Eiichiro Oda

In this Japanese name, the family name is "Oda".

Eiichiro Oda
Born	Oda Eiichirō 尾田 栄一郎 January 1, 1975 (1975-01-01) (age 36) Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan
Residence	Tokyo Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Education	College Dropout
Occupation	Manga artist, graphic designer, screen writer
Employer	Shueisha
Known for	One Piece
Influenced by	Akira Toriyama, Vicky the Viking
Spouse	Chiaki Inaba (m. 2005-present)
Children	2

Eiichiro Oda (尾田 栄一郎, Oda Eiichirō^?, born January 1, 1975 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto) is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of One Piece.

Early life

As a child, Oda was inspired by Akira Toriyama's works and aspired to become a manga artist.^[1] 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

Main article: One Piece

At the age of 17, he 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.^[2] During this time, he drew two pirate-themed one-shot stories, called "Romance Dawn", which would debut in Monthly and Weekly Jump in late 1996-early 1997.^[3] "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.^[1][4]

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.^[1]

In an interview with Shonen Jump, when asked what his three favorite manga by other authors were, he stated 'everything by Akira Toriyama'.^{[citation needed]} Oda and Toriyama have made a one shot called "Cross Epoch" containing characters from Toriyama's Dragon Ball and Oda's One Piece.

Works

• One Piece (since 1997)
• Wanted! (1998, Collection of the short stories below)
  • Wanted! (1992)
  • God's Present for the Future (1993)
  • Ikki Yako (1993)
  • Monsters (1994)
  • Romance Dawn (Version 2, 1996)
• Dragon Ball x One Piece: Cross Epoch (2007)
• One Piece x Toriko (2011)

Popularity

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.^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Oda, Eiichiro (August 2002) (in Japanese). ONE PIECE BLUE GRAND DATA FILE. One Piece. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-873358-4. 
2. ^ Tei, Andrew (2005-07-05). "Anime Expo 2002: Friday Report". Mania Entertainment. http://www.mania.com/anime-expo-friday-report_article_86123.html. Retrieved 2008-05-08. 
3. ^ Oda, Eiichiro (November 1998) (in Japanese). Wanted!. Shueisha. p. 202. ISBN 978-4088726311. 
4. ^ Watsuki, Nobuhiro (1999). "Interview with Nobuhiro Watsuki". Kenshin Kaden. Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-782037-8. 
5. ^ "Oricon: Nana's Yazawa, DB's Toriyama are Most Popular". Anime News Network. 2008-03-04. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-03-04/oricon-nana-yazawa-db-toriyama-are-most-popular. Retrieved 2008-02-01. 

External links

• Eiichiro Oda's Profile at Destination Paradise, contains his profile and interview translations.
• Tell Me! Oda Sensei!! - A translation of an interview with Eiichiro Oda from One Piece: Blue – Grand Data File.
• Eiichiro Oda at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia

Persondata
Name	Oda, Eiichiro
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1975-01-01
Place of birth	Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan
Date of death
Place of death