Eiichiro Oda’s action-adventure epic, One Piece, is the #1 bestselling manga series of all time. However, Monkey D. Luffy has now been dethroned (at least for this week).
Japan-based news and ranking site Oricon has unveiled the nation’s top 10 bestselling manga titles for the week of July 27, 2026, to Aug. 2, 2026. According to the latest numbers, Vol. 17 of Natsu Hyuga’s mystery-drama series, The Apothecary Diaries, sold approximately 121,378 copies, surpassing each of its competitors individually by at least 84,000 copies.
Comparatively, One Piece sold 28,809 copies within the same time period. The complete top 10 list can be viewed below.
The Apothecary Diaries Defeats One Piece in Latest Oricon Top 10 Manga Ranking
- The Apothecary Diaries Vol. 17 — 121,378 copies
- Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You Vol. 9 — 36,518 copies
- Space Brothers Vol. 46 — 33,913 copies
- Tokyo Aliens Vol. 13 — 29,799 copies
- One Piece Vol. 115 – 28,809 copies
- Medalist Vol. 15 — 25,008 copies
- Bride of the Barrier Master Vol. 8 — 20,566 copies
- Hunter x Hunter Vol. 39 — 19,850 copies
- Chiikawa: Something Small and Cute Vol. 8 — 19,664 copies
- The Transfer Destination Was a World With Few Pharmacists — 13,663 copies
The latest volume of The Apothecary Diaries sold over six times more copies than One Piece for the week — a remarkable statistic when accounting for the comparably short amount of time that the former series has been on the shelves. The Apothecary Diaries franchise began with Natsu Hyuga’s online web novel, which was serialized on the popular self-publishing site Shosetsuka ni Naro, starting in October 2011.
Conversely, Oda’s One Piece series launched in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in July 1997. The shonen franchise celebrated its 25th birthday in 2022, and subsequent years have seen the release of commemorative merchandise from major brands such as Bandai and Seiko.
Writer Itsuki Hanao partnered with Hyuga and illustrator Nekokurage to create a manga adaptation of The Apothecary Diaries in May 2017, published by Square Enix. Set in a country inspired partially by Tang-era China, the series revolves around Maomao, a young woman who works as an apothecary at a brothel in the red-light district. One day while gathering herbs, she is kidnapped and sold to work as a lowly servant for the Imperial family.
Maomao’s new home is the Rear Palace, a massive estate for the emperor’s favorite concubines. While trying to keep a low profile, she learns that children and infants have started dying. Drawing upon her encyclopedic knowledge of medicinal and poison herbs, Maomao ultimately discovers that the incidents are linked to an elaborate assassination attempt.
When word of Maomao’s revelation reaches Jinshi — a eunuch who oversees affairs in the Rear Palace — he employs her as a poison taster and puts her to work solving other mysteries which unfold among the Emperor’s inner circle.From collective light novel and manga sales, The Apothecary Diaries has over 45 million copies in circulation worldwide. Notably, overall sales spiked sharply after the airing of the hit anime adaptation, which is produced by Studio OLM (Pokémon) and Toho Animation. Over the course of Season 1, the series sold nearly nine million copies, jumping from 24 million to 33 million within a six-month period.
Notably, The Apothecary Diaries also won first place in Oricon’s “Overall Recommended Manga Ranking” for 2026. In addition to narrowly defeating Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, the series also triumphed mightily over One Piece. Coming in fifth place, the latter series earned 557 votes against Apothecary‘s 1,200.
Nekokurage’s Apothecary Diaries manga adaptation, in addition to the original light novel series, are both available in English from Square Enix Manga & Books. The One Piece manga is available in English from VIZ Media.
-
The Apothecary Diaries
- Release Date
-
2023 – 2025-00-00
- Network
-
Nippon TV, RAB, TVI, YBC, JRT
-
-
Takeo Otsuka
Jinshi (voice)
-
- Release Date
-
July 22, 1997
- Author
-
Eiichiro Oda
- Artist
-
Eiichiro Oda
- Genre
-
Adventure, Fantasy, Manga
- Chapters
-
1081
- Volumes
-
105
Monkey D. Luffy sets off on an adventure with his pirate crew in hopes of finding the greatest treasure ever, known as the “One Piece.”
Leave a Reply