Reddit asks the question, ‘What episode was ‘One Piece’ on when you were born?,’ anime fans over 25 riot

One Piece is a famously long-running series. The anime is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and the manga started two years prior in 1997. That means both series are not only of drinking age—they can rent cars and have quarter-life crises by now. There are college graduates younger than One Piece.

This was the inspiration behind a recent viral Reddit thread. In the One Piece subreddit, a discussion recently popped up under the thread title, “What episode was One Piece on when you were born?”

Theoretically, anyone under 25 would have an answer to this. But most of the comments on the thread can simply be summed up by the first replies. “I’m older than One Piece,” wrote user fanta_silos. ThisHatRightHere replied, “Yeah this post is a slap in the face lmao”.

One Piece is for all ages!

Most of the replies come from people who remembered watching One Piece when it first started airing. There’s even a trend of people reminiscing about One Piece‘s famous and ill-fated 4Kids dub—you know, the one where Zoro has a heavy Jersey accent and Laboon was changed into an iceberg the Straw Hats simply shot with a canon and destroyed.

Some of the commenters went a step beyond when tagging their birthdays in reference to One Piece. “Oda was in middle school………..fuck,” replied user BrewertonFats. Eiichiro Oda, incidentally, was born in 1975, making him 49 years old.

The “What One Piece episode aired when you were born?” idea is fun in theory. But there’s a place for these things—like your high school or college anime club. Maybe it’s a little unfair for people older than 25 to totally swarm this thread, but also, maybe it was a little unfair to assume most One Piece fans are under 25.

As a One Piece fan in my early thirties, I can confirm that older One Piece fans are out there in droves! Plus, the older fans are more likely to be the ones who have liked One Piece if not since the beginning, than since well before the current boom. Over the last couple of years, One Piece‘s international fanbase has exploded in size, which is a beautiful thing.

But do keep in mind that one of One Piece‘s greatest virtues is that the fandom is especially diverse, across all demographics, including age. That’s something to celebrate.