[Discussion] One Piece Author Oda Eiichiro Shared his experince that girls more likely to write feedbacks/complaints than boys : KotakuInAction

Whamin be nagging

Interviewer: I believe this commitment was something you had already held onto when you first started creating One Piece as a manga for young readers, right?

Oda: That's right. Since I was drawing for a magazine aimed at young boys, I always felt it was my job to make them enjoy the content.

Once I became a professional and started receiving fan letters, I realized most of them were from girls.

Boys, you see, just don't pick up a pen to write (laughs).

They don't have stationery or stamps, and they don't bother to take the time and effort to write something like, "I enjoyed it."

So boys, while they are enjoying the content, won't express their opinions.

When I realized how many opinions came from girls and looked around at the manga world, I noticed many creators who seemed to be influenced by girls' opinions.

This made me think, if you base your work entirely on the feedback you get from fan letters, you might end up creating something that's essentially a shojo(girls') manga (laughs).

After all, if you're drawing with girls in mind, then you're completely missing the point.

Interviewer: But the key point here is that boys don't share their opinions, right?

Oda: Exactly. In that case, I thought I needed to dig into my own memories and recall what I would have found enjoyable as a child. I realized I had to focus tightly on those elements and make sure not to stray from them.

Of course, it's not like boys never give feedback. For example, if they get New Year's postcards from their parents, they might use them to send something to me (laughs).

Then, I'd get messages like, "I love the battles," or "This technique is so cool." These are such typical boyish comments, and when I read them, I think, "Ah, yes, this is the kind of thing they really enjoy."

So, while I deeply value the rare opinions I get from boys, I'm also delighted by the letters from girls.

Those letters feel like an outpouring of lively enthusiasm.

However, if I were to let myself be swayed entirely by those opinions, I think I would lose my position within the world of manga for boys and possibly even my own sense of purpose.

That's something I only truly realized after starting the serialization.