One Piece: Why I Love the Series, and Hate its Pitfalls.
"Even if armed with hundreds of weapons… there are times when you just can’t beat a man with a spear of conviction in his gut." (One Piece)
One Piece is the kind of entity, where the minute I hear anyone; be it a friend or stranger mention the word ‘anime’ is instantaneously the first thing that pops into my head. It’s instinctive, reflexive and is very much consequentially shoved back into the depths of my mind. Funny enough, I’ve grown to tone down my unbridled love for the series, for the simple reason when I bring it up – people tend to say, “Oh that series? It’s long.” As if that’s all they know about it. Or, “It’s weird.” With a face eschewed in accusation that I could enjoy something that looks so blandishly childish. And well, I would be lying if I said it didn’t connect into the strings of my younger days. It’s been a bridge for me, as well as a bridge in itself as a classical longstanding manga/anime infusing with anime’s present flux of direction change. So today, I say screw it; and rather instead of weakly saying that “One Piece is awesome” or “One Piece sucks,” I will actually describe why people enjoy the series so much, as well as some criticisms.
Spoilers maybe be mentioned with annotations, and remarks on Bleach, Naruto and other titles will make reference of comparison. Please know, I do value both series for what they are; and are simply used as contrasting examples of reference. Made in regards to Lost_In_Translation's weekly theme blogs.
One Piece is an anime series that is over fifteen years old derived from the manga by Eiichiro Oda, which started in 1997. I distinctly remember hearing about it when I was twelve and actually getting into it when I was 14. I started out begin very intrigued by the character designs and the premise. It’s about a quirky pirate captain, Monkey D. Luffy, and his quest to find the fabled treasure “One Piece” and become 'King of the Pirates'. Throughout his travels, he accumulates a small and equally quirky pirate crew and together they roam the seas. They challenge nature’s elements, other pirates, and even the World Government, weaving a wacky tale of epic adventure.
At first many ignore this series purely on the basis of the weird, "unintelligent" artstyle; yet it's quite the opposite, One Piece wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is if it had a more realistic style such as, Fullmetal Alchemist. It's the most popular and bestselling manga in the world, yet has the most bipolarizing opinions from the majority that haven't given the franchise a try or those that have.
POSITIVES.
One of the biggest pivots for One Piece is that the series truly knows what it is and always knows when to reel itself in to a simplistic notion that works to its favor when things get complicated. Whereas Bleach and Naruto dive straight into seriousness; One Piece even when at its most grave knows to remind everyone of its ridiculousness. The adventure is balanced with a sense of classical shonen elements of action, alongside slapstick and witty humor that may not be original at times. There’s a feeling of constant movement, heading from island to island, that diversifies the world to the point of realism. Where each place is different, and each conflict is attached to the notion of some thought provoking message that varies between each landing. Where the term ‘romance’ is dubbed to the quality and feeling of excitement; to detach from everyday life – unlike other shonen manga’s that tends to use romance, like teenage melodrama. The sense of out of this world, ‘awkward’ components created in the series, is always grounded by the relatability of emotional connections and reflections of our society for the reader/ or watcher.
There are also several subplots like the mystery of the devil fruits that give random abilities and ancient stone like monuments called Poneglyphs that narrate a wiped out, forbidden part of history called ‘The Void Century’.
The basis of international appeal strings from the fact that pirates significantly differ from traditional Japanese culture; examples – ninja’s or shinigami’s.
The selling point has and always will be the characters, as an artist; I had initially admired the series for its outlandish character designs and the consistency/unpredictability therein. OP is an infusion of the older manga art, (example; simple dotted eyes) to the transitioning of the sudden manga spurt of characters with big, bubbly – “more expressive” eyes that was slowly become the norm during the late 90’s. Oda has overtime made, the simpler styles more favourable and current once more, an example of this being, Hiro Mashima’s manga ‘Fairy Tail’ whose art has been directly inspired by that of One Piece.
Every character is created with an oddity of sorts. The contrasting of personalities is what greatly makes the main cast enjoyable, because they are both balanced yet equally different. The group dynamics tend to give way to the majority of the humor which meshes into the essence of “bonding” with the crew.
What truly connects the story is the deep sense of belonging you see developed by Luffy’s strength and natural innocent disposition that makes people choose to follow him. His dedication and loyalty is admirable as he would do anything for his crew including putting his life on the line to save them, no matter what the threat. He isn't necessarily the strongest person in the series, but his resolve to win a fight has pulled him through a lot of encounters. That is what makes One Piece so special, that unwavering bond Luffy has with his crew, combined with his carefree attitude and his determination to live his life the way he desires. Luffy becomes the person we all want to be, or at least the friend we all wish to have.
And while yes, Luffy is the central character, One Piece, in comparison to many other shonen titles balances the core characters where each of them get enough development and face time. One Piece makes it a point to give “weaklings” within the crew like Nami and Usopp, something to do and as a result become useful to the team and become heroes in their own rights. Each of them play as true individuals with strength’s that may not always be physical, through intelligence and strategic actions.
Many characters have extremely unique fighting styles, powers and motivations that creates for a lot of differentiating action which can be an easy speed bump in the road for many mangaka’s.
The side characters are also something to be praised as somewhere throughout the Strawhat Pirates’ journey; many make reappearances with clear purposes in mind. In contrast, Bleach for example has 60+ generic fighters that are constantly being introduced only to be thrown in the garbage and never used again. Which is actually a good thing because they are so lackluster, you know they’re just cannon fodder and should have never been made in the first place. The core group is never developed to the point of the main character, Ichigo.
Naruto as well does a good job of side characters and establishes a very respectable palette from the beginning. However the majority of them are only used to facilitate the main character and not much else. There’s no mentions of their own ambitions and if there are, are hardly ever seen to grow.
Character potential is wasted. For both series (Bleach, Naruto), characters that should be relevant, or at least should've had a chance to shine, have been given little to no screen time. One Piece allows all the crew to do something, even if not fighting, and a character introduced for just an arc gets their chance to be part of the story.
In Bleach, characters have no personality, and Naruto characters have one note personalities that could be more interesting if explored upon or done better; unfortunately is warped to the notion of – the genin that weren’t Shikamaru. Bleach characters at this point are only around to pose and fight. One Piece characters show a range of emotions, and you know how each one would react in a variety of situations. They are far more dynamic, even the main cast seems to have evolved in a way that you don't see in classical shonen manga.
For example; Luffy is stupid, stubborn and rash along with Naruto and Ichigo, BUT his teammates fully understand this and don't leave strategic decisions up to him.
Characters that you forgot even exist in One Piece come up in super important ways all the time. You see overtime that many of them have changed or slightly matured and it makes would be insignificant characters, memorable.
The greatest foils are always opposites, and the villains of One Piece are fleshed out. Some have clear motivations that may not necessarily be evil in intent. The best part is that many would be villains are more than just arc by arc characters and once again become part to bring depth to the vast universe of One Piece. There’s a very great balance of sympathetic villains, charismatic, and ones that we are clearly meant to hate with all our being.
There are characters that are ambiguous in nature, but you know have plenty in store for the future. It keeps you hooked and guessing on what’s next, and what’s next after that.
In order to create verisimilitude within OP, Oda has managed to create islands of different bearings. We have had Giants, Dinosaurs, Arabian-esque Deserts, Underwater worlds of Fish People, Prisons of Various Kinds, Amusement Parks, Ghost Stories, Government Powers, Places of Slavery, Winter Island, and so on and so on - the story can at any time go in any direction and it fits, as with each island; it brings its own closure.
So in terms of world building, One Piece does more of it and does it better than most shonen manga, plain and simple. Sure, some do it okay, Naruto in perspective early on was extremely good and the Soul Society arc of Bleach had some great bits there, but the concepts of those manga don't allow for nearly as much leg room as One Piece does. It's much more set in a fantasy world where you can find anything, all kinds of places, species, technology, what have you. Here we have a crew of main characters that includes a samurai, a deer, a skeleton and a cyborg. THAT is quite amazing, even more so because it WORKS and makes sense within the world.
To see that each place has its own culture and history is very fun. Even more entertaining is that we can see direct muses from some places that we recognize instinctively. Water 7’s likeness to the waterways of Venice, Italy being one of them.
Truly a journey story isn't stretched, it's expanded, and it feels very different to the audience.
Naruto and Bleach did bad at world building. Bleach never really expanded a whole lot on its world and its logic. It changed locations a few times, but it was more for a barely changed backdrop. Naruto showed it had a bigger world, but except for some characters, it didn't really build up the different areas and their cultures/styles.
There is little build up for the final arcs. Naruto had some build-up to an organization that was assumed to be the ultimate enemy, but then any build up was thrown aside for revelations that were purely nonsensical.
If there’s one thing special about Oda, the mangaka himself, is that he seeds elements early and later storylines with seemingly very little effort. He works with what he has. There is so much coming at us, in many cases we might not get it right from the start and there's great minor bits that just keep adding to the mystery of the grand story (Examples, The Will of ‘D.’ and Luffys’ Origin). So, what we get with One Piece is...a lot of constant building in terms of the larger story. It never feels entirely lost, but also contains great stories along the way that have closure as well. It's the best of both worlds, a great ongoing story, but at the same time constant closure, so we don't feel something is lacking because we never get any payoff - we get constant payoff, there's always another climax on the horizon, something immediate to look forward to, but without throwing the grander mystery out the window.
Many shonen series are annoyingly predictable, with the same outcome to every battle. Either one of the side characters 'unexpectedly' saves whoever is getting beat up (this sometimes happens several times over the course of the same battle), or whoever is getting beat up just developed a new transformation that we’ve never seen before out of the blue. “Like, oh my gosh! All the problems consisting within the conflict is easily resolved because I now have this cool new outfit! Whoopie!”
The problem with Naruto is that everybody is just too powerful now. It started as a tactical-ninja-y manga with some "magic" techniques thrown in, but now everybody is so super-strong that the fights just boil down to everybody standing around hurling mountain-destroying energy balls at each other, and all the enemies need to have regeneration powers because the protagonists can level half a city with a sneeze and nobody would last long against them if they couldn't regenerate.
Bleach has similar problems but also too many of the fights have a rock-paper-scissors feel.
Things like this happen far too often.
Bleach-Antagonist: "Haha! My ability turns anything I want, including you, into wet paper! You can barely stand, and I can now rip you apart with my bare hands! Nothing stands a chance against my wet-paper ability!"
Bleach-Protagonist: "Your ability is truly fearsome.... However my ability turns wet paper into super-hardened steel! Yes, I know this ability would have no use in any other situation but I can use it to defeat you!"
Bleach-Antagonist: "Noooooooooooooo!”
It just feels so gimmicky and repetitive.
And worst of all Major Arc-Ending fights are won by the most overpowered person using the power of friendship like in Naruto. Naruto wields the single most powerful weapon in all of manga. The power of friendship; this power crushes is most powerful foes as if their only drive in life is now moot and pointless because Naruto conveyed the most simplest and one-sided ideas in the single most naive way possible.
Fairy Tail also uses the notorious power of friendship really badly. It’s the same almost every damn time. Lucy is useless and weak as always(Lord knows why she literally NEVER summons Loki), gets captured, Natsu goes berserk, then gets beaten to a bloody pulp, yet at the very last second the ‘power of friendship’ kicks in and he randomly gets a new power and wins the fight.
That's what I really like about One Piece, the base power level is almost never what wins someone's fight, it's their cleverness, luck, allies, so many factors are more important and that makes for more interesting plot. Rarely does OP have a sheer-power smack-down moment, Bellamy for example so it doesn't feel over-used.
Even though One Piece probably has us suspend disbelief in a broader scale than Naruto or Bleach, the fights are far more realistic. You don't save your trump card for the end like they do in one too many shonen titles.
“Omg why are you so strong?! Why are you kicking my ass?! Holy Mother of Assfuck! I'm about to die! Trump card time, Muwahahaha, I was playing with you this entire time! It just so happens that my power up is the one thing that makes your ability completely obsolete!” *instakills the antagonist*
As far as I’m concerned, One Piece has done it best for the longest time. And all the characters have their own fight scenes to shine in; with their personalities coming though. Because each character is different and as much as I’d love to see Usopp’s confidence level go even higher than it has; let’s face it, he’s never going to be Zoro. But it doesn’t take away to who he is as a fighter.
Then we have emotions that comes very natural to One Piece, but not melodramatic like many other shonen titles, the fact that we have no romantic triangles or anything as such taking center stage might help. The simplicity at the idea of friendship, family and love somehow connects the audience and indeed makes you care for the rest of crew because you can see them clearly care for each other. Really the longer the series goes, the more like a true family the cast becomes. Luffy's constant care and admiration for his nakama is one of the most amazing things I've read in any comic series worldwide. He's truly a fascinating character.
What I love about the show, is its inherent values – to have an exceedingly positive outlook in life, facing challenges and not getting angry at every single obstacle. The art might not be perfect but the message being conveyed can be told in just one meaningful sentence, 'Work towards your dreams no matter how hard it is' or perhaps 'treasure your friends.'
Beauty lies also in the problems that we may also face in real life, for example, Luffy and Usopp’s falling out clearly resemble a falling out one may have had with a dear friend. Or when Luffy and Zoro allowed themselves to take a beating when their dreams were made fun of.
The wonder of One Piece isn't that it’s "clever," or "mature," it's that it isn't! Yet it knows when to be deep and when to pull the strings. I've been reading One Piece for years now and the only thing that I haven't liked about it was the Foxy Pirates, but they were still kind of important at the end of the day.
It’s a hopeful series with a ‘follow your dream’ attitude. And truly it has always been my ‘pick me up’ series whenever I’ve been down.
It isn’t however, a series where nobody dies. It knows when to pull a punch, wherein in one case I was deeply affected by it and I couldn’t even sleep. The night consisted of me, calling my older brother in the middle of the night asking him if he was okay. (And sorta, kinda crying *cough* not really. *shrugs* It’s embarrassing.) To which, for half an hour, he tried to convince me that he was fine and that me and my dumb head should sleep, because apparently he’ll never die. (Total reference to One Piece, that eased me a little. Everyone who follows One Piece can probably guess the scene I’m talking about.) But that’s what big brothers are for so anyways, moving on.
One Piece uses emotion to fuel logical topics within many arcs. Oda takes ideals that are so deeply enriched in our psyche to have strong opinions on them, and plays it to his advantage; because truly, does ANYONE like discrimination?
Racism: Fishmen
Revenge: Arlong Pirates, CP9, Fishman Island
Discrimination: Sabo, Luffy, and Ace's hometown, Dressrosa, Nico Robin 'Devil Child'
Politics/Political Corruption: The existence of Shichibukai, The Celestial Dragons, The World Government, The Revolutionary Army
Political Overthrowing: Alabasta, Fishman Island
Slavery: Boa Sisters, Mariejois, Sabaody Archipelago
Themes and concepts have been betrayed or outright ignored in Naruto and Bleach. Naruto went from about hard work versus genius, to if you aren't one of 5 characters it doesn't matter. Bleach never established a theme but concepts have been ignored and origins of powers have been changed many times.
The most upstanding thing about this series would have to be the constant consistency in quality from arc to arc. The consistent balance of well-made characters, humor and dialogue never gets old. Unperdictableness being one of its best factors. The writing hasn’t stooped to a level as low as Naruto or Bleach. It should be noted that the anime has gotten to a bit of a lag as it is now close to the source material. One Piece itself does start slowly before branching and sinking its teeth in. And yes, it has its ups and downs, just not as nearly as rapid as the above examples.
This ones’ an odd one that I slipped in for no particular reason. Actually no, it’s probably because I see Eiichiro Oda as a person with an actual life compared to other mangaka’s; who seem to always be shut inside their rooms forever drawing/writing their whole life away without a seeming social life. Because seriously, some of the stuff I’ve read about the health and life of mangaka artists is hard. However I see Oda as a very successful smart man that by some miracle used his time wisely and now has a wife and two children, and only works four days a week. He’s always four chapters ahead of serialization and always mentions about timing; which I believe to be his forte. For myself, I find it amazing that he started out from working everyday single day and only got 4 hours of sleep.
Through reading interviews, I honestly believe that his now life experiences have affected subtle nuances in the newer aspects of One Piece. Such as Hancock having romantic affections for Luffy, and Oda likening Franky and Robin as the parents of the crew; when originally he strongly stated that there would be no notion of romance within the franchise. The changes are there but seamless enough that you could miss it. It’s not necessarily romantic but allusions are there. *cough* Makino’s kids father… and Shakki questioning Caime on whether she was involved with Hachi.
Even Oda himself talks about the difference of his life now affecting a lot of ways he saw things before when he was younger. Particularly being a husband and a parent. There has been evolution in both good and bad, of which the latter I will describe about as well.
Pertaining only to the anime, given how the show consists of over 620+ episodes, 11 TV Specials/OVA’s and 12 full-fledged Movies – and started in 1999, a lot of the classic music pieces to the series continue to be placed in great episodes while newer editions still have their chance to shine. Not only that but One Piece is a show that’s intrinsically musical, hence Luffy always commenting on wanting a musician from the very beginning. The Openings to One Piece, while longer in length these days always give a sense of adventure more than action which does itself well. Even if you don't like One Piece chances are if you heard some of the pieces, you'll find them well done. A true example of Shonen Anime are trademark soundtrack pieces. Here are some of my favorites.
Soundtrack:
Openings/Endings:
- Opening One -
- Opening Five -
- Opening Six -
- Opening 11 -
- Opening 15 -
- Ending 3 -
- Ending 4 -
- Ending 7 -
Songs:
- Sogeking Theme -
- Bink's Sake -
- Bone to be Wild -
- Oretachi Wa Family -
- We Are! (Strawhats Version) -
One Piece Bathsalts?!?!
Because you can find the most outlandish things with One Piece advertisement on it, it's just so odd and hilarious. And also because of the amount of diverse items you can find that are interesting keepsakes for fans. Whether you’re a collector of figures or simple things that subtly reference One Piece, it’s all good. My Zoro earrings for example. I’m still searching for that perfect Tony Tony Chopper Hat, though.
The videogames are well made though admittedly selective as the stories within One Piece are so big, it's hard to contain any of them through the course of a game. However, they are above caliber to those of Bleach and some Naruto videogame titles.
Weird enough, One Piece is one of the few manga’s where people have actually written books about it in extensive detail trying to unearth the mysteries of why it’s become so popular. There’s even a famous Japanese book called ‘The Luffy Bible.’ One day if I ever learn how to read Japanese, I’m going to find out what it’s talking about.
And I might have snagged a shirt or two. I personally would have a lot more One Piece in my life but I'd probably drive all my family and friends nuts. I have a number of Figure-ARTS figures and Half-life Statues, the artbook also stands high among my collection of various artbooks. I have already pre-ordered the newest figure of Violet from the Dressrosa Arc, which is coming out this December. Excited! And I have so much Trafalgar Law stuff, damn marketable guy.
I'm a hat person and this cap happens to be the favorite of my collection, go figure. 
One Piece has some of the most deep, relevant powerful one-liners I have ever seen in a franchise. As well as the most funny. But it's a given that every person in the main cast has, had a powerful line.
My favorite line ever, it's a true philosophy that applies to real life as well. The terms of justice have changed with every society, and even now they are different in every country. There is no "absolute justice". It's just some sort of propaganda word to make the current laws seem more important.
"I dont want to conquer anything.. I just think that the guy with the most freedom in this whole ocean….is the Pirate King!" Monkey D. Luffy
"Compared to the 'righteous' greed of the rulers, the criminals of the world seem much more honorable. When scum rules the world, only more scum is born." Eustass Kid
""What kind of God destroys everything and saves nothing!?" Monkey D. Luffy
"When do you think people die? When they are shot through the heart by the bullet of a pistol?
No.
When they are ravaged by an incurable disease?
No.
When they drink a soup made from a poisonous mushroom?
No!
It's when... they are forgotten." Dr. Hiluluk
"If I can't protect my captain's dream, then whetever ambition I have is nothing but talk!" Roronoa Zoro
"There are times when the era suddenly determines everything, so question the world." Monkey D. Dragon
"I'll just ask, have you ever encountered a wild animal that you can guarantee will never bite a person? ....I haven't" Roronoa Zoro
“To true friendship, how long you've known each other means nothing." Bon Clay
"Dying is not repaying a debt! That's not what he saved you for! Only weak men would die after someone spared their lives!" Monkey D. Luffy
"No matter what kind of weapon you hold... just existing can't be a crime!" Franky
"When I had decided to follow my dream I had already discarded my life." Roronoa Zoro
"Being alone hurts worse than pain." Monkey D. Luffy
"Power isn't determined by the size of your fist, but by the size of your heart and dreams. Moneky D. Luffy
"There comes a time when a man has to stand and fight! This is the time when his friends' dreams are laughed at. Luffy won't die... I know he'll be the pirate king one day. I WON'T LET YOU LAUGH AT THAT!" Usopp
"Nobody would ever follow someone who doesn't even try to understand how his companion feels." Tony Tony Chopper
"Life is like a pencil that will surely run out but left is the beautiful writings of the life." Nami
"Hello, this is the shitty restaurant..." Sanji
"When I die, I want to be reborn a clam..." Monkey D. Luffy
"If you kill yourself, I’ll kill you." Roronoa Zoro
"Sir! Frankys' ass is expanding!" Marine
NEGATIVES.
Here lies the wonderful list of problems I see within the show, chances are for new people; it’s probably a bit too extensive to read into but it’s here to stabilize my praise for the franchise. Because truly it’s rattled with a lot of things that should be heavily criticized. And for anyone that disagrees with me, well you can call me a bitch, I don’t care. Unfortunately the One Piece fandom has a serious case of can’t-criticise-Oda-or-I’ll-die disease, which isn’t healthy. Speaking out can bring a lot of backlash, even when the arguments are well-supported and truthful. These are just three main ones, but if anyone wants to know the rest of the complaints I have; feel free to ask me.
I want to be honest, I have no idea what’s worse. The fact that Oda makes the skin tone of all of his characters (barring Fishmen) the same, or that the anime tries to diversify the cast (keyword being "tries") THEN whitewashes them later on. Also changing characters' eye color from brown/green in the manga to blue in the anime (Robin and Hancock are brown, Otohime is green). As someone with darker eyes, this just bugs me.
(Before)
(After)
But going back on the skin color issue don’t say Oda is outside the scope of judgement because he doesn’t have power over the anime. That doesn’t fix anything. Oda’s exclusion of POC is problematic. The anime is a huge part of the franchise, and just because Oda isn’t directly involved in it doesn’t mean its above criticism.
Oh wait, and Oda does know what the color brown is! The Baroque Works cover is proof enough that Oda remembers the skin tone brown when it comes to creating antagonists.
Baroque Works is in fact, the most diverse group in the entire series when it comes to PoC. Yet, you mean to tell me that when it comes to the Strawhats, Oda suddenly has amnesia and thus forgotten how to use the color brown even when he confirmed that one of them (Usopp) is a black PoC? Bull. Shit. Did not the anime also make Baroque Works accurate with no problems? How come when its about the antagonists, consistent skin tone is never an issue? I mean, DAMN, you have one of the main bad guys, BLACKbeard being PoC when the real Blackbeard was white, born and bred in England.
And I hate to break it to you, but freaking Naruto actually does better with diversity. There’s a whole ninja village consisting of dark-skinned people. At the very least, Kishimoto didn’t take a handful of PoC characters, sprinkle them around like a pinch of salt (most of them falling on the antagonist side of the track) and call it diversity. Although it still ended up being problematic, at least PoC actually had a place in Kishimoto’s world.
In Bleach, there’s dark-skinned female characters, Harribel and Yoruichi who actually don’t look like caricatures. That alone trumps One Piece in female diversity to me. Something that is actually deserving of a ‘You Tried’ star. You can give One Piece the title of being the best manga out there and I would agree, you can give Oda awards for being an creative genius and I would agree…to an extent, but being the most outwardly diverse? One Piece actually comes in last place.
And this is where, I make my statement. I believe Robin was originally conceptualized in the anime with a much darker skin tone than everyone else; on the basis that she started out as a villain. But as time when on in order for the Japanese populace to “relate” to her as a heroine, swapped her skin tone in an act of what is the standard of beauty in Japan. Yet, when you see her as a child; she is clearly brown. So Robin goes from being the darkest person in the cast to becoming the palest. That’s fucked up.
I’m sick of people making excuses for whitewashing and acting like because they were in a cold/ dark area it means their melanin just disappears.
And not only does the “it’s just a tan” argument not work because of the women in Alabasta, and look at Usopp now. And he was on an island filled with sun! Yet still, he went from darker to lighter.
And it’s upsetting because he’s one of my favorites and I loved seeing someone darker in a show I enjoyed.
As a Woman of Color, I especially liked seeing a darker skinned female in the show, because like it was mentioned earlier, darker skin isn’t exactly a part of the beauty standard. Not in Japan and not here in the North America either.
Also, trying to separate racism from sexism is something that makes me want to punch something cute. Ever heard of intersectionality? Of course, white feminists wouldn’t be too familiar with the word, but it’s about how racism against WOMEN OF COLOR is also a sexist issue. I’m a woman of colour, but people seem to have a hard time seeing those two words work together at the same time. I’m either brown when it comes to racism, or I’m just a woman when it comes to sexism. That is problematic. There are issues that Black, Asian, Indian and Latino women face that white women don’t. Not all women are treated the same. It’s something that Oda and Toei is also guilty of.
So let’s not try to make excuses and say “it’s not racism”, especially if you want to complain about sexism in OP.
It’s fucking white washing.
Explain to me how the three darkest characters of the main cast (Zoro, Usopp, Robin) after the two year timeskip, suddenly got lighter colour palettes while everyone else’s stayed the same?
The anime also has other examples of this that I would genuinely be intrigued to hear people come up with excuses for. I present to you, Inazuma and Prince Bellet. These are the same character as a man and a woman. There is no other explanation for this other than the exclusion of POC women from beauty standards. That is racist, plain and simple. Both Oda and the animation team are guilty of it.
And before someone jumps in with the ‘that’s just how it is in Japan’, that doesn’t make it any less problematic. If you are unable to realise that it IS a problem, then you have been indoctrinated by the media. Congratulations.
It seems like Oda generally feels like he can’t have an attractive female character without grossly sexualizing her. The issue here extends well beyond Nami. It’s a trend that’s been getting worse over time- especially in the last couple of years, and for the sake of this category, I will be referring primarily to the series post timeskip. We know that Oda can draw a variety of body shapes- the evidence is in the men he draws for his series. Of that list, I would argue that Zoro and Kid, and Vergo and Smoker have similar body types, and possibly Sanji and Law. When to look at it, it's still obvious that there is a wide variety of body and face types. Each character is easily distinguishable.
Now, of the ladies that have appeared post timeskip, Nami, Robin, Tashigi, Camie, Madame Shyarly, Shirahoshi, Perona, Boa Hancock, Monet, Baby 5, Ishilly (and the other mermaids), Shakky, Kaya, Vivi, Rebbecca, Violet and Nojiko all have the same body type.
The only women who don’t are Otohime (still an hourglass, but not as pronounced), Big Mam and fake Nami and Robin.
Of the main cast, it is easy to mix up Robin and Hancock, now that Robin’s grown her hair out and is just as pale. Oda doesn’t apply a variety to his women, unless they are going to be either gag characters or in the background. All of the main female characters are designed to appeal to a presumed male, heterosexual audience, something that the male characters cannot claim.
Oda is much more willing to take risks when drawing male characters, not only giving them a wider choice of physical design, but also a greater variety of clothing choices. Most of the women post timeskip are given an outfit that bares the shoulders, cleavage, shows off their stomach and their legs if applicable. Once again, Otohime is the exception, and a couple of the girls are given dresses that hide their midsections only, however, of the 21 women listed, this only accounts for 5.
And before anybody jumps up and points out that Zoro doesn’t wear a shirt- thank you for completely misunderstanding the issue. The discussion about the connotations of male and female states of undress is a topic worthy of an entire extra post. It’s not just about Oda changing his drawing style for Nami, it’s about an entire shift in his drawing over the years, and the double standards that he applies to creating male and female characters.
Oda has always been clear about remaining true to his original target audience, that much is certain. I can respect him standing firm in that. The difference is, however, that as this manga has progressed, his representation of women has changed. The way that Oda draws females in general has changed- his art style has evolved. His female characters now all have huge racks and tiny waists. Hell, when Nami was introduced she looked like this:
Now of course, all the characters looked different back then. Here’s the difference though, while all of the male characters beefed up over the course of the manga, muscles are a symbol of strength- what does having bigger breasts represent about your development as a person? One Piece was a popular manga when the women were drawn more reasonably proportioned. It’s not like it needed to change to attract more fans, it was already insanely popular. More important than the change of art style though is the change of framing.
Framing refers to the way that a character is presented to the audience. Framing is a crucial way to convey a character’s intent to the audience. Unfortunately for OP women of late, they seem to spend most of their time lounging. When a new male character is introduced, we immediately get a sense of their intent. Compare Law [relaxed, smirking, a picture of cool confidence as he leans against the door]
. I can look at Law straight away and see that he’s a cocky bastard- when I look at the mermaids in the cove they’re not there as real characters- they’re there for decoration. All of them look like they are posing for a photo, rather than for effect. Their positions and facial expressions are passive
As for the Kalifa and Absalom scenes, here’s where framing comes back into it. When Nami is being attacked by Absalom, and by Kalifa, the emphasis is on Nami’s body, not her fight.
Here’s a couple of the shots from the Absalom bath scene.
The Kalifa fight is similar- here are a couple of shots.
Now, of course, they aren’t all like this, but I also didn’t use anywhere near all the shots I could have. For now though, compare it with a shot of Sanji’s fight. This is the most sexualised shot I could find of the Sanji vs Kalifa fight.
This might be because we don’t see Kalifa using her soap powers, but it’s also a perfect example of the differences between male and female fights in the manga. Nami’s fight is far more sexualised. I’ve only used manga shots here, because I’m trying to focus on Oda’s representations, but these scenes are depicted worse in the anime- especially the bath scene.
And before you excuse it to being Nami’s choice of clothing; just hold it right there. Blame Nami for her clothes? What does her choice of clothes have to do with anything? Let me explain the differences here. Happiness Punch was one of the most amazing moments in the manga for me, and a personal favourite, and here’s the reason why: we didn’t see anything. This might make me sound like a prude, but let me put it this way; Nami, a character who has thus far been shown to be an independent, capable young woman with confidence in her body, flashes the male members of her crew.
The audience knows that’s what she’s doing, but they’re not invited to watch. This scene isn’t about the audience- it isn’t about giving 14 year old het boys something to wank off to- it’s about her character, and her self-confidence. It’s a perfect example of how framing can make or break a scene. We know what Nami’s doing- there’s no detraction from the meaning by not showing us, but Oda makes this scene about Nami’s self-confidence. She is doing this for her crew, not to us.
Compare this to the Absalom bath scene, which takes a scene about Nami being sexually harassed and turns it into eye candy for the presumed male audience. We didn’t need to see her being harassed like that in the bath- the shot of ‘something’ grabbing her hand and then a shoulder and up shot of her being held against the wall would have been just as effective, but that’s not what Oda chose to do. Oda invited us into the scene as an outsider. We were witnessing a scene that Nami was not comfortable with that exposed her body. That’s not strength of character, that’s intrusion into personal space.
Nami’s choice of clothes is completely irrelevant. She’s always worn skirts (East Blue) and bikini tops (Skypeia). Are you implying that by wearing these clothes Nami is ‘asking’ to be sexualised?
Oh! And apparently, older or heavier woman can’t be attractive! Shanks, Zeff and Rayleigh provide a good contrast to Dadan and Kokoro for this. The only recent female character who gets away with keeping their looks is Shakky, who hasn’t so much aged gracefully as stagnated for forty years. The only thing that changed at all was her clothes.
So I guess a couple of other clarifications are necessary.
Why am I annoyed that the OP women have all become more voluptuous?
The OP women have all been reaching more extreme levels of the cultural ‘ideal’- tall, skinny, with huge breasts and clothes that show off their bodies. I have nothing against any of these things. I don’t care whether Nami is showing tons of skin or none at all- as long as it is her choice. Just as much as it is mine. And just because a female uses her wiles over men doesn’t automatically make her a whore, she has power over her own body. She has that choice to do so.
I don’t care about how beautiful or ugly a woman is, but I do care about society homogenising the images of women in the media. Nami and the other OP women were all once exceptions to the rule (partially of course, they were always conventionally attractive white women), but they could be strong, intelligent, independent, and- oh yeah, beautiful. Now it is a requirement, rather than an option. They are not drawn that way to empower or inspire the women reading OP, they’re there to be eye candy and decoration for the teenage boys reading it. That is why I have a problem with it.
I really didn’t want to put this one up…but I can’t keep making excuses for Sanji- as much as I think that Oda’s doing a terrible job with his character, I can’t seriously tell people that one of my favourite characters is someone who molests his crewmate. Because that’s what he does.
Punk Hazard is full of it. After the bodyswap, Sanji shows no respect for Nami’s personal space or wishes about her body. First he wants to take pictures, then he stares down her top, then he pulls down her jacket, cups her breasts and shows them off to the rest of the crew. That’s molesting her. Now, in case you think Nami was okay with that, here’s some of the images from chap 663.
Nami’s crying in that last panel. She is in tears and her crew thinks it’s funny. Where exactly does Nami give Sanji permission to touch her body like that?
And if things weren’t clear enough, here’s a panel from chap 665.
There is no defence for that. Sanji has been entrusted with his crewmate’s body, and all he wants to do is exploit it. Just because he isn’t leaving bruises on her skin doesn’t mean he isn’t hurting her.
So Sanji is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a sexual harasser, and he has sexually assaulted Nami. That’s the bottom line here. You can’t defend that. Don’t tell me Sanji’s just misunderstood, or doesn’t realise what he’s doing as a grown man, and Nami has made her non-consent clear.
Sexual harassment is not funny in any situation. As for Sanji’s code of chivalry, Sanji has always been misguided in that sense, and I had always hoped that overcoming it would be character development for him. Unfortunately, as the series progressed, he has gone in a completely different direction. Since he returned from Kamabakka Kingdom, his claim of ‘never hurting a woman’ has gone down the drain.
Now I’m not going to say you can’t like Sanji. Kid is famous for murdering civilians, and I love the guy, but please don’t lie to hide away his imperfections. Be honest about them, address the fact that his character has been horribly screwed over, and when you’re explaining to someone why you like him point that out.
Here’s the difference, once he comes back after the timeskip, the gentlemanly part of him takes a back seat to the pervert. He stops viewing women as people and instead sees them as objects. The perfect example, in fact, is at his re-introduction.
He has a woman targeting system. He doesn’t care who they are, or what they’re doing, all he focuses on is their gender. He shows no hesitation is staring at them like they’re pieces of meat, and he doesn’t just make them feel awkward because of his poor flirting skills, he chases them off. Women are running from him because he’s so fricking creepy. He doesn’t want them because they’re perfect, he’s clearly just after their assets. The rest of the Fishman arc supported this. Gone is the Sanji who protects all women, now all he focuses on is their bodies, and with that he encourages the audience to do the same. Sanji’s role is to point out just how sexy the women in OP-verse are, no matter how uncomfortable they feel about it.
The thing about the way Nami and Tashigi are being portrayed lately is that it represents a much larger issue in our society- rape culture. Tashigi told Smoker to button up her shirt because she was uncomfortable with it; he didn’t. Nami told Sanji to stop feeling her up; he didn’t. Nami had to send Zoro as a babysitter just to stop one of her crewmates- a man she can trust with her life, from molesting her body, because he refuses to listen to the boundaries she’s tried to put in place. The only ones in-universe who even care about the way the girls’ bodies are being treated are the girls’ themselves- Robin doesn’t even blink an eye at Sanji’s behaviour. Characters are not there to be perfect, but can you honestly say that it is OOC for Smoker and Sanji to respect the wishes the girls have about their bodies? Unless Oda completely turns the plot around and calls out all of the characters on their actions this issue won’t end as it should.
Sanji is one of the protagonists, he should not be feeling up his crewmates against their will, and especially not so the audience can get their shits and giggles. You know, the kind of stuff that’s covered in ‘How to be a Decent Human Being 101’.
OVERALL.
There’s no denying that I love One Piece. I started out years ago watching and reading this series without it ever losing my interest. I’ve laughed in the solitude of my room, eagerly wisping pages beneath my fingers; and I’ve cried watching episodes of moments that truly broke and shook my heart. It’s a series that speaks to me because it never loses face to those human values and keeps the integrity of the human spirit. I’ve shouted urging on Luffy to defeat a most hated enemy and I’ve smiled at the notion of true nakama, of dear friends – in hopes that I may have them one day.
To me it’s something humbling and deeply inspiring when a series also knows how to balance characters of all ages into stories. You have children, youth, adults and the elderly that all make up a connection through values of not ignoring or disgracing the generation before and in front of you.
Inbetween those years, I have grown and matured; so it truly does intertwine the innocence of my childhood alongside with the maturity I gained later on in life. I used to be those kinds of people that wouldn’t question Oda, he was my hero; still is to this day. But I’ve come to question a lot of his failings as well.
As both an artist and a writer, Oda was my hero as a kid because he was/is a masterful storyteller and I wanted to be just like him. It’s funny because I remember in school for an assignment that asked me to name three of my biggest heroes in life I wrote, My Father, Martin Luther King and Eiichiro Oda. And I swear, that my teacher had the biggest question mark on her face.
This isn’t really a persuasive article of any sort, I did this for my own fulfilment. So whether you decide for trying neither, or picking the anime or manga, or both – I just wanted to get some of these thoughts on “paper.”
And don’t tell me that One Piece is over-rated. It’s popular for a lot of good reasons.
Mary Ann is your not so average Canadian lady incognito who loves hockey, traveling and a good laugh. With a playful personality and capricious hobbies, it's not hard to keep this one satisfied. But watch out for the blade, the bloodlust can make even the sweetest go mental...