Eiichiro Oda

is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of the manga and anime One Piece. His drawing style is notable for its originality and has influenced Hiro Mashima. As a child, Oda was inspired by viking and aspired to become a manga artist. He later submitted a character named Pandaman for Yudetamago's classic wrestling manga Kinnikuman, who was not only used in a chapter of the manga but would later return as a recurring cameo character in Oda's own works. At the age of 17, he submitted his work "Wanted!" and won several awards, including second place in the coveted Tezuka Award. That got him into a job at the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, where he originally worked as assistant to Shinobu Kaitani's series Suizan Police Gang before moving to Masaya Tokuhiro on Jungle King Tar-chan and Mizu no Tomodachi Kappaman, which gave him an unexpected influence on his artistic style. At the age of 19, he worked as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki on Rurouni Kenshin, before winning the Hop... full article at wikipedia