If there’s one thing One Piece fans know about creator and mangaka Eiichiro Oda, it’s that he’s a hard worker. Incredibly hard. Legendarily hard. “Wait, is he okay?”-level hard. One Piece has become a global smash hit since its 1997 debut, 26 years ago. Despite having a team of assistants, Oda draws “everything that moves” in all 1000-plus chapters of One Piece. (Apparently, he let an assistant draw snow one time and regretted it.) The man rarely sleeps (this is apparently his natural Circadian rhythm). Given all this, it won’t surprise you to learn that Oda rarely takes breaks, either.
In 26 years, Oda has only taken two four-week vacations from One Piece. One was in 2010, just before the time-skip, so he could prepare new designs. The other was exactly one year ago, in June 2022, to prepare for One Piece‘s final saga. However, on Tuesday morning (Japan-time), we got some big news: One Piece will be taking a four-week break after chapter 1086 drops this Saturday, June 10.
The news broke before a reason was given for the hiatus, which caused fans to worry about Oda’s health. But then Oda swooped in with an update: he has an astigmatism in his eye, and the hiatus is to give Oda time to get surgery and recover. This break has apparently been in the works for about a year.
In his public letter, Oda jokes that the surgery is so he can shoot laser beams from his eyes. Hence the delightful illustration of Luffy and Chopper cooing over Franky.
Maintaining a light, jovial tone, Oda continues and mentions that he’s been “seeing twins.” So … hold on a second. This man has been drawing and crafting One Piece‘s final saga—which was been stunning on all accounts—while his vision was so bad that he was seeing double?! Seriously?!
I’ve heard Japanese friends make simultaneously light-hearted and very dark jokes about Japanese work ethic (there’s a noun, karoushi, which means “death by overwork”), but damn. Oda, take two months off if you need it! If there’s someone who works in a visual medium who deserves a little extra time to recover from freaking eye surgery, it’s … well, anyone. But especially Eiichiro Oda.
One Piece fans have been incredibly gracious, wishing Oda a swift recovery. After all, apparently the final saga could get even better. Thanks to the tiny new details made possible by those eye laser beams, of course.
(featured image: Eiichiro Oda / Shounen Jump)
