Eiichiro Oda (尾田 栄一郎, Oda Eiichirō), born January 1, 1975 in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan, is a manga artist, best known for his manga series
One Piece (1997–present). As of august 2022, One Piece had over 516 million copies in circulation in 61 countries and regions worldwide, making it the best-selling manga series in history, and the best-selling comic series printed in book volume. It is also one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, in turn making Oda one of the best-selling fiction authors. The series' popularity resulted in Oda being named one of the manga artists that changed the history of manga.
Early Life
Oda claimed that he resolved to become a manga artist at age four in order to avoid having to get a "real job". He recalls that his interest in pirates was probably sparked by the popular TV animation series titled
Vicky the Viking. He submitted a character named
Pandaman for
Yudetamago's classic wrestling manga
Kinnikuman. Pandaman was not only used in a chapter of the manga but would later return as a recurring cameo character in Oda's own works.
Career
At the age of 17, Oda submitted his work
Wanted! and won several awards, including second place in the coveted Tezuka Award. That got him into a job at the
Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, where he originally worked as assistant to
Shinobu Kaitani's series
Suizan Police Gang before moving to
Masaya Tokuhiro on
Jungle King Tar-chan and
Mizu no Tomodachi Kappaman, which gave him an unexpected influence on his artistic style. At the age of 19, he worked as an assistant to
Nobuhiro Watsuki on
Rurouni Kenshin, before winning the Hop Step Award for new artists. Watsuki also credits Oda for the creation of the character
Honjō Kamatari, who appears in Rurouni Kenshin. During this time, he drew two pirate-themed one-shot stories, called
Romance Dawn, which would debut in
Akamaru Jump and
Weekly Jump in late 1996 ~ early 1997. Romance Dawn featured
Monkey D. Luffy as the protagonist, who then became the protagonist of One Piece. While Oda was an assistant of Watsuki, his colleague was
Hiroyuki Takei, and the three of them are good friends. He also stated in a Shonen Jump Alpha interview that he was friends with
Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, the author of
Toriko.
In 1997, One Piece appeared for the first time in
Weekly Shōnen Jump and promptly became one of the most popular manga in Japan. His biggest influence is
Akira Toriyama, who is the creator of
Dragon Ball and
Dr. Slump.
In an interview with Shonen Jump, when asked what his three favorite manga by other authors were, he stated "everything by Akira Toriyama". Oda and Toriyama have made a one-shot called
Cross Epoch, containing characters from Toriyama's Dragon Ball and Oda's One Piece. In 2013, they each designed a Gaist character for the video game
Gaist Crusher.
Works
Manga
● Wanted! (1992)
● God's Present for the Future (神から未来のプレゼント, Kami Kara Mirai no Purezento, 1993)
● Ikki Yakō (一鬼夜行, 1993)
● Wanted! Eiichiro Oda Short Stories (WANTED! 尾田栄一郎短編集, Oda Eiichirō Tanpenshū, collection of previous short stories, 1998)
● Wanted!
● God's Present for the Future
● Ikki Yakō
● Monsters
● Romance Dawn (second version)
● One Piece
● Monsters (1994)
● Romance Dawn (first version, 1996)
● Romance Dawn (second version, 1996)
● One Piece (1997–present)
● Cross Epoch (2007) – crossover between Dragon Ball and One Piece with Akira Toriyama
● Taste of the Devil Fruit (実食! 悪魔の実!!, Jisshoku! Akuma no Mi!!, 2011) – crossover between Toriko and One Piece with Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro
Art books
● One Piece Color Walk 1 (2001)
● One Piece Color Walk 2 (2003)
● One Piece Color Walk 3 Lion (2006)
● One Piece Color Walk 4 Eagle (2010)
● One Piece Color Walk 5 Shark (2010)
● One Piece Color Walk 6 Gorilla (2014)
● One Piece Color Walk 7 Tyrannosaurus (2016)
● One Piece Color Walk 8 Wolf (2018)
● One Piece Color Walk 9 Tiger (2020)
● One Piece Color Walk 10 Dragon (2023)
Films
● One Piece Film: Strong World (2009) – costume design, creature design, story and executive producer
● One Piece Film: Z (2012) – character design, costume design and executive producer
● One Piece Film: Gold (2016) – character design (Straw Hat costume design, Carina, Tesoro, Dice and Baccarat character design) and executive producer
● One Piece: Stampede (2019) – character design, costume design, creative supervisor and executive producer
● One Piece Film: Red (2022) – executive producer, character design, and script reviewer
Other
● Drew an illustration for Chibi Maruko-chan Manga Creator Momoko Sakura after her death. The illustration showed Luffy sharing barbecue with Maruko-chan with accompanying message that the two authors got along well in both their professional and personal lives and that he is praying for Sakura.
● Collaborated with fashion brand, Gucci and created a Lookbook featured both Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro sporting poses with a series of images of the two rocking the latest Gucci line.
● Drew Original Illustration for the President and all One Piece fans in France.
● Drew Original Illustration for sport "Karate" for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Official Programme book which highlights the defining traits, history, rules, top athletes, venue, schedule, and the major tournament records for each of the 33 featured sports.
One of the executive producers for the ordered One Piece live-action series by Netflix and Tomorrow Studios.
Designed a new character and monsters for the 2022 role-playing video game One Piece Odyssey.
Assistant Credit
● Suizan Police Gang, with Shinobu Kaitani (1994)
● Jungle King Tar-chan, with Masaya Tokuhiro (1992–1995)
● Mizu no Tomodachi Kappaman, with Masaya Tokuhiro (1995–1996)
● Rurouni Kenshin, with Nobuhiro Watsuki (1996–1997)
Awards
● 1992: Second place Tezuka Award for Wanted!
● 1993: Hop☆Step Award for Ikki Yakō
● 2000: Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize finalist for One Piece
● 2001: Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize finalist for One Piece
● 2002: Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize finalist for One Piece
● 2005: Sondermann Award in the International Manga category for One Piece
● 2006: Japanese Media Arts Festival 100 Manga Selection for One Piece
● 2008: Sondermann Award in the International Manga category for Volume 44 of One Piece
● 2009: Sondermann Award in the International Manga category for Volume 48 of One Piece
● 2012: Received Grand Prize at 41st Japan Cartoonists Association Award for One Piece
● 2015: Guinness World Record for "the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author", with 320,866,000 copies printed worldwide up until December 2014
● 2018: Kumamoto Prefecture Honorary Prize
● 2019: Most Searched Author at The Yahoo! Japan Search Awards
● 2019: Included in the list of Newsweek Japan's "100 Globally respected Japanese people"
● 2022: Special Lifetime Achievement Award at Napoli Comicon 2022 in Italy
● 2022: Guinness World Record for "the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author", with 516,566,000 copies in printed worldwide up until July 2022
● 2023: 18th Shin Watanabe Award, an award for a producer or creator who has created a major movement in the entertainment business and made a significant contribution to the development of popular entertainment culture
