The 'One Piece' Creator, Oda Eiichiro

I should say, One Piece is my personal favorite manga ever since I started enjoying animes/mangas.
There have been countless mangas that caught my eyes, but none of them could deter my passion for One Piece.

For some who haven't been touched by Oda-kami(It's otaku term for the creator Oda Eiichiro. Kami means 'God'.) I will tell you some details about One Piece, before talking about Oda Eiichiro.

One Piece is a popular Japanese manga that has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump since 1997, and still on-going. The number of comic book volumes has now reached 64.

The manga is about Luffy, a 17-year-old boy(current 19), who gains elastic abilities after inadvertently eating a supernatural fruit, and his diverse crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy explores the ocean in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as the One Piece and to become the next Pirate King. (source: Wikipedia)

Luffy(bottom) and his 'Straw Hats' crews

Oda's unique drawing technique and the large scale of its setting based on pirate world help One Piece became a number-one bestselling manga in Jump magazine along with Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk.

In 2011, Shueisha(a company that sells One Piece manga volumes) announced that they sold over 250 million volumes of One Piece manga so far. Volume 60 is the first book to sell over two million copies in its opening week on Japan's oricon book rankings.

One Piece currently ranked as the best-selling series of all time in manga history. It enjoys a very high readership One Piece has received wide critical acclaim from reviewers, primarily for its art, characterization, humor and story.


Oda Eiichiro said the story would go on until over it hits 100th volume. It suggests we readers all have to wait ten more years to see the ending. 


He was brought up in the family full of artistic talents. His father was a oil paint artist, and his sister did art as well. This family background carved him as a young kid who liked to show his pictures to others. After entering college, he dropped out in the 1st year, and he mentioned to the comic book readers that any person must not rely too much on the college education.

He debutted in 1992, with his first manga ever published, 'Wanted' After then, he became an assistant artist to Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of famous manga 'Rurouni Kenshin'

Considering his fellow assistants back then and Mr. Watsuki's current works' popularity, he became noticeably successful after he started drawing One Piece.

His drawing style is so unique, that anyone who has seen One Piece can tell which is his drawing style. Especially when he draws extra characters in the back ground, he put a huge effort into drawing each one's face, clothing, etc. He even said he draws every moving features like waves, clouds, smokes, and so on, not letting his assistants do the job. 

To talk about his personal life, he got married in 2004 to a beautiful model, Chiaki Inaba, who acted as 'Nami' in the musical version of One Piece. According to the Jump magazine editors, fan letters from girls reduced to half, after his marriage.