10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT EIICHIRO ODA part 1 (Open to reads more..)

The man behind the most successful manga series to have been published by Weekly Shonen Jump, One Piece. Casual fans enjoy his work, dedicated fans love and adore him, and die-hard fans call him god. We dedicate this article to the mastermind Eiichiro Oda. How much do you know about him? How much more would you want to know about him? We’ll tell you 10 things you should know about Eiichiro Oda!

10 – Eiichiro Oda’s Birthday
Let’s begin with the basics, Eiichiro Oda was born on January 1, 1975 in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan.

09 – What Inspired Eiichiro Oda To Begin “One Piece”
Undeniably, Oda was inspired by Akira Toriyama’s work (notably, Dragon Ball) and aspired to become a manga artist. He also mentioned that his interest in pirates was sparked by the popular TV animation series called “Vicky the Viking”. Oda began his manga career in 1992 at the age of 17, when his one-shot cowboy manga Wanted! won second place in the coveted Tezuka manga awards. Oda went on to work as an assistant to some of the biggest manga artists in the industry, including Nobuhiro Watsuki, before winning the Hop Step Award for new manga artists. His pirate adventure One Piece, which debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1997 quickly became one of the most popular manga in Japan with sales of over 65 million copies.

08 – One Piece! Favorite Villain, Devil Fruit & Who He Would Want To Be
Fans have been very curious to know the authors thoughts on his own creation, who wouldn’t want to know who is his favorite character in his own creation? Several fans asked these questions and Eiichiro Oda has answered them:

-Favorite One Piece Villain: Buggy The Clown

-What Devil Fruit Would He Eat: Bara Bara No Mi / Chop-Chop Fruit

-Manga Character He Would Like To Be: Nico Robin (so that he could “sprout hands and draw manga twenty times as fast.”)

07 – Eiichiro Oda’s Family
Yes, although he dedicates most of his time to One Piece he does have a family! In 2002, he met Chiaki Inaba, who played Nami during the Shonen Jump Fiesta and the two started dating. In 2004, they got married, and in 2006, he and his wife had a daughter. He went for Nami eh… sorry all you Robin fans! We can only imagine what great talent their daughter will be born with, probably the best mangaka of the next generation?

06 – Eiichiro Oda’s Lifestyle
What does it take to be the best mangaka? Well, certainly it takes lot of dedication, wish to know more about how Oda lives out his everyday life? Do note, some of the information related to his lifestyle is from 2013, certain aspects of his lifestyle may have changed now!

He is a smoker (in-fact, a chain smoker) and fans believe this is due to the “stress” involved in the profession
He prefers to work with the least amount of assistants required, he prefers to draw majority of the chapters himself
He has made it clear that he doesn’t like to copy and paste old art into new chapters, if a event or events have already been illustrated and needs to be re-used, he draws them all over again
He wakes up at 5 am, works until 2 am (21 hours!) and sleeps from 2 am until 5 am (3 hours) on an average day
He “lives” in his workplace, his family visits him at his workplace, and he spends an average of one day with them without having to work at the same time
When asked “how does he blow of stress” Oda stated that he blows of stress by “writing an interesting manga.” When asked “when does he feel the happiest” he answered “while writing an interesting manga”
He listens to “Soul” music at his workplace
When asked what is his schedule for the week, he answered “three days of sketching and three days of working on the final piece”
Eiichiro Oda dreams about products that can’t be made with present technology