There are certain things I keep exclusive to the board and certain things I keep exclusive to the podcastā¦for a period of time. If I do that, Zach can call it exclusive and it will reach fans first through the podcast as a bonus. Just as basically visting Arlong Park is a bonus since it's the rootin'st tootin'st OP message board on teh intranet. Zach is very cool with letting me do what I like with my work which is why I allow him a buffer with certain things regarding timing of posts. But he also understands that I love to do what I do which is give you guys info.
-Itās exactly 10 years since the animated series began and on December 12th the 10th movie will debut so to begin, you handled the story this time around, how was it?
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At first I outright refused. Iām the kind of guy who can only take care of one thing at a time so to deal with both the comic and a story was just impossible. I know that about myself best so I asked them to let me off the hook but the producer whoās been good to me in the past wouldnāt give in so I explained my terms and said that if Mr. Children did the main theme then Iād do it. (laughs)
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So that probably made your your already packed workload for the serialization even more difficult right?
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I thought I was gonna die for sure. Even just dealing with the drafts of the serialization, there are other jobs that come in and the movie filled all of that up to the point where I was just thinking about it day in and day out. It even opened up a few gaps in the serialization and there wasnāt much left of me after the whole thing. Thatās why I made a declaration to the movie staff that nothing like this would ever happen again. In exchange for that, I made absolutely sure this film will be a smash. I told them thatās the only thing they can expect me to be responsible for. I guarantee the excitement of this film.
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Itās been 12 years since the serialization began and in that sizeable chunk of time, the tension has never once let up, itās only gotten increasingly more exciting. Is there some trick to how you keep your readers thirsty for more?
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I donāt think thereās any trick to it. If youāve got a serialization that runs a good number of years, then your readers are going to become adults and there was actually a time when I worried that they might drift away. But then on the other hand, when I realized that means there are children being born too so if you donāt drift off target and aim straight then you just need to hold onto the reality that while you might lose some readers, they will always be replaced and that helped me come to terms with the situation. If you just believe in continuing to draw what you think is interesting, new readers will come and sometimes there are even cases where people who stopped reading for a while, will come back.
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Why made you think about writing a pirate story from the start? Is there some work that influenced you to that end?
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I donāt know if it was an influence as much as it was just a starting point but that would be the animated series āThe Little Viking Bikkeā. When I saw that, from that point on āadventureā simply became synonymous with āpiratesā to me. Actually, I always wondered why people werenāt writing about pirates. I thought if I drew pirate stuff it would let me draw a grand adventure.
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And oh how grand it is. You even had a ship fly through the air.
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Anythingās possible. I set it up so that the impossible is the norm on Grand Line so I can do whatever I want. The weather is hazardous, the sea is rough, there arenāt many ways for people to come and go as they please, so it isnāt that strange if youāve got these cultures independent of each other. For example, if I wanted to write about some kind of school drama story, all Iāve gotta do is draw a School Island. I can go about my own way as I please because of how I set it up so anything can happen.
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Before you began serialization, did you have most of the plot decided?
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Nope, I didnāt have much. Just the ending.
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Huh? You know the ending? [Bad interviewer. Baaaaad. No biscuit!]
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Yeah I know it. So however crazy I make it now, all Iāve gotta do is reach that point and if I do that, everything will be fine.
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I donāt want to push too hard so I wonāt ask anything beyond this but do you think it would be safe to consider the ending a long way off?
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Since itās already decided, thereās a part of me somewhere that wants to hurry up and draw the last image but in reality, I donāt think that will be for a long time. Because, I want to think about how I handle each of my characters appropriately, I donāt want to just throw away a pawn just to set up a checkmate, if I just think about writing in the moment, itās bound to get long no matter what. Recently the crew has grown in number again and even when just one thing happens, I wind up wanting to draw all of their reactions so that takes even more time. But wanting to portray each individual characterās story like that that is something readers sympathize with me for so I just donāt want to overdo it. So when that happens no matter what I do it just ends up getting longer.
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One Piece can really be a tear-jerker.
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I didnāt think about myself as that kind of author. Mainly because I loved drawing action scenes. Thatās something I realized about myself only after serialization began. Thatās typical me.
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Have you ever been writing and started to cry yourself? [Bad interviewer! BAD! In the cage!]
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Yes definitely. Other peopleās work doesnāt make me cry, but my own work makes me fall apart. (laughs) Probably because I think so hard about it.
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Now there are 56 volumes out and whenever I read it this always amazes me but with material so much material itās remarkable how tightly woven the story is.
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Yeah, Iām pretty good arenāt I. (laughs) Of course I handle it on a very minute scale but when I look back on some things, there are just some things that have worked out miraculously all by their own. But I donāt want to disappoint anyone so I donāt really talk about those things. (laughs) I think thatās even more impressive than the things I actually intended.
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When youāre drawing are there any rules for yourself with respect to things you absolutely will not do?
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I like to draw party scenes. So I donāt want to draw anything that would ruin that atmosphere. And this is a manga for boys so I wonāt draw anything about relationships. I get a lot of letters from female readers asking me to cover some kind of relationship but if thatās what you want to read, go read a girlās manga, thatās not my job. I donāt care if someone falls for Luffy, but itās something that would be over before you know it. But knowing Luffy, I donāt think that kind of thing would be a problem. (laughs)
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When you were 17 the short comic WANTED! Won 2nd Place in the Tezuka Awards but when did you first want to be a manga author? [BAD interviewer! Get in the basement! Git!]
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Itās something I had already decided by the time I was four. My dad went to the company and worked and my mom stayed at home and did chores. I thought being an adult meant doing those kinds of things but at one point, I learned that there were people who could make a living drawing pictures and it seems that I actually said, āThatās what I wanna be.ā
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When you got the Tezuka award did you think you had already made the big time?
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There was definitely a part of me that thought I could instantly go to the top. I took manga too lightly back then. Cause I was stupid. (laughs) I thought if I could get that far with just that kind of work, it would be smooth sailing, so I made the pilgrimage to Tokyo and from that moment, everything came crashing down. No matter how many sketches I handed in, none of them got approved. Back then I had way too much pride in my own work, to the point where I would read someone elsesā work all the while thinking that my own was more interesting. I was a real piece of work back then. But, thankfully, I came to realize how much strength I actually lacked and when you do that, you finally see how big the wall in front of you really is. To write an interesting 19 page comic in just one week, one after another, is not something humans are capable of. I now believe that people meant to be manga authors are born into it. And that was a shock. There were times that I fell face-down and wouldnāt be able to move of my own will for a week.
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Did you ever think about giving up on becoming a manga author? [Good interviewer! Gooood boy!]
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Yeah I did actually. It was only once, but I thought to myself, āWell, thereās still time for me to make it as a salary man.ā But I was saved by the words of my editor at the time. The two of us were always fighting but one day he said to me, āIn all my years, Iāve never seen a guy like you who works so hard but has nothing to show for it.ā That brought on the tears. Just those few words put me at ease and I thought about going for it with everything again.
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And so One Piece was born and its popularity spread like wildfire but did you ever think it would be this big?
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Well of course I knew that if I drew pirate stuff it would be interesting but I never thought it would happen that fast. It instantly spread and flared up in popularity. But since many things in this world have a way of vanishing before you know it, itās pretty scary when I think about it.
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What kind of things about the serialization make you happy?
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Yeah, thatād probably have to be whenever I make a good story. Iām a wreck when I canāt do my job well. I wind up moping if I donāt feel Iāve fully completed a good story. More than just being unable to stand myself, if I donāt think my prints for the previous week went well, I canāt rest until I make up for it the next week. Manga is something that if I fail at, the only way I can make up for it, is with manga. Iām weird that way. (laughs) No matter how busy my private life might get, if I canāt devote time to manga Iāll just end up being frustrated. Thatās just who I am. I make it harder for myself.
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So youāre a perfectionist.
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Only towards the comic. Iām really trailing when it comes to my private life. Yet again, Iāve only been home once this year. Iām busy so thereās no choice there really.
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How do you handle your family? [Gooood interviewer! Who wants a treat?]
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They come to stay at the workplace once a week. I have two children and theyāre adorable. (laughs) I want to spend more time with them and right now thatās really bugging me. As far as work is concerned that which is ācuteā, is a nuisance. If itās your friend or something, and you donāt see them because youāre busy itās no big deal and theyāll understand but for my kids thereās just no way that applies.
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By the way, what characters do your children like? [Good interviewer! Whoās a cutey?]
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They like Nami-chan. Nami-chan and Chopper. But basically it seems that they like āPretty Cureā better. And so it is that Pretty Cure is that which stokes the flames of rivalry in my heart. I wanna take Pretty Cure down. (laughs)
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I think you probably hear this question a lot but what Devilās Fruit would you like to eat? [BAD INTERVIEWER! WEāRE TAKING YOU TO SEE THE MAN IN THE WHITE COAT AGAIN!]
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Purely as the dream of any man, Iād probably like to eat the Suke Suke Fruit. (laughs) But ultimately Iād probably want the Hana Hana Fruit. If I had lots of hands I could do my work much faster.
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Itās a strange way of saying it, but you really love manga donāt you.
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I like it and I also feel like, āWell I started this thing soā¦ā, However, I believe that manga itself should always be āThe Lord of Killing Timeā so I donāt want to cram any deep messages into it. I just write it as something that should be easy to enjoy, something you can read when youāve got free time and at best, Iād be happy if it could help students make friends at the start of new semesters. Because thatās what can happen when lots of people read it. If everyone is reading the same manga, it doesnāt matter what school some kid came from, if youāve got something to talk about in common, then itās easy to make friends. Something thatās really mysterious about One Piece is that since women read it too, Iāve actually gotten fan letters that tell me mutual fandom has led to marriage. So Iām not really trying to say something about the world, I just think the reason I draw manga, or maybe you could say one of my roles in life, is to connect people.
*THIS HAS NOT BEEN QUALITY CHECKED!!!!! This is essentially my rough draft. A final version will be going up on my site.