CATDOLL: Oda said that "One Piece" is a comic for men, not fujoshi!

As the author of the national-level youth manga "One Piece", Oda Eiichiro's name has long been deeply imprinted in the hearts of anime fans. Recently, he talked about the problem that today's youth manga is becoming more and more girl-oriented in an interview. The excerpt is as follows:

Q: When the work is animated, I think you must have communicated with the animation staff. So what was your first impression of Mr. Oda?

Oda: At the beginning, I greeted the staff. At that time, I felt that I met a group of very good people. Because everyone understands boys' comics. They don't care about "cuteness" or not, which is great. I just hope to immerse myself in the world of boys' comics.

“Personally, I just want to immerse myself in the world of boys’ comics.”

Since I am serializing my work in a boys' comics magazine, I must make boys happy. This is my job. After I became a professional cartoonist, every time I saw letters from readers, I found that most of them were written by girls. Boys don't know how to write letters anymore (laughs).

When I realized that girls would express a lot of opinions, I looked around the comics industry and felt that "this person, did he just follow the girls' opinions?" There are many such cases. The reason for this is that the cartoonists regarded fan letters as the needs of the customers, so they drew according to these needs. But in the end, this work also became a girl's comic (laughs). After all, if you draw according to the needs like this, it becomes a work with girls as the main audience. I think this is a very big mistake.

Female readers' preferences are always beyond the author's expectations

Q: But those important young people don’t give advice to others.

Oda: Yes. In this case, I can only recall what I liked when I was a child, and then draw based on that. Of course, it’s not that the boys never give me suggestions. I looked at the New Year’s cards my parents brought me, and I found that there were some written by boys (laughs).

In this way, I can see opinions that truly match the boys' thoughts. For example, "I like this battle" or "I like this move", etc. I will sigh as I read, "Ah, as expected, such feedback makes people happy to read." Therefore, I must value the valuable opinions written by these boys. Of course, the letters written by girls also make me happy. It's nice to see them chattering. But if I change my original intention because of their opinions, then I will lose the capital to gain a foothold in the boys' magazine, or I will have no value to exist. Regarding this, I have truly felt it since the beginning of serialization.

I wonder if the author of "Kuroko's Basketball" will feel a chill down his spine after reading it?

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