Otaku USA Magazine
One Piece Author Eiichiro Oda Makes First-Ever TV Appearance

The new One Piece film, Gold, is on its way, and though millions of fans would no doubt see the film without a single yen spent on advertising, the hype machine is nonetheless choogling through its motions. Even camera-shy One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda has been called up for the effort, making his first-ever TV appearance.

Oda appeared on a Fuji TV segment in which he received a custom Borussia Dortmund soccer jersey from Japanese player Shinji Kagawa. In the segment, embedded below, announcer Daijiro Enami cheekily asks Oda to draw One Piece’s Luffy to confirm his identity before handing over the goods. After putting on the jersey, Oda exclaims, “this makes me want to take the field right now” and writes a message of thanks to Kagawa.

You may notice something fishy about the whole thing – namely, Oda never shows his face. I wasn’t actually aware of this, but apparently the tonsil-less manga-ka is somewhat of a recluse. There are pictures of the guy in existence, but they’re few and far between.

Bonus fact: according to a magazine entry last year, Oda only sleeps three hours a night and doesn’t have a day off. That’s enough to make anybody’s tonsils hurt.

One Piece Film Gold hits Japanese theaters July 23.

Source: Yaraon

Matt Schley

Matt Schley (rhymes with "guy") lives in Tokyo, and has been OUSA's "man in Japan" since 2012. He's also written about anime and Japanese film for the Japan Times, Screen Daily and more.

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