Tired of talking about female characters? Well, we're not!
Summary:
One Piece lacks variety in the female characters portrayal.
Eiichiro Oda is fairly capable of drawing different women.
Fans wish the author would do that more often.
There are countless debates over the portrayal of female characters in the modern media, and anime is not immune to that. We’ve discussed mangakas treating their women badly many times, but this time it’s not the character development and being forgotten by the story that’s attracted attention. One Piece fans have mentioned that the series lacks female body type diversity, and most of its women look the same, with rare exceptions.
Editors might be the problem
Fans suggest that Eiichiro Oda, the author of the One Piece series, is not the issue. He is well capable of drawing funny and weird looking female characters, and he’s shown that many times. Amazon Lily is a great example of this, since this arc provides a lot of diverse girls. Fans just wish that there would be more parts of the story like that, and more different women in the series.
Oda’s editors seem to be the ones who fans have decided to put the blame on. Shounen anime have always been targeted at the audience of adolescent boys, and with that come the consequences. We are not trying to say that teenage boys are shallow and only want to see pretty girls on their screens, but everyone can agree that said girls are a good addition to the series. Sexualization sells well, and it’s pointless to deny that.
Less female characters — less diversity
Another reason for the diversity issue is the overall lack of female characters in One Piece. In order for an arc to have a wide variety of female body types, it needs to have a lot of women in the first place, just like the aforementioned Amazon Lily arc. And if a particular story part cannot offer this variety, then those few girls are meant to be sexualized, since this type of character is the priority.
Fans also mention the earlier days, saying that One Piece wasn’t so bad before. The female characters might not have been diverse, either, but the level of sexualization was lower. However, no matter how the designs of the characters have changed, fans have noticed one thing that always stays the same: One Piece female characters possess a noticeable cleavage.
They say that when an author doesn’t know how to write a female character, they need to write a male one and make him female. And fans think this might be great advice for Oda’s character design. They know that the mangaka is fairly capable of it, though, they just wish he would do that more often.
Tired of talking about female characters? Well, we're not!
Summary:
One Piece lacks variety in the female characters portrayal.
Eiichiro Oda is fairly capable of drawing different women.
Fans wish the author would do that more often.
There are countless debates over the portrayal of female characters in the modern media, and anime is not immune to that. We’ve discussed mangakas treating their women badly many times, but this time it’s not the character development and being forgotten by the story that’s attracted attention. One Piece fans have mentioned that the series lacks female body type diversity, and most of its women look the same, with rare exceptions.
Editors might be the problem
Fans suggest that Eiichiro Oda, the author of the One Piece series, is not the issue. He is well capable of drawing funny and weird looking female characters, and he’s shown that many times. Amazon Lily is a great example of this, since this arc provides a lot of diverse girls. Fans just wish that there would be more parts of the story like that, and more different women in the series.
Oda’s editors seem to be the ones who fans have decided to put the blame on. Shounen anime have always been targeted at the audience of adolescent boys, and with that come the consequences. We are not trying to say that teenage boys are shallow and only want to see pretty girls on their screens, but everyone can agree that said girls are a good addition to the series. Sexualization sells well, and it’s pointless to deny that.
Less female characters — less diversity
Another reason for the diversity issue is the overall lack of female characters in One Piece. In order for an arc to have a wide variety of female body types, it needs to have a lot of women in the first place, just like the aforementioned Amazon Lily arc. And if a particular story part cannot offer this variety, then those few girls are meant to be sexualized, since this type of character is the priority.
Fans also mention the earlier days, saying that One Piece wasn’t so bad before. The female characters might not have been diverse, either, but the level of sexualization was lower. However, no matter how the designs of the characters have changed, fans have noticed one thing that always stays the same: One Piece female characters possess a noticeable cleavage.
They say that when an author doesn’t know how to write a female character, they need to write a male one and make him female. And fans think this might be great advice for Oda’s character design. They know that the mangaka is fairly capable of it, though, they just wish he would do that more often.
