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While there is always outright competition among anime fans to decide which series is the best, mangakas keep their opinions to themselves. But in an interview with Gosho Aoyama, the creator ofDetective Conan, Eiichiro Oda let lose and admitted that he always saw Aoyama as a rival.
Both authors have been at the forefront of the anime/manga industry for decades, despite Oda debuting a lot later than Aoyama. The authors also discussed the stress of creating a series which deprived mangakas from being aware of their surroundings.
Eiichiro Oda RecountsDetective ConanOnly Had One Rival
Inthe interview,Eiichiro Odaadmitted thatDetective Conanwas one of the top manga when he first joined the manga industry. The only rival Gosho Aoyama had was The Kindaichi Case Files by Yozaburo Kanari and Seimaru Amagi.
After ‘Dragon Ball’ ended, the world of shonen manga was dominated by two works, ‘Detective Conan’ and ‘The Kindaichi Case Files’. Conan was always winning.
Gosho Aoyama himself seemed pleasantly surprised by the fact. Eiichiro Oda began working as an assistant onRurouni Kenshinby Nobuhiro Watsuki at the age of 19. He is even credited for helping create the character Honjo Kamatari for the series. Oda admitted that back when he was working for Watsuki, the team was proud that the shonen manga world was carried by battle-focused manga.
However, Watsuki himself was of the opinion that ifDetective Conanwasn’t always performing well or wasn’t a long-running series, it wouldn’t have been at the top. Oda, being a loyal assistant, was also influenced by this perspective at the time. The team unanimously agreed that a mystery manga shouldn’t be at the top of a shonen ranking.
“Lots of people thought Jump would be in huge trouble”: Eiichiro Oda Recalled How One Piece Saved Shonen Jump after 2 Iconic Manga Ended Their Run
Detective Conanhas received several anime seasons,movies, OVAs, and live-action, and it is a pretty big franchise. In fact, Aoyama is considered the fourth richest mangaka, with anestimated net worthof $50 million. Funnily enough, the richest mangaka is Eiichiro Oda with an estimated net worth of above $200 million.
Eiichiro Oda’s One-Sided Rivalry withDetective Conan‘s Author
Eiichiro Oda also admitted that due to the tough competition withDetective Conan, he always considered the series an enemy. In fact, he avoided reading the series out of his one-sided enmity.
I even had thoughts such as “I’ll drag you down, haha…”. Not joking, I used to think of you as an enemy until now haha!
In the interview, Oda realized that his rivalry was only from his side, and was never reciprocated by Aoyama. TheDetective Conanauthor admitted that when it came toKindaichi Files, he never wanted to lose to it. But given thatDetective Conanwas in the top ranks, it didn’t really matter.
“I was really desperate”: Eiichiro Oda Fought Tooth and Nail for One Piece to Somehow Surpass the Manga He Truly Thought of as a Rival
Aoyama then recalled that afterOne Piecedebuted,Detective Conanwasovertaken right away. Oda humbly answered that back then he was so desperate that he wasn’t entirely sure how everything went down. He just tried his best and stopped looking around at other series. Aoyama also admitted that creating a detective series alone was so hard that he never had time to think about other series.
You can readDetective Conanon Viz Media, and the anime is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Aaheli Pradhan
Anime Content Writer
Articles Published :1558
Aaheli is an Anime Content Writer at FandomWire with 1300+ published articles. With five years of experience under her belt, she is a living, breathing encyclopedia for anime and manga. From Shonen and Shojo to the most niche anime, nothing escapes her radar. Her poisons of choice are Assassination Classroom, Gintama, Ouran High School Host Club and every Ghibli movie ever. She believes in living a slow life, surrounded by incomplete art projects and her beloved cats.
