ODA Eiichiro

Japanese Name: 尾田栄一郎

Place of Birth: Kumamoto, Japan

Gender: Male

Information for Authors: As a child, Oda practice drawing by sketching tons of characters from FUJIKO Fujio (A) and FUJIKO F. Fujio, he also inspired by vikings and aspired to become a manga artist since then. He submitted a character named Pandaman for Yudetamago's Kinnikuman, who 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 won several awards. At the age of 19, he worked as an assistant to WATSUKI Nobuhiro on the manga Rurouni Kenshin. He also had worked on Midoriyama Police Gang, Jungle no Ouja Ta-chan & Manyuuki. 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 Weekly Shounen Jump magazine and promptly became one of the most popular manga in Japan. His biggest influence is TORIYAMA Akira. They have also made a one-shot called Cross Epoch, a crossover containing characters from both Dragon Ball and One Piece. He also had asked Toriyama and INOUE Takehiko for their autographs at Jump’s new year parties. Good friends with SHIMABUKURO Mitsutoshi, MIZUMOTO Akitsugu, MITSUYOSHI Kenji & KISHIMOTO Masashi. He also close with fellow Watsuki’s former assistants SHINGA Gin, SUZUKI Shinya & ITO Mikio. Along with Watsuki and TAKEI Hiroyuki, he contributed an illustration of Zaku for the douujinshi DRILL GUNDAM (2000), published by ANZAI Nobuyuki's circle. Among his assistants there were EJIRI Tatsuma, ANDOU Ei, IKEZAWA Haruto, MATSUI Katsunori, DATE Tsunehiro, AMAMI Yoshikazu, ISHIYAMA Ryo, IHARA Daiki and SHIBATA Yusaku. He is married to Inaba Chiaki, who had played Nami during Jump Festa One Piece stage performances.