began publishing One Piece in magazines and volumes in 2003, starting from the beginning of the series. In 2012, they ceased physical publishing of the magazine and solely published new chapters on their digital magazine. By 2013, they began releasing chapters simultaneously with Japan.

For much of Viz's existence, their services were unappealing to many fans who wanted to keep up with the series. Until the start of the 2010's, Viz's releases were not up to date with the manga, and so fans turned to spoilers and scanlations to know the entire plot. Many English speaking fans lived in areas that Viz did not distribute to, and so scanlations were the only way they could read chapters in English. Reading Viz chapters used to require a monetary subscription, which many fans were unwilling to pay when they could not only read scanlations for free online, but read them days before the chapter was officially released. Finally, new One Piece fans may not be familiar with Shonen Jump or how chapters are officially distributed, and so they may think that translations they find online are legitimate.

Starting in 2019, however, Shonen Jump and Viz released a new distribution model in which chapters would be available to read for free online across the world. Manga Plus is available worldwide, while VIZ is exclusive to North America and the UK. New chapters are released at midnight on Monday in Japan, which is 3:00 PM UTC/11:00 AM EST on Sunday. The first three and most recent three chapters are available to read for free, with all the other chapters still requiring a paid subscription. However, the Standard Plan subscription should be cheap for most at a mere $2 a month.

Why Follow the Official Release Schedule?[]

In the past, this wiki added information from new chapters once any scanlations were released ahead of time. However, we now wait for the chapter to be officially released. This decision was made by forum consensus, and those who supported it did so for various reasons. Such reasons include but are not limited to:

  • The official release always being consistent and accurate, while scanlation providers are not always so.
    • Scanlation groups have been known to shut down suddenly; some have done so out of a desire to support the official release while others have been forced to shut down due to being caught by law enforcement. Unlike the official release, scanlation groups never run on a fixed schedule.
    • Many readers do not know the differences between scanlation groups, and wouldn't know which groups have good translators and which don't.
    • Allowing people to update the wiki once any scanlation was out often resulted in the first additions being based off a shoddy translation that was the first to be released.
  • A desire to avoid promoting illegally produced content.
  • Seeing no reason to rely on other sources now that there is an official English translation that is free and available to everyone.

Following the official release schedule does not mean we give weight to localized choices from Viz. If we see that a spelling or translation has been localized, we will change it to the most accurate version (for example, even if Viz translates a character's name, we will use the transliterated name as we always do). Many of our editors have access to Japanese releases that they can use to determine if there is any difference between a character's name in Japanese and their official English name.

We also do not prohibit you from using a scanlation to add information to the wiki so long as you're adding the information after the time of the chapter's official release, and you are sure that the unofficial translation is accurate. We encourage you to support the official release by buying a subscription or volumes to read the entire series officially.

Does this Apply to Other One Piece Media?[]

Generally, no. Information from the SBS and databooks tends to be leaked a few days before the publishing date; we will add this leaked information to the wiki so long as the information comes from a reputable source. If you see someone post leaked information online, ask an admin or mod to make sure the source is reliable before adding information.

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