Eiichiro Oda

• Name — Eiichiro Oda • Born — 1 January 1975 • Birthplace — Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan • Children — 2 • Notable Works — One Piece • Occupation — Manga artist • Years Active — 1992–present • Awards — Grand Prize at 41st Japan Cartoonists Association Award born January 1, 1975 is a Japanese manga artist and the creator of the series One Piece, the best-selling manga in history and the best-selling comic series printed in volume. With more than 600million tankōbon copies of One Piece in circulation worldwide, Oda is one of the best-selling fiction authors. The series' popularity resulted in Oda being named one of the artists who changed the history of manga.

Eiichiro Oda was born on January 1, 1975, in Kumamoto, Japan. At the age of four he resolved to become a manga artist in order to avoid having to get a "real job". His biggest influence was Akira Toriyama and his series Dragon Ball. He recalls that his interest in pirates was probably sparked by the popular TV animation series titled Vicky the Viking.

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 manga artist/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 began working as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki on Rurouni Kenshin, before winning the Hop Step Award for new manga artists. Watsuki credits Oda for helping create the character Honjō Kamatari who appears in Rurouni Kenshin. During this time, Oda drew two pirate-themed one-shot stories called "Romance Dawn", which were published in Akamaru Jump and Weekly Shōnen Jump respectively in late 1996. "Romance Dawn" featured Monkey D. Luffy as the protagonist, who then became the protagonist of One Piece. In 1997, One Piece began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump and has become not only one of the most popular manga in Japan, but the best-selling manga series of all time. It sold 100 million collected tankōbon volumes by February 2005, over 200 million by February 2011, had 320,866,000 copies printed worldwide by December 2014, 430 million volumes in circulation worldwide as of October 2017, 440million copies sold as of May 2018, 450million in print as of March 2019, and 600 million in print as of March 2026. Additionally, individual volumes of One Piece have broken publishing records in Japan. Volume 56 received the highest initial print run of any manga, 2.85 million copies, in 2009. Volume 57's print of 3 million in 2010 was the highest first print for any book in Japan, not just manga. A record that was broken several times by subsequent volumes and currently held by 67's 4.05 million initial printing in 2012. In 2013, the series won the 41st Japan Cartoonists Association Award Grand Prize, alongside Kimuchi Yokoyama's Nekodarake Nice. In a 2008 poll, conducted by marketing research firm Oricon, Oda was elected fifth most favorite manga artists of Japan. He shared the place with Yoshihiro Togashi, creator of YuYu Hakusho and Hunter × Hunter. In their 2010 poll on the Mangaka that Changed the History of Manga, Oda came in fourth. For the tenth One Piece animated theatrical film, Strong World, Oda created the film's story, drew over 120 drawings for guidance and insisted Mr. Children provide the theme song. Additionally, a special chapter of the manga was created and included in tankōbon volume 0, which was given free to attendees of the film and also contained his drawings for the film. Following the particular success of this film, Oda also provided the character design for and executive produced the subsequent movies Z (2012), Gold (2016), Stampede (2019), and Red (2022). Oda and Akira Toriyama created a 2007 crossover one-shot called Cross Epoch, that contains 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. In 2011, Oda and Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro created the One Piece and Toriko crossover one-shot Taste of the Devil Fruit. Shimabukuro stated that he came up with the bulk of the story while Oda gave suggestions.

Since November 7, 2004, Eiichiro Oda has been married to Chiaki Inaba, a former model, actress and tarento. Oda met her in December 2003 during a Jump Festa 2004 where Chiaki Inaba played the role of Nami during the stage show "One Piece Spectacle Stage". Oda and Inaba have two daughters, one born in 2005 and the other in 2009. Oda regarded many mangaka both as his friends and rivals. Among these were his fellow assistants under Nobuhiro Watsuki; Hiroyuki Takei, and Mikio Itō. Still many years later, they remained good friends. For the title page illustration of One Piece chapter 766, which ran in 2014's 50th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump alongside the final two chapters of Masashi Kishimoto's series Naruto, Oda included a hidden message and other tributes in the art. Kishimoto himself also gave tribute in the ending of Naruto where the character Boruto Uzumaki makes a drawing of the Straw Hat Jolly Roger on a mountain. Upon the release of Chapter 1,000 of One Piece, several of Oda's fellow mangaka rivals paid tribute in the author's comment section of Weekly Shōnen Jump by congratulating Oda for achieving this milestone. According to Oda himself and his manga editors, he is an ardent worker and perfectionist, sleeping only three hours per day during a typical work week. He was hospitalized for a peritonsillar abscess in 2013 and later discharged from the hospital after two weeks. After a year, he underwent a tonsillectomy to completely cure his condition. Oda gifted Kumamoto Prefecture ¥800 million (US$8M/£4.9M) in 2018 after it suffered a damaging earthquake in 2016 that had affected its iconic Kumamoto Castle. Oda's ¥800M donation was offered in two separate gifts, one for ¥500M under Luffy's name (Luffy's current bounty at the time in Berries, the currency of One Piece) and a second donation of ¥300M. Eiichiro Oda has long been a supporter of earthquake-stricken areas, writing supportive messages, contributing art for local products, and participating in the ONE PIECE Kumamoto Revival Project.

• Wanted! (one-shot, 1992) • God's Present for the Future • one-shot, 1993 • Monsters (one-shot, 1994) • Romance Dawn (first version; one-shot, 1996) • Romance Dawn (second version; one-shot, 1996) • One Piece (1997–present) • Cross Epoch (one-shot, 2007) – crossover between One Piece and Dragon Ball with Akira Toriyama • Taste of the Devil Fruit – crossover between One Piece and Toriko with Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro • Wanted! Eiichiro Oda Short Stories

• 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 2023 One Piece live-action series by Netflix and Tomorrow Studios. • Designed a new character and monsters for the 2023 role-playing video game One Piece Odyssey.