It would appear Oda based child Kuma on this little guy, Ninomiya Kinjiro.

Law is the hipster of the OPverse.

Inazuma all the way.

The MANLY TEARS match.

@Sakonosolo:

You do realize that shonen manga is pretty much manga for young boys and doesn't necessarily need to be action packed.

WHAT?

@Prismeru:

One Piece
Hunter x hunter
Gintama/Sket Dance/Bakuman

Just 3.

But… that's 5...

One Piece
Hunter x Hunter
Gintama
Bakuman
Toriko

There's no other choice.

What's actually news this time is that Naruto is also doing poorly. After 10 days since the release of the 56th volume, it only sold 756,666 copies.
Of course it's still a huge number, but remember one year ago when it would unhesitatingly sell 1m in the first 2 weeks? And to add to that, vol 54 had sold a bit over 900k in its first 2 weeks, and vol 55 around 850k copies. If my memory doesn't fail me, a new Naruto volume doesn't do this poorly since 2007-2008. I guess the current arc is boring even the japanese.

Do I detect a steady decrease? See for yourselves:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-06-15/japanese-comic-ranking-june-6-12 - vol 56 2nd week
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-05-04/japanese-comic-ranking-april-25-may-1 - vol 55 2nd week
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-01-13/japanese-comic-ranking-january-3-9 - vol 54 2nd week

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=1598

On topic: Toriko, Magico, Bakuman and Gintama deserve doing so well. And even Medaka Box is finally becoming a bit more popular.

We WILL get a new scanlation (issue 17) tomorrow.
And issue 18 next week.

Period.

I hope someone has already brought it up by now, but the assumption that "most people started to read when they were kids/teens" is outright FALSE.

Firstly, because it doesn't explain the large number of people over THIRTY, THIRTY FIVE, FORTY years old (in other words, people who were already late teens/adults by the time OP started), secondly because it doesn't take in account the simple fact that the One Piece fanbase and sales almost tripled over the past 2 years (did you forget how OP sold only SIX million copies in 2008 during Thriller Bark?), with the Ace Rescue saga. And even these new readers seem to be mostly adults, as we can see from the data NHK raised. All of this demolishes big part of the longevity argument.

It's simply a manga that can be enjoyed by all ages. Easy for kids to read, and thoughtful enough for an adult to appreciate. The one thing we can conclude from a more careful examination is that older people, like everyone else, have also been picking up One Piece lately.

I'd expect the uninformed "they've been reading it for 13 years" assumption from people who aren't active in the One Piece fanbase, or who don't frequent news sites often, but damn, here at Arlong Park? Where we've been seeing One Piece break record after record since 2009 and its sales increase more and more with each volume?

@Gliblord:

How many assistants does Oda have? I would imagine a fair few. And like someone said earlier if it's the assistants who do the backgrounds they'r awesome.

http://www.apforums.net/showpost.php?p=606726&postcount=469

Four. He also says this is one of the earliest SBSs. Quite the average number. Off the top of my head, I recall Oh!Great currently hires eight (used to be less), Negima's Akamatsu has a lot too, Kishimoto always worked with 4, Miura works with five in his Studio Gaga, Araki also has his personal studio named Lucky Land Comunnications, Tite Kubo needs three, Takehiko Inoue has a team which ranges from 7 to 13 members, Togashi is hardcore and has none.