Oda Eiichiro

Eiichirō Oda (尾田 栄一郎 Oda Eīchirō?, born January 1, 1975 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto) is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of the manga and anime One Piece. He is married to Chiaki Inaba.As a child, Oda was inspired by Dragon Ball and aspired to become a manga artist. He recalls that his interest in pirates was propably sparked by the animation Vicky the Viking he watched as a child. At the age of 17, he submitted his work Wanted! and won several awards, including second place in the coveted Tezuka Award. That got him into a job at the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, where he originally worked as assistant to Shinobu Kaitani’s series Suizan Police Gang before moving to Masaya Tokuhiro on Jungle King Tar-chan and Mizu no Tomodachi Kappaman, which gave him an unexpected influence on his artistic style. At the age of 19, he worked as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki on Rurouni Kenshin, before winning the Hop Step Award for new artists. During this time, he drew two pirate-themed one-shot stories, called “Romance Dawn”, which would debut in Monthly and Weekly Jump in late 1996-early 1997. In 1997, One Piece appeared for the first time in Weekly 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. They have also made a one-shot called Cross Epoch, a crossover containing characters from both Dragon Ball and One Piece.In a 2008 poll, conducted by marketing research firm Oricon, Oda was elected fifth most favorite manga artists of Japan. He shared the place with Yoshihiro Togashi, creator of Hunter X Hunter.