On July 19, 1997, the first chapter of a new manga debuted in Shonen Jump. It began with a rambunctious young boy giving himself a scar under the eye to prove to a particularly cool pirate that he was tough enough to join his crew. If you had told anyone, the mangaka included, that boy would be entering the final saga of his adventure 25 years and over 1,000 chapters later, having inspired nearly 20 films, a (now closed) indoor theme park, countless video games, a gigantic international fanbase, and even a gym … I’m pretty sure they would’ve stared at you, wide-eyed, mouth agape. After all, the mangaka, Eiichiro Oda, was quite sure his tale would only last five years. How was anyone to anticipate the phenomenon—and, hell, the masterpiece—One Piece would become?

Chapter 1 of One Piece wasn’t the first time Shonen Jump readers had seen Monkey D. Luffy. Two iterations of a potential series featuring Luffy, entitled Romance Dawn (which is also the name of Chapter 1), had appeared previously in Weekly Shonen Jump. If you, like me, love a good work in progress and are curious about these iterations, you can find them online. Version 1 has its own movie (One Piece: Romance Dawn Story), and the second was adapted into episode 907 of the anime. But July 19, 1997 marked the official start of the One Piece we all know and love—the One Piece that has Nami, and where Monkey D. Garp is in the Navy, not Luffy’s pirate hero. (It’s true! It’s a wild alternate universe to behold).