Eiichiro Oda: A MasterClass in Storytelling

            Eiichiro Oda is a Japanese mangaka, a professional manga and or anime artist, who, over the past 25 years, has created one of the most elaborate, creative, and breathtaking stories of all time. Over those 25 years, Eiichiro Oda has written over 104 volumes, consisting of 1074 chapters, over 1,174 unique characters, 36 story arcs, 1051 episodes, and 18 movies all covering one story, One Piece. The cherry on top is that he is still writing new and exciting chapters to this day, and does not play to stop for another 5 years.

            The story itself is not even the only great feat that One Piece and Eiichiro Oda have overcome. Since its printing started in 1997, One Piece has sold over 500 million copies in over 61 countries and regions worldwide, which has not only become the top-selling manga of all time but has also been awarded the title of the top-selling comic of all time too, beating out the previous number one, Superman. 

            So, how did it all start and culminate into the creative masterpiece it is today? Eiichiro Oda was born on January 1st, 1975, which allowed him to grow up in an era greatly influenced by popular shows and manga at the time, such as DragonBall and Vicky the Viking. Due to his childhood love of pirates, Oda began writing a one-off story, titled “Romance Dawn”, which was later published in 1996. This story featured the soon to the main character of One Piece, Monkey D. Luffy, on his quest to become the King of the Pirates, by acquiring the fabled treasure, the One Piece. This story would ultimately start serialization in 1997 and hasn’t stopped to this day.

            Oda’s creative process for coming up with new a better ideas for his story starts with his drive and pushing himself further and further ahead. He stated that he gets bored very easily, especially when it comes to his writing if he believes it's too stagnant or repetitive. Oda also believes that his best ideas come to him when he is at his physical and mental limit, exclaiming:

                                                        

“the only way that I can think of a new idea is to think about it a lot without sleeping or eating. That's the only way that I know because humans can only come up with truly new ideas when they reach their limit. So every time I am done with my manuscript, I am completely exhausted”

These words are reminiscent of the research done by Beaty and colleagues, who proposed the idea of the Default Mode Network, in which the generation of new, creative ideas come to fruition when the mind is in an “autopilot” or day-dreaming state; where the brain is not focused on any specific thing. By reaching his mental capacity, he is able to stop focusing on his work and allow for the generation of thoughts to come to him.

            It was also said in an interview with one of his editors, Suguru Sagita, that Oda is not a collaborative person, and will rarely take ideas from his team regarding One Piece; stating:

“He asked me not to pitch him too many ideas. The reason behind that is that if it’s another person’s idea, then he won’t be as inclined to draw it. Because it’s his own story, he wants to draw his own ideas”

This statement contradicts the research done by Beaty and colleagues, in which they claimed that the Default Mode  Network has a positive correlation with an openmindedness personality. Oda’s rule of only drawing his ideas may limit the creativity of the overall product. 

Eiichiro Oda is an interesting case study in the conversation of creativity, with his seemingly endless generation of original ideas, characters, and storylines. If you are interested in checking out One Piece, I recommend watching the anime adaptation on Netflix, which includes the first 200 episodes, or you could read chapters at the Viz Media website.

Sources:

https://www.viz.com/blog/posts/interview-eiichiro-oda-466

https://lace-of-hearts.tumblr.com/post/124847892572/working-with-eiichiro-oda-an-interview-with-one

https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Eiichiro_Oda

https://www.ign.com/articles/one-piece-every-issue-21000-page-book

https://in.ign.com/one-piece-1/174021/news/one-piece-manga-sells-500-million-copies-setting-guinness-world-record#:~:text=It's%20not%20only%20the%20best,media%20franchises%20of%20all%20time.