I’m going to preface this by saying that I adore One Piece, which shouldn’t be a surprise to people who have read some of the things I’ve written about the series. I believe that Luffy is the most inspiring comic book hero currently being written, and even though there are some intensely forgettable arcs in the series, the highs far outstrip the lows. While I admire Eiichiro Oda’s ability to play the long game when it comes to his characters, I find myself frustrated at his continued support of known paedophiles in the manga industry.

As great as my admiration for Oda’s writing and artwork is, my anger at Nobuhiro Watsuki’s continued presence in the manga industry is far greater. The Rurouni Kenshin creator was caught with a truly horrific amount of child-sex imagery and received a shockingly small punishment as a result. Within a few years, Watsuki was back working on Rurouni Kenshin as though nothing had happened. 

Before he created One Piece, Eiichiro Oda worked as an assistant to Nobuhiro Watsuki on Rurouni Kenshin, which explains why the two have been such good friends over the years. When Watsuki was arrested in 2017, however, Oda was already a well-established and successful mangaka of his own. In fact, he could have been a powerful voice to condemn Watsuki and help prevent his return to manga after his abhorrent crimes.

While Oda hasn’t publicly defended Watsuki’s actions, he also hasn’t publicly condemned them. In fact, he has continually supported his former boss over the years. In 2020, Oda interviewed Watsuki as part of the Rurouni Kenshin 25th Anniversary Exhibition and contributed to the Rurouni Kenshin 30th Anniversary celebration with quotes praising Watsuki’s influence on him. Which is very awkward because, again, Nobuhiro Watsuki is a convicted sexual predator who openly admits to being attracted to young teen girls.

You could handwave this as Oda being overly loyal to someone who helped him break into the manga industry, but it isn’t actually the only time that Eiichiro Oda has defended a known paedophile. For years, Oda has considered Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro a close friend. The pair got their start in Weekly Shonen Jump around the same time. Then, in 2002, Shimabukuro was convicted of soliciting a 16-year-old girl to have sex with him, violating Japan’s child prostitution laws. He was sentenced to two years in prison but didn’t actually serve any prison time.

Following this, Shimabukuro didn’t work in manga again until 2004. Then, in 2008, he returned to Weekly Shonen Jump with his most popular work, Toriko, which proved popular enough that Oda and Shimabukuro would create a One Piece x Toriko crossover one-shot in 2011. In 2012, Eiichiro Oda openly said that he considers Shimabukuro a “friend and rival.”

Again, Eiichiro Oda is one of the most popular and successful comic book artists on the planet. His work has a worldwide following. There is something to be said for standing by your friends, but, personally, if I had a friend who paid a teenager to have sex, I would not consider them a friend anymore because that is so at odds with my own beliefs and values. I certainly wouldn’t publicly support them and use my massive platform to promote their work.

There has never been any indication that Eiichiro Oda has ever done anything illegal or immoral in the way that Nobuhiro Watsuki and Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro have, and I don’t want to even imply that he has. My disappointment comes from his inability or unwillingness to distance himself from people who have done wrong. There needs to be a point where he cuts them out of his life. While it hasn’t stopped me from reading and enjoying One Piece, all of this makes me look at the manga’s creator, whose work I, again, deeply admire, in a different, more complicated light.

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