One Piece Creator Reveals Why He’s So Careful Writing the Wano Country Arc

As you might expect, the task of writing One Piece is rather hard. The series is one of the most famous in the world, and it ranks as the highest-selling manga of all time. Year after year, the Straw Hat crew continues to impress, but creator Eiichiro Oda goes through a lot to get the story right. And these days, the artist says he has to be more careful than ever.

Recently, Oda shared a message with fans in honor of Jump Festa this past weekend. The artist posted a note thanking everyone for their support as One Piece celebrated its 20th anime anniversary. The franchise went through a lot this year, but few things have challenged Oda as the Wano Country arc.

“I have to watch out for what is fine to reveal in these chapters while I’m drawing them. If I don’t restrain myself I might end up revealing every secret in the series,” the artist said (via New World Artur).

Of course, the creator of One Piece has more sense than to spill all the beans. He has kept the secret of One Piece close to chest for decades now. If he were to derail his own progress, you can bet his team would stop him before any chapter neared the printing press.

Wano Country has been hard for Oda to get through without spoiling the whole series, but the arc has already introduced so much. Not only did it confirm Momonosuke’s time traveling exploits, but it has teased information about Zoro’s swordsmanship and more. And if Oda is able to hold himself back, then fans should be able to get through this arc with minimal endgame spoilers.

Are you enjoying the Wano Country arc so far? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has since been collected into over 80 volumes, and has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with over 430 million copies sold.