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‘Luffy himself’: ‘One Piece’ author remains child at heart
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Meet Luffy: A statue of the character Monkey D. Luffy, also known as Straw Hat, is displayed at the One Piece anime souvenir shop in Tokyo on Nov. 19, 2021. (AFP/Philip Fong)
H
e is the creator of one of the world's best-known manga, but One Piece author Eiichiro Oda shuns stardom with a carefree attitude that evokes the beloved hero of his work.
The 47-year-old famously refuses to be referred to as sensei, an honorific typically used to address seasoned manga creators of his status.
He is even reputed to show up at fancy restaurants and hotels dressed exactly like One Piece protagonist and pirate Monkey D. Luffy, in a pair of short trousers and sandals.
"I want kids who read One Piece to think of me as their neighborhood brother," media-shy Oda said in a rare 2017 interview, published in a special magazine to mark the 20th anniversary of the franchise.
"I know I'm now old enough to be more like their uncle, [...] so maybe a funny, easy-going uncle."
It is a modest aspiration for a man whose tale about aspiring "pirate king" Luffy and a motley crew of fellow adventurers earned him a Guinness World Record for "most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author".
On Friday, the cultural phenomenon that has sold about 500 million copies worldwide will mark the 25th anniversary of its serialization.
