At the age of 17, Eiichiro Oda launched his comic career with the one-shot cowboy manga Wanted! Before winning the Hop Step Prize for emerging artists, Oda worked as an assistant to some of the industry's best manga artists, including Nobuhiro Watsuki. One Piece, his pirate adventure that first appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1997, immediately became one of Japan's most popular manga.