After the revival of the One Piece by the live action series, fans have openly accepted the live action as a perfect analysis of the anime and manga till the arlong park arc. The story of One Piece revolves around the character Monkey D. Luffy, who wants to be the King of the Pirates one day, after discovering the treasure of the former king of the pirates Gol D. Rodger.
The story created by Eiichiro Oda is one of the biggest selling mangas, because it portray some of the biggest issues of the real world like slavery, discrimination, family conflicts etc. Not only that, One Piece is considered to be one of the most forward series in the history of anime, because it accepts all genders of characters and their portrayal. Oda himself has included many characters that are part of the LGBTQ community and have given each of them a brilliant storyline.
Queer Characters in One Piece
Despite its popularity, queer content in Japanese culture is not universally accepted. Often, authors will incorporate a few LGBTQ+ characters in their works unknowingly without considering their relevance for queer representation. One of the stories is One Piece. Some of the main Queer characters presented in the novel are Emporio Ivankov, Kikunojo, Bon Clay, Yamato, Inazuma, and Izo.
Anime series that mostly focus on Japanes culture or Japanese representation, frequently deviates from Western values, ethics, and gender norms, despite having a global appeal. As a result, cultural disputes like this one are not uncommon. One such incident is currently ongoing with One Piece. The hype about the series’s live action adaptation has gathered some people who have brought out the age old allegations on Oda about his portrayal of Queer characters or any other LGBTQ community characters in the series.
Oda Gets Hate on Twitter for his Queer Characters Portrayal
Recently an online discussion which is going on twitter involved Eiichiro Oda and his portrayal of LGBTQ community characters. Many people believe that the characters are used for comic relief and are not handled with respect. Some gay people may love the series because of its positive portrayal of LGBT characters, while others may find it offensive.
After seeing the hate for Oda on twitter a One Piece fan by the name @OP_gallery_ tweeted out:
“I’m seeing more hate than usual in the OP community today. Reminder that One Piece has many queer characters that are treated with nothing but respect and is a mostly very progressive story. Oda doesn’t like these weirdos, take comfort in this my fellow OP fans.”
His tweet got a lot of likes and views, but targeting his opinion another user by the name of @Gimmickchanger said:
“Sorry but I don’t think 4 good examples can make up at all for his representation of queers on that island Sanji spent his timeskip on, sure I don’t expect background characters to look amazing but they way they were portrayed was obviously in poor taste.”
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and while both the manga world and the One Piece universe have a long way to go in terms of representation of the LGBTQ community as a whole, Oda has created some of the most appealing characters in the universe, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Source: Twitter
