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.

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. At the age of 17, he submitted his work "Wanted" and it won several awards. At the age of 19, he worked as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki on the manga Rurouni Kenshin. During this time, he drew two pirate-themed one-shot stories, called "Romance Dawn". In 1997, One Piece appeared for the first time in the magazine Shonen Jump and promptly became one of the most popular manga in Japan. His biggest influence is Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump.

Trivia

 * Eiichiro Oda is married to Chiaki Inaba, who had played Nami during Jump Festa One Piece stage performances.
 * Strangely, in a recent Japanese Fan Poll, Eiichiro Oda is currently ranked the 48th Most Popular Character in One Piece, despite the fact that he has never included himself in any issue of the manga.
 * 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 is a fan of rapper Eminem, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton and others, which is reflected in his work (Eneru's design is an homage to Eminem, and Spandam's design is a possible homage to WWE wrestler Mankind).
 * 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 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.