User blog:Joekido/One Piece newspaper: Oda's health

From "One Piece Newspaper" Vol. 2 translated by Sandman.

- Oda used to say that all he needed was coffee and cola 4 years ago. But now Oda pays attention to his health. He makes it a rule to drink water 2 liters a day. He thinks he can stay healthy if only he drinks much water. He sometimes exercise on fitness equipments in his studio.

- Oda usually sleeps for 3 hours a day. Oda doesn't want to spend much time on sleep since he is busy. He can sleep as much as he wants only after the day he finishes drawing every week. But he can't sleep much recently due to aging.

- The interviewer asks Oda if he has some health issues now that he is in his 40s. Oda answers that his health is not good, but he can come up with an interesting manga thanks to his short sleep and final push in his works. Oda thinks it would be great if he can draw a good manga with 8-hours-sleep.

- Shueisha allows him to take more breaks these days. Oda wonders if this is because they are worried that ONE PIECE might come to an end due to his health problem. Oda got hospitalized after he works in Film Z. He thought the staffs finally noticed that if he worked too hard he would be down, but after all he got involved in ONE PIECE Film again...

- There are too many things Oda wants to draw, so he merges the themes of islands. For example, Punk Hazard is originally consisted of fire island and ice island. Dressrosa is originally consisted of dwarves island and passion island. But as opposed to his expectations, it took him twice the time than usual to draw these arcs.

- According to Oda, ONE PIECE is about 65% done. Oda says it is a fight between his lifetime and the ending of ONE PIECE. He says he needs to have the courage to reduce his ideas.

- After finishing ONE PIECE, Oda wants to go on trips like Buratamori. (Buratamori is a popular TV show in Japan. In the show, an old man named Tamori, who was too busy to go on a trip for 30 years, visits various kinds of regions in Japan and introduces interesting information about it.)

- Interviewer asks Oda if he intends to draw manga again once a month after finishing ONE PIECE, but Oda instantly denies.

- Oda "I am happiest if kids enjoy reading my manga. But since my audience are getting older, it would be great if they read ONE PIECE with their kids."

- Oda "ONE PIECE is focusing on Sanji now. Be sure to look forward to the future story!"

- Oda "When Kaidou appeared for the first time, I said that Luffy can't defeat such a strong character yet. And I'm yet to know how Luffy would defeat Kaidou. Probably my audience will not be satisfied if the reason for defeating Kaidou is just because Luffy's punch is so strong. Luffy and I have to find a solution somehow."

- Oda "ONE PIECE will be much more interesting in the future since I'm carefully selecting ideas these days. Some people are seriously worried about my health, but don't be worried too much since I am quite tough."

Here he has diabetes, if you look at one of the pictures in of his office, you would find a picture of a diabetes medicine on his shelf and how he can't drink coffee or soda. Yes this is due to his unhealthy lifestyle that has me and everyone else to wish that he would just end the series or have his assistants do his artwork while he just write the story. I really want him to just retire to rest. Guess he will not do anymore mangas after this.