Over the weekend, Netflix and Wit Studio shared concept art for their upcoming remake of the long-running anime juggernaut, The One Piece. While a majority of the Straw Hat pirate’s East Blue-era designs were a quintessential nostalgia affair for fans, its continued whitewashing trend of crew member Usopp left a lot to be desired. Usopp’s new concept art, while a huge departure from either creator Eiichiro Oda or Toei Animation’s designs upon first blush, depicts the pirate sniper with noticeably fairer skin than he had in his debut.
While whitewashing isn’t a new phenomenon for anime fans with characters like Casca from Berserk losing her melanin as the series progressed, it's especially endemic to One Piece as a series. This has led to a bunch of fans highlighting how Usopp continuously appears to have fairer skin the longer One Piece continues on social media. Here are a few reactions to Usopp’s design in The One Piece: The fact that Usopp’s melanin is just GONE is insane.
https://t.co/4pTZANSqyr pic.twitter.
com/gWNCcNHb6i — Otaku Big Boy D.J. (@OhHeyDJ) August 11, 2024 its really not that hard https://t.
co/2JYAfUglSq pic.twitter.com/yAJGJPydTV — AK0 (@AK0UTLIAR) August 11, 2024 They still going with those f**kin’ lips, huh? If Shaman King can fix it for its remake anime—One Piece can easily.
https://t.co/kleILf1dCX pic.twitter.
com/PrRvR2ggWG — Veerender Singh Jubbal (@Veeren_Jubbal) August 11, 2024 Aside from Usopp, fellow crewmember Nico Robin also .