One Piece Irks

Hey everyone,

I’m really sorry, but I am need to put this blog on a real hiatus for a while. Life’s gotten very busy, and at the moment I don’t have the time or mental capacity to give the topics discussed in this blog their proper attention. 

Thank you for all your support.

Anonymous asked: is this blog still a thing?

It is, though as you can see I’ve been very lax with it lately. I’ve been meaning to catch up with the submissions for a while, but I’ll definitely aim to get everything queued up by this weekend. I apologise for my inactivity.

I’ve also now turned submissions on, so feel free to continue sending things through there or by asks.

EDIT 16/4/13: Hey guys- life decided to blindside me just when I thought it was finally getting it under control, so I apologise for putting this on the backburner again. I should hopefully have time by this weekend to catch up, and if not, surely by the following one. 

Anonymous asked: I don't know 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 (is this a different irk?), 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 brown eyes, this gnaws at me a bit.

ittoryu-yai:

xarciel:

bodyfleur:

onepieceirks:

I’m going to group all of these responses together since they’re related, so this will get pretty long. Please bear with me. These are all in response (I’m assuming) to this post from a couple of months ago.

1. Oda doesn’t make…

Not to mention that all of these are lies from the fiery pits of hell, you want examples from the manga to prove that Oda is not blameless? Well here it is. All in one manga cover that he, himself, colored with his precious markers.

Since people are so keen on having answers to everything, please explain to me why Oda suddenly remembers the color brown when he wants to come up with antagonists in his story? 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 (and I’m not even a fan of Naruto). PoC SHOULD have had Alabasta in One Piece, but again referring to that ONE cover up above featuring its princess, we all saw how nicely that went. In Bleach, there’s a dark-skinned female character who actually doesn’t look like a caricature. 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 diverse? One Piece actually comes in last place.

So sorry (but not really) that I, or anyone else, have to be labeled Social Justice so distastefully when all we want is respect for our humanity. Being against that clearly shows a lot about character in certain people of this fandom. ‘We are all Nakama’ in this fandom, my ass. ‘Nakama’ is a word that shouldn’t even be thrown around so easily anyway, but that’s another story. 

(via ittoryu-iai)

xarciel:

bodyfleur:

onepieceirks:

I’m going to group all of these responses together since they’re related, so this will get pretty long. Please bear with me. These are all in response (I’m assuming) to this post from a couple of months ago.

1. Oda doesn’t make the anime.
True. In fact, in Oda’s art all of the Strawhats are the same colour.

Big whoop. You’re not helping your argument by pointing out that Oda’s always used the same marker for everyone’s skin tones. 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 it’s above criticism. 

2. The anime is trying to fix the characters so they look more like the manga. 
Well then I’m still waiting for them to change Robin’s eyes to brown. That seems like a pretty big flaw that needs fixing. 

 

3. The comparisons come from before and after timeskip, when the colour palettes changed.
The colour palettes changed a few times before timeskip as well, actually, and the results weren’t nearly as dire. I’m also confused as to how this is a defence. The new colours didn’t just suddenly poof into existence and were unchangeable upon pain of death. THEY WERE DECIDED ON. The animation team CHOSE the new palette. The fact that they’re different colour palettes is the reason comparison is necessary. 

4. One Piece has a lot more variety of skin colour than other series.
I’m assuming there was supposed to be a ‘used to’ in that sentence somewhere. Besides which, less problems is not no problems. 

5. Robin was in the snow, Zoro was on an island of perpetual twilight, and Usopp was in a forest with a thick canopy (debatable actually, but if we’re going to do this we might as well go with it).
Now we’re getting into the meat of it. For those who are really that invested in denying that they are just brown, let’s explore this one scientifically. If the hypothesis is that Zoro, Robin and Usopp are all white with heavy tans (because heaven forbid that they’re not actually white), then Sanji, who spent his life indoors, only to spend two years running through rain, hail and shine should have a substantial tan. As well, Nami and Luffy were both exposed to a lot of sun. So by your logic they should be much browner. Here’s the comparisons, with the first shot taken at the beginning of their 2YL break, and the second one at their immediate return to Sabaody.

 
Huh, what do you know? It’s like the animators didn’t take their sun exposure into account at all. Since ittoryu-yai said it perfectly:

To insinuate that ethnic skin of certain anime characters is the way it is because of exposure to the sun, is pretty much insinuating that they were white at some point. They are only brown because of the sun. That, is in fact, a racist thought. Unintentional or not, that is a problematic and racist thought. 

As for why Robin got it worse than Zoro and Usopp, yes, pale beauty standards for women. Robin is now the palest Strawhat. That was not done accidentally. The manga shows examples of this as well, in Vivi and Conis- both of who appear on covers beside men from the same location who are significantly darker than them. 

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, so don’t even bother with the blame game. 

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. 

Okay, so first of all, some of these ‘changes’ have different lighting situations AND SKIN COLOR CAN VARY AS A RESULT OF THAT. In fact, color IN GENERAL can vary and change as a result of lighting conditions regardless if it is a skin tone or not.

Oda definitely uses the same marker[s] for all the Straw Hats skin tone, but Usopp and Robin are generally rendered at least a shade darker then everyone else. Depending on the quality of the scan, how obvious that is can also vary (the one example used in this post looks very light overall so I wonder if that was a result of scanning.) So Oda does recognize that some of his characters are meant to be darker, and he actually got most of his ethnicities right in that one SBS.

Now does this mean that there aren’t design issues in OP? Oh definitely there are. But when you compare things you need to equalize the variables as much as possible and right now, that is not the case.

Are you seriously this petty? If it bothers you so much, here’s an extended version of Sanji’s skin tone.

Wow, I’m certainly glad you pointed that out, thanks. Feel free to do your own leg work if you don’t believe me on the others, I’m not going to waste my time when you’re already decided that you’re just going to ignore the problem. I don’t care what kind of lighting you’re using, there is no way the whitewashing of the brown characters is a matter of different lighting. There is not enough direct sunlight in the world to make Robin appear that washed out when all of the white characters are within cooee of their original skin tones. 

That one SBS? Do you mean the one where Oda said that Usopp’s nationality was African? I don’t understand, how does Oda acknowledging that his characters should be darker, only to completely ignore any reference to that in his art make things any better. I’m not going to give him a ‘you tried’ sticker for his efforts. He’s a professional artist, there’s nothing stopping him from picking up the darker markers if he wants to.

They’ve appeared that pale before in other cover pages.
 

And here’s another cover page, post timeskip. Even if you’re trying to blame the differences on scanning, everyone’s still white. Go figure.
 

The big question is why are you so invested in ignoring the problems here? Your excuses are piss poor and you skirt around the real issue as though you think everyone’s just got their contrast turned up too high. 

Before and after. No excuse.

It’s whitewashing. The fact that you are going to such lengths to explain the problem away is problematic.

I’m going to group all of these responses together since they’re related, so this will get pretty long. Please bear with me. These are all in response (I’m assuming) to this post from a couple of months ago.

1. Oda doesn’t make the anime.
True. In fact, in Oda’s art all of the Strawhats are the same colour.

Big whoop. You’re not helping your argument by pointing out that Oda’s always used the same marker for everyone’s skin tones. 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 it’s above criticism. 

2. The anime is trying to fix the characters so they look more like the manga. 
Well then I’m still waiting for them to change Robin’s eyes to brown. That seems like a pretty big flaw that needs fixing. 

 

3. The comparisons come from before and after timeskip, when the colour palettes changed.
The colour palettes changed a few times before timeskip as well, actually, and the results weren’t nearly as dire. I’m also confused as to how this is a defence. The new colours didn’t just suddenly poof into existence and were unchangeable upon pain of death. THEY WERE DECIDED ON. The animation team CHOSE the new palette. The fact that they’re different colour palettes is the reason comparison is necessary. 

4. One Piece has a lot more variety of skin colour than other series.
I’m assuming there was supposed to be a ‘used to’ in that sentence somewhere. Besides which, less problems is not no problems. 

5. Robin was in the snow, Zoro was on an island of perpetual twilight, and Usopp was in a forest with a thick canopy (debatable actually, but if we’re going to do this we might as well go with it).
Now we’re getting into the meat of it. For those who are really that invested in denying that they are just brown, let’s explore this one scientifically. If the hypothesis is that Zoro, Robin and Usopp are all white with heavy tans (because heaven forbid that they’re not actually white), then Sanji, who spent his life indoors, only to spend two years running through rain, hail and shine should have a substantial tan. As well, Nami and Luffy were both exposed to a lot of sun. So by your logic they should be much browner. Here’s the comparisons, with the first shot taken at the beginning of their 2YL break, and the second one at their immediate return to Sabaody.

 
Huh, what do you know? It’s like the animators didn’t take their sun exposure into account at all. Since ittoryu-yai said it perfectly:

To insinuate that ethnic skin of certain anime characters is the way it is because of exposure to the sun, is pretty much insinuating that they were white at some point. They are only brown because of the sun. That, is in fact, a racist thought. Unintentional or not, that is a problematic and racist thought. 

As for why Robin got it worse than Zoro and Usopp, yes, pale beauty standards for women. Robin is now the palest Strawhat. That was not done accidentally. The manga shows examples of this as well, in Vivi and Conis- both of who appear on covers beside men from the same location who are significantly darker than them. 

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, so don’t even bother with the blame game. 

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. 

onepiece-bae:

@Yexel’s Toy Museum :) (Philippines)

Luffy: trademark defiant, smiling pose, wearing classic outfit
Chopper: staring straight ahead, smiling, wearing classic outfit
Nami: submissive, sexualised pose, raised platform to make sure boobs are at the same height as the other two characters heads, wearing non-canon bikini

Does anybody else see the differences here?

Actually she didn’t look any different between before and after the trial. The early part of the flashback did take place 10 years before the rest of it though, so could that be what you’re thinking of?

Below is the evolution of Kokoro.
Young mermaid:

22 years before the Water 7/Enies Lobby arc:

12 years before the Water 7/Enies Lobby arc (before trial):

 

 12 years before the Water 7/Enies Lobby arc (after trial):

During Water 7/Enies Lobby:

Compare it to Shanks, Rayleigh, Jinbe or any other male of your choice and you’ll see that they’re still recognisable as their younger selves, and that their body shapes/heights/facial structures haven’t changed any where near as much as Kokoro’s.

That Zoro theory was supposed to go to my personal blog. Sorry guys.

I’ve heard a lot of different theories about Zoro’s back story, and most of them involve him getting lost. Well, what if it was one part lack of direction, and one part running away?
I was rereading Franky’s back story, and in one panel I noticed this little boy (chapter 354 page 16).

As a comparison, this is what Zoro looks like in his own flashback.

Look familiar? The first panel takes place when Tom’s just completed the Sea Train, when Water 7 is dying and violence has taken hold of the city. It’s twelve years before the beginning of the series, when Zoro should be seven. The time frame fits perfectly.

Now this is on Water 7, which of course begs the question how the hell he made it to East Blue. Except:

‘When the sea train, Puffing Tom, carried the troubled people away from the disused and closed off town, crossed the sea.’

There was an easy way out. People were leaving. Other islands had better trade routes, so once he got away it would have been markedly easier to find transport. Whether he started travelling with his family and got separated or he left alone, I don’t know.

To a kid whose childhood involved a violent home island, a dojo on a small, peaceful island in the weakest Blue sounds like a pretty good change huh? This might also explain where his determination to be the strongest came from. Years of being underfoot made the idea of strength appealing. It’s when Zoro meets Kuina and gains a rival that the focus of this strength starts to shift, becomes less abstract, and once she dies his original reason for seeking strength is all but forgotten under the weight of his promise to her.

People remember very little of their lives from before they are about twelve, and given Zoro’s perchant for forgetting anything he doesn’t find important, it’s entirely possible that he would not even remember his home island. Especially because this is Zoro we’re talking about.

Anyway, take from this what you will, as it’s really just a crack!theory, but until more info about Zoro’s past is revealed this is the best I’ve got. 

Some female One Piece figures are designed with removable clothing.

I addition to the slew of ‘bikini’ versions of characters like Nami and Hancock, you can guarantee that on larger figures such as the POP series, you can remove skirts and shorts to reveal carefully detailed panties- even garters in the case of the ‘Wedding’ Hancock. Some figures even have removable tops with sculpted breasts and nipples.

This isn’t something you’ll see featured on most toy sites, because often it’s not an ‘official’ feature. However, it’s obviously intentionally.

Perhaps the worst culprit is Bonnie’s POP figure, which allows you to display her chained up in just her panties. Go One Piece, supporting rape culture!

And let’s not forget the ‘Half Age’ characters. While many are just cute, younger looking versions of the characters, several feature the girls as pre-adolescent in skimpy swimsuits and panties. [x]

Link examples (NSFW!)
[x] [x] [x] [x] [x] 

WHAT THE CHRIST
[x] [x]

-Ivynajspyder

I don’t read Japanese, so I had to use the garbled Google Translate version, but from what I can tell, the figurines where he’s cut the clothing off come as shown, including the coloured areola on the Hancock figurine. I don’t think they’re designed to have the clothes easily removed, but they are given detailed undergarments that betray the intention for the enthusiastic.

Can anybody confirm if the two-part figurines (such as POP Strong World Nami) come with detailed panties as shown in the website?

primaslotherina-deactivated2013 asked: Do you have a personal? I'd love to follow you.

Indeed I do! You can find me over at Xarciel. 

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of activity lately. I put this blog on a bit of an unofficial hiatus over the last month or so, since the holidays were pretty busy for me and there were no new OP chapters.

You’ll see a spike in activity in the next couple of days, as I’ll attempt to catch up with the backlog in the inbox as soon as possible. Sorry about the response delays, but that you all for sticking around for this long!

acidiceffect:

kuro-hachi:

sfa2mikio:

I’m sorry but it’s really annoying to see this keep happening on my dash. For those who don’t know,Pixiv is considering shutting down access to western users.

Why?

Because of edits and reposts onto social media sights, such as Tumblr, Facebook, even Twitter. The problem has been here for the past months and I really just get sad seeing everyone reblog edits and reposts of art that’sUNSOURCED.

I’m sorry if I seem bitchy, but this is a critical issue, because not only would this cut off fandom posters, it cuts off any person in the US from accessing Pixiv.

Pixiv artists are already deleting their works and accounts, more and more artists are deleting everything because of this. I have alreadymade a post about this on my main,  and so havetwoofmy friends. You may say we’re throwing a big deal about this, but the thing is- we’re just trying to make sure that us fans and future fans have the art resources.

Things to know:

• ZEROCHAN AND WEHEARTIT ARE NOT SOURCES.
• I REPEAT. ZEROCHAN AND WEHEARTIT ARE NOT SOURCES.
• If you really absolutely don’t know, try the Google Images source thing.
• Or better yet-saucenao is a better one, as if it’s a pixiv work, it shows you the original pixiv link, if it’s deleted or not, and the artist.
• If you don’t know the source, DO THOSE STEPS ABOVE, and if they don’t work, state you don’t know it and ask around.

Oh, and biggest thing for the Vocaloid fandom mainly, along with other fandoms:

this is a list of pixiv artists who do not want their art reposted or edited at all.

If you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO REPOST THEIR WORK, ASK THEM FIRST! It won’t hurt you to be polite, and even if they don’t understand english they probably will understand what you’re saying.

I find this very relevant to this blog so I hope you’ll allow me to give another PSA.

(Thank you endless-chocolate for sending me this link)

I see this happen on my dash sometimes and I’m not gonna lie, I did consider unfollowing the people that reblog unsourced fanarts. Especially more so on those so-called one piece confessions/dirty op confessions whatever. It’s getting ridiculous. 

However, it’s my belief that every one of you are wonderful people who respects others, especially those who have worked hard in drawing and writing all the wonderful doujins and fanarts. So I hope I can raise some more awareness to this.

As usual I’m going to illustrate it in an easy way. (read right to left)

What supposed to happen:

What you’re doing when you don’t source:

What you’re making the artist do:

Every artist grow by displaying their work and getting critique. But when their work is spread around without any credit to the artist, AND EVEN MAKES THE OWN ARTIST DELETE IT FROM HIS/HER SITE it lost the purpose and meaning.

What you should do from now on (if you haven’t been doing so):

Here’s a guide on how to use saucenao. If it’s from pixiv, saucenao will most likely find it. If it doesn’t, use google image search.

If an artist spend their time to draw that fanart, I think we can spend a bit of time finding out the proper source/credit.

This has been another PSA from Dark Honey.

Actually for artworks posted on Pixiv, reupload even with a source is prohibited, especially fan arts. I once asked my friend why Japanese artist don’t usually allowed people to post their work elsewhere, and they said that that was because there’re cases happened in Japan, which Fanart artist being sued because of the copyright issue. (eg, One Piece Zosan artist Yuuri, Slam Dunk Fan Art artist 佐々木雅良）Although this might seems quite paradoxical as in, yeah there’s soooooo many fan art creations, comic market and doujinshis in Japan, lawsuits are still going on. I actually don’t quite understand the whole thing yet so what I did is just follow what the artist says. If she stated that no reupload is allowed, then I won’t repost it in public (and this is also the reason why I don’t scan and upload except my friend asked for it). 

ivynajspyder: 

sorry dude, it was definitely just ‘Africa’.

Here’s a scan of the original Japanese

As you can see next to Usopp it just says ‘アフリカ’ or Africa.

Oda messed up :T If he meant South Africa he would have put 南アフリカ.

Thank you for clearing this up. 

(Source: onepieceirks)