Semiotics on One Piece “Chest”: The Big, The Flat, and The Drag.
This analysis has existed long ago when I read an article attacking Eiichiro Oda's drawing style for not being friendly with women. Then the ideas to make it into an article appeared around a week before I publish this article when the manga is on a weekly break.
I remember when my brother put the One Piece calendar on the wall, my mom reacted: “Why did you put that picture?”
What she did see was: Nami and Robin wearing a bikini, looking down at the camera with their big breasts.
Girls in bikinis are just a normal picture for One Piece fans. Nobody (at least, me) have any dirty mind when we saw the One Piece crew in a bikini. It’s just another Oda’s drawing style: draw all the women characters with a big chest.
And when people ask him about it, his answer is actually just for laugh:
But for some, it’s quite degrading to women. Well, yes, if you don’t understand the context. The whole package of One Piece, from its story concept to its drawing style.
Before we begin, I just wanna warn you guys that I will write down some unimportant thoughts on One Piece semiotics. So, if you’re one of those who will scream: “It’s just fiction! You should just enjoy it!” I recommend you to not read it through.
Haters gonna say: It’s degrading. Is it though?
I will say it again: No, it’s not. But, as a woman, I get it. We’re living in a world surrounded by male-gaze. Countless heroines in the video games only wearing a metal bikini and jumping around with heels. Their outfit protects the nipples, not their heart. I don’t mind that, it’s only fiction. But unfortunately, some men really take this to some creepy level, and it brings bad effects to women. However, not in One Piece.
I’m going to prove it by using the semiotics approach. In case you’re not familiar with it, I quoted Google:
Or based on Sign Salad:
If you still don’t understand what it meant, simply put it this way. Most of you know what symbol down here:
In case you living in a cave, those symbols are for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s one of the common things we use today. But, go back to the 90s, nobody knows what’s that. Simply because we didn’t use it back then. Or hey, maybe one of your 6 years-old nieces still has no idea what’s that. Simply because she didn’t use it as much as we do so she couldn’t interpret why the internet drew as unique lines that form an upside-down triangle line.
That’s just a symbol, the most simple form to identify something simple. Imagine how to identify character and identity. That’s where semiotics are used here.
Now back to One Piece. Why does Oda need to draw women’s breasts obviously recognizable?
<Insert beauty product copy that signaling that every woman is beautiful regardless of their race and age>
Let’s dive deeper into those boobs. Well yeah, that sounds wrong, forgive me. But do you realize that ALL mature women in One Piece have breasts? Despite they’re good or bad, young or old, small or big, and… you know where is this going. Take a look at all of these pictures:
For some, their chest is not as big as our main heroine (or even flat on anime), but they are still recognizable.
Move along, I’m not 100% sure if it’s really his original intention, but gender holds an important factor here. As I realize when I read this Q & A:
I bet you know where is this gonna go.
We’re born naked and the rest is a drag.
Yes, I need to borrow RuPaul quotes for this. Because One Piece has Okama. Or in the popular English language, Drags. There are countless Okamas and cross-dressings in One Piece, and again, from the bad ones to the good ones. To recognize it right away you can just look at their chest. If it’s flat, even they wearing a dress, chances are they were boys who dress like girls.
And gender identity is important. Besides Okamas, there are characters like Kikunojo, a male samurai who want to be identified as a woman, and Yamato, a female fighter who is a man at heart.
I really want to talk about the drag community in One Piece though, but let’s skip it for the future article (not a promise, only if I’m available).
Our Race and The Way We Fight
Besides Okama and cross-dresser identity purposes, One Piece readers (or watchers) also know, the characters are not only humans. For some reason, Oda draws animals with gender too, sometimes just to show that she’s a mother who has kids to protect. Non-human creatures have boobs too, only children who don’t have it like on the story Punk Hazard arc, where the children became the victim of a failed experiment and turned into giants.
In shorts, there are Dwarfs, who appeared small, and Giants, who appeared bigger than humans. And how do we know the female adult dwarfs and young giants? Yep, their boobs.
Last but not least, to identify power. There is Jewelry Bonney who can change her age as she wishes and an Okama named Ivankov who has a hormone power that is able to change her physical appearance.
In conclusion, this is what Oda does: breasts as a symbol. Big (or recognizable) breasts for mature women and flat ones are for men and children. I need to mention that One piece is a Shonen manga (Oda took it further by not having any romantic story arc if it’s not necessary to their adventure) so he doesn’t want to make his drawing complicated. It is simply made for the reader will understand right away. Especially when there are a lot of cross-dressing and non-human characters.
That is all my ranting-turn-into-theory article. Until next time!
