Who made One Piece?

One Piece is written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. Oda is one of the most popular mangakas in the world, most known for the best-selling manga of all time, the One Piece series.

Eiichiro Oda was born in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, on January 1, 1975. Oda, a devoted writer, and artist since his youth started working for Shueisha's Shonen Jump at the age of 17 and is now one of the most well-known mangakas in the world. He stated that he was greatly influenced by Akira Toriyama, the author of the popular Dragon Ball series. He is also the wealthiest mangaka in the business.

Since the Straw Hat Pirates were first introduced in 1997, well over 516.5 million tankobon volumes have been sold, which is almost 150 million higher than Dragon Ball's sales. One Piece has developed into an utterly wild franchise in the past twenty years. With its huge numbers, alongside being the best-selling manga series in history, One Piece is also best-selling series printed in volumes.

It's interesting to note that Eiichiro Oda is wed to real-life Nami. In One Piece, Nami is a well-known character and a member of the notorious Straw Hat Pirates crew. Oda met his significant other while she was cosplaying as Nami, despite how absurd it may appear. Chibaki Inaba, a former cosplayer, model, and race queen, was cosplaying as Nami for a One Piece stage performance at Jump Festa 2022 when she met Oda.

They clicked, and after a few years of dating, they got married in 2004. Besides One Piece, Oda has worked on other projects and created other series as well. Here is a list of his known works:

Manga

1. Wanted! (1992)
2. God's Present for the Future (Kami Kara Mirai no Purezento, 1993)
3. Ikki Yakō, 1993
4. Monsters (1994)
5. Romance Dawn (first version, 1996)
6. Romance Dawn (second version, 1996)
7. One Piece (1997 – ongoing)
8. Wanted! Eiichiro Oda Short Stories (WANTED!, Oda Eiichiro Tanpenshu, collection of previous short stories, 1998)
9. Wanted! (1992)
10. God's Present for the Future
11. Ikki Yako
12. Monsters
13. Romance Dawn (second version)
14. Cross Epoch (2007) – a crossover between Dragon Ball and One Piece with Akira Toriyama
15. Taste of the Devil Fruit (Jisshoku! Akuma no Mi!!, 2011) – a crossover between Toriko and One Piece with Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro

Art books

1. One Piece Color Walk 1
2. One Piece Color Walk 2
3. One Piece Color Walk 3 Lion
4. One Piece Color Walk 4 Eagle
5. One Piece Color Walk 5 Shark
6. One Piece Color Walk 6 Gorilla
7. One Piece Color Walk 7 Tyrannosaurus
8. One Piece Color Walk 8 Wolf
9. One Piece Color Walk 9 Tiger

Film

1. One Piece Film: Strong World (2009) – costume design, creature design, story, and executive producer
2. One Piece Film: Z (2012) – character design, costume design, and executive producer
3. One Piece Film: Gold (2016) – character design (Straw Hat costume design, Carina, Tesoro, Dice, and Baccarat character design) and executive producer
4. One Piece: Stampede (2019) – character design, costume design, creative supervisor, and executive producer
5. One Piece Film: Red (2022) – executive producer, character design, and script reviewer

The wealth Oda created with his work was accompaniment by fame and recognition as well. He received various awards as well as titles for his various works and projects.

1. The second half of 1992: second place Tezuka Award for Wanted!
2. 1993: Hop☆Step Award for Ikki Yako
3. 2000: Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize finalist for One Piece
4. 2001: Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize finalist for One Piece
5. 2002: Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize finalist for One Piece
6. 2005: Sondermann Award in the International Manga category for One Piece
7. 2006: Japanese Media Arts Festival 100 Manga Selection for One Piece
8. 2008: Sondermann Award in the International Manga category for Volume 44 of One Piece
9. 2009: Sondermann Award in the International Manga category for Volume 48 of One Piece
10. 2012: Received Grand Prize at the 41st Japan Cartoonists Association Award for One Piece
11. 2015: Guinness World Record for "the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author" with 320,866,000 copies printed worldwide up until December 2014.
12. 2018: Kumamoto Prefecture Honorary Prize
13. 2019: Most Searched Author at The Yahoo! Japan Search Awards
14. 2019: Included in the list of Newsweek Japan's "100 Globally respected Japanese people."
15. 2022: Special Lifetime Achievement Award at Napoli Comicon 2022 in Italy.
16. 2022: Guinness World Record for "the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author" with 516,566,000 copies in print worldwide up until July 2022.

When all is said and done, Oda is undeniably one of the most famous and influential mangaka currently with the huge success of his One Piece series. Because of the huge success of the series, Oda was recognized as one of the manga artists who altered the course of manga history.