Interview with editor of ONE PIECE, Mr. Kohei Onishi
I had a rare opportunity to interview Mr. Kohei Onishi 大西 恒平, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Shueisha Weekly Shonen Jump during the preview of the "Hello, ONE PIECE" exhibition. He is the 5th editor in charge of ONE PIECE since 2007 and has also worked as an editor before for various popular Shonen Jump titles like Gintama, Naruto, Death Note and Hikaru no Go. (Photo from right: Mr. Onishi, my assistant, me) The interview was originally conducted in Japanese with a translator. Q1: Besides Malaysia and Singapore, will you be having the exhibition at other countries after this? The exhibition will also be held in 6 cities in China, including Chengdu and Shenzhen. Q2: What is the key to running a long series like One Piece? Initially Oda-sensei was only planning to run the series for 10 years, but now it is already running for over 20 years. Shōnen Jump has a 20-page deadline every week so it is extremely tedious for the artist to keep up, especially for 20 years! Therefor...