One Piece Creator Writes Only for His 15-Year-Old Self
He says making manga for one demanding teenager frees him from trying to please the world.
Founders · #439 How Eiichiro Oda WorksA decade or more into his career, Eiichiro Oda, who created the series, was asked his secret for dealing with success.
Oda said, “To this day, I’ve never truly felt pressure about becoming successful.” He said, “I always try to stay focused on making manga for just a single audience.” Oda said, “So whenever I draw manga, I only have one reader in my mind, myself as a 15 year old.”
Oda said he had set out from the start to draw the manga he wanted to read when he was young. As Oda put it, “There were plenty of heroes who fight demons and save the world.” Oda said, “The market was saturated with that kind of story.”
He wanted to do something different, and he built it as a fan himself. Oda said, “it’s basically impossible for me to create the series with the whole world in mind” and said, “I don’t even try.”
Instead, he uses a different test. Oda put it this way: “I have no idea how other people would feel. So I turned back to the 15 year old me to make a judgment on what is awesome or not.”
Oda said, “I assume that if Japanese children enjoy it, so will everyone else,” and he tries to stay true to his own taste. Oda added, “And somehow it resonates with the kids who read my manga.”
Questions people ask
How big is One Piece, anyway?
One Piece began serialization in 1997 and has over 600 million copies in circulation and is the best-selling manga and comic series in history. Oda holds a Guinness World Record for the most copies published of a single comic series by one author.
Why age 15 in particular?
He was 22 when he started One Piece and was in his early 50s when these interviews were gathered. That means the 15-year-old standard has guided him for nearly three decades of weekly deadlines.
Does ignoring the audience mean he ignores editors too?
No. Oda works with editors and asks them to critique his work, but he does not want them to supply story ideas. He says outside ideas leave him less excited to draw them, so control stays with his own taste.