Eiichiro Oda (尾田 栄一郎 Oda Eiichirō, born January 1, 1975 in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture) is a Japanese manga artist, best known for his manga series One Piece (1997–present). With over 345 million copies in circulation worldwide, One Piece is the best-selling manga series of all time. The series' popularity resulted in him being named one of the manga artists that changed the history of manga.
Early Life
Eiichiro Oda claimed that he resolved to become a manga artist at age four in order to avoid having to get a "real job". His biggest influence is 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. He submitted a character named Pandaman for Yudetamago's classic wrestling mangaKinnikuman. 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
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 became 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, and had over 345 million volumes in circulation worldwide as of 2013. 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.
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.
Personal Life
In 2009, a woman was arrested for sending roughly one hundred threatening emails to Oda between September to December 2007. The woman's husband was an assistant at Oda's office who had been dismissed.
Title :
Biography of Eiichiro Oda
Description : Eiichiro Oda ( 尾田 栄一郎 Oda Eiichirō , born January 1, 1975 in Kumamoto City , Kumamoto Prefecture ) is a Japanese manga artist ,...
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