Eiichiro Oda, the author of One Piece, is the main talking point among One Piece fans this week, and this is down to the news of his deteriorating health. Oda recently took a break after his visit to South Africa, and this was likely due to his involvement with the live-action and the general planning that he had to do for his own manga as well.

While the story returned a week later, fans now find out that Oda is taking another 2 weeks long break, and this time, it is due to his health suffering quite a bit. Naturally, fans are worried about Oda’s health, and it will inevitably have consequences for what is to come next in the manga.

Oda’s Deteriorating Health Over The Years

Oda Isn’t Taking Proper Care Of Himself

Oda’s Doctors Are Concerned

The fact that Oda’s health is slowly deteriorating does not come as a surprise to anyone. This is simply the nature of working in Jump. It is also something that has been normalized over the years, and needs a reform. Of course, a reform does not seem likely at any point, and authors continue to suffer in one way or another. The likes of Oda and Kishimoto struggled and rushed their manga due to the ghoulish schedule of Jump.

I have no fear of running out of manga ideas. I am confident that if I think hard, I can come up with any good ideas. There is only the battle to keep my lifespan from running out before One Piece reaches the final chapter.

It is believed that Oda has just 3 hours of sleep and spends a significant portion of his time preparing their stories for publication in the following week. In the case of Oda, fans know that he even sleeps away from his family in his studio, where he spent the entire time working on his manga and sometimes doesn’t even get any sleep. Naturally, carrying on this schedule for 27 years, which is something that Oda has done now, would affect his health adversely.

Oda has gone from releasing chapters every single week to, more recently, around the beginning of the Wano, dropping about 3-4 chapters in succession, followed by a break. Things have gotten to a point where Oda now drops only three chapters consecutively, and then takes a break. In fact, sometimes, Oda even takes a break after two chapters, which just goes to show that things are only getting worse. Oda’s body is not the same as it was 20 years ago, and he simply cannot keep up with the incredible stress that Jump brings with it. At the same time, fans know that Oda has already done this for about 27 years, which brings with it the next level of exhaustion. Oda certainly needs a break and not a small one.

How Oda’s Health Could Affect The Final Saga

The Final Saga Of One Piece Could Be Rushed

As always, fans’s primary concern should be with Oda and his health. After all, the story should always be second to the author’s own health. That said, fans know that if Oda continues to go down this road, this will also affect the way One Piece handles the remaining story in one way or another. Oda has stated often and vocally that he wants to end One Piece in a certain amount of time. For instance, in 2019, Oda stated that he wants to end One Piece in about 5 years. Fast forward to 2024, which is 5 years later, Oda is nowhere close to ending his manga, and the Final Saga has only just begun, with Egghead proving to be the gateway to it. There are at least five to six more years of publication for One Piece left, which means that the story will most likely continue into 2030 as well. Continuing in a weekly manga magazine will only worsen his health, which means that fewer chapters get dropped a year, which, consequently, mean that the manga will only go for longer.

More than that, fans know that this could affect the quality of the upcoming arcs as well. For instance, Oda would ideally want to expand upon certain elements of the upcoming arcs, such as Elbaf, in a certain way. But, due to his worsening health conditions, he may cut down on certain things and remove them from his manga entirely, which would, naturally, affect the quality of the arc.

For instance, the endings of MHA and JJK recently turned out to be incredibly rushed, due to the author’s health complications. Of course, JJK had issues other than the author’s health as well, but one absolutely cannot deny the fact that the story played out the way it did largely due to his worsening health conditions.

Fans know for a fact that Oda will continue to struggle if he doesn’t take more frequent breaks, and there’s only one solution to all his problems. Unfortunately, the solution is the exact opposite of what Oda wants, but it is required at this point in time.

Should Oda Change The Publication Schedule Of One Piece?

One Piece Should Go Seasonal

The easiest way to fix all this is for Oda to change the publication schedule of One Piece. In fact, this would solve the vast majority of Oda’s problems. Instead of dropping three chapters consecutively and then taking a break, Oda could simply resort to dropping chapters bi-weekly, which means that he would have one week of break after every chapter. Of course, the negative side of this would be that One Piece would go on for longer and while that would be incredibly fun for the fans, it would certainly not be fun for Oda, who has desperately wanted to wrap up his story because he has yet to to fulfill quite a few of his familiar duties.

At this point, Oda has to make peace with the fact that One Piece will take longer to conclude but, on the flip side, his health will be preserved. Oda can also do longer chapters and drop just one every month, similar to what other mangaka have done over the years. Naturally, doing this isn’t something that is based entirely on Oda’s whims. He will need the approval of Shueisha, and probably other stakeholders as well. But, it is certainly something that can be done due to Oda’s legendary status.

If Oda were to change the publication schedule of One Piece, most fans would appreciate the fact that he is taking care of his health and, at the same time, not compromising on the quality of One Piece either. It would be a win-win for all parties involved, and, above all, Oda might even get more time to spend with his family. Whether that will happen or not is something that fans do not know, and if they know anything about order, it is that he still believes that he can continue writing in the weekly Shonen Jump magazine for years to come.