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During 2024 ’s celebration of One Piece Day , an yearly event for new announcements for theOne Piecefranchise , new details of the upcoming reboot , The One Piece , were finally released . While there still is n’t a trailer or a release date , the staff at Wit Studio in the end speak at duration about what they were essay to do with the series , and more importantly , concept fine art for the series was finally free .
The concept artistic production forThe One Piecewas meet with largely positive reception , with most people praising it for faithfully recreating Eiichiro Oda ’s art style , but a major point in time of contention arise with Usopp ’s design . Usopp ’s design also captures the canonic aesthetic of Oda ’s artistic creation style , but beyond that , Usopp ’s hide tone inThe One Piecehas been depicted in a way of life that ’s suck accusations of racism from lover and critic alike .
This is n’t the first time the enfranchisement has been met with those sorts of unfavorable judgment , and the emergence surrounding it are far more complicated than one might cogitate .
The One Piece Is The Latest Series Accused Of Whitewashing Usopp
One Of One Piece’s Biggest Controversies Continues
One of the signature tune authentication of Usopp ’s pattern has always been his dismal tegument tone , with Eiichiro Oda even state thatUsopp would be African in the real world . For the most part , One Piecehas systematically render Usopp with sullen skin than the eternal rest of the Straw Hats , most of whom would be from Western or Asian nation if they survive in real life according to Oda , yet surprisingly , The One Piece ’s concept art depicts Usopp with noticeably pale pelt that is n’t that much drab than anyone else ’s , thus sparking accusation of whitewashing and racialism toward the serial .
What make things worse is that this is n’t the first time those sorts of criticisms have been levy about the gum anime ’s delineation of Usopp . While Usopp is usually depicted as having darker skin than the rest of the chief cast , there have been legion times when Usopp ’s skin tone has been discrepant , the most noticeable and late example being howOne Piece ’s Egghead Island arc depicts Usopp as being completely low-cal - skinned from the very start . The One Pieceis just the latest model of something like this happen to Usopp , and unfortunately , it ’s unconvincing to be the last .
One Piece’s Long History Of Allegedly Whitewashing Its Cast
Usopp Isn’t The First Time One Piece Has Been Accused Of Whitewashing
The accusations of Usopp being whitewash in theOne Pieceanimeare high-risk , and they ’re far from the only example . A rather notorious model of this is how Nico Robin was depicted with dark peel in the gum anime for year , but after the timeskip , it was wholly erased and she was limn as having pale skin in all the years to espouse . allow , the alteration in Robin ’s skin pure tone was theOne Pieceanime chasten the original change they made to her graphic symbol , but it ’s still a very egregious example that undoubtedly catch many longtime viewers off - sentry duty .
A more straightforward example comes from the Seraphim introduced in the Egghead Island spark . The Seraphim were created partially from the lineage factor of King , another fictional character with dour cutis , and while the Seraphim also have dark peel , One Piece ’s gum anime systematically portray S - Snake as having lighter cutis than the other Seraphim , even though they ’re all absorb with the same hide tone in the mangadue to all of them being created from King ’s genes . That case always shows itself when the Seraphim are standing next to each other , and with every new episode , it becomes increasingly hard to cut .
Why The Issue Of Usopp’s Skin Tone In One Piece Is So Complicated
Usopp’s Skin Tone Isn’t As Cut & Dry As People Think
On the surface , everything surrounding Usopp would seem to be part ofOne Piece ’s foresighted and unfortunate history of gloss over its casting , but the issue is far more complicated than that . While Usopp is typically depicted with coloured skin in coloured illustrations , not only is it never to the extent of the anime , but in the regular black - and - white pages , Usopp is drawn with the same skin tincture as the majority of theatrical role inOne Piece , despite being a canonicallyblack anime grapheme .
Another point to consider is Usopp ’s in - universe heritage . While Yasopp is systematically show as a dark - skinned fictitious character , Usopp ’s female parent , Banchina , had clean skin in both the anime and the manga , so Usopp should canonically have lighter skin than other dark - skinned characters inOne Pieceand anime and manga , in oecumenical . Because of that , any representative of Usopp being depicted with whitened skin inOne Piececould stanch from his canonical biracial inheritance , but it go too far with that , either mode .
With how Eiichiro Oda draw Usopp , The One Piecetechnically is n’t wrong to draw Usopp with lighter peel , but it ’s an odd decision , nonetheless . Not only is Usopp explicitly put forward to be African , butthe cast of Jamaican actor Jacob Gibson inNetflix ’s live - actionOne Piecereinforced the mind of Usopp being a blackened lineament , as does the casting of the South African worker Chante Grainger as Banchina . It ’s been made increasingly hard to traverse Usopp ’s African roots , and that makes the times when he ’s not depicted in a way that ’s inconsistent with that all the weirder .
Why Usopp’s Alleged Whitewashing Is A Problem For One Piece
Whitewashing Will Never Not Be An Issue In Media
Usopp being gloss over inThe One Pieceand other medium is a major problem for several reasons . For starters , there ’s an repugnance with Usopp , Robin , S - Snake , and other character not have consistently dark skin while characters like Yasopp , King , Kuzan , and Blackbeard , with Blackbeard being Somalian according to Eiichiro Oda , have been consistently depicted with dark skin since their debut . That create the mind thatOne Piecehas been reinforcing the idea that it ’s haywire for a major character in a story to wait too saturnine , an extension of colorism that ’s unfortunately far too common in New Clarence Day .
Another job is how the whitewashing runs contrary to one of the major topic ofOne Piece ’s story . Ever since the former days of the series , One Piecehas gone to great length to celebrate all cultures of the Earth as tastily as possible through graphics and allusion , and the Western influence put into many of the characters has always been a giving part of that . Because of that , theOne Pieceanime repeatedly downplaying Usopp ’s sanctioned condition as a grim - skinned character run against the outside composition of the story , and it ’s always disappointing to see that craw up .
Usopp is a rare example of a smutty reference in an gum anime being a major graphic symbol and being treated respectfully from their debut , something that was specially rare in the 90s , soOne Piece ’s riding habit of sleek over Usopp erases one of the most progressive constituent of the serial publication for understanding that are hard to see as anything but disconfirming . Whether there was any ill purport withThe One Pieceand other media doing this is unknown , but regardless , it ’s a major trouble that ’s unfortunately improbable to be puzzle out anytime soon .
make by Eiichiro Oda , One Piece is a multimedia franchise that began as a manga series and surveil the risky venture of the Straw Hat Pirates as led by Monkey D. Luffy . Luffy , an enthusiastic plagiariser with a thirst for dangerous undertaking , is afflicted by a mysterious curse that gives him various magnate he use to protect himself and his friends . The manga eventually gave way to the anime serial publication , with the two being some of history ’s foresightful - running anime and manga serial . Along with over fifty video games made over the years , the series figure the live - natural action world with Netflix ’s 2023 adaptation .
Image By Joshua Fox
Created by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece is a multimedia franchise that began as a manga series and follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates as led by Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy, an enthusiastic pirate with a thirst for adventure, is afflicted by a mysterious curse that gives him various powers he uses to protect himself and his friends. The manga eventually gave way to the anime series, with the two being some of history’s longest-running anime and manga series. Along with over fifty video games made over the years, the series entered the live-action world with Netflix’s 2023 adaptation.
Created by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece is a multimedia franchise that began as a manga series and follows the adventures of the Straw Hat Pirates as led by Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy, an enthusiastic pirate with a thirst for adventure, is afflicted by a mysterious curse that gives him various powers he uses to protect himself and his friends. The manga eventually gave way to the anime series, with the two being some of history’s longest-running anime and manga series. Along with over fifty video games made over the years, the series entered the live-action world with Netflix’s 2023 adaptation.
