While we're on the subject of homogenized One Piece designs...

Does anyone know if Oda gets assistants to help him draw characters now? A lot of his art now just doesn't have the same energy and passion it used to...

>>29016

Maybe Oda's just getting old and tired.

>>29016
I see the same energy and passion as there's been for a long time, especially compared to Marineford when he was getting himself worn out. The color spreads are the only things I see going down a bit, but that seems to just be because he's so busy.

It is a rule of life that for any artist, in any comic where you draw the same characters every day for several years, the designs are going to get more streamlined and simpler to draw as the brain switches to autopilot and muscle memory. This leads them to become more iconic, but internet goblins often consider iconic art to be a bad thing that people should be looked down upon for. Even Calvin and Hobbes underwent a similar shift from the earlier designs to the later designs.

>>29017
:(

>>29017
He's 37, he's not old.

"Well we can't just call him 'author'."

You could say Oda.

"I didn't know he was called Oda."

Well you didn't bother asking to find out, did you?

There are certain changes that I just can't get over. And will never be able to get over. Chopper went from being genuinely cute to a disgusting blob with desu eyes.. and why? What reason was powerful enough to make him do this change? More marketability for dolls and younger kids? Then that would just make Oda a sellout whore.

And it's true, Robin does look bland now. I could have sworn she was Boa Hancock (the blandest of the bland) several times throughout Punk Hazard. With every arc he makes her less and less detailed; like he's gotten tired of putting in effort for her.

Still, I wouldn't say he's running out of energy or passion. And the series is still arguably as good as it's ever been.

>>29022
Chopper looks pretty much the same.
He's just happier overall.

And I hardly think 3 comically simple eyelashes counts as 'detsu'

>>29023
You're trolling right?

Chopper has CHANGED PROPORTIONS COMPLETELY.

he is SMALLER THAN IN HIS FLASHBACK
:|

>>29022

>Then that would just make Oda a sellout whore

Oh no. You change a character design slightly to make him more marketable even though he's still the same character with the same backstory, same motivations and will still most likely have the same plot arc.

All the while having one of the most successful manga ever based on your pure talent.

How does oda sleep at night knowing he's sacrificed so much for his artistic vision.

>>29025
talk about sellouts trying to juggle artistic vision, you should see fucking...rooster teeth's supplementary content these days.

>>29022
chopper has diabetes he lost all his baby weight
and turned into a literal baby

>>29025
I'm surprised you could type all that so articulately with his cock inside of your eye hole.

I remember the old story was that Chopper was drawn doofy specifically so he wouldn't be a cute mascot character... then everybody considered him one anyway. So Oda didn't bother trying to fight it, and he became more normally "cute" just because Oda likes exaggerating things.

Usually the characters look pretty wonky in their first story honestly, you should go back and look how different Usopp was.

>>29037
with robin it was super weird because he just completely changed her face FOR the timejump. she still kind of looked like she always did even as far as her little train ride.


franky's thumbs up explosion at vegapunk's lab was actually oda saying "farewell" to his designs, what he loves :(

>>29050
Bit over dramatic, don't you think?

>>29028

Yea yea blow me.

If all you're gonna do is be a pissy little asshole go take it to someone who gives a fuck.

>>29060
it WAS a pretty dramatic explosion

and it was the last time we saw the real franky :(
(The real franky died that day) :(


i'm going to just out myself and say that i cant stand franky's new arms. they're too big, clunky, and restrictive because they're big fat blocks and none of his awesome old poses work anymore :( (he has literally turned into a giant toy comercial) :(


sanji's redesign was great though holyshit is that the best fucking payoff in the entire series or what am i right? :)

>>29006

She's supposed to be russian or something though according to Oda

>>29063
>>29050

What are you doing here with those smiley faces, how old are you?

>>29065
Why are you so critical? Grow up.

>>29065
Because it's insincere, he's trying to rile you up.

>>29061

I always assumed Robin was tan and after getting out of the desert hanging out in the cold for 2 years she just got pale. I do prefer Dark Skinned Robin though

>>29072
I'm not being insincere, dont read into it so much. These are mostly all big problems i've had with the redesigns since the timejump. there's serious problems with them. I just like to type faces to punctuate sentences. :/

>>29075
Remember her flashback? She looked the same as a kid that she did as an adult and throughout most of her life.

but then 2 years after luffy's brother dies she changes ethnicity and trades her face in for one thats easier to draw and would make for better toys. :(


*the reason i used an emoticon there is to punctuate how fucking bummed that realization makes me, it isn't to be snide or coy or any of the bullshit that cynical internet users think the world runs on. It's honest feelings about something I used to love but love less as it devolves into a less interesting version of itself*

>>29076

>I used to love but love less as it devolves into a less interesting version of itself

Well sorry to hear that.

So who wants to actually talk about One Piece? Anyone? Nobody?

Well okay then. Topic done. We can all go now.

>>29073

>using 'bawww' as a retaliation
>2012

>>29077
lets try talking about one piece WITHOUT being butt puckers on the internet


i think the timeskip designs are bad and alot of recent happenings with one piece since thriller bark have been....off. The way one piece feels now isn't what i fell in love with. Watching the arlong remake I realized how much I still love alot of the early stuff from the series, but it just seems like steps have been taken to make it more marketable at the expense of character and story.

Franky just is a flat downgrade, robin metamorphed into a different person, usopp got magic bullshit plants that oda has barely even bothered to touch on (usopp barely shows up at ALL anymore. it makes me wonder if there was any funny business going on arround the time everyone got rebooted for the timeskip) Zoro's scar and closed eye basically prevents him from emoting as much as he used to, and his robes hide his sexy beefy body. brook is a fucking catastrophe of bad redesign...I just hate how it feels like alot of changes were forced into the story for the interest of making better toys, as others have sort of brought up. The overall aesthetics and style of the comic has sort of changed in a way that makes me wonder if oda does less of it than he used to. All these big spreads and "trendy" character designs...simplifying characters like usopp franky and robin to be more "normal", even the fights seem to be less interesting.

Luffy's basically developed the ability that lets him counter any super power and punch the guy, so is every fight going to be just this now? Remember when luffy fought enel and he had to be creative about defeating him, when he fought crocodile and had to discover how to beat him. now those super intimidating villains are no longer a threat. Punk Hazard's villains have felt more like a punk OUT. They're not interesting and they feel more like THEY are on the run from LUFFY and his crew (just like jimbei's sack of sad sacks who all went down in one second) Every character now has a "thing". So everyone is basically as strong as zoro and sanji now, so theres less of a dynamic. Half of the fun of those earlier arcs (even through water 7) was mixing up the characters in interesting ways that allowed the story to have alot of dynamic-ness to it. Luffy and Zoro were the strongest, nami and usopp were smart but not good in a fight, sanji was somehwere in the middle and kind of a wildcard, always playing it smart and showing up to save the fucking day. Now everyone is strong and has a marketable ability, so whats the point of even splitting everyone up? Its like in a jrpg when every character has good attack, defense, spells, and healing, and the only difference ends up being what sort of attack animation they have.


going back and comparing current one piece to chapters from the first half of the series....it just feels lazier in ways that the original was great. Yeah big spreads are impressive, but throw enough assistants at a sketch and you can blow it up as big as you want and still have it look good.


I'm really scared that one piece is becoming slowly more and more like naruto, and i fucking dropped naruto like a bad habit. :(

am i crazy? Am i the only one seeing these things and noticing how standardized half the drawings end up being anymore? Oda does so much more work on the property now, does he have less time to work on the manga? It feels like i'm seeing less and less of his art style, and more of "well this was handed off to an assistant to finish and ink luffy here here and here"

Oda can do whatever he wants with his characters and story because they're, well, his.

I really don't think Oda cares whether or not someone dislikes a certain character, or gets upset because a certain character didn't become nakama, or anything like that.

Oda's great and his characters are great, and his story hasn't changed, it just developed into something more complex as his editors and such noticed just how much money the series was bringing in.

Everyone's timeskip designs are great, if not better than before. I personally love Franky's most out of all of them and I'm not even mad about his hair, the fade works great for him.

OP needs to stop crying because Oda isn't doing what he wants.
If he honestly has this much to complain about, he can always just, you know, go read Bleach or something. No one changes in that one.

Fuck all y'all, the Strawhats all look amazing post-timeskip.

>>29080
I dont read manga because i "have to" I like one piece and like reading it. Why do you have a problem with having criticisms of a work? This isn't a deviant art account, I dont care about oda personally, all i care about is this story I've invested years of my life in and am concerned that its not living up to its own amazing standards.

the characters just dont feel HUMAN the way they used to, they just feel like a colorful cast but without the humanity. I could write a fucking essay about why every element of arlong saga was perfectly assembled from a storytelling perspective, but I felt nothing during the whitebeard war, it felt like the return of the jedi of the story. Big and bombastic, but the core wasnt as solid. Yes there was a big emotional death and two, but luffy's backstory ended up feeling flatter and staler than even franky's. It just feels like the mario series at this point. I fucking love mario, but every new super mario bros game that comes out ends up feeling less and less interesting, no matter how many times they dress mario up in a different suit. :(

And thats what one piece feels like now. It feels like it lacks direction, that its slavish to marketing and including elements that "sell well". Do you remember that dokiri shit? I have to imagine that that was a push to get power level ratings into the story. Imagine if that had actually become something we were expected to care about. Suddenly it isnt a story about people working through difficult situations, its just another fucking action story with pieced assembled in a working order according to a blueprint. Franky doesnt have personality anymore because he can barely MOVE. his arms are too big and he takes up too much space. Brook is just way too busy of a design. it feels like the comic turned into one of the movies or videogames. "Oh everyone is in some elaborately designed outfit fighting some stock badguy thats here because you need to have a badguy, but nothing about the villain feels integral or interesting and you're just waiting for luffy to punch him so the story can progress again"

:(

>29082
:)

you should send Oda a long and organized list of complaints. I'm sure he'd listen, you obviously know how to do his job better than he can. :)

Your opinions are obviously superior and it's blowing my mind why you haven't confronted the man in charge sooner. CLEARLY you can fix one piece from the downhill spiral it's gone on. :)

Please, do go on. I'm sure you have a lot more enlightening things to say that would bring Oda to his knees in tears because your opinion is just so.... right. :)

:)

>>29082
So why are you still reading?

>>29084
Why are you making this some personal quest against oda? Criticizing a movie doesnt mean you give a shit about the director. I'm just trying to have a discussion here so I'm laying my feelings out there. Sidestepping with distractions is....i dont get it.

>>29085
because I WANT to be proven wrong.

i love one piece and I hate that I'm just so flat on it. I hate that theres these things about it that I hate. having such binary opinions and a confrontational attitude isnt really conducive or interesting to a discussion. The whole point of a discussion is to bounce things off of eachother and explore a train of thought. To come to a personal conclusion through the growth and development of a conversation, .

petty knick knacks are just people being bored and shitty. thats not interesting.

>>29079
>steps have been taken to make it more marketable at the expense of character and story.

It destroys absolutely everything in terms of sales. It has no obligation to be even MORE marketable.

>>29088
Well, you are wrong.

Franky isn't mobile anymore? What the hell are you talking about, he's as loud and brash and active as he's ever been, he's just BIGGER. The arcs don't feel connected? JUST THIS CHAPTER we got a tie-in to the Marineford Arc, we've got Doflamingo back into the picture, Smoker's made his return, etc.

Holy shit, the whole reason Douriki existed was to mock the entire concept of power levels. The only one who cared about them was Fukuro and they only existed to show that you can't apply it to One Piece because everyone's powerset is too unique. If you don't like everyone's post-timeskip abilities that's your own damn problem, but I think they're amazing. Usopp's plant powers differentiate him from Franky, who has taken over the mechanical abilities.

Stop acting like everyone having a "thing" is new. It's been there since the BEGINNING. That's why One Piece is so great, everyone has their own set of abilities and skills. THAT WAS STATED IN THE GODDAMN ARLONG ARC YOU KEEP TALKING ABOUT. One Piece has been constantly escalating throughout its history, stop acting like the timeskip was the start of this brand new concept. The only reason you think the characters feel flat is because they've already gone through development and right now it's not necessary for them to change. They already DID that.

Dokiri was because Oda fucking loves Dragonball, Caesar and Monet are bigger threats than half the villains in One Piece (they come up against a LOT of losers who don't deserve their power) and Luffy hasn't had a magical counter to anything Caesar or Monet does. Franky and Brook are a bit more complex but have all the character they usually do with Franky just not getting a whole lot of screentime lately. There were misfires in how some characters were drawn right after the timeskip, but aside from Robin's bangs all the designs have worked out just fine once Fishman Island ended. It's not that One Piece doesn't have heart, it's that you're forgetting every single story isn't Alabasta or Enies Lobby.

But that's assuming you're not just some stupid troll, which chances are you are.

You should all be ashamed.

>>29078
Why are you still talking?

>>29096

better question is, why are you?

>>29096
>>29098
WHO ARE YOU TWO???


I hope Nami is naked again next arc. :)

>>29098
Nice comeback there.

why didnt chopper ask zoro about his eye or talk about helping him?


i wish zoro had an eyepatch then he would look like a proper pirate

I still think the kimono is a bad design choice, but an eyepatch would go a long way, and really look sweet when he has his bandana on. (the closed eye look just hurts alot of his expressions. Having an eyepatch allows that part of the face to have implied expression, winking zoro is just a weird expression to constantly be making)

>>29126
Never seems to hinder Gut's expressions, or Zoro's for that matter.

But I agree with you on the sure principal of the thing.

yeah oda you sellout whore stop sacrificing your sleep for us

we don't want you to care about your fans as much as you, so much that you only get 3 hours of sleep and hardly ever have a free day

come back when you can draw small boobs

>>29126
Its a scar. You can't really do anything about that. I'm sure we'll learn the story of it eventually; its not really relevant right now.

Actually fuck that noise

Franky make Zoro a robot eye.

Psh, he's able to emote just fine

>>29142
Oh my god I laughed waaaaaaaaaay too hard.

>>29025
>How does oda sleep at night knowing he's sacrificed so much for his artistic vision.
Very well since he gets to fuck the Nami live show actress.