One Piece is likely at the peak of its global popularity right now. The series has never garnered as much attention as it has in the past few years. However, during his visit to Japan Expo Paris 2025 in France, former Shonen Jump editor Kazuhiko Torishima stated that he believed One Piece has gotten worse over time.
Torishima is one of the most important editors in the manga industry, and he worked at Shonen Jump for years. He is mostly known as the editor of Dragon Ball, but he was Shonen Jump‘s editor-in-chief from 1996 to 2015 (he was appointed when the sales suddenly dropped sharply following the ending of Dragon Ball), and he initially opposed the serialization of One Piece.
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Torishima Believes Oda Won Over the Editors
Torishima gave an interview with the French website France Info, where he was questioned about One Piece. Before delving into his answer, it’s important to provide some context regarding Torishima’s relationship with One Piece. In 1997, before the manga began serialization, Torishima was Shonen Jump‘s chief editor, and he described One Piece as boring and wasn’t sure if it should be published. He probably had never imagined the manga would last for almost 30 years.
Therefore, France Info asked him to tell more about the reasons why he didn’t think One Piece should be approved. Torishima then clarified that he had nothing against the story or its characters. In fact, he thought it was a good manga, but he saw many technical problems in the way the story would be developed. His answer suggests that he thought that Eiichiro Oda’s drawing and writing styles were confusing for children and that he needed to fix a lot of things. There was an internal debate on Shonen Jump about whether to give it a chance or not. After a long, divisive debate, he decided to publish it, believing the series had a lot of potential.
France Info then asked if he thought that Oda’s work evolved over time, to which he answered that he first thought it improved but then deteriorated:
At the time, I thought it had improved, but then it deteriorated. I think his editors can no longer tell him anything. The author won over the editors.
While his answers will surely spark heated debate, many are impressed by how honest Torishima was compared to what we usually get from Japanese executives. This might be related both to his personality and the fact that he retired from Shueisha. In any case, some fans appear to agree with his views:
I’m impressed. It’s rare for Japanese people to be this bland. They usually speak with vague words. I haven’t read everything, but the One Piece part resonates well with me.
The Role of an Editor in Manga Production
In the interview, Torishima also mentioned how he sees the work of an editor. In his opinion, the editor is the first reader of the story, so they should be able to decide whether the series is interesting and if it is delivering what it intends to deliver. After that, in cases where they judge that things aren’t good, they should be able to understand why the story isn’t working in order to give authors a few suggestions to adjust the story.
Even though authors might not take the feedback very well, it’s the job of the editor to fix everything they can before the story is out, at least according to Torishima’s opinion and experience.
One Piece is available to read on MANGA Plus, in English and many other languages.
Source: France Info
One Piece
- Release Date
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October 20, 1999
- Network
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Fuji TV
- Directors
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Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
- Writers
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Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda
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Mayumi Tanaka
Monkey D. Luffy (voice)
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Kazuya Nakai
Roronoa Zoro (voice)
