For almost three decades, fans have been puzzled about what the One Piece really is in Eiichiro Oda’s epic tale of pirate adventure. For years, the world could only speculate — until now.
In celebration of the One Piece manga reaching the staggering milestone of 600 million copies sold, Eiichiro Oda and his team released a video that has sent the community into a frenzy.
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It’s a move that blurs the line between fiction and reality, launching a real-world Great Pirate Era.
What is the One Piece? Eiichiro Oda reveals the secret in this deep-sea video
The milestone video shows the manga artist himself writing the true nature of the One Piece treasure on a single piece of paper.
After years of theories on what is the One Piece, the answer was finally put to ink.
Instead of a simple social media post, Oda chose a more cinematic tribute to his life’s work. He placed the handwritten secret inside a specialized, high-pressure-resistant capsule and dropped the One Piece treasure into the ocean, where it descended to a depth of exactly 651 meters.
The video documents this journey into the abyss, showing the treasure settling in a remote, undisclosed location on the seafloor.
The project was a massive technical undertaking conducted in collaboration with Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP).
While the project has sparked a global One Piece treasure hunt among fans, the video’s official description provides important information regarding retrieval.
According to the disclaimer, the project was filmed under the strict supervision of researchers from JAMSTEC and SIP to ensure that all instrument deployment and filming were conducted with “due consideration for environmental protection.”
Most notably, the description states that the project was “conducted with the intent of recovering all items placed on the seafloor.”
And so, the status of the capsule remains unconfirmed as of writing. It is unclear whether the One Piece treasure box is still resting on the seafloor or if it was retrieved immediately following the production for security and environmental preservation.
Fans analyze video footage to locate the real-world One Piece treasure
The community has already begun a massive collaborative effort to geolocate the treasure, with one particularly detailed theory gaining traction on the r/OnePieceSpoilers subreddit.
A post by the Reddit user XilLive suggests that the One Piece treasure is likely located in Suruga Bay, Shizuoka, Japan.
This theory points out several clues from the footage, such as the fact that the sun sets to the southwest with no visible land on the horizon, which aligns perfectly with the geography of the bay when looking toward the open ocean.
Additionally, Suruga Bay is a primary testing ground for JAMSTEC and is located conveniently close to Tokyo, making it a logistically sound choice for a high-profile filming operation involving Eiichiro Oda’s team.
Other fans have looked toward the Sargasso Sea, inspired by the phrase “Onwards to flagless waters” seen at the end of the video.
In the world of One Piece, the titular treasure is the ultimate prize left behind by the legendary Pirate King, Gol D. Roger.
For decades, the series has followed Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat crew as they explore the Grand Line to find it.
While the exact nature of the treasure remains the series’s greatest mystery, Eiichiro Oda has clarified in interviews that it is a physical reward rather than a conceptual one like “the journey itself.”
Watch One Piece’s The 600 Million Milestone video below:
The scale of this franchise is truly historic, spanning nearly 30 years since the manga first debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump in July 1997.
The anime adaptation followed shortly after in 1999, surpassing 1,100 episodes and transitioning into a seasonal format in 2026 to ensure the highest possible animation quality for its final arcs.
With over 114 volumes published, the series has become a pirate epic that remains at the top of global charts.
One Piece is a global powerhouse that has shattered multiple records. It holds the Guinness World Record for the “most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author,” and has surpassed 600 million copies in circulation worldwide.
The franchise’s dominance has only expanded with the massive success of the Netflix live-action adaptation, which broke streaming records in over 90 countries. Season 1 aired on August 31, 2023 and Season 2 continues on March 10, 2026. It is also confirmed that Season 3 is already in the works.
