One Piece manga was a complete failure, continuously rejected by the publisher.

For manga lovers, One Piece has long been a great adventure journey that has lasted nearly three decades, becoming the best-selling manga of all time and creating a wave of global fans.

The road to success is never smooth, the story of One Piece's father - Eiichiro Oda is the clearest proof - Photo: Toei/Shonen Jump

However, behind the halo of One Piece are years of challenges and failures that author Eiichiro Oda had to face, before his name was associated with Captain Luffy.

In an interview in the special issue of Shonen Jump magazine in September, Oda frankly shared about the difficult time in the 1990s - the time when he was a young mangaka full of dreams but was constantly rejected by large and small publishing houses.

"I thought I was a complete failure," he said, recalling the first time he submitted his One Piece manuscript to Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and it was not accepted.

Three times One Piece almost failed to set sail

Before One Piece was serialized, Oda wrote several short stories such as Wanted!; Monsters; Ikki Yako; God's Gift for the Future to practice his storytelling and character drawing skills.

But it was the idea of ​​a rubber-bodied, straw-hatted pirate boy that inspired him to try his hand at a larger canvas - the work that would later become One Piece .

Romance Dawn, One Piece experimental version with different drawing style, with the appearance of Luffy and Nami prototypes

However, to set sail on that dream ship, Oda had to fail twice. In the summer of 1996, Oda first released the manuscript of Romance Dawn , the predecessor of One Piece.

Despite its fresh ideas and well-defined drawing style, the work was only published as a short story because it was still considered to lack the potential to become a serial.

A month later, he continued to submit another version of Romance Dawn to Weekly Shonen Jump but the results were still not better.

Two tries, two rejections - it was a huge blow to a young mangaka's confidence.

From that beginning, One Piece became a global phenomenon, with over 500 million copies sold and a profound influence on many generations of readers - Photo: Shonen Jump

However, instead of giving up, Oda saw failure as an opportunity to improve himself. A year later, in 1997, he presented the third draft of One Piece - and this time, the story of the boy Luffy and his dream of becoming the Pirate King was officially serialized.

Still, Oda humbly calls his early career a necessary failure. According to him, it was a journey to understand that success does not come immediately, but is the result of falling down, doubting himself, and persistently getting back up.

Other manga giants suffer the same fate

In fact, Eiichiro Oda is not the only one in the "Big 3" - the group of three most famous mangaka of the Shonen Jump generation - to experience failure.

Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto , spent years struggling with a variety of ideas, from baseball manga to mafia, before coming back to Naruto and turning it into a legend.

Mangaka success stories show that even the greatest authors have failed - Photo: Shonen Jump

Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach , also experienced shock when his first work Zombiepowder was canceled early, and his original Bleach manuscript was rejected.

It was only with words of encouragement from Akira Toriyama - the creator of Dragon Ball - that he decided to try again, and the rest is history.

After all, success, as author Oda says, is just the tip of the iceberg - the submerged part is sweat, tears, and perseverance.

Therefore, Oda calling the first One Piece drafts a complete failure is not a denial of success, but a reminder of the arduous journey of starting that any creator must go through.

Nearly 30 years later, One Piece is not just a manga, but has become a cultural heritage - a symbol of the spirit of daring to dream, daring to reach out to the ocean.

And perhaps if it weren't for those early failures, the world wouldn't have an Eiichiro Oda like today - the person who drew one of the greatest stories of the manga era.

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To Cuong

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/manga-one-piece-tung-that-bai-toan-tap-bi-nha-xuat-ban-lien-tuc-tu-choi-20251009060714768.htm