Need to catch up on 70-plus volumes of Luffy’s pirate adventures? Right now it won’t cost you a single yen.

Monday was a very special day for readers of Weekly Shonen Jump, and not just because it was the on-sale date for the manga anthology’s first issue of 2021. January 4 also marked the 1,000th chapter of One Piece.

Eiichiro Oda’s pirate saga was never a sleeper hit or a late bloomer, as it exploded in popularity almost immediately after its debut in the summer of 1997. But while One Piece has built a reputation for remarkably consistent quality in its art and storytelling, 20-plus years is a long time to keep up with a series, and even fans with a pretty strong love for the Straw Hat Pirates may have lapsed in their reading at some point along the way.

But if you’re looking for a way to catch up on a good chunk of the sizable story so far, you’re in luck, since as part of the 1,000th chapter celebration, 71 volumes of the One Piece manga are now free to read online via publisher Shueisha’s Japanese-language Zebrack website here.

With the latest collected volume being Volume 97, the entire series isn’t free, but there’s no charge to read chapters 1 through 711. That equates to roughly the first 16 years of the series, and is more content than most manga series can boast for their entire run.

There’s a catch, though, in that the free-to-read offer is only good until January 11, which means you’ll need to read like the wind if you’re planning to start from the very beginning. On the other hand, this is also a great opportunity to go back and reexperience your favorite scenes from chapters you’ve already read, or to quickly sample a wide swath of what a recent poll decided is the greatest manga of all time.

Source: One Piece official website
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