One Piece has been around for a long time. The manga began publication in 1997.

23 years later, talk of the series finally ending has been gaining a tad more credibility.

Last year, One Piece's editor gave a five-year timeframe as to when the Strawhats will finish their voyage.

Now, it is the author himself, Eiichiro Oda, giving roughly the same guesstimate in an interview on Fuji TV variety program Arashi Tsubo.

Here is a translation of what went on in the interview.

Here is my summary of Oda’s TV interview today. Summary is divided to multiple tweets.👍
Oda said he would like to finish OP in 4-5 years (again). He rarely goes to Jump office where today he witnessed his manuscript of chapter 1 for the first time in 23 years.😆

— sandman (@sandman_AP) August 27, 2020

He also promised that the ending would be "amazing".

Previous statements

It is of course important to note that Oda and his editors' guesstimates have always been off by some percentage in the past.

For example, an editor had predicted that the Wano arc, which is based on feudal Japan, would start in 2017. The arc would only begin a year later.

Oda's original plans for One Piece was to end it within five years. Oda appears to like the number five a fair bit.

He had also proclaimed the series was halfway done at various parts of the two-decade run, be it during Skypeia (2002) or Water 7 arc (2004).

While timelines might not be Oda's strong suit, he has been consistent on how the series will end.

An animation producer said that Oda told him the ending would be sadder than (10-year SPOILER warning!) what happened to Ace.

2 guests were invited in recent ONE PIECE event in Saudi Arabia. One is Shimizu (TOEI anime) and the other is Heishi (Jump editor). According to Shimizu, the ending of Wano arc will be “surprising”. 😍

Below is my summary of the interview. (source: https://t.co/en9ji4Oqlu pic.twitter.com/oRoi0Z8SW2

— sandman (@sandman_AP) November 17, 2019

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