Born in Kumamoto, Japan, Eiichiro Oda is a famous manga artist, best known for creating the One Piece series.
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Facts About Eiichiro Oda
- When he was just four years old, Eiichiro Oda decided he wanted to become a mangaka, a manga artist.
- He created Pandaman, and the character was used by Yudetemago (the pen name of Takashi Shimada and Yoshinori Nakai) in their wrestling-themed manga, Kinnikuman. Eichiro Oda later brought Pandaman back in his own work.
- Eiichiro Oda submitted his work to Wanted! when he was 17, and he was the runner-up in the Tezuka Award.
- He was employed by the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. At first, he worked under Shinobu Kaitani on Suizan Police Gang. After that, Eiichiro Oda worked under Masaya Tokuhiro on Jungle King Tar-chan.
- When he was 19 years old, Eiichiro Oda worked as Nobuhiro Watsuki’s assistant on Rurouni Kenshin and he helped to create the character Honjō Kamatari (Great Scythe).
- Eiichiro Oda’s one-shot manga, Ikki Yakō (Night Parade of the One Demon) was published in the 1994 Shonen Jump Spring Special. It features a monk named Guko, and it won the 1994 Hop Step manga award.
- Inspired by the animated series Vicky the Viking, his favourite TV show as a teenager, Eiichiro Oda created two pirate-themed one-shots called Romance Dawn. They were published in 1996, and featured the character Monkey D. Luffy (who became the main protagonist in Oda’s One Piece series.
- One Piece began publication in 1997. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump and grew into the best-selling manga series of all time.
- Volume 67 of One Piece (published in 2012) sold over 4.05 copies in Japan alone.
- When he is working, Eiichiro Oda only sleeps three hours a night and he often works for more than 15 hours per day.
- By 2015, more than 300,000,000 copies of One Piece had been published around the world. The number now exceeds 450 million.
- He is inspired by the creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toryama.
- During periods of focused work, Eiichiro Oda rarely takes a day off. He gets up at 5 in the morning, works throughout the day with few breaks, and then he goes to bed at 2 a.m. In order to complete a chapter of One Piece for the Weekly Shonen Jump anthology relentless schedule is required. He spends Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday planning the story, dialogue and layout. Thursday, Friday and Staurday are spent drawing and inking the panels, and Sunday is spent colouring.
- At school, inspired by the Captain Tsubasa manga, Oda played soccer.
- In 1999, One Piece was adapted into an anime series. In 2021, the Toei Animation released the 1000th One Piece episode.
- Eiichiro Oda used to do oil painting as a hobby.
- In 2004, Eiichiro Oda married Chiaki Inaba, an actress. They have two daughters.
- When he was hospitalised in 2013 (due to a tonsil infection), Eiichiro Oda was seen working on the latest One Piece panels from his hospital bed.
- Eiichiro Oda is a big fan of the rapper Eminem, and it is speculated that the One Piece character Enel is based on the hip-hop artist.
- Some of Eiichiro Oda favourite movies are Seven Samurai, Young Guns, Reservoir Dogs, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. His favourite directors are Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton and Baz Luhrmann.
- He likes listening to the soul music of Brook Benton, and he also likes the music of Bryan Adams.
- Eiichiro Oda uses Copic markers to colour his pages, he also used watercolour paints, too.
- He’s had the nickname Odacchi since he was a child.
- Eiichiro Oda favourite real-life pirate is Edward Teach, more commonly known as Blackbeard.
- He is a fan of the Dragon Quest videogame role-playing series.
