After seeing the original Weekly Shônen Jump Issue with Oda’s second version of Romance Dawn and Oda’s One Shot where he became runner-up of the Tezuka Award, let’s take a look at the 1994 compilation volume of the award-winning Hop☆Step Manga Awards’ One Shots. For those of you keeping count: this was Oda’s second major competition and first win.
Oda’s second application to a manga competition was when he was 18-19 years old. In 1993, Oda sent in a One Shot called “Ikki Yakô!” for the Hop☆Step Award, another award aimed at young up-and-coming manga artists where he won first prize. The one-shot was originally published in the 1993 “Spring Special” Weekly Shônen Jump magazine (similar to the current spring issue of “Jump Next” and there it was revealed that the overall score for this One Shot was a solid 28/30. Hunter x Hunter manga hiatist/artist Yoshihiro Togashi also commented on the easy to read artstyle of Oda.
Contrary to the western-themed story of the Tezuka One Shot -Wanted-, the story of Ikki Yakô is about a somewhat cowardly monk named Gukô who battles monsters in a very Usopp-y way, but manages to muster up the courage needed to get his hands dirty when he really needs to.
If you want to read this award-winning One Shot, be sure to try and contact the people at VIZ to ask them for an official translation for this interesting piece. What follows is a page where Oda introduces himself to the readers.
Name:
———–
Eiichirô Oda
Gender:
———–
Male
Date of Birth:
——————-
S50/1/1
Hometown:
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Ku♡ma♡mo♡DON (muahaha) “Just die already!”
Weight:
————
62 kilograms
Height:
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172 centimeters
Bloodtype:
—————-
A
Manga experience:
—————————–
19 years
Previously won manga awards:
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Runner-up at 44th Tezuka-Award, H☆S 1st Place
Reason for wanting to become a mangaka:
—————————————————-
Manga is amazing.
Hobby:
———–
Making my body go through hardships
Special skill:
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Nutrional support
Favorite manga artist and works:
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Akira Toriyama: THE WORLD (all of ‘em)
Masaya Tokuhiro
Shinobu Kaitani
Plans for your next series:
————————————–
A
Forest-crossing
Valley-spanning
Mountain-passing
Sky-soaring
Wind-slicing
Cloud-splitting
Ground-quaking
Ocean-dividing
Heavens-dropping
Hellfire-gushing
I guess this makes it official: One Piece’s real story isn’t actually about the search for Raftel and the quest to becoming Pirate King, but the love Luffy feels for his meat!
Anything else you want to say?
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While I may have gotten prizes before, in the end I’m still a novice manga artist… I hope that rather than focusing on the story’s you’ll be able to get a sense of the energy I’ve put into this piece.
“ALRIGHT! LET’S DO THIS!!”
Interesting fact: The judges for this Hop☆Step Award were Hirohiko Araki, Shin Mitsuhara, Yoshihiro Togashi, Masanori Morita and Yutaka Takahashi. The overall consensus amongst the authors (no specifics were given, only general comments for all the entries) was that the One Shots that were sent in lacked “personality and realness to the story” as well as a bit of “je-ne-sais-quoi.” Oda’s piece was praised for the natural feel to the main characters’ actions, although “the evolving change in the characters’ fighting resolve felt naive.“
