Oda (2008): A number of strong elderly people are a characteristic of One Piece. There are many cool elderly people in real life, but they are not strong. That is why I want them to be strong in my manga.💪
The first page of chapter 1085 is officially out. Imu refers to himself/herself as Mu (ムー), which gives us Japanese fans a somewhat *childish* impression. BTW, Mu is a mythical lost continent introduced by Augustus Le Plongeon, who identified the "Land of Mu" with Atlantis.🔔
Oda: I'm not an idiot like Luffy, but he is my ideal kid. Sometimes he says a line that convinces everyone, but the rest of the time I just want him to be a kid. Luffy is a bit mysterious even to me. If I understood everything about him, my audience would get bored.😅
Oda (2007): A pirate with an eye-patch will appear in the final phase of One Piece. I'm itching to draw that character as soon as possible.😍 Maybe people have a preconception that many pirates wear eye patches, but actually I've never drawn any pirates with eye patches.
Shanks' attack Devine Departure is written as 神避 (Kamusari) in JP chapter, which means *death of god*. It's based on the ancient JP records called Kojiki 1300 years ago. Maybe Oda is implying Shanks and Roger share the will to defeat *god* aka Celestial Dragons💪 #ONEPIECE1079
After a chapter was out, Oda asked editor Sugita if he felt unnanutral somewhere in the chapter. Sugita admitted he had felt a bit unnatural but refrained from pointing it out. Oda got mad, "Don't you dare do that again! Editor's opinion is so important as my first audience!🔥"