Stolen meme again

[terajk]

 This one stolen from rhivolution:

Is there anything you've always wanted to ask me? About my life, my views of the universe, my writing, anything?

Go ahead!

Comments

Re: Don't be sorry!

[dancing_moon]

Most of Oda's characters have non-standard body types, more so than in most manga/anime/Western cartoons I've seen.

Yes, for one, he's created a world where there is much larger variation in body size than in our. I read somewhere that he's basically stated that there are (among the humans) both "normal" sized people, giants (who also come in various sizes) and "big people". Brook for instance counts as one of those, considering that he's +260 cm tall (Google tells me that's 8,7 feet) and he's not a giant. Plus his character design means people can look just about any which way you can't imagine ^_^ And then there's the humans with wings, the peoples with an extra arm-joint and the Fishmen...

Unfortunately, the body-variation is also one area where I feel his biggest fail comes in: crossdressing/transvestitism and "homosexual" characters. It's a bit hard to pinpoint anyone's sexuality in One Piece, since most don't have/show one (Oda doesn't want romance).
But he's driving the point hard that men in drag/genderqueer/trans* characters (1) are there for comedy :/ The overwhelming majority don't have character designs that fan latch on as pretty or sexy and are called ugly in-universy (usually by Sanji too, whom I really wish could get over his problems with women and men-not-fitting-his-ideal-of-masculinity argh).
On the other hand, there are several such characters, some have great personal depth and many are shown as being powerful warriors. So, while there is absolutely sexism, "lol guys in drag are hideous"-jokes and very sensible arguments made about transphobia in One Piece, it's more multi-faceted than most shonen manga *winces* Which is really, really sad

there are lots of characters with traits that are especially disabling in a culture where sailing is important

Oh yes! And there's several parts that deal with in-world prejudice. Outside of the Grand Line, and even sometimes inside it, the people with Devil Fruit's are considered cursed/monstruous and are often outcasts or feared. For most of them, it appears as if a life as a pirate or among the Marines is one of the only opportunities of belonging somewhere. Which of course brings them in constant contact with their greatest weakness, the sea.

So there's a theme of interdependence, too--which is not exclusive to disability at all, but ties into it

Absolutely! And Oda uses this in a great way. Very consistently too, especially once you start looking at the villains! There's a kind of sliding-scale-of-evil, where the people who don't care for their own crew are usually the lowest of the low, it's really great :)

(1) [Just a footnote on that: I think there are arguments to be made that certain characters do drag, while others are trans* and there is at least one character that is intersex and id's as genderqueer (unless the scanlation completely messed things up)]