(TRANS) Eiichiro Oda:”Have A Party Is a Form Of Friendship”.

Second Part Eiichiro Oda The Mangaka of One Piece Interview.

Q:Please tell us your favorite character

AT: I like the one characters that helped Luffy in Impel Down: Ivankov and Bentham (Bon Kurei).

No matter what, it is interesting the gap was born, I want to draw heatdly.

Even the intrusive sly character Bagy, it’s adorable.

I am grateful that my characters are popular among women, but fundamentally boys are cool, I think that I want to draw to make them thinking “this is interesting”.

For example, Sanji is not just cool, he is also erotic. I can trust in people that like characters of their same genre.

Q: The brother of Luffy, the death of Ace, gave a shock to reader.

AT: Here I was really in trouble.

To make Luffy to make a progress, it was necessary to make him experience huge trials.

The reaction of the readers went beyond my imagination.

I had to overcome this challenge together to Luffy too. But it is just a pleasure, I am not (forced to) do a long novel.

Q: Usually, I could be more surprised by the fact almost nor enemies and nor allies die.

AK: I don’t want to draw scenes where people die, especially because I want to show more a “party ” (*characters have fun) after a battle.

A “Party” represents for me the friendship. (Literally: Feast is my form of friendship)

Even for the ending I want to give a huge banquet/party.

Q: After Ace’s death, through the message of Luffy “3D2Y” you reached a huge turning point.

AK: For Luffy’s 17 years old is impossible to beat strong enemies from Four Emperor.

The growth of Luffy and all characters around me has been done to compensate the imagination. Because I didn’t want Luffy to grow up(*to become adult) that much, I set 2 years until reunion.

I wanted to keep myself on a shonen manga.

Q:What is the dream of Luffy? Becoming The King of Pirates?

AK: For Luffy “the one who lives freely in the world” is the pirate king, isn’t he?

On the other hand, Luffy always has moved for someone else. He is cool to help people in front of his eyes. He is also happy when he can make another person happy. Returns favors to who got indepted.

The heart of the hero that lives for people with the spirit of a such samurai, want to conver through generations. I also liked old hero movies. I think Bunta Sugawara is the most handsome guy.

Q: What do you want to say to children that want to realize own dreams?

AK: I have a rule that I can’t include in manga, but if you feel or see Luffy and others, I wish you catch! If there are 100 people, you can catch them in 100 different ways.