One Piece's Art Style

[Captain Cadaver]

A common complaint people have about the series is the art style. Would you say there's any truth to this?

Personally, I find the majority of complaints about the art style to be pretty unwarranted. Many people complain about it being "too cartoony", which is pretty rich in a medium where the modern standard for art is characters with eyes filling up most of their head and having about as much of a nose as :Krillin, whilst also have the majority of anime/manga characters look like the same model with slight aesthetic changes. In that regard, One Piece stands out for actually looking unique and having variety in it's character designs. The backgrounds for a lot of the locations such as Water 7 and Alabasta were pretty detailed as well. Not top tier, but certainly not bad. I also find there to be a lot of double standards in how many of those who trash the art style tend to praise such generic or downright poor art styles such as those of My Ripoff Academia and Mob Psycho 100 just because their anime adaptions have better animation.

I would say that there is some validity to the criticism on female characters, with the gradual increase in breast size and thinning of waists making many akin to sticks with a set of bowling balls, though that's about it. I'd say the creativity and fair level of detail in some areas would definitely place OP's art style above average, though not high or top tier.

 

[Flame]

The criticism is definitely valid and it's what drove me away from the series for the longest time. But I've found myself getting used to it, I still don't necessarily like it. It's still not good. But the content of the series makes up for it.

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

I also find there to be a lot of double standards in how many of those who trash the art style tend to praise such generic or downright poor art styles such as those of My Ripoff Academia and Mob Psycho 100 just because their anime adaptions have better animation.

While I don't like the style, I can agree with this. One Piece looks unique, and while it's style may not be for everyone, it isn't bland like My Hero Academia.

 

[SSJ2]

I honestly don't see how the art is bad. A prime example of Oda's detail:

I don't see how something like that could be viewed as being objectively bad. You may not enjoy the style of the art, and that is fair, but that doesn't make the actual artwork bad.

 

[Papasmurf]

my only real complaint is that half the attractive females are just a paper thin margin from being Nami/Robin clones, and that there can be too many details in a single page or double page spread sometimes. Oda's art isn't really bad, it can just be hard to read.