06. Eiichiro Oda's Lifestyle
What does it take to be the best mangaka? Well, certainly it takes lot of dedication, wish to know more about how Oda lives out his everyday life? Do note, some of the information related to his lifestyle is from 2013, certain aspects of his lifestyle may have changed now!
He is a smoker (in-fact, a chain smoker) and fans believe this is due to the "stress" involved in the profession
He prefers to work with the least amount of assistants required, he prefers to draw majority of the chapters himself
He has made it clear that he doesn't like to copy and paste old art into new chapters, if a event or events have already been illustrated and needs to be re-used, he draws them all over again
He wakes up at 5 am, works until 2 am (21 hours!) and sleeps from 2 am until 5 am (3 hours) on an average day
He "lives" in his workplace, his family visits him at his workplace, and he spends an average of one day with them without having to work at the same time
When asked "how does he blow of stress" Oda stated that he blows of stress by "writing an interesting manga." When asked "when does he feel the happiest" he answered "while writing an interesting manga"
He listens to "Soul" music at his workplace
When asked what is his schedule for the week, he answered "three days of sketching and three days of working on the final piece"
Eiichiro Oda dreams about products that can’t be made with present technology
04. Eiichiro Oda's Dedication To One Piece And His Fans
With the series now going on for more than 15 years, it's given that Oda is dedicated to the series as well as the fans who support him. But did you know to what extent his dedication goes to? Well, if you though his dedication ended with just working 21 hours a day, 6 days a week, you are wrong! When Eiichiro Oda was hospitalized in 2013, Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto's mangaka) visited him at the hospital and witnessed Oda drawing next chapters of One Piece while being bedridden!
That's right, even being bedridden doesn't stop him from working on One Piece, the only way to keep him away is to knock him out with really strong sleeping gas! If that isn't dedication, then I frankly don't know what is. And it isn't because Eiichiro Oda needs to work, he earns approximately 2 Billion Yen (about 25 million U.S Dollars) from the royalties related to One Piece each year! He doesn't need to work, it's just his dedication that keeps driving him forward even at a place he ought to rest!