Is One Piece the greatest Story ever told? A full Essay / Video Documentary on Eiichiro Oda and One Piece. To me One Piece is a masterpiece but it took a lot of sacrifices for Oda to become the best selling mangaka of all time. I just hope I did him justice. This is the Rise and Controversies of Anime and Manga's most dedicated Creator.
YouTube Documentary: https://youtu.be/obwz7ewVwnY
Upvote Goal is 100 (I hope you enjoy or learn something new)
At the time this is bring made is being made Eiichiro Oda has amassed an astonishing 230,000,000 Net Worth and is the creator of the highest selling manga of all time. One Piece has sold so many copies, that not only is Oda in the Guinness book of world records for the most copies ever sold of any manga or comic but it also puts his name in the top 10 highest selling fiction authors in human history. Engraving the name Eiichiro Oda next to William Shakespeare and JK Rowling. Oda is without a doubt one of the greatest and most creative story tellers of all time.
https://preview.redd.it/hqtkwxdiu33b1.jpg?width=474&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aeb983436a68a455589f2ebc9f71efa2ba42a6d0
​
But this level us success and talent doesn’t come without sacrifices. Odas road to success is paved with A plethora of health issues both physical and mental, arrest and loneliness. One Piece has brought joy to millions of people and its success is something that Oda has dreamed of since he was 4 years old watching anime and Disney cartoons. Will act as a celebration of oda’s well earned achievements but also the over looked acknowledgment of the sacrfises, a-lot of Artist have to suffer through for our enjoyment, and dark untold truth of the manga industry. A Mangaka who escaped the industry even referred to it as “voluntary enslavement”. with an more infamous example being when kishmoto Creator Naruto and a rival of oda, finally finished his popular long running series, he reached out to oda to brag that he can now finally take a walk with his kid on a sunny day which would send the one piece author into a spiral but also motivated him to keep working so he could take walks with his family too one day.
https://preview.redd.it/gpad5gauu33b1.jpg?width=512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5d3f31a424421779e3d95827d1a0da1a572ce97
Oda was born January 1st, 1975 in Kumamoto City Japan. From an early age he was obsessed with all things animated and cinema. Everything from Anime, Disney cartoons and Hollywood movies. By the age of 4 Oda had already began reading manga and immediately after he found out creating manga was a career! He couldn’t believe such a cool job existed and declared he would become a Mangaka to quote “avoid getting a real job” The manga that contributed the most to this epiphany was a series called “The Monster Kid” by fukiko a fujio. A story about a kid and his companions traveling through realms battling various Monsters. Oda claims that one of the panels from this specific manga was the first that made him want to draw and he would go on to draw endless copies of his favorite panel trying to get his drawings to look as good as Fujio’s. He simultaneously had fallen in love with an anime called “Vicky The Viking”
Monster Kid
A show that told the adventures of Vicky, a young Viking who would use his Witty and imaginative mind to help his friends out of tight situations.
​
Vicky the Viking
Vicky would spark odas life long fascinations with pirates and plant the seed for a idea that would eventually grow into one piece. you can see Vickies influenced sprinkled through out oda’s work. When odas dad found out about his sons newfound ambitions he decided to teach him to paint as he himself was a talented oil painter. oda credited his dad for his creative side and still shows off his dads paintings as the proud son he is. Oda became quite the proficient painter as well. One of his original paintings he did for a school project still hangs in his elementary school to this day
When oda got a little older and his manga taste matured He gravitated toward the Weekly shonen Jump. A anthogly of mostly action-based manga that targets an older demographic.
Oda also had started junior high around this time but admitted that it was rough for him and that he often didn’t enjoy it. The only time he would really feel happy was when he knew their was a new jump issue coming out the next day.
He loved Everything from legendary Gag series Kochikame, to the action comedy Kinnikuman.
A popular series in the Anthology called “Capatin Tsubasa” would even inspire oda to join his school soccer team just like the characters in the show. As you can tell he was a very impressionable and remains so to this day many of odas characters and themes are based of various pop culture icons like Jim Carrey, Eminem, the terminator and reservoir dogs to name a few you might know but also various Japanese acting and historical legends.
https://preview.redd.it/xacz28kov33b1.jpg?width=474&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c48abe546e097a7abae860fe341bc9bb965e2a6
oda never dropped his love for soccer with his favorite team being Brazil. Oda revealed in a q and a that in the real world luffy would be from Brazil so I can’t help but to think this is influenced by “Capatin Tsubasa” oda would find his biggest influences though when he stubbled apon the series Dragon Ball. He was obsessed Toriyma’s art style and reread it more than any other manga. He loved his character designs and practicing them is why he said he got so good at drawing legendary buff dudes. But the most impactful thing Dragon Ball ever did for oda was show him how impactful manga could be.
https://preview.redd.it/xpmlog1mv33b1.jpg?width=474&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37f3ee26edad2c2243ed8b382f349117e10957fa
When dragon ball was first gaining popularity oda remembers going to school and just seeing how his peers would react to the weekly releases. One day he would see his school get thrown into chaos by a single chapter.
“When Krillin died in Dragon Ball, the whole school was thrown into turmoil. I remember someone kept running and shouting in the school, "Krillin died!!" with Jump in his hand."
Seeing the influence a great story could have would completely reshaped the way oda looked at manga and reenforce his desires to master the craft himself.
This feeling would last with oda and the 2nd year of jr high he would start developing his talent and began drawing sketches for a pirate based manga. Over the next several years oda would continue draw everyday in his free time even at the cost of his sleep and friends. this would be foreshadowing for how obsessive he can be when he puts his mind to something. At the age of 17 he would quit soccer in an attempt to take his mangaka ambitions more seriously. He had learned about a very prestigious manga completion from a company called shueisha. It was called the tezuka award and it was given to the best manga submitted by aspiring creators.
During the same time Oda had taken a liking to an Western American Film called Young Guns, this would go on to inspire him to work 4 months on his first full-length Manga titled Wanted! it was an action gag comedy set in a western themed world.
https://preview.redd.it/iofbbbd1w33b1.jpg?width=474&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1a4861bcd115ef687ada71058e699de7d3fb182d
Oda was very proud of this creation and was excited to submit it, but he was also concerned of his parents and teachers disapproving of his decisions to focus all his efforts onto something not school related. to fix this problem would submit his work under the pseudonym Tsuki Himizu Kikondo.
Being the unknown prodigy he was he would win 2nd Place and take home a 500,000 Yen cash prize. Winning this award at such a young age would send shock waves through the manga industry. many professionals within the business started keeping their eyes on him. In early 1993, Oda would go on to get several interviews and his Manga would get published in Shueisha's Mezase Mangaka! Around this time he would drop his pseudonym and start going by his real name. Showing that he was growing a lot more confident in his work. His first professional interview would even be published in Oda’s Hometown’s most prominent newspaper. Odas life was changing fast. It was getting harder and harder for even his haters to doubt his talent. Later that year he graduated high school and entered Kyushu Tokai University under the architecture program. although he never used his architectural talents in the actual field,
I can’t help but to think in played a massive part in his unique city and island designs in one piece. During university oda would continue submitting more of his work to Shueisha. Not knowing his previous win already qualified him for a spot for a monthly off shoot of the weekly Shonen Jump.This spot is is where oda would release his next manga. “God's Gift for the Future”
Gods Gift
This manga followed a pickpocket named bran that wanted to change his way of life but couldn’t stop his bad habits. through a series of events he winds up with a magic death note book gifted from god that can not alive anyone by writing the exact date and event in the notebook. look im just gonna say it. Gods gift for the future came out in October 1993 and Death note came out a decade later in 2003. Im not saying Ohba copied teenage odas work but there are alot of similarities and I found some threads that already been disscussing the topic.
If you read all of odas work in release order, you can see how each one gets progressively better and more complex. And he defiantly has two things he was good at from the begginning. Character development and world building. Part this is due to oda admitted just loving the characters he creates and he even said cries while drawing emotional or sad scenes they have to go through.
But being the near physcoeopathically ambitious machine he was. even at a young age He wasn’t satisfied with only being in a Monthly release magazine so the following year in 1994 he decided to enter a contest named Hop-Step Awards with a Manga named Ikki Yako, Oda won first place with Ikki Yako giving him his first undisputed success as a Mangaka.
Ikki Yako
With the back back awards and victories, oda was finally believing he had an actual chance at his dream coming to fruition, so the same year in 1994 he would drop out of university to pursue he career as a professional Mangaka. Dropping out of college is a huge deal in Japan. Even if you become a success some people will look down on you as school is seen as a right of passage to many Japanese citizens. Not as a option as it is in some other countries. Japans unique out look on hard work educationally and professionally will contribute to the dark concepts we will explore in the latter part of the video. And if you remember oda specifically didnt like school and often struggled to find enjoyment while being there. With some impressive accolades under his belt and a new found freedom oda would move to Tokyo under the charge of his editor Karou Kushima this was his officially start as as a true Mangaka. Oda had gotten a job at shonen Jump as an assistant as many inspiring mangakas do. He made practically no money but it was a necessary stepping stone all mangaka have to take if they want shot of publishing there own work one day. Some work as assistants for years or even decades with never getting that chance and often break under the extreme exceptions pushed onto them by the industry.
Odas first assistant Job was for shinobu kaitani’s midoriyama police gang. It was only for the last few chapters of the series and would last just a month. But Oda claims it was extremely busy month for him and he gained an immense amount of experience about the production of a professional manga.
After his manga finished Kaitani would leave Shonen Jump, Oda was sent to another Mangaka assisting creator Masaya Tokuhiro through the final years of their Manga Jungle King Tar-Chan. Tokuhiro was also the creator of the more famous Kappaman.
Oda would work for Tokuhiro for a very long time. Tokuhiro was infamous for being very resistant with allowing others to help with the important parts of his work. This was hard for oda because the free time he got after his 12-14 hour shifts he would spend drawing cool ideas for his own stories and ideas he thought might work for tokukiros but his boss would never even entertain one idea, but oda would still learn alot during this time period. specifically improving his skills of background and crowd art. During this time oda would create and submit serval of his own stories to his editor kushima. and pretty much all of them would be immediately dismissed. This would hurt but he would try to not take the harsh criticism to heart. But this would all change when Oda would create and release his next manga Monsters!
After throughly rereading it and then going back to all of his old works he began to see many of his inadequacies. This motivated oda to work even harder to fix his mistakes. He started thinking maybe his editor was right telling him he wasn’t ready yet. Oda was now sleeping only 5 hours night and began skipping meals because they took up to much time that he could be using to improve his craft.
When Kappaman ended in Mid-1996 his new boss would also move on from shusisha and oda entered his final assistant tenure under the esteemed Nobuhiro Watsuki. Working on the best selling Manga Rurouni Kenshin or Samauri X.
This would be huge for oda! Watsuki was one of the most popular mangaka not just in shonen jump but in all of Japan! He also was known to have a way more laid back style then odas previous editors. Watsuki allowed assistants to be involved in his work, speak their mind and would even review their ideas seriously. that doesn’t mean he would improve them but he felt being involved and getting hands experience was the best way to learn not just busy work for hours on in.
Oda would thrive in this environment! and one of his ideas would actually pass all the hurtles and he even was credited in the Rurouni Kenshin Manga for coming up with the Character Honjō Kamatari. The great scythe. The was huge for oda and added alot of creditably to his suggestions moving forward. Oda would never forget the faith watuski sensei had in him and unfortunately this would come with some grave consciences later on.
Oda was enjoying his time in watsuki studio but he remained troubled by the fact his ideas for Manga drafts continuously got rejected.
Oda decided since all his new ideas wasn’t cutting he would revamp his original idea for an anime. In a last resort style effort oda began work on a pirate themed manga. He decided to call it Romance Dawn. Not feeling hopeful oda would submit it to his editor. But to odas surprise Mishima was very impressed by it and would approve for it to go into further development immediately. It would debut in a shonen jump summer special and received much praise from the readers. During the production of romance dawn oda would fall under the supervision of a new editor takanori Asada who would also believe in romance dawn. He would arrange for oda to fill the gap in the weekly shonen jump that was coming up. This was an incredibly rare and unique opportunity. Oda accepted and immediately created a 2nd version of romance dawn! Within 2 weeks it was approved by Asada as well. But a weird thing was happening. The readers Loved the unique Pirate themed story and odas handlers believed in it and saw the potential greatness in oda’s work but the higher ups where very skeptical and doubtful of Oda’s concepts and refused it entirely!
Romance Dawn
They didn’t wanna try anything new. They wanted more of what worked. Basically dragon ball 2.0s but oda specially set out to make the exact opposite, this was because of 2 of odas earlier influences. Dragon ball, He loved the fights and designs but wished it was more story driven and a much more random influence was the wizard of oz. Oda loved the adventure aspect of it and implemented it into many of his works but he hated the ending of the classic movie. He thought the “The real treasure was the friends we made along the way” troup was stupid. That fans deserve build up and pay off. Oda basically was inventing the slow burn of mangas. That pull you in through world building not just flashy fights. Lucky for Oda asada wasn’t having any of his supervisors nonsense and would wage war on them proclaiming that oda has something great on his hands and he would continue this campaign for months.
and in May 1997, One Piece had finally been approved for publishing in Weekly Shonen Jump. If you love one piece make Sure you show resect for asada because it wasn’t for him we might have never been blessed which such a great story. Remember this was odas last ditch effort and who knows what would happen if it had failed.
Soon after, Oda resigned from being Watsuki Assistant on good terms, and became a full-fledged professional Mangaka himself at the age of 22. His adventure was about to reach hights and pitfalls that he could have never imagined.
And if you wanna follow me own my own adventure to be the pirate king of YouTube. This video was suppose to be saved for my 5000 subscribers special but I was so excited to drop it I couldn’t wait!
it would be cool if you could get this reddit thread to 200 upvotes
One Piece:
This is it Oda’s obsessive nature and hard work has payed off and he wasn’t about to let it go to waste. He would double down his effort once more and from this point forward things would start moving incredible quickly.
Oda would take everything’s he learned and created over the years and start immediately drafting the first 8 chapters of One Piece. Asada would lend him a hand and help him refine his ideas and offer some advice he thought could give One Piece a higher chance of success. He gave oda the advice of spicing up the first couple chapters. He thought oda had a great concept but that it wasn’t interesting enough and needed more stakes. Something too hook people and leave them wanting more. This lead to the idea of the Shanks incident in the first chapter. I think this was a great decision and set the tone for the rest of the story.
On July 1997 Weekly Shonen Jump #34 had premiered the first chapter of One Piece titled Romance Dawn giving homage to his Romance Dawn Manga that started it all. When they finished they was pretty sure they had something great on their hands but they was so nervous in wouldn’t do well. They couldn’t shake their butterflies and when the 1st Volume released Oda and his editor would hide in a bookstore and watch the customers and when they seen a little boy buying the one piece volume they would shout with pure joy! This is the cutest one piece fact and know and definitely one of my favorites because it shows how much one piece really means to him. His passion would blend onto the pages and pay off. By the end of the 1st year one piece would sell 300,000 copies. Making it a hit.
But this is again nothing compared to what would come. only one year later this number would grow to 6 million copies sold with no sign of slowing down. By 1999 one piece had reached over 17,000,000 prints and would receive a full length anime adaption that would be an instant smash across Japan. By 2001 oda was only 26 years old and the world was at his finger tips. He was a best selling mangaka and was getting all the interviews and festival bookings he could handle. But the most life altering appearance would happen at Jump festa 2002.
Why watching the performances he would see 22 year old Chiaki Inaba a model, idol, actress, Campaign girl and Race Queen. A artistic genius in her own right. During her show she would perform in a Nami swan cosplay. Showing her love for her favorite anime character that happen to be created by Oda who was in the audience. Her beauty and talent left oda smitten. It was like a romance anime scene. He had no choice but to introduce him self later the same day. They would hit it off and her personality had him hooked. Over the next 2 years they would begin seeing each other, squeezing in dates between her performance and oda busy work schedule. In 2004 they would get married opting to have a private wedding with only their closes friends attending.
Around 2004 one piece and shonen jump was more popular then ever. Manga and anime was spreading world wide. but there was an unprecedented surge in anime’s popularity in the west. The catalyst for this weeb take over would be thanks to 3 shonen Anime. One Piece, Naruto and Bleach. That would be deemed the Big 3. A titled bestowed on the 3 most popular anime of the 2000s. 3 series that completely carried shonen jump in this time period. Every anime fan in the world had one of these 3 in their top spot. later this era would be called the “Golden Age” of shonen Jump. The gap in sales of these 3 vs other series was mind blowing. And to this day the consistency of their popularity would never be repeated.
All 3 of these mangaka where living their dreams but anyone with their level of ambition wants to be the best not just top 3. The 2 creators with most smoke for each other would be One piece’s Oda and Bleach’s Kubo.
They 2 manga titans have had a 20 year beef that have left their fans constantly comparing the 2. The origins of this entanglement actually started because of our previously mention manga award that oda won for romance dawn. Kubo had entered the same competion and felt his win was a sure in and that it would be the launch to his own professional Mangaka adventure! But after bleach was out voted by romance dawn pushing his dreams back years. Bleach wouldn’t be released in jump til 2001! Kubo would holds oda personally responsible. in a 2017 interview when asked how he felt about his rival and he would respond saying “ I hate Oda” and revealed the 2 had a hairy run in in the 1990s.
A few years later oda would have a chance to respond in his own interview during a bleach exibxit for its 20th anniversary. He was asked about Kubo and said “ years ago kubo publicly announced he hates me? Do you want to know if I hold a grudge?” “Yes I do” he went on to say he didn’t knew in kubo meant it in a perticaly rude way or in a competitive way. He said kubo has always had a competitive spirt and was a hard worker but that he does have some audacity, to to say that in public. Oda was letting everyone know he is still always down for the smoke. He would draw Kubo’s character ichigo in the one piece art style and submit it to the exhibition.
Oda Draws Ichigo
I love both anime but their lives sounding like real life anime rivals makes their series even better. It shows how much they both love and belive in their series.
Check here down
Oda and Naruto creator kishimoto also consider their self rivals but in a very different way. in 2015 oda admitted that Naruto is more popular than one piece world wide. He apricates it but it makes him jealous.
https://preview.redd.it/jamhiu2xw33b1.jpg?width=474&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de87a209c908f27e9e560edf8d522866129e1c94
In 2016 kishimoto said he wanted to surpass one piece in manga sales but sadly was never able to before Naruto ended.
Since then one piece popularity in the rest of the world has exploded so the final results aren’t in yet. But either way
The 2 have been the dominate 2 in the world for 2 decades constantly exchanging spots.
They’re respect for each other is evident as shown Through out both series easters are hidden shouting out the others manga.
​
https://preview.redd.it/fj09lkzyw33b1.jpg?width=268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce5d77252b5a3757dc7c4f13b25e987e521f9282
But the most wholesome but scary example happened in 2013. Oda had become notorious for his machine like work ethic. He was only sleeping 3 hours a night and often would sleep at his work desk so he could wake up and be able to get back to work faster. This would cause his health to disintegrate and he would be hospaitalized. Knowing oda doesn’t like to take days off kishimoto would show up to his hospital room to check on his friend and would be shocked to see oda working on a up and coming one piece chapter. Kishimoto understood this level of work ethic better than anyone else could as arguably the other most successful mangaka of all time. Instead of asking him to stop he pulled up a chair and helped oda with his work on which woukld relived to be the legendary Dressrossa arc. A personal favorite arc of mine as you can see my avatar is designs after the arcs antagonist. They wanted this arc to be special as to not let his fans down because of his sickness.
​
As of 2023 One Piece has sold more than 500 million copies. selling more copies than batman and harry potter. Oda is the best selling mangaka of all time and 10th highest selling fiction author in human history. The Anime adaptation of his manga is a smash hit and is growing more popular ever day. Olympians have stuck one piece posses before wining metals. Hollywood celebs have declared their love for one piece like averal lagive who eventual would send oda 2 songs for one of his movies, Jamie lee Curtis who mention robin as her favorite characters on several q and as, marvel director taika waititi rocked a luffy sweater on several occasions. One Piece film’s latest film release Earned over 15 billion yen making in the 6th highest grossing movie in Japanese history. The 4 year old that wanted to be a great manga would be so proud of oda but what has oda sacrificed for this level of success. We touched it own it a little in the kishimoto segment but to really understand or believe the truth that im about to tell you have to understand a terrifying concept in Japan called karoshi.
Karoshi as phenom in Japan that translate to “over work death” in Japan the work culture is alot more extreme then most people outside of Asia can even comprehend. Japan has a 0 excuse policy in many companies not all but many. In these environment you are expected to finish all the work you are giving no matter how long it takes you. Even if you do finish your work you are not permeated to leave until anyone who is your senior is finished and you are expected to go help then instead of going home to see your family.
In 2012 a documentary film maker by the name of allegra Pacheco visited Japan when she heard about the concept and was shocked to see how common this was. She would follow salavery men from their jobs and would discover dozens of them would pass out on the streets or on bus rides from complete exhaustion unable to even make it home or even move. these extreme hours leads to Japan having a high percent of work related deaths from stress heart attacks and sadly self inflicted.
As of 2022, 23 percent of Japanese workers logged more than 80 hours of over time each month. Because this 1 and 5 Japanese workers are at risk of passing away from Karoshi.
The Japanese government never even acknowledged this problem. That was until a 24 year old who had logged 105 hours of over time, wrote on social media that she was physically and emotionally shattered and leaped off a tall building to her end. Unfortunately this isn’t uncommon. Bcc said that it is the single highest C.O.D of men aged 20-44 in the country. there is even an infamous unalive your self forest in Japan that is the go to spot to do so. This forest gained world wide acknowledge when controversial youtuber Logan Paul went there for a day of vlogging and filmed a victim of karaoshi while his friends laughed.
Understand that this a different culture don’t judge them to harshly. Im not saying this work culture is okay but its a very complicated subject. There is a theory that this was Japan’s way of restoring its economy after world war 2. with a your company is your family and you should give it all to them mindset.
I dont think these traits of these phenom are a exactly comparable to oda for one reason. Oda does thing willingly. no one is forcing him to do this with his level of wealth and influence he could easy retire or reallocate the more time consuming work but instead he opts to take on the brunt of the load. This doesn’t make his fans any less concerned.
Based on odas own words and interviews with his editors Oda works 21 hours of a day. The few hours he sleeps is often not even concurrent but instead broken up into 30 minute intervals through his workday whenever he gets a chance. That way he doesn’t have to relocate and can get back to work faster. When he does sleep the 3 straight hours he aims for 2am-to 5am. That way he is still the first back at the office. Other mangaka in the industry refere to oda a machine. As even though he is producing a weekly manga his art is on pare with months release manga. as where manga like Vinland saga have entire months to work on releases oda has to come out with a chapter and episode every single week and it still competes with the season series in quality. He does all this with working with the smallest team possible so he can fill more attached to his work. This goes so far that when he has to re tell passed events. He re draws them instead of reusing old art work to save time like most artist.
His editors reportedly thinks and talks about one piece 24/7 even when he isn’t working. When his editor Naoki Kawashima joined odas team he said oda told him to “die for One Piece” he went on to insure him. If you destroy your health do to your work ethic. I will forever take care of your family financially.
Dont think of this as oda being a bad boss. Just a acknowledge of series they take what they are creating. I watched and read dozen of interviews in peroration for this video and I couldn’t find 1 of his employee that had anything negative to say about him. Everyone who has worked for oda said it it so fun and welcoming environment. That when you see how hard he works it makes you want to work hard to and do your part to contribute to the greatness that is one piece. Oda doesn’t even want fame he just wants to create a great series. In all his interviews he hinds his face or request to have it covered in post edits.
Japan loves oda. He can’t walk down the street without be swarmed by fans. In his interview grown man giggle with glee everytime he speaks. Which makes me happy they respect him as much as I do. That being said his unhealthy life leaves them very worried and oda knows his fans are concerned. even after 20 years he work schedule has eased up.
In a 2021 tv interview oda opened up about he doesn’t have time to bathe, shave or even eat. He has got so lost in work that his asstaince have to come and ask him to please eat something. He does just forget sometime but other times he doesn’t eat on purpose.
in 2012 oda said “The only way I can think of new ideas is to think about it alot without sleeping and eating. Because humans can only come up with truly new ideas when they reach they’re limit. So every time I am done with my manuscript I am completey exhausted.”
This statement is beautiful but sad to me.
Especially when you factor that oda has got moderate diabetes and goutes as a result of his work schedule and being in his work chair for so many hours at a time.
In the same interview he said he always bathes before seeing his family to wash off his work mode. but that he rarely gets a chance to see them. As we mentioned, after Naruto ended kishimoto bragged to oda he can now talk a walk with his son when ever he wanted as a flex to oda about finally finishing his series as a fellow obsessive he knew the kinda pressure oda lives under and the sacfrices he is making. Them have a personal relationship may have been a way of kishmoto pleading for oda to take a break, as they have even been to each others houses. Oda only gets to visit his home once a week as he sleeps in his studio the other 6 days. So his only sees his daughters and wife 4 times a month. One reason is he finds this necessary to keep his weekly deadlines. The 2nd but sadder reason is oda fears if he spends more time with them than that he will want to stop making one piece because he will miss his family to much… one of the only times oda wandered if he should quit one piece was on one of his weekly visits his daughter said “dad you are to busy to spend time with me”
Oda is currently Bringing in 30 million dollars a year from one piece royalties alone. He is currently the richest mangaka to ever live. So he is dedication to his craft is completly by choice as he has long since passed the threadsold of retirement wealth. Oda keeps going to make all of his fans and people who believe in him proud. In a marizine interview in 2017 oda said “My fans are worried about my short sleep but sleep is just a waste of time I prefer collecting information for manga. I want to become a robot that doesn’t need sleep. Even when I go on trips with my family I dont sleep much”
This level of obligation for his fans is endearing but it was his loyalty to his formal sensei that would cause the most damaging controversy in oda’s entire career.
In November of 2017 Tokyo Metropolitan Police lead a a raid on a residents house they had been investigating on suspicion of the sell of CP. During the analysis of the purps computer they found the evidence they needed but also a link that lead them Shockingly to the one and only Nobuhiro Watsuki. Yes the creator of rurouni kenshin and Sensei to our own Eichhiro Oda. Shortly after watsuki house and studio was raided. The investigators suspicions where unfortunately confirmed and over a 100 dvd was confiscated as evidence. With some of the victims of the tapes being as young as 10 years old. He was arrested and during the interrogation he immediately confessed and went into a unnecessary amount of detail to the investigators
“I like girls in the higher grades of elementary school to the second grade of junior High” After he was charged shuisha put his series on indefinite hiatus. This sent shock ways through Japan as up to this point he was one of best selling and most respected mangakas ever and lots of new rising talent came from his tutor-edge. His reputation was tarnished but he controversially received the lightest sentence legally possible. A fine of only 1800 $ and never served a single day in jail. People where understandably out raged when it became public.
Which is how oda stumbled into the cross hairs of this PR disaster.
It all started with a tweet from shonen jump stating oda and watauski will be doing a joint interview on April 24th 2020.
During the q and a Oda was asked what it was like working for watsuki and oda said “ I worked for him just under 4 months. Which Maybe the happiest moment in my entire life."
The fanbase was instantly split down the middle. With one side declaring that even remebering fondly about someone who did what watsuki was charged was blasphemy and that it was in away supporting him. This side even share a short lived “Cancel Oda” hash tag. The other side felt like since oda has never done anything of the sort him self and didn’t know anything about it, he shouldn’t be forced to rewrite his history that lead him to where he is now. Even Watuski wife didn’t know what he was up to. Oda has only have good things said about him from his employees and from what i can tell is a great kind person who has donated lots of money to charities and his hometown. even though i am bias as a one piece super fan. I think the truth as always lies somewhere in the middle. Oda is without a doubt though one of the greatest and most successful writers in human history but let me know what you think of Oda Sensei in the comments.
Video: https://youtu.be/obwz7ewVwnY
📷ReplyForward