The new One Piece live-action has been a huge smash hit. Thanks to it being released on Netflix at the end of August, tons of people have decided to give the original manga story and the anime adaptation a shot. Impressively, these readers and viewers will probably have some work to do ahead of them, as the series have been running for more than one thousand episodes since the late 90s.
However, even if One Piece has thousands of episodes to back it up as the “lengthiest” anime in the world, the truth is that it could fall short when compared to other animated productions in Japan. For example, “Sazae-san,” which is rather unknown outside the Asian country, has been running since 1969 on Fuji TV.
Sazae-san has the Guinness World Record for the longest-running animated television series. It currently has around 2,600 episodes (and counting). On top of that, its manga is one of the most successful ones of all time. Although in the manga department it might never beat One Piece, the record it holds in as a TV show might be hard to get for the story of Luffy and his crew.
Sazae-san tells the everyday life story of a Tokio family after the war. Currently, the series is viewed as a nostalgic piece of work because it represents a much simpler era before the competitive and technological times. Its themes could have seen as “feminist” at the time of its release, due to the rebellious behavior of the protagonist toward her husband.
