Eiichiro Oda

Eiichiro Oda (尾田栄一郎, Oda Eiichirō), born January 1, 1975 in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan, is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of the manga and anime "One Piece".

This wiki not only covers up One Piece, but will cover up Oda's nearly 20 years of his career.

Early Life
As a child, Oda was inspired by Vikings and aspired to become a manga artist. As a child, 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. He was inspired by Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama.

1990s
In 1992, Oda at age 17 began his manga career starting as an assistant to 3 different mangakas for Weekly Shonen Comic called Shonen Jump. At the same year he summit his first work called Wanted! which he won a second place at Tezuka Award. He worked at first with Shinobu Kaitani with Suizan Police Gang for a short time before he moved on to Masaya Tokuhiro on 2 different manga, Jungle King Ta-Chan in 1993, including Mizu No Tomodachi Kappaman. Oda stated in one of his interview that he borrowed some style and ideas from Tokuhiro. After Jungle King finished it's run in 1995, he moved on to work with Nobuiro Watsuki on Rurouni Kenshin in 1996 during this time Oda met Hiroyuki Takei. Oda drew scenes in that manga with his own art style, later Noburio would pay a tribute to Oda by drawing a Straw Hat Pirate's jolly roger

During 1993 and 1994, he created other of his works such as God's Gift from the Future(1993), Itsuki Yakou(1994) and Monsters(1994) which he will later mix it with One Piece.

In late 1996, while still working with Noburio, he created 2 one shots for the upcoming manga artist showcase called Romance Dawn version 1 and 2 which will become the first chapter of One Piece. In summer 1997, he did many Early One Piece sketches. He planned out the Morgan arc and the Buggy arc before August 15. However, he made many changes, such as changing Boogie to Buggy, changing Zoro from being his henchman to being a wandering swordsman, and changing Morgan's appearance (he was originally suppose to look like a Sumo but Oda's editors wanted him to change it which he did).

Finally in August, 1997, he created his signature work, One Piece. He was inspired by Pirates, One Piece was set to be a pirate series

in 1998, Oda did designs for the One Piece ova, he was happy to see One Piece getting animated. In 1999, Toei Animation adopted One Piece, the staffs would often meet up with Oda to discuss how to handle the series.

2000s
In 2002, he met Chiaki Inaba who plays as Nami during the Shonen Jump Fiesta, the two went along and in 2005, they got married. In April 2006, Oda unexpectly fell ill and One Piece was not released that week, however he recovered and resumed One Piece the next week. Because of his recent illness, Oda felt the fans needed to catch up so he created Grand Line Times. In 2007 he teamed up with Akira Toriyama to create a Dragon Ball/One Piece crossover call Cross Epoch.

In 2008, Oda finally reached the middle of One Piece. In 2009, One Piece became an most read series, surpassing Dragon Ball.

Future
Oda stated in one of his interview that he wanted to create a robot manga after he finish, later he stated that after he finish One Piece, he would take the same path Toriyama did, create short-story mangas.

Cameos and Guest Appearances

 * He voiced the character "Odacchi" in the "Dream Soccer King!" short that aired with the third One Piece movie, " Chopper's Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals". "Odacchi" is Oda's nickname, and he played soccer when he was younger.
 * Oda once played the role of Shanks for the JUMP Festa 2008 in the absence of Shūichi Ikeda when the voice actors acted out the Mugiwara High School short. He wore a hot pink wig for the part and explained he would only do this because One Piece was in its tenth year.
 * Strangely, in a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Eiichiro Oda is currently ranked the 31st Most Popular Character in One Piece, despite the fact that he has never included himself in any issue of the manga (except the SBS).
 * Oda's name often appears on the spine of books in the anime.

Trivia

 * When Eiichiro Oda was the assistant of Nobuhiro Watsuki, his colleague was Hiroyuki Takei. Therefore, Oda has a strong respect in Takei.
 * Oda is a fan of rapper Eminem, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and Tim Burton
 * Oda's 3 favorite movies are Seven Samurai, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Young Guns.
 * Oda's favorite real pirate is Blackbeard (Edward Teach).
 * According to Oda in an interview for Shonen Jump, his favorite villain in One Piece is Buggy the Clown (he joked that he literally threw him together). Oda has also claimed if he could eat any of the Devil Fruits, he would eat the Bara Bara no Mi.
 * Oda is a fan of Mexican food.
 * One trait that Oda is renowned for is inserting Easter Eggs in his One Piece manga for fans to spot. These include the character Pandaman and the logo Doskoi Panda.
 * Oda was seen on the verge of tears (but he held them up) after the Straw Hats' VAs asked the audience to say "Odacchi, itsumo arigatou" in a Jump Festa event. He then asked did they plan that just now. Mayumi Tanaka (Luffy's VA) and Kappei Yamaguchi (Usopp's VA) responded that they planned that just now, when Oda was still blindfolded after a certain game they played.
 * On that same day, Oda was wearing a fish head on his head, known as his other trademark (other than Pandaman).
 * Oda's role model is Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragonball.

Assistant credit

 * Suizan Police Gang with Shinobu Kaitani
 * Jungle King Ta-chan with Masaya Tokuhiro
 * Mizu no Tomodachi Kappaman with Masaya Tokuhiro
 * Rurouni Kenshin with Nobuhiro Watsuki

Works

 * Wanted(1992)
 * God's Gift from the Future(1993)
 * Itsuki Yakou(1994)
 * Monsters(1994)
 * Romance Dawn V.1(1996)
 * Romance Dawn V.2(1996)
 * One Piece(1997)