SBS

The SBS (short for 質問を募集するShitsumon o Boshū Suru, "I'm Taking Questions") is a question-and-answer column that began in volume 4 of the manga, in which Eiichiro Oda answers questions sent in by his fans, making jokes and sometimes telling useful information about the story and characters. It is here that the ages of the Straw Hat pirates were first revealed, as well as various facts about the story that are not immediately apparent (but nevertheless present) in the chapters themselves. Sometimes the information on the characters is just suggested in this section by the fans, to which Oda just agrees with them and makes it official; for example, Tashigi, Chopper and Robin's birthdays which were all fan suggestions. There are several running jokes throughout the SBS, including the fact that a reader always manages to start the SBS before the author can. The SBS was also where the author revealed the existence of the hidden characters Pandaman and Tomato Gang, who appear hidden in the background at many points during the series. Because of the nature of the SBS and the appeal of One Piece, Oda will get questions of all kinds of nature from the serious to silly and the 'mature'.