Recently, more details about the upcoming remake of the “One Piece” anime have finally been revealed. Although a promotional video has not yet been released, likely because the project is still in its early stages of production, some production materials have been leaked. One of these documents immediately caught attention on social media.
Particularly, it was the design intended for the character Usopp in the new “One Piece” anime project. This reveal sparked an inexplicable controversy on social media, with many criticizing the changes made to the character’s skin tone in this new remake. Indeed, Usopp appears much paler than himself in the previous “One Piece” anime.
They still going with those f**kin’ lips, huh?
— Veerender Singh Jubbal (@Veeren_Jubbal) August 11, 2024
If Shaman King can fix it for its remake anime—One Piece can easily. https://t.co/kleILf1dCX pic.twitter.com/PrRvR2ggWG
Looking back at the official description of the character, Usopp is described as “a young man with tanned skin”. Author Eiichiro Oda also noted in a previous interview that if “One Piece” were based on the real world, Usopp would be African.
Even in the live-action version of “One Piece,” Jacob Romero Gibson (a person of color) was cast to play Usopp. So, to some extent, it is understandable that many people believe that Usopp should have a darker skin tone in the new anime.
Therefore, the fact that WIT STUDIO depicted that Usopp would look paler has been a point of criticism.
At the same time, there are other arguments claiming that the author of “One Piece” originally drew Usopp in a pale skin tone for the manga’s color illustrations, so WIT STUDIO’s decision may actually be more faithful than the old anime.
All in all, it should be noted that these are only new design images (the shared images are merely sketches, pre-production diagrams), and we haven’t seen any animated frames yet, so things could change in the future.
Source: GameK
