RELATED: Fall 2021: Exciting New Anime You Should Watch While One Piece has never hit the heights of other franchises such as Dragon Ball Z in the West, it has been gaining traction slowly over the past several years. Additionally, the anime series, which started in 1999, is almost at a thousand episodes – a triumph for any anime. One Piecehas been a manga since 1997, and as of today has ninety-eight volumes.