The author of the hugely popular manga series One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, said that he wanted to end the manga in 5 years back in September 2019. He participated in an interview with the Japanese megaband Arashi today (August 27, 2020). It was for their show Arashi Tsu Bo. When asked how about how much was left, he said he wants to end it in 4 to 5 years. He also said that the ending is already decided, and that the editors also know. One of the editors even said that the ending is “awesome”.
Greg Werner, an official columnist for One Piece, tweeted details from the interview in English. You can read more on the thread, but I’ll extract some of my favorites below anyway.
Some highlights from the interview:
- Oda saw the original manuscript of Chapter 1 for the first time after 23 years and said “Wow…this is pretty good.”
- One Piece failed to get serialized 3 times before finally getting published.
- He never wanted to try other magazines because he wanted to be where Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball author) was.
- He said he’s a one hit wonder, just a very long hit.
- Oda spends a lot of money on games, such as trying to get a ‘super rare Shanks’ in a One Piece gacha game.
- His longest phone call for consulting with an editor was 12 hours.
- He wanted to draw ninjas earlier, but avoided it because Naruto was ongoing.
- He cries during drawing some of his manuscripts (such as Rebecca reuniting with her father).
- There is a lot more entertaining stuff he wants to draw.
You can read the full thing on the embedded thread. The person who was translating it live also said that it might really end in 4-5 years. However, given the history of Oda’s previous statements, he expects it to last for at least 7 more years.
Either way, One Piece has to end some time, and I believe Oda will deliver a satisfying ending whenever it comes.
Source: Arashi Tsu Bo, One Piece columnist Greg
