One little detail I've always loved about One Piece's art is that barring any shadow, Shanks is the only person with grayscale in his design, his hair. Everything else is black and white. I think. I'm sure someone will fact-check me on that.
indeed. Another instance of unique skin tone was King during Onigashima. it’s interesting because Kishi(Naruto) used to do it with his black characters (Killer Bee for example) but Oda NEVER uses a different skin tone (even for allegedly “black characters” im thinking of Usopp, Kuzan or even Teach).
@@nineninesixteensixteen9955 I'm not sure about Kuzan or Blackbeard, but Ussop is Black. Oda was heavily involved in the production of the live action adaptation where Ussop was played by a Black actor. And in an SBS Oda said that if the Straw Hats were real people Ussop would be from South Africa.
I actually fell in love with One Piece's manga specifically when I once was on a trip to Italy and I got a copy of Volume 48, the later portion of the Thriller bark arc, and I think its just a heavily underrated portion of the story, there's certain character designs in one Piece that pretty much only Oda knows how to draw well, and Moria is one of them, he's exremely expressive and fun, and the differences between anime and manga are night and day, Moria in the Manga has several expressions that are outright haunting. this is something i could gush out for hours, so bear with me for a moment, one of my most important examples from later arcs would be Brulee, a character that is drawn by oda with extreme nuance and subtlety in her expressions, the anime does a decent job of portraying her smile momment with katakuri, but in the manga there's this sort of thematic storytelling based on her smile. A quick deviation, there's this prominent case in which Mjosgard starts out as a weak chinned caricature of himself, and he becomes a handsome chad-face when he gets rid of his prejudice. Brulee is a more nuanced example of this! In one Piece, ugliness comes from the heart, Brulee looks like a wacky witch because she's bitter and mean, but then she comes to help Katakuri, someone she knows worries about her, and shows her true side, a gesture of kindness, and all the outlandish parts of her design seem to disappear in one of the most pretty smiles Oda has ever drawn. I hope if you ever touch this topic again, pointing at the complex emotions that Oda is capable of drawing would make me very happy
Actually pardon me gushing even more but I needed to revisit the brulee chapter once more after talking about it and I just gotta say it may be one of my favorite chapters art wise! its chapter 902, essentially the final chapter of Whole Cake Island. First it includes one of my all time favorite color spreads (Sweet Busters, reimagining the strawhats as ghost busters that fight haunted candy people). it has yet another nuanced pained expression with Carrot telling Sanji to say thanks to pedro, it has tons and tons of comples drawings from both Sanji and Pudding, and she gets a highlight by having the memory-reel sequence, we have the aforementioned iconic Brulee smile, and among other things we end with the split panel where Sanji and Zeff say the same line, with only the panel gutter barely keeping them appart. genuinely one of my favorite chapters.
I feel that something which is overlooked a lot in regard to backgrounds and locations is that East blue NEEDED to be simple. It simultaneously helped establish the light hearted tone of the adventure, letting the characters shine in contrast to the pleasant but quaint background; while also establishing a baseline for what normality looks like in this world. It's not until we enter the grand line that every island becomes a highly stylized macrocosm, and that is important because it marks a stark contrast of traveling outside and inside the grand line. It gives a big sense of progression and it wouldn't have been as impactful if every east blue island was also different and wacky and unique.
Alabasta, sure I can agree, but Skypiea? Granted, I am still currently reading it for the first time, and the fights so far are a mess. Especially the fights with Ganfor. I genuinely can't tell what's happening most of the time. This hasn't been the case so far. :/
Depends for me, I think there was abit of a peak not too long ago, but in general ability and even style oda has improved and really made his style his own. His shortcomings fall mainly on his compositions and rush-style, the latter of which fails him due to the formerly stated current composition style, which relys so much on cramming as much detail as possible. His og style felt like something from the 60-70s, not being too out of place in og lupin, so it struck my eye but not TOO much. Where as his current style that gives more structure and "realism" to the characters which really makes it HIS own style.
What makes one piece's art special is how the characters express emotions..when they cry they tend to cry overly until snot coming out n that make me as reader intuitively getting sad,when they happy with bigg ahh smile readers also been dragged
Umm by measurements pre time skip they both are already at F/G cups lol 😅 considering underbust is 65cm/ 30 band width. Girls who have cleavage at BC cups are just pushing it with extreme amount of padding
There's nothing modest about those mountains, those are like F cups already, for the sake of any woman you might date in the future please consider lowering your expectations by a lot lol.
People put way too much emphasis on pre timeskip and post timeskip. Truth is, the art in marineford is very similar to Fishman Island, PH and Dressrosa. The first real differencr starts around WCI, but it’s still very gradual changes.
I love oda’s old and new art styles equally for different reasons. It is certainly different, but not bad. Each has a place in my heart. I’m gonna be king of the pirates!
As an artist I think Oda is someone who is unusually similar in his art style after so many years of drawing! It's normal to change even more than that. One Piece is auteur driven!
If you're going to also metion aspects like lettering, paneling, and onomatopoeia, shouldn't you be reviewing the Japanese Tankoban Scans instesd of the Viz Media scans? These localization changes and sensibilities are not even related to Oda's artwork -- he had no part or say in how Viz localized it.
It used to be almost 3dimensional in certain shots. Everything had a round feeling. And i love how much breathing room the panels used to have. Now its much flatter, lines are rough, and backgrounds are overcrowded. I still absolutely love OP, but now its much tougher on the eyes
I reread one piece a couple of years ago and the arcs that stood out art wise were from skypea to thriller bark, i still remember some panels like the forest and gigant snake from skypea, the train from water 7 and in general all the silly spooky desings in thriller bark
I feel in a weird way it almost feels intentional (even though i know its not) because early one piece was much tamer there were issues but the stakes overall were a lot smaller and the big bads looking back weren't really BIG BAD if we compare what they wanted vs how strong the world actually is still evil but nowhere near the level of evil that the majority of new world villain's have or power
The funniest thing about the art of One Piece is not in the subtle changes in how he draws his main characters (Nami as an example has gone through at least two huge changes!) but how he draws his reoccurring characters. The main characters at least had, to my consideration, very gradual transformations, like they were growing... But with some character designs, like Shanks, especially Shanks, felt like Oda never was satisfied with whenever he went back to and therefore changed entirely through the years.
If I can offer some criticism to your editing style: when analyzing a panel, please gradually zoom out or pan the image if you want to keep the image from being static, rather than zooming in as you talk. It's a little hard to follow what you're saying in the section about Don Krieg in particular, and only gets harder as the image zooms in more. That said, I think you've got worthwhile things to say here, and I really enjoyed the video overall. Keep up the good work please ^^
I think when people ask this, what they mean is the the weird character proportions that were adopted as the manga went on. Sure the actual quality of the art is better but sometimes the characters just look really, really weird. And not in a design way but just drawn off.
I’m surprised so many people share this opinion, not like in a bad way I guess but i genuinely love Oda’s art more and more with every arc, like it’s at its peak for me right now in the manga
I think you skimmed through Thriller Bark because I think it is the arc where odas art peaked. The characters and the full spreads of that arcc are unrivaled.
Pre-timeskip art is significantly better in my opinion. The lines used to be so clear, no wiggling gibberish. The background, mid ground and foreground used to be separated clearly by the line weight. The poses used to strike impactful dynamic rather than just bland 2D sketches. The facial expressions used to be exaggerated in funny and unique ways. The panels used to be able to easily identify what's going on because the story wasn't forced to cramp into a limited amount of space. Nowadays, Oda just focuses on the quantity on the scene rather than quality of the scene.
I disagree with the notion that this is a pre timeskip vs post timeskip thing, everything you think makes the art good has remained all the way to mid Wano, also while the post timeskip has seen a more mature evolution of Odas art but I wouldn’t say the faces/poses have gotten less exaggerated quite the contrary, I just believe that the frequency dropped in part due to what you’re saying about Oda having to cram a bit more stuff as he’s limited in pages but. I also disagree with saying that the quality of a scene isn’t being focused on, because I think especially in egghead now his attention to panelling has been some of the best it’s ever been, especially when it comes to depth of a panel as well as obviously how it reads, I highly recommend watching Werbs panelling videos on here because they highlight what I’m talking about better than I ever could. The one thing I fully agree with is unfortunately the lines becoming a bit more messy but honestly it’s just a case of age catching up with him and the problem with his eyesight which tbh he had surgery for but I think it might take time for him to get back to how he was (if ever). Also I think the weekly reading experience does the art a lot of injustice and it’s much better in the physical release lol
@@onepieceenjoyer5326 nah hes correct. new doesnt equal better. its gen z focussed now. which is ok i love the story, but i dont care for chopper squaking every time hes on screen and wiggling around or the weirdly oversaturated colours. it only works for the super hype scenes. and there is too much collage and incoherent pictures in some of those even.
@@marcinczapski8547 I’m not really arguing that new equals better tho certainly the period of the art is Dressrosa to WCI is maybe my second favourite era of art I’m just saying that this being a pre ts vs post ts thing is just not true, chopper for example started looking like what he looks now like midway through the pre ts lmao, and also that the art remained very good albeit slightly different well into the post ts its really only gotten to be inconsistent and whatnot in late Wano when Oda started seriously having Eye issues. Moreover while I think One piece panelling has always been overall great if we are being serious the whole cluttered panelling thing is also something that started before the timeskip lmao. Obviously to each their own at the end of the day but like I said this is not a pre ts post ts and quite frankly it’s just tiring hearing this talking point about the story in whatever capacity lmao
For both the anime and manga I like seeing it change art styles and grow as a story. One piece is a story that's been around for so long that its almost a time capsule of humanity and how we where at those times (especially animation wise)
I loved watching it on 4kids 2 decades ago as a kid but it was once every Saturday morning so of course I took what I could get then. The art style of one piece is a big reason I dropped the series after several chapters about a decade ago when I was reintroduced to it in manga form. It wasn’t until covid lockdown of 2020 when I gave OP a chance again and got use to the art style, now almost 5yrs later and I absolutely love every iteration of OPs art style. To each their own though since I can understand both perspectives🤷♂️
Great disection of Oda's earlier styles, I've always found myself more a fan of it because of nostalgia, but also because of its similarities to Takei who was my biggest inspiration growing up. On that note, I really appreciate you mentioning him in this context, I feel like it gets ignored how similar in style and training Takei and Oda were, considering they both were published around the same time, AND they were both assistants to Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin); in fact, their early styles have many examples of Watsuki's artstyle if you look closely! It's fun to compare and think about how such great artists influenced one another :)
I just wanna say it feels surreal to see someone breaking down one pieces style like this, I remember reading one piece for the first time, and the art style was like candy, it felt unreal to see the drawing, and there was a feeling that the world was gonna get even crazier and more detailed and it did. Nowadays breakdowns like these are really cool to see. Imo water seven and Enies lobby were the best in combining clarity in the fights , and really impactful framing for the emotional compositions. Cheers !
I think the art is absolutely better now but it’s got so much more going on in each panel so it’s not as clear. Oda just loves stuffing so much into each panel
As with anything oda San is just as much on this adventure as we are. This includes changes, new techniques,managing deadlines, and everything in between. His work reflects the journey of what started and what is. Pretty cool.
Early One Piece for me is nostalgic, simple lowkey and lowstakes. Which fits perfectly with the evolution of the story. I think the exageration and cartoonisation of One piece fits the manga so well, the more Luffy becomes closer to gear 5 the more the world around him is his oyster. Not to mention, the more the world is fleshed out the more detailed the style becomes.
people sometimes are also comparing early scans VS volume releases. Of course the early scans of the new chapters wont look as good as the volume release with higher quality scans
For me Oda has improved a LOT when it came to the character designs. I love the post time skip designs on all the characters. But i feel like his new paneling style is a bit messy, especially with the conversation panels and action stuff.
He matured as an artist is all lmao. Also the story matured more as well so the goofy look we see isnt as realistic anymore because the stakes just alwags got bigger
Part of me thinks the art is vastly much different because Oda is on a time constraint. Pre TS, things were planned out in advance and he had an idea of what he wanted to draw. Oda is now planning the endgame and he wants to have everything set out perfectly but at the same time has to produce the finished work by the end of the week or two. So the work isn’t as quality or clean as he could make it. That or simply his art changed over time as his skills got better
I feel like in current era One Piece, Oda has sacrificed A LOT of clarity(thanks to the simplicity and expressive proportions) in order to cram in as much detail as possible. I absolutely hate it because it looks messier than ever. What's the point of having so much detail if it's not gonna look polished and smooth as it did during earlier arcs?
The way I see an artist art style , is like a skill the more you do it the better you become at doing it, his been drawing Manga for over 30 years now. And he won’t draw the way he use to because he has improved in his artist drawing and might want to add such and such detail to the character’s or the story. In my opinion he has really improved from over 20 years ago
7:42 This is a fair enough take for the digital version but fails to account for the physical release where spreads are clearly divided into two pages, you're not gonna be confused when the right side is essentially its own whole page that simply bleeds a bit into the left side.
I think early oda had a lot more negative space then later he really started filling everything with as much detail as possible. Maybe a bit too much in his effort to get in all the story possible.
I didnt have to watch the video to know that oda matured his drawing not to look like toriyama's. By the begining of One Piece some characters looked too much like Dragon Ball Characters and I dont think Oda really wanted this, but by working together he gets used to draw like his sensei and then by the paramount war arc Oda simply started to transfer HIS OWN ARTSTYLE to the work.
Sadly it is not only in art style but in the storytelling as well. Post time skip became too much of a shouned battle-focused story in my opinion, instead of the adventure, exploration and nakama focused narrative.
I love that you can find the points where the art shifts. Wish you would point out the time difference between them tho. Like east blue to alabasta is like 2 years irl right?
I don't really think that the paneling became messy. For example that Skypia example that you used is a Oda stable. After two attacks clash or someone was just defeated, he has two panels with the face of the one that was attacked and the one that initiated the attack. It's also exactly like the camera cuts to their faces in the anime. The same happened in that Marineford double page between Akainu and Whitebeard, that you have used.I don't really think that post timeskip OP is worse. We just have less wacky characters because we are climbing the power ledder so a totally goofy person with a 3B bounty wouldn't make much sense. That said Oda drew tons of memorable characters in Dressrossa (he drew 200+ characters, arguably way too many) and also a lot in Wano. It's just that we are at the endstage, so we will have less characters like Mr. 4 or Mr. 2.
I love early One Piece art style, it took me a while to like it, and honestly it was the reason why i didn't read one piece when it started, but one day i was bored and looking for new manga to read - at that time (20+ years ago) OP was already a big deal- so i said to my self, i'll give it a try, for some reason this manga receive so much love from the fans, so i started reading it and by chapter 2 i was hooked!!! The anime, was something symilar, it took me a little time to like Luffy's japanese voice, but for me right now is one of the most iconic and lovable voices on any character i know.
I'm one of the strange people that likes Oda's chaotic paneling where so much is going on. Gives the manga a unique flavor different from other manga imo.
Its not surprising that an artists styl chages over the year. Regarding the paneling, i heared an oda quot that he had to cramp his panels, because the story would take even longer if spaced out lik in the beginning. The preference to the old world storys is in my opinion due to the narrative. Before the time skip the story was mostly about the straw hats themselfe, who we were very invested in. With all the world changing events nowadays they get a little bit lost.
I like the early style but I'm glad we've moved on from the East Blue art style. Its not bad or anything but I love how as Oda developed his style he gave human characters more room to become increasingly strange in their proportions for seemingly no reason at all but it looks cool and unique. Donquixote is an example where we can see how his design changed slightly as the styles changed. He used to have a normal height for our world and now he's really tall with his arms being especially long. I think he looks a lot better in the newer styles. I love that Oda goes crazy with how many of the characters look. It makes almost every character very unique looking. He still has the problem where many of the women are the same figure with a different head but he hasn't been as guilt of it in the last couple of years compared to the start of the new world.
For me, I noticed that Oda's art style really starts to come into it's own around the Jaya and Skypeia arcs. Everything before that seemed like he was trying to emulate something else (classic cartoons, other manga) which is fine when you're still trying to find your style. Oda's designs got better with each arc afterwards from Water 7, Thriller Bark and the Marineford saga. I believe this is around the time we start seeing Oda getting more outrageous with his character designs during this era as well. There's a looseness and freedom in some characters (ex. Impel Down guards) and serious/badness (ex. Rayleigh) in others. Since the timeskip, I've noticed Oda's style has become a lot more loose and sketch-like. He's past the point of making every panel perfect and cuts straight to the point of what he needs to draw. I like this because of how efficient it is and it shows how far Oda has come from the beginning. Those are just some things I noticed personally. And yes, I have a degree in yapology.
good information, thanks for sharing it. I wonder if you think a business model of making custom merch for anime fandoms / anime fan clubs would work? It'd be great to get insights from a pro like you, thanks in advance.
How would you rate early One Piece's art style? How does it compare to other manga?
@@ShonenOuji ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
@@ShonenOuji 8 out of 10
It gets better though
@@ShonenOuji 8 out of 10
It gets better though
I prefer early-mid one piece in terms of general aesthetic and paneling. Overall, 7.5/10
If we comparing One Piece Art Style to Naruto and Bleach, then it's dead last! No contest! 4/10 at best
It’s simple: his art evolved overtime.
Devolved
@@Itachi21xearly One Piece barely had proper shading in most panels and the action scenes have improved a lot. The backgrounds also got better.
@@Itachi21x alright buddy
Evolved yes, but the earlier chapters weren’t bad, he just wasn’t detailing it to a high level. He was just drawing with a more simplistic art style
@@bervin3232 ik. the older chapters have their own charm
In one piece, the world itself is a character that Oda fleshes out with his drawings
This is overwhelmingly true post timeskip.
It’s not that deep bro
@@hahayayak3620 yes it is
You guys ride meat too much
@@bathin813Hush
The backgrounds and serious flexing moments got better, like during the action scenes/clashes
@@SamTheGumMan117 Especially in the clashes.
Iirc he mentioned in one of the SBS answers that backgrounds are usually done by assistants and he does the “things that move”
He has more assistants now, so there are assistants for specific scenes. Oda says he even has a guy that just makes bubbles for dialogue.
His art evolved overtime, he's been at it for 27 years. Of course it won't look the same.
One little detail I've always loved about One Piece's art is that barring any shadow, Shanks is the only person with grayscale in his design, his hair. Everything else is black and white. I think. I'm sure someone will fact-check me on that.
indeed. Another instance of unique skin tone was King during Onigashima. it’s interesting because Kishi(Naruto) used to do it with his black characters (Killer Bee for example) but Oda NEVER uses a different skin tone (even for allegedly “black characters” im thinking of Usopp, Kuzan or even Teach).
He talked about this in an early SBS and if I remember correctly the reason he gave is that he's lazy lol.
@@nineninesixteensixteen9955Ussop and Kuzan are black tho
@@nineninesixteensixteen9955 I'm not sure about Kuzan or Blackbeard, but Ussop is Black. Oda was heavily involved in the production of the live action adaptation where Ussop was played by a Black actor. And in an SBS Oda said that if the Straw Hats were real people Ussop would be from South Africa.
@@SoberSyrupBottle Think he said Blackbeard would be from Somalia, and Kuzan's design is based on a japanese actor
about 25 years happened
naturally lmao
Style is why he made the choices he did. He has a style of drawing and continues to develop the style as time goes on.
I actually fell in love with One Piece's manga specifically when I once was on a trip to Italy and I got a copy of Volume 48, the later portion of the Thriller bark arc, and I think its just a heavily underrated portion of the story, there's certain character designs in one Piece that pretty much only Oda knows how to draw well, and Moria is one of them, he's exremely expressive and fun, and the differences between anime and manga are night and day, Moria in the Manga has several expressions that are outright haunting.
this is something i could gush out for hours, so bear with me for a moment, one of my most important examples from later arcs would be Brulee, a character that is drawn by oda with extreme nuance and subtlety in her expressions, the anime does a decent job of portraying her smile momment with katakuri, but in the manga there's this sort of thematic storytelling based on her smile. A quick deviation, there's this prominent case in which Mjosgard starts out as a weak chinned caricature of himself, and he becomes a handsome chad-face when he gets rid of his prejudice. Brulee is a more nuanced example of this!
In one Piece, ugliness comes from the heart, Brulee looks like a wacky witch because she's bitter and mean, but then she comes to help Katakuri, someone she knows worries about her, and shows her true side, a gesture of kindness, and all the outlandish parts of her design seem to disappear in one of the most pretty smiles Oda has ever drawn.
I hope if you ever touch this topic again, pointing at the complex emotions that Oda is capable of drawing would make me very happy
Actually pardon me gushing even more but I needed to revisit the brulee chapter once more after talking about it and I just gotta say it may be one of my favorite chapters art wise! its chapter 902, essentially the final chapter of Whole Cake Island.
First it includes one of my all time favorite color spreads (Sweet Busters, reimagining the strawhats as ghost busters that fight haunted candy people). it has yet another nuanced pained expression with Carrot telling Sanji to say thanks to pedro, it has tons and tons of comples drawings from both Sanji and Pudding, and she gets a highlight by having the memory-reel sequence, we have the aforementioned iconic Brulee smile, and among other things we end with the split panel where Sanji and Zeff say the same line, with only the panel gutter barely keeping them appart. genuinely one of my favorite chapters.
@@NedoikoGush on, brother lol. I appreciated the read and you made some great points! God bless
@@Rude_Boi Many thanks! glad to know someone read it!
@@Nedoiko
I also read it :)
Damn, that's a lot of words.
Egghead has some of the best art in any One Piece arc period, especially post eye surgery Oda was dishing out legendary panels at the end of the arc.
Wtf? particularly good panels are exceptions although there's definitely been improvement after the surgery
I feel that something which is overlooked a lot in regard to backgrounds and locations is that East blue NEEDED to be simple. It simultaneously helped establish the light hearted tone of the adventure, letting the characters shine in contrast to the pleasant but quaint background; while also establishing a baseline for what normality looks like in this world. It's not until we enter the grand line that every island becomes a highly stylized macrocosm, and that is important because it marks a stark contrast of traveling outside and inside the grand line. It gives a big sense of progression and it wouldn't have been as impactful if every east blue island was also different and wacky and unique.
Alabasta and skypea was peak artwork
my man
Alabasta, sure I can agree, but Skypiea? Granted, I am still currently reading it for the first time, and the fights so far are a mess. Especially the fights with Ganfor. I genuinely can't tell what's happening most of the time. This hasn't been the case so far. :/
@@he_cat Artwork was peak, not panelling
@@Naruke0Nick oh, my bad
I cannot agree 😂, i've never felt like that while i was reading skypiea@@he_cat
10:23 nami's forehead actually contains the last poneglyph
LOL! 😅🤣🤣
LMAOO
Depends for me, I think there was abit of a peak not too long ago, but in general ability and even style oda has improved and really made his style his own.
His shortcomings fall mainly on his compositions and rush-style, the latter of which fails him due to the formerly stated current composition style, which relys so much on cramming as much detail as possible.
His og style felt like something from the 60-70s, not being too out of place in og lupin, so it struck my eye but not TOO much. Where as his current style that gives more structure and "realism" to the characters which really makes it HIS own style.
What makes one piece's art special is how the characters express emotions..when they cry they tend to cry overly until snot coming out n that make me as reader intuitively getting sad,when they happy with bigg ahh smile readers also been dragged
What happened to One Piece's artstyle? Its simple:
Nami and Robin went from modest B/C cups, to Double H coups and their waists decreased -10.
Yes that’s the only thing that changed well done 👏
Umm by measurements pre time skip they both are already at F/G cups lol 😅 considering underbust is 65cm/ 30 band width. Girls who have cleavage at BC cups are just pushing it with extreme amount of padding
There's nothing modest about those mountains, those are like F cups already, for the sake of any woman you might date in the future please consider lowering your expectations by a lot lol.
@@user-zz3sn8ky7zsarcasm possibly
and they wore G-strings❤🎉
People put way too much emphasis on pre timeskip and post timeskip. Truth is, the art in marineford is very similar to Fishman Island, PH and Dressrosa. The first real differencr starts around WCI, but it’s still very gradual changes.
I’d also say I disagree with the panelling being too messy. There are examples, but alot of what you showed looks completely fine, good even
You also see it in the anime as well. Dressrosa vs WCI feels similar but the quality of each is pretty different
I love oda’s old and new art styles equally for different reasons. It is certainly different, but not bad. Each has a place in my heart. I’m gonna be king of the pirates!
As an artist I think Oda is someone who is unusually similar in his art style after so many years of drawing! It's normal to change even more than that. One Piece is auteur driven!
this is the kind of video i wish could be 3 hours long. great analysis.
I like the Pre time skip art style and Panelling, because i have read new chapters with a F*CKING MAGNIFYING GLASS (and it's hard to follow)
ah yes, the MAGNIFICENT GLASS! it's truly the greatest invention ever made!!!!!
I think you mean magnifying glass?
@@giggigo ah yes, my hatred for OP manga is so high that's why I pronounce MAGNIFYING wrong
@@anuragdas4605goofy goober (i can somehow follow it properly without much difficulty)
@@anuragdas4605 How is the manga and why do you hate it?
What about the panelling?
@@anuragdas4605 Magnefying D. Glass
Finally some One Piece 🏴☠️
You knew it was only a matter of time haha.
@@ShonenOuji It was good patience after all
If you're going to also metion aspects like lettering, paneling, and onomatopoeia, shouldn't you be reviewing the Japanese Tankoban Scans instesd of the Viz Media scans?
These localization changes and sensibilities are not even related to Oda's artwork -- he had no part or say in how Viz localized it.
It used to be almost 3dimensional in certain shots. Everything had a round feeling.
And i love how much breathing room the panels used to have.
Now its much flatter, lines are rough, and backgrounds are overcrowded.
I still absolutely love OP, but now its much tougher on the eyes
I reread one piece a couple of years ago and the arcs that stood out art wise were from skypea to thriller bark, i still remember some panels like the forest and gigant snake from skypea, the train from water 7 and in general all the silly spooky desings in thriller bark
Oda's designs were cuter back then but i love them still
Yeah this happens a lot. Toriyamas art got a lot more angular over time too.
I feel in a weird way it almost feels intentional (even though i know its not) because early one piece was much tamer there were issues but the stakes overall were a lot smaller and the big bads looking back weren't really BIG BAD if we compare what they wanted vs how strong the world actually is still evil but nowhere near the level of evil that the majority of new world villain's have or power
By drawing the same character multiple times it improves
I would love the WIT Studio remake to put in the manga's onomatopoeias. Would really make it distinct from the Toei adaptation
The funniest thing about the art of One Piece is not in the subtle changes in how he draws his main characters (Nami as an example has gone through at least two huge changes!) but how he draws his reoccurring characters. The main characters at least had, to my consideration, very gradual transformations, like they were growing... But with some character designs, like Shanks, especially Shanks, felt like Oda never was satisfied with whenever he went back to and therefore changed entirely through the years.
If I can offer some criticism to your editing style: when analyzing a panel, please gradually zoom out or pan the image if you want to keep the image from being static, rather than zooming in as you talk. It's a little hard to follow what you're saying in the section about Don Krieg in particular, and only gets harder as the image zooms in more.
That said, I think you've got worthwhile things to say here, and I really enjoyed the video overall. Keep up the good work please ^^
@@scramble7902 Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to share feedback and I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the video so much!
I think when people ask this, what they mean is the the weird character proportions that were adopted as the manga went on. Sure the actual quality of the art is better but sometimes the characters just look really, really weird. And not in a design way but just drawn off.
I’m surprised so many people share this opinion, not like in a bad way I guess but i genuinely love Oda’s art more and more with every arc, like it’s at its peak for me right now in the manga
🔥
I think you skimmed through Thriller Bark because I think it is the arc where odas art peaked. The characters and the full spreads of that arcc are unrivaled.
Honestly it might just be me but it’s not messy to me cuss I can follow the panel and I think the recent art have way better art style
Yeah 🔥
Pre-timeskip art is significantly better in my opinion. The lines used to be so clear, no wiggling gibberish. The background, mid ground and foreground used to be separated clearly by the line weight. The poses used to strike impactful dynamic rather than just bland 2D sketches. The facial expressions used to be exaggerated in funny and unique ways. The panels used to be able to easily identify what's going on because the story wasn't forced to cramp into a limited amount of space. Nowadays, Oda just focuses on the quantity on the scene rather than quality of the scene.
I disagree with the notion that this is a pre timeskip vs post timeskip thing, everything you think makes the art good has remained all the way to mid Wano, also while the post timeskip has seen a more mature evolution of Odas art but I wouldn’t say the faces/poses have gotten less exaggerated quite the contrary, I just believe that the frequency dropped in part due to what you’re saying about Oda having to cram a bit more stuff as he’s limited in pages but. I also disagree with saying that the quality of a scene isn’t being focused on, because I think especially in egghead now his attention to panelling has been some of the best it’s ever been, especially when it comes to depth of a panel as well as obviously how it reads, I highly recommend watching Werbs panelling videos on here because they highlight what I’m talking about better than I ever could. The one thing I fully agree with is unfortunately the lines becoming a bit more messy but honestly it’s just a case of age catching up with him and the problem with his eyesight which tbh he had surgery for but I think it might take time for him to get back to how he was (if ever). Also I think the weekly reading experience does the art a lot of injustice and it’s much better in the physical release lol
@@onepieceenjoyer5326 No it has not remained. You are coping out of your mind, or have a really bad eye for artwork
@@paijwacool, I don’t really care what you think because I wasn’t replying to you at all, you can believe what you want to believe tho lmao
@@onepieceenjoyer5326 nah hes correct. new doesnt equal better. its gen z focussed now. which is ok i love the story, but i dont care for chopper squaking every time hes on screen and wiggling around or the weirdly oversaturated colours. it only works for the super hype scenes. and there is too much collage and incoherent pictures in some of those even.
@@marcinczapski8547 I’m not really arguing that new equals better tho certainly the period of the art is Dressrosa to WCI is maybe my second favourite era of art I’m just saying that this being a pre ts vs post ts thing is just not true, chopper for example started looking like what he looks now like midway through the pre ts lmao, and also that the art remained very good albeit slightly different well into the post ts its really only gotten to be inconsistent and whatnot in late Wano when Oda started seriously having Eye issues.
Moreover while I think One piece panelling has always been overall great if we are being serious the whole cluttered panelling thing is also something that started before the timeskip lmao. Obviously to each their own at the end of the day but like I said this is not a pre ts post ts and quite frankly it’s just tiring hearing this talking point about the story in whatever capacity lmao
For both the anime and manga I like seeing it change art styles and grow as a story.
One piece is a story that's been around for so long that its almost a time capsule of humanity and how we where at those times
(especially animation wise)
I loved watching it on 4kids 2 decades ago as a kid but it was once every Saturday morning so of course I took what I could get then. The art style of one piece is a big reason I dropped the series after several chapters about a decade ago when I was reintroduced to it in manga form. It wasn’t until covid lockdown of 2020 when I gave OP a chance again and got use to the art style, now almost 5yrs later and I absolutely love every iteration of OPs art style. To each their own though since I can understand both perspectives🤷♂️
20+ years of development from the artist
To give the shortest answer lol
Great disection of Oda's earlier styles, I've always found myself more a fan of it because of nostalgia, but also because of its similarities to Takei who was my biggest inspiration growing up. On that note, I really appreciate you mentioning him in this context, I feel like it gets ignored how similar in style and training Takei and Oda were, considering they both were published around the same time, AND they were both assistants to Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin); in fact, their early styles have many examples of Watsuki's artstyle if you look closely! It's fun to compare and think about how such great artists influenced one another :)
Just like any artist that draws for a prolonged period of time, oda and the manga drawing industry as a whole has shifted.
i quite like the double page paneling that people consider "messy" 💀
for me the most distinct characteristics from Oda's early art are the bigger hands and feet, as well as their proportionally larger eyes and mouths
I just wanna say it feels surreal to see someone breaking down one pieces style like this, I remember reading one piece for the first time, and the art style was like candy, it felt unreal to see the drawing, and there was a feeling that the world was gonna get even crazier and more detailed and it did. Nowadays breakdowns like these are really cool to see.
Imo water seven and Enies lobby were the best in combining clarity in the fights , and really impactful framing for the emotional compositions. Cheers !
Its simple, over a lifetime of creating you become a master of your craft. Oda is a master.
“what happened?”
the man’s been drawing the same comic for 25 years and he grew w/ his characters.
his body probably hurts too.
I think the art is absolutely better now but it’s got so much more going on in each panel so it’s not as clear. Oda just loves stuffing so much into each panel
I like how the Art has evolved
i love the paneling i don’t get how you think it’s hard to follow/bad
The art style got slightly worse and the art quality got " radically " worse .
When i heard the third track i knew it was from katana zero. great game! great video too
Thank you!
I really miss the simpler artstlye. Now everything is such a mess to look at. It doesnt have space anymore
As far as the anime is concerned, i miss how often they made the backgrounds look like a children's book with the colors
oda said oh Yall LIKE my florida man designs Hmmm? Then you wont mind more
Nice nice analysis ❤
The onomatopoeias taking up almost half the screen REALLY isn't Oda's fault, it was more of Viz media making them too big that they cover up the art
As with anything oda San is just as much on this adventure as we are. This includes changes, new techniques,managing deadlines, and everything in between. His work reflects the journey of what started and what is. Pretty cool.
Early One Piece for me is nostalgic, simple lowkey and lowstakes. Which fits perfectly with the evolution of the story. I think the exageration and cartoonisation of One piece fits the manga so well, the more Luffy becomes closer to gear 5 the more the world around him is his oyster. Not to mention, the more the world is fleshed out the more detailed the style becomes.
This guy is very smart. Basically farming content over a very common occurrence in any long running manga....
simple they’re just more accurate now to what he actually envisioned
Wonderful analysis brother! God bless ya and Jesus loves ya!
Also, peak soundtrack with that South Island theme!
I'd argue that after wano we get another small character shift where we see much bigger and more detailed muscles for most characters as well.
people sometimes are also comparing early scans VS volume releases. Of course the early scans of the new chapters wont look as good as the volume release with higher quality scans
you know that most of the time background is done by an assistant, right?
For me Oda has improved a LOT when it came to the character designs. I love the post time skip designs on all the characters. But i feel like his new paneling style is a bit messy, especially with the conversation panels and action stuff.
He matured as an artist is all lmao. Also the story matured more as well so the goofy look we see isnt as realistic anymore because the stakes just alwags got bigger
It’s crazy how much can change in 25 years.
Part of me thinks the art is vastly much different because Oda is on a time constraint. Pre TS, things were planned out in advance and he had an idea of what he wanted to draw. Oda is now planning the endgame and he wants to have everything set out perfectly but at the same time has to produce the finished work by the end of the week or two. So the work isn’t as quality or clean as he could make it. That or simply his art changed over time as his skills got better
In short terms: the art has improved
Time, practice, dedication, & perseverance happened to Oda's art style over the years
27 years, that's what happened :)
I feel like in current era One Piece, Oda has sacrificed A LOT of clarity(thanks to the simplicity and expressive proportions) in order to cram in as much detail as possible.
I absolutely hate it because it looks messier than ever. What's the point of having so much detail if it's not gonna look polished and smooth as it did during earlier arcs?
The way I see an artist art style , is like a skill the more you do it the better you become at doing it, his been drawing Manga for over 30 years now. And he won’t draw the way he use to because he has improved in his artist drawing and might want to add such and such detail to the character’s or the story.
In my opinion he has really improved from over 20 years ago
They're cramming the story up that's why the pages get messy.
7:42 This is a fair enough take for the digital version but fails to account for the physical release where spreads are clearly divided into two pages, you're not gonna be confused when the right side is essentially its own whole page that simply bleeds a bit into the left side.
Art evolves
I think early oda had a lot more negative space then later he really started filling everything with as much detail as possible. Maybe a bit too much in his effort to get in all the story possible.
I didnt have to watch the video to know that oda matured his drawing not to look like toriyama's.
By the begining of One Piece some characters looked too much like Dragon Ball Characters and I dont think Oda really wanted this, but by working together he gets used to draw like his sensei and then by the paramount war arc Oda simply started to transfer HIS OWN ARTSTYLE to the work.
Sadly it is not only in art style but in the storytelling as well. Post time skip became too much of a shouned battle-focused story in my opinion, instead of the adventure, exploration and nakama focused narrative.
I prefer the old style but every style that oda draws is legendary in itself😊😊😊
yo hol on a minuteI thought this channel was way huger because the video was good
That art has always been good it just got slightly better/improved over the years as oda kept drawing it time and time again
actually the change in styles happened because oda couldnt have drawn the one piece in his old style😅 it just wasnt possible
That rouge bat theme from SAB2 🦾🔥
That Sonic Adventure 2 background music going hard
I love that you can find the points where the art shifts. Wish you would point out the time difference between them tho. Like east blue to alabasta is like 2 years irl right?
I don't really think that the paneling became messy. For example that Skypia example that you used is a Oda stable. After two attacks clash or someone was just defeated, he has two panels with the face of the one that was attacked and the one that initiated the attack. It's also exactly like the camera cuts to their faces in the anime. The same happened in that Marineford double page between Akainu and Whitebeard, that you have used.I don't really think that post timeskip OP is worse. We just have less wacky characters because we are climbing the power ledder so a totally goofy person with a 3B bounty wouldn't make much sense. That said Oda drew tons of memorable characters in Dressrossa (he drew 200+ characters, arguably way too many) and also a lot in Wano. It's just that we are at the endstage, so we will have less characters like Mr. 4 or Mr. 2.
W7/EL Best Art Style. You never saw more mature drawn characters by Oda.
I love early One Piece art style, it took me a while to like it, and honestly it was the reason why i didn't read one piece when it started, but one day i was bored and looking for new manga to read - at that time (20+ years ago) OP was already a big deal- so i said to my self, i'll give it a try, for some reason this manga receive so much love from the fans, so i started reading it and by chapter 2 i was hooked!!! The anime, was something symilar, it took me a little time to like Luffy's japanese voice, but for me right now is one of the most iconic and lovable voices on any character i know.
Can you remake this video for the anime too? It’s really interesting
I honestly cant think of a long running series other than Gintama where i prefer the latter half of the series artstyle.
i love What Happened to One Piece's Art Style?
I'm one of the strange people that likes Oda's chaotic paneling where so much is going on. Gives the manga a unique flavor different from other manga imo.
Its not surprising that an artists styl chages over the year. Regarding the paneling, i heared an oda quot that he had to cramp his panels, because the story would take even longer if spaced out lik in the beginning.
The preference to the old world storys is in my opinion due to the narrative. Before the time skip the story was mostly about the straw hats themselfe, who we were very invested in. With all the world changing events nowadays they get a little bit lost.
I like the early style but I'm glad we've moved on from the East Blue art style. Its not bad or anything but I love how as Oda developed his style he gave human characters more room to become increasingly strange in their proportions for seemingly no reason at all but it looks cool and unique.
Donquixote is an example where we can see how his design changed slightly as the styles changed. He used to have a normal height for our world and now he's really tall with his arms being especially long. I think he looks a lot better in the newer styles.
I love that Oda goes crazy with how many of the characters look. It makes almost every character very unique looking. He still has the problem where many of the women are the same figure with a different head but he hasn't been as guilt of it in the last couple of years compared to the start of the new world.
The serious changes is their noses!!!
baroque works is still kindof phase 1 but with slightly more greys
I miss the og style every day of my life. That said Oda draws incredibly
For me, I noticed that Oda's art style really starts to come into it's own around the Jaya and Skypeia arcs. Everything before that seemed like he was trying to emulate something else (classic cartoons, other manga) which is fine when you're still trying to find your style.
Oda's designs got better with each arc afterwards from Water 7, Thriller Bark and the Marineford saga. I believe this is around the time we start seeing Oda getting more outrageous with his character designs during this era as well. There's a looseness and freedom in some characters (ex. Impel Down guards) and serious/badness (ex. Rayleigh) in others.
Since the timeskip, I've noticed Oda's style has become a lot more loose and sketch-like. He's past the point of making every panel perfect and cuts straight to the point of what he needs to draw. I like this because of how efficient it is and it shows how far Oda has come from the beginning.
Those are just some things I noticed personally. And yes, I have a degree in yapology.
good information, thanks for sharing it. I wonder if you think a business model of making custom merch for anime fandoms / anime fan clubs would work? It'd be great to get insights from a pro like you, thanks in advance.
Oda got better as he went along. That's about it.