Kotaku East East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. Prev Next View All

Since 1997, Eiichiro Oda has produced One Piece. According to a recent Japanese magazine article, he has zero days off. And every night, he gets around four hours of sleep on average.


One Piece is the most popular manga in Japan. Initially, Oda planned to end One Piece sooner (after five years of serialization), but the manga, now in its 15th year, has become a cultural juggernaut.

If the 37-year-old manga artist does ever end the comic, he'll retire. "If I stop drawing One Piece," Oda recently said, "I'm thinking I'll quit being a manga artist."


Continuing, he said, "To be precise, this isn't going to be serialized for a long time, and that I swear on my heart." What's keeping him going, Oda said, is that he's thinking of the work he'll leave behind after he's dead.

Dude needs a vacation. And a nap.

Update: As Kotaku reader Greg pointed out, Oda vaguely meant he's not going to do other long-form serialized work.

G/O Media may get a commission LG 75-Inch 8K TV Buy for $2150 from BuyDig Use the promo code ASL250

尾田栄一郎の生活は週休０日、平均睡眠時間４時間 [GATUN]

ワンピースを描き終えたら漫画家を辞める [おたじゅうぶろぐ]