ONE PIECE Creator Eiichiro Oda Says The Characters Are The Reason The Manga Didn't End After 5 Years
This past July, One Piece celebrated its 20th Anniversary but in a new interview, Oda says he originally planned to end the series after 5 years.
One Piece manga creator Eiichiro Oda has previously revealed that his original plan was for the popular shonen manga series to last five years. However, in the latest Log (compilation book) for One Piece, a new interview from Oda reveals new details about his five year plan and why the series went on for another 15 years (with seemingly no end in sight).
Said Oda (translation via @SandmanAP) , "I haven't finished One Piece yet despite the 20 year serialization. The main reason is these guys (Shichibukai). At first, I intended to finish One Piece in 5 years. It was suppoused to be a story to fight against pirated called Yonkou. However, I came up with the idea of Shichibukai...I just thought, 'It would be badass if these characters showed up'" Then as you can see, it caused this long serializaion!"
Why didn't I make them Gobukai or Nibukai!! (Translator's Note" "go" means 5, "Ni" means 2 and Shichi" as in Shichibukai means 8 in Japanese. In short, oda is saying he should have reduced the number of Shichibukai.) I thought 7 was a cool number!! That being said, I don't regret it since I drew what I wanted...I'm regretting a bit!!"
The Shichibukai are definitely one of the major obstacles for the Strawhats to overcome, but reducing their number to 5, or even 2 probably wouldn't result in the series being shortened to such an extent. There's still the Navy and several other pirates and factions that Luffy and co. have encountered over the years that would certainly see the manga last atleast six or more years, even with a reduction in the number of Shichibukai.
What do you think about Oda's comments? Do you agree with his assertion that reducing the Shichibukai would shorten the manga's run by two-thirds?