"On October 20, 1999, the One Piece anime was broadcast on Fuji TV for the first time, making a teenager's dream a reality."
Even though it's now harmoniously called "The Voyager King," people still like to call it the original translation of One Piece, and if we really want to call it another name, we'll call it "One Piece."
Author Eiichiro Oda was born in Kumamoto Prefecture, and at that time there was no Pair of Blushing Kumamoto Bears, and only one child who later dreamed of becoming a manga artist was born.
This dream began when Oda was 4 years old, because of Fujiko Fujio's manga, the name of this manga artist sounds strange, but he created Doraemon.
At that time, Oda had no concept of manga artists, and it felt like it was a happy thing to draw at home without having to squeeze the subway, and with this misunderstanding of manga artists, Oda was determined to make it a lifelong dream, and at the age of 10, he read a manga, Dragon Ball.
This caused a 10-year-old child who liked Disney to change his worldview, he fell in love with the manga from the second volume of Dragon Ball, and in 2016 Oda had the opportunity to talk to Akira Toriyama, and the host asked Oda alone in front of the two: "Tell me a little bit about your impressions of Akira Toriyama?" ”
Oda: "He's a god!" I'm not in the same dimension with him at all! ”
As soon as this sentence came out, Akira Toriyama, who was sitting next to him, smiled and said, "I'm sorry...."
This is one of the few passages in Oda, and it is possible that Luffy and Sun Wukong can eat the same point here.
In the later chat, Oda showed his special habits, for example, when he talked to Akira Toriyama, he said that there was a female character Lan Fang in "Dragon Ball" who appeared in the "First Budokai under Heaven", and the status of this role was almost unimpressive in the eyes of the original author, but it impressed Oda, but it was not a character setting, but a "armpit".
Oda straightened his chest: "I think you are the first person to paint a person's armpit so well."
These few words are reminiscent of Luffy's prototype may be Oda himself, and the way he speaks directly, and the care that ignores details in the eyes of some ordinary people, are the places where "One Piece" was loved later.
However, in the beginning, Oda was often scolded by his predecessors for his poor drawing skills, and Oda's growth was similar to the plot of the growth manga.
At the beginning, Oda began to submit articles to Shonen Jump in high school, and was also selected for the 44th "Tezuka Award" which was an encouragement to him, but at that time, Oda's storyboarding and painting skills could only be regarded as moderate, but the story of men's growth was revealed at that time.
After being admitted to the Department of Architecture at Kyushu Tokai University, Oda dropped out of school after a year of college, and it was rumored that he felt that a year of college was a waste of his time and had no effect on realizing his dream of being a manga artist.
After dropping out of school, Oda was the first to enter the manga studio of Shinobu Kaitani, and the first time he saw the original manga, the whole person was shocked!
Because the printing paper used in "Shonen Jump" is recycled paper, the quality is quite poor, and compared with the effect presented by the original painting, it is simply a heaven and an underground, and at that time, there was even a rumor that "Shonen Jump" was a stem that printed comics with toilet paper.
After Oda arrived at Kai's studio, he naturally received some guidance on painting and some theoretical knowledge, but these were not as real as practical as painting for Oda, who did not play cards according to common sense, and the so-called norms needed to be broken.
It didn't take long for Oda to leave Kai's studio and come to Tokuhiro Masaya's studio, and although the environment changed, the lack of basic knowledge of Oda, who had not been professionally trained, was exposed, and he didn't even know that the lines in the manga should be near and far thin.
During this period, Oda's basic skills and details have been improving, and in the mixed working atmosphere, Oda often expresses his great ideals, which makes many colleagues feel that Oda is a talker, but after talking and laughing, there is a thing that affects Oda.
At that time, Oda wanted to paint a few crowded portraits of the crowded figures, after the picture was stuffed into dozens of people, everyone could only show their faces, Oda handed it to Tokuhiro after painting, and received "unqualified", but due to time, these "unqualified" paintings still met with readers.
The reason for the inconsistency was that the dozens of crowded faces painted by Oda were basically similar, and the difference between people and people could not be seen.
Although time did not allow for redrawing, Tokuhiro told Oda that in order to distinguish the characters, the characters needed to be exaggerated.
This incident directly made Oda later when creating "One Piece", in the shape of the character, according to incomplete statistics, "One Piece" appeared in more than 1,000 people, equivalent to the total number of people in a grade in some schools, and each character can tell his story through description even if you can't call his name.
With these gains from his growth, Oda was appreciated by Nobuhiro Wataru, and after working as an assistant at Wadatsu studio for a few months, he returned to Tokuhiro's studio and began to realize the story in his heart, intending to draw a short manga that could be serialized in Shonen Jump.
In fact, Oda has long thought that the logo of "Shonen Jump" is like this, but why is there no manga with pirates? (Yes, such an obvious thing, no one actually thought of)
And he recalled, as if Japan did not impress himself with pirate comics, the memory is still stuck in a long time ago "Little Heroes of the North Sea", in an island country, is there no boy's dream is to go to sea after growing up?!
So he took a romantic name and began to try to draw Luffy's story, but at that time the heroine was not called Nami, but Annie. It features the setting of the Devil Fruit and some of the later characters in One Piece.
That year was 1997, and "Slam Dunk Master" in "Junior Jump" finished playing Sanno Industries, and Shonbei did not win the championship and withdrew with the regret of youth. "Youyou White Book" was hurriedly finished due to the author's physical reasons at the peak of the period, although "Dragon Ball" also wanted to finish, but the magazine did not agree, had to continue to draw, but in the end it was his own efforts.
At this time, the editor of "Shonen Jump" saw the infinite possibilities in Oda's short story, which may be a glimmer of life in this moment of stagnation, but he did not think of this so-called first-line life and became the savior of "Shonen Jump".
But even if it is ready to be serialized, Oda's old problem is still criticized by the editor, and in terms of painting skills, how can the protagonist's eyes be a point! Shouldn't it be the shiny kind? Why is the storyboard so messy, and there are a lot of oblique ones, how uncomfortable it looks.
These modifications, when Oda was uncertain, asked Tokuhiro Masaya, and after receiving support, he insisted that no changes were needed, and Luffy officially went to sea!
At this time, Oda set a time node for himself to complete the Voyager King in 5 years: the first 1 year to recruit partners, the adventure for about 3 years, and the final chapter for 1 year
But Oda, who focuses on the storyline and character setting, can't suppress the inspiration accumulated over the years and can't control it. These 5 years suddenly became 22 years, and after being introduced to television in 1999, the manga soared from a total of 7.8 million in the first 7 volumes to 16.5 million in 10 volumes, and 2 million in direct volumes in 12 volumes, with a total of more than 24 million sales.
Not long after, with Luffy entering the great route, "One Piece" began to move towards the first climax of the plot, various pits began to emerge, Blackbeard appeared for the first time, the text of history, etc., and various plots earned the audience's tears, shouting out Robin who wanted to live, Mellie in the fire, etc., are still unbearable to watch the emotional fragments.
Now it seems that Oda has fulfilled his dream of being a manga artist and realized his fantasy of not having to go to work and draw at home, but this life is only sleeping 3 hours a day, staying in the studio for 132 hours a week, and for decades.
Oda already earned 3.1 billion yen a year in 2015, but he didn't have time to spend the money, so he set up his home as an amusement park, and the whole three-story mansion was not only built in the style of the ocean, but also a small train that shuttled through it, a doll-catching machine, and the whole house could accommodate 100 people.
The person who has been drawing his first serial comic since he was 22 years old is 44 years old this year, and this work drawn with a small half-life is still serialized, I believe that many people are waiting for the serial, many people are making up pirates, and many people are waiting for Luffen to reach Laftan Road.
Oda said in an interview: "When the "One Piece" series ends, there will be a new chapter in my life. ”
Although we don't want One Piece to end, we still want to wish Oda Sensei a better tomorrow.
ps：
1. Oda's wife was played by Nami in the mini stage play "One Piece" at the 2002 jump carnival annual meeting, so, in a sense, Oda married Nami.
2. Oda participated in the "One Piece" knowledge contest and failed.
Excerpt: [Manga Artist #2] Eiichiro Oda Analysis: Born Savior
Eiichiro Oda x Akira Toriyama 《Dialogue》