covering the events of Egghead Island, with Toei Animation leading the charge ahead to promote both stunning visuals and out of this world fights that will make viewers head spin. While the studio's recent work has some people asking if the show is being over-animated, those claims are drowned out in the sheer oppression of the final product’s overwhelming popularity among fans. There is still one major drawback both the anime and the manga need to address that still holds the anime back: same-face syndrome.
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece has run for a long time, spanning decades of producing both episodes and chapters. After that many years, the style was bound to change from what originally came out in 1997. But while Toei’s animation has improved, it’s also taken a step back by simplifying aspects of its cast design, reducing distinguishing characteristics that once made characters like Ace, Shanks, and the female cast stand out.
One Piece’s Female Cast’s Facial Features Are All Incredibly Similar
Each Female Character Has Been Dubbed to be an Alternative Form of Nami
Oda has it tough with how large One Piece has become, but the subtle differences he puts in his manga get completely erased once translated to anime. No case is more evident than the entirety of the female cast after having been simplified with their round faces, large eyes, and elongated lashes, but with various hairstyles and colors. Fans have even gone so far as to label Vivi as Blue Nami, then Shirahoshi and Rebecca as Pink Nami, since all of the young women are incredibly similar. These criticisms are mainly relegated to the anime.
In the manga, it’s a little difficult to differentiate, but Oda does attempt to have some differences between the ladies’ faces by altering the shape of their eyes, noses, and mouths. Yet all of those nuances are lost both after the timeskip and in the anime, where all of the women presented in One Piece begin to blend in to all resemble one face. Characters like Perona can stand out for her circular eyes and prominent bottom lashes, but the ladies as a whole have long since stagnated in design post timeskip.
Don't Be Fooled, One Piece's Female Characters Are Some of the Best In All of Anime
While some of the character designs may turn people off of One Piece, the women of this shonen series are much more than meets the eye.
Nami and Robin’s fashion preferences as well as their faces were much easier to tell apart in the beginning, with Robin leaning towards more cowboy bohemian and a mysterious unreadability in contrast to Nami, who always leaned into feminine casual wear and a mischievous allure. While it can all be chalked up to style, it’s a big shame that despite all of the anime’s growth with its adaptation that continues to wow viewers, it can’t manage to make its female cast distinguishable or unique from one another.
The Men in One Piece Suffer From Similar If Not More Drastic Problems
Characters Were Completely Reworked Both in the Face and Body Features
With how old the anime is, fans can go back to the very beginning to see just how drastic the style change is. Characters that were introduced in the very beginning have gotten complete makeovers now that they’ve been reintroduced hundreds of chapters down the line.
Look, One Piece Is Great, But I'm Still Reeling Over the Anime's Major Makeover for Chopper
Out of the many changes in One Piece’s timeskip, Tony Tony Chopper’s new look continues to baffle me the most.
Ace is a shorter case in this since his face was made more generic to appear more like Luffy, but they aren’t related by blood, so this doesn’t quite make sense. Before the timeskip, he looked more like his mother with a longer face, droopy eyes, ruggish hair, thicker brows, and vivid realistic freckles sprinkled on his face. Revisits to Ace in newer episodes depict him with a rounder face, accented jaw, and thin brows, which make him look younger, but he loses the only resemblance to Rogue he had.
Another instance is Shanks; his first appearance makes him out to be an ordinary pirate with a lanky body and a rounder face — he’s a lot more jovial and cartoonish, but that falls in line with Oda’s old style. Now that he’s taken a more prominent role in the story, he’s squared out with muscle, bulking out to appear more buff, and his face is a lot sharper cut and chiseled to a standard masculine shape. The story in Egghead Island is taken on a more serious tone with his inclusion, but even in the older style, Shanks could be quite intimidating when he wanted to be.
The same thing happened to Gol D. Roger, but a lot of the changes fans see with his appearance could be due to his unhealthy state after being imprisoned prior to his execution, explaining away his haggard appearance and thinner body. Oda could also be trying to give him a larger-than-life appeal with the flashbacks to Roger’s prime, showcasing him as healthier and more stocky.
Simpler Designs Allow For More Time Spent on Animation
One Piece’s Characters Stand Out Enough Through Personality and Combat
With as many people that are introduced in One Piece, it can take time giving each of them a unique look, taking it away from the vast amount of animation that Toei puts into each scene, especially when it comes to the fighting parts of the anime. Having a simplistic face to draw can also make it easier for characters to be more expressive when emoting, drawing out each tear that falls or gritted teeth as the jaw flexes. By making necessary shortcuts, Toei can adjust its resources accordingly.
However, if that were all it took to make a great animation, any studio would have done it. The face is only one part of the human body and is the most important in making each character unique, in addition to their background and role in the story. Toei’s animation wouldn’t slacken if it put more time into its female cast or bolded Ace’s eyebrows and freckles to resemble his mother. The studio has already been called out for falling short in other aspects of its production, such as the latest incident surrounding its sound design.
One Piece Is Finally Addressing the Anime's Big Issue with Sanji, But Honestly? It May Be Too Late
One Piece's anime is finally fixing a major Sanji problem they created, but unfortunately, it might be too late for that to mean anything.
One Piece’s lengthy duration was bound to come up with a few more hiccups aside from just filler, overpadded arcs, and same-face syndrome. But there’s no doubt that it’ll only continue to elevate its status and popularity as one of the best anime to watch. Toei Animation delivers on what counts most in a shōnen, high-stakes fights, and all of the hilarious shenanigans the Straw Hats get up to.
Source: Same Face Syndrome, Ace Differences
- Created by
- Eiichiro Oda
- First Film
- One Piece: The Movie
- First TV Show
- One Piece
- Cast
- Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Kappei Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Hirata, Ikue Ôtani, Yuriko Yamaguchi
- Video Game(s)
- One Piece: Unlimited World Red, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4, One Piece Odyssey
