Summary
Quick Links
Eiichiro Oda, the mangaka ofOne Piece, has become a legendary author over the years. However, his success wasn’t always guaranteed, and many in the industry doubted that he would become successful.
However, he proved everyone wrong in the end and became the biggest mangaka in the world, with his series only growing. This is all thanks to his final attempt.
Oda Was Rejected Multiple Times Before One Piece
His Romance Dawn One Shot is What Changed Everything
One Piece is the biggest manga in all of history. Its sales are simply mind-blowing, and no other series even comes close. To make things crazier,One Piecehas gotten Oda into the top 10 most-sold authors in the world. Yet, it is almost mind-boggling to think thatOda almost failed at being a mangaka.
Indeed, for a few years, Oda kept getting rejected by his editors whenever he pitched a story. This must have been very demoralizing for him, as it seemed like he kept failing. It all changed when Oda decided to give it one more try. His final trump card would be Romance Dawn, a one-shot manga he would release one year before One Piece, back in 1996. It’s scary to think that Oda could’ve given up before that, and One Piece would’ve never existed.
This is Oda’s message from back in 1996, just before he made his final attempt— one which eventually resulted in a ton of success:
“For two nightmarish years, I drew many manga, only to be rejected every time by my editor. The bright path to becoming a mangaka from my childhood was fading into uncertainty. This pirate manga Romance Dawn is my last trump card. Go, Luffy!! Make me a mangaka!” — Eiichiro Oda
What is Romance Dawn?
Oda’s One Shot Chapter
When one thinks of Romance Dawn, the first arc of One Piece comes to mind. However, Oda specifically refers to the oneshot that came before it here. Both the first arc of One Piece and Oda’s One Shot share the same name.
Romance Dawn, the one shot, was a One Piece prototype. It even got a one-episode anime adaptation about 6 years ago that fans might remember. That anime episode number was 907, and was titled Romance Dawn, just like the one-shot manga.
The Romance Dawn one-shot was 50 pages long, and was released back in June 02, 2025, about 29 years ago now.
This story features known characters fromOne Piece’svery first arc,such as Monkey D. Luffy, but also characters fans only see in that one shot, such as Ann, a blue-haired girl who doesn’t exist inOne Piece, but was instead used asthe blueprint for Nami.
Sadly, Oda’s original one-shot manga isn’t available on any official manga website. The anime episode adapting it can, however, be watched on Crunchyroll, while keeping in mind it has a few variations from the original one-shot.
For fans who want to read the One Piece manga in general, the entirety of the series can be found on both Manga Plus or Viz Media, including weekly releases.
