Mikio Itoo is a background joke character created by Eiichiro Oda, and arguably the first Easter Egg featured in One Piece.[4]
He is a fictionalization of Mikio Ito (いとうみきお, Itō Mikio?), a Yokohama-born manga creator who began - alongside Oda - as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki. Like Oda, Ito came to contribute his own series to Weekly Shonen Jump, such as Normandy Secret Club and Mysterious Murasame-kun.
Within the world of One Piece, Itoo appears to be a wanted gunman with a bounty of one million yen. How many Belly this would amount to is unknown.
Appearance
Mikio Itoo's wanted poster in the digitally colored manga.
Thus far, Itoo has "appeared" mostly on wanted posters scattered throughout areas of the East Blue. These tend to vary greatly in detail; the most detailed depicts him as a man with an untidy mop of brown hair and matching beard.[5]
Like Pandaman, Itoo's name has independently appeared on a number of other items, most notably alcohol bottles.[6][7]
Anime and Manga Differences
Due to its tendency to gloss over small background details from the manga (especially in its early episodes), the anime has kept few, if any, of Itoo's appearances. Among its many Chapter 1 adaptations, only the Episode of East Blue special maintained the angle and composition of the scene "introducing" his wanted poster in the back of Partys Bar; even this adaptation, however, redrew the poster to feature someone else.
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Trivia
- Itoo has appeared as a joke character in at least two other series:
- Rurouni Kenshin, by his mentor Nobuhiro Watsuki
- Butsu Zone, by his fellow assistant Hiroyuki Takei
References
- ↑ One Piece Blue: Grand Data File (p. 30), Itoo's "proper" name is rendered in Roman letters glossed with katakana (presumably to differentiate from the real-life Itoo, who always renders his name in hiragana).
- ↑ One Piece Manga — Vol. 1 Chapter 1 (p. 10), Itoo's wanted poster hangs just behind Benn Beckman, who is explaining the dangers of the sea to a young Luffy.
- ↑ Vivre Card - One Piece Visual Dictionary, Itoo's birthday is revealed.
- ↑ SBS One Piece Manga — Vol. 4 (p. 130), Oda explains who Itoo is.
- ↑ One Piece Manga — Vol. 5 Chapter 43 (p. 8), Itoo's wanted poster is seen among the dozens of wanted posters that Johnny and Yosaku drop.
- ↑ One Piece Manga — Vol. 1 Chapter 1 (p. 12), Itoo's name appears on the bottle by Shanks' elbow.
- ↑ One Piece Manga — Vol. 6 Chapter 45 (p. 9), Patty's bottle of cooking liqueur is labeled with Itoo's name.
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