One Piece Suffers Crushing Defeat As Japan Crowns New #1 Shonen

For years, One Piece has been synonymous with manga dominance, regularly topping sales charts and popularity polls around the world. But one of Japan's biggest digital manga platforms has revealed that Eiichiro Oda's pirate epic is no longer the country's hottest shonen title, at least according to one major set of sales data.

ebookjapan has published its best-selling manga rankings for the first half of 2026, covering purchases made between January 1 and June 30. The results delivered a surprise at the top of the shonen and seinen category, with Yasuhisa Hara's Kingdom successfully defending the crown it first claimed in the platform's full-year 2025 rankings. Meanwhile, One Piece failed to crack the top ten altogether, highlighting just how competitive Japan's manga market has become.

Kingdom Defends Its Crown As Japan's Best-Selling Shonen

The latest ebookjapan rankings placed Kingdom at number one among all shonen and seinen manga sold on the service during the first six months of 2026. The long-running historical epic also occupied the same position in ebookjapan's annual 2025 rankings, making this its second consecutive major victory on the platform. Its newest collected volume, released in May 2026, likely helped maintain that momentum.

1. Kingdom by Yasuhisa Hara
2. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime by Fuse, Taiki Kawakami, and Mitz Vah
3. Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord: Production Magic Turns a Nameless Village into the Strongest Fortified City by Aoiro Maro, Sou Akaike, and Ten
4. Yomi no Tsugai by Hiromu Arakawa
5. Jack-of-All-Trades, Party of None by Yonezou, Itsuki Togami, and Yuri Kisaragi
6. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End by Kaneto Yamada and Tsukasa Abe
7. Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Party Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to an Infinite Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends and Am Out For Revenge by Shisui Meikyou, Takafumi Oomae, and tef
8. Medalist by Tsurumaikada
9. Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami
10. Nippon Sangoku by Ikka Matsuki

Competition behind Kingdom was fierce. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime claimed second place, followed by Easygoing Territory Defense in third. Yomi no Tsugai landed fourth, while Jack-of-All-Trades, Party of None rounded out the top five. Other familiar hits include Frieren: Beyond Journey's End at number six, Medalist at number eight, and Jujutsu Kaisen at number nine despite its manga having already concluded.

The rankings also reflected ebookjapan's continued investment in genre-specific charts. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime additionally secured first place in the platform's newly introduced isekai manga rankings, while separate lists for noblewoman-themed manga, boys' manga, girls' manga, BL, and TL titles offered an even bigger look at Japan's digital reading trends during the year's opening six months.

One Piece Falls Out Of The Top 10

Custom by Megan Peters

While Kingdom's repeat victory was impressive, the biggest talking point may be what was missing. One Piece, historically one of Japan's strongest-selling manga franchises, did not appear anywhere in ebookjapan's top ten shonen and seinen list. The ranking instead featured a mix of established blockbusters and rapidly growing fantasy series that have gained enormous traction with digital readers.

It's important to note that ebookjapan's results represent sales exclusively on its own storefront rather than nationwide physical or digital sales across every retailer. The service offers more than 1.6 million digital books and over 30,000 free manga titles, making it one of Japan's largest ebook platforms, but its rankings should not be viewed as the definitive measure of the country's entire manga market.

To celebrate the release of the first-half rankings, ebookjapan also launched a promotional campaign running from July 17 through July 30, allowing readers to sample the opening volumes of many top-ranked series for free. Whether One Piece reclaims its position later this year remains to be seen, but for now, Kingdom has once again proven itself to be Japan's top-selling shonen manga on one of the country's biggest digital manga services.

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  Created by Eiichiro Oda

  First Film One Piece: The Movie

  First TV Show One Piece

  Cast Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Kappei Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Hirata, Ikue Ôtani, Yuriko Yamaguchi

  Character(s) Monkey D. Luffy, Roronora Zoro, Nami (One Piece), Nico Robin, Usopp (One Piece), Vinsmoke Sanji, Tony Tony Chopper, Franky (One Piece), Jimbei (One Piece)

  Video Game(s) One Piece: Unlimited World Red, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, One Piece: World Seeker, One Piece Odyssey

  Created by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece is a multimedia franchise that began as a manga series and follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates as led by Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy, an enthusiastic pirate with a thirst for adventure, is afflicted by a mysterious curse that gives him various powers he uses to protect himself and his friends. The manga eventually gave way to the anime series, with the two being some of history's longest-running anime and manga series. Along with over fifty video games made over the years, the series entered the live-action world with Netflix's 2023 adaptation.

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  Kingdom

  Release Date June 4, 2012

  Directors Jun Kamiya, Akira Iwanaga, Kenichi Imaizumi, Kazuya Monma

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    Yutaka Nakano

    Chang Wen Jun

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