One Piece's break week highlights the slow decline of spoiler culture

Following the conclusion of iconic manga series like Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, and Oshi no Ko earlier this year, One Piece has been left to carry Shueisha on its shoulders alone. Although series like Kagurabachi, Kaiju No. 8, and Dandadan are coming into their own to take on such responsibility, they aren’t quite there yet. One of the biggest indications of this is how little of a spoiler community exists for each of these respective series.

Yet in reality, there’s actually a much larger truth being spoken to by nature of how quiet the leaks and spoilers community has been during One Piece’s current break week. This truth speaks to the decline of spoiler and leak culture in general, which will likely come to a complete end with Eiichiro Oda’s ongoing best-selling manga series of all time.

One Piece’s break week proves spoiler culture won’t be sustained long-term for Shueisha series

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To clarify, spoiler and leak communities for various Shueisha manga series weren’t totally inactive during One Piece’s break week. The Sakamoto Days got their raw scans as per usual, as did the Kagurabachi community via their typical sources. Yet even so, the method of execution for these respective leaks and how unnoticed they can go by general anime and manga fans speaks to the culture’s decline.

For example, neither Kagurabachi nor Sakamoto Days’ spoilers are prevalent or widespread enough to be comparable to that of Oda’s series. Even the likes of Black Clover, My Hero Academia, and Jujutsu Kaisen are on a different level than Kagurabachi and Sakamoto Days. On leak days for these series and Oda’s, it was/is impossible to spend a significant amount of time on social media and not get spoiled without taking the necessary precautions against it.

The Kagurabachi fandom even specifically campaigned against this, organizing en masse online to shut down any and all widespread, well-known leakers from taking on the series. A similar phenomenon happened in the Undead Unluck fandom, where its leaker community decided to stop the spoiler process for the ongoing final arc. While these spoilers still exist and are technically attainable, it’s clear that fans’ mentality surrounding them is changing greatly.

Many manga fans point to Jujutsu Kaisen's community as an example of the negative effects of a spoiler community (Image via MAPPA Studios)

However, it’s difficult to say exactly why this philosophy is changing so suddenly from one generation to the next. One answer may lie within Jujutsu Kaisen’s community, which was starkly more toxic in the context of spoilers than outside of it. Fans also often argued about whether or not it was the spoiler culture which made the series popular in the first place, a preposterous argument removing all credit from creator Gege Akutami.

While it may be difficult to explain why, it is clear that the philosophy and group mindset on manga spoilers and leaks is changing overwhelmingly fast. One Piece’s break week highlights this perfectly, showing a starkly quiet week which once would’ve been filled with dozens of leakers each fighting for a piece of the social media pie. Although this culture isn’t dead yet, it’s clearly on life support as the times change.

Final thoughts

The end of the Straw Hats' journey in One Piece will also likely mark the end of spoiler communities in manga fandoms (Image via Toei Animation)

All that being said, leak and spoiler culture likely won’t be going anywhere until Oda’s One Piece manga ultimately and fully concludes. It’s simply too ingrained into the series’ 25–plus year publication history to be reasonably excised from the larger fandom at this point. However, once Oda’s odyssey-like story finally ends, fans can expect to see spoiler and leak culture non-existent or all but in the larger online manga community.

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About the author

Joseph has been working as an anime content specialist for Sportskeeda since the past 2.5 years. Primarily covering his core genre, he also contributes to popular culture writing news stories and cult classic features on older series.

Joseph holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Delaware, United States. His love of anime, combined with his background in literature, influenced his interest in engaging readers through the written word. He maintains complete accuracy in his content by verifying each and every piece of information regardless of how long it takes, and ensure that the output is impartial and free of bias.

Chainsaw Man, One Piece, Berserk, Undead Unluck, Re:ZERO, Tower of God, Jujutsu Kaisen, Inuyasha, and Fire Punch are some of Joseph’s favorite animanga. His exposure to 4kids' Sonic X series, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Dragon Ball Z on Toonami fueled his enthusiasm for the medium.

When not dissecting anime plots, Joseph likes to cook, play games, work on cars, browse new music, and watch pro wrestling, especially AEW. He also enjoys ocean-based activities - beach trips, fishing, swimming and watersports.

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Edited by Joseph Brogan