By: Mohamed Ahmed

Echiro Oda is the creator of the number one best selling manga in history. He is in the top 15 best selling authors of all time. That means Oda has only had his work outsold by fewer people than the number of your toes and fingers. He is also the best selling Japanese writer of all time.

What legendary series could make one man so prolific in history you might ask? The name of the series that has generated billions of dollars in revenue, has had over ten movies based on it, and managed to dominate the manga sales chart for over a entire decade is the franchise: ‘One Piece’. 

Echira Oda was born in the 1970s, January 5th, 1975, to be exact, in Kumamoto, Japan. Ever since he was only four years old he resolved to become a manga artist in order to avoid getting a real job. Little did he know that he was going to have a permanent impact on this world and that his name would forever be remembered. 

He was influenced by Akira Toriyama. The TV show, ‘Vicky the Viking’, sparked his interest in pirates, while Akira Toriyama the creator of the ‘Dragon Ball’ franchise, sparked his interest in anime.

He was only 17 when he submitted his work ‘WANTED’ and received an award. That’s how he was able to get a job at the weekly ‘Shonen Jump’, a manga magazine, as an assistant to an assistant for a couple of series.

When he was 19, he won an award, and even was in an article about the hottest up and coming young mangakas. From there he went on to outsell other series and climb vigorously to the top of the list outselling incredibly big names like ‘Death Note’, ‘Naruto’, and ‘bleach’.

‘One Piece’ was not dethroned for over ten years, until recently when ‘Demon Slayer’ took the top spot for one year, breaking the streak but not the legend.

He is currently still writing ‘One Piece’ to this day, and has managed to stay humble as well as stay out of a career ruining scandal, like many other mangakas, for two decades.