The One Piece manga series started in 1997 and since then, the cheerful and goofy main character Luffy has captured the hearts of almost every fan. In the Shonen manga/anime genre, often a supporting character becomes more popular.
This is what made author Eiichiro Oda worried at first, because he thought Shanks or Zoro would overwhelm Luffy in One Piece.
Now, the reality is that even though both of these characters are still among the most popular heroes in the series, they haven't surpassed Luffy's popularity.
In 1998, Oda shared in the author's comments section of Weekly Shōnen Jump: “Those who participated in 'Favorite Character Voting', thank you very much. I'm really happy that Luffy won first place. I was worried that Zoro or Shanks might surpass him.”
The author's quote went viral after a famous One Piece spoiler shared:
“Oda loves Luffy so much that when One Piece first started, he was worried that people might vote for Shanks or Zoro as the more popular character, but it was a relief when in the end everyone loved Luffy .”
Luffy is one of the most popular main characters in anime so fans were happy to see him win the popularity polls. According to the One Piece fandom website, since the series began, the main character has always won first place in every official popularity poll.
One fan wrote: “Luffy is the face of One Piece. Even people who don't watch One Piece know Luffy. If Zoro or Shanks were the main characters, it wouldn't have turned out that way. My boy is just built differently apart.”
“Fun fact that I know everyone knows: Luffy never left the 1st place in the popularity poll for over 20 years. Impressive, it can be seen that he is a Shonen character The only Jump that has ever done that”another person added.
Someone expressed: “Oda understands that if they don't consider Luffy one of their favorite characters, then they don't really love One Piece that much.”