Yes, i’ve decide to review these two separately despite being included as bonus material in the volumes of Episode A’s manga… because they’re not part of the spin-off story, they are separate one-shot recreations of two specific fights in One Piece, but they’re also drawn by Boichi, so it makes sense to include them in there.
Imagine this as as addendum to the previous review, as a “Part 2”.
Roronoa Zoro Falls Into The Sea is indeed what you think it is, as it refers to the first (and so far last) time Zoro crossed blades with legendary swordman Dracule Mihawk during the early East Blue arcs (the Baratie one, in this case), which ended up with Dracule winning easily but deciding to ultimately spare Zoro’s life as he wanted to see his potential fulfilled and then eventually fight again as equals, as rivals.
It’s an iconic chapter all the way through that really needs no introduction nor memory jogs to One Piece fans, full of amazing quotes like the “frog in the well” line from Mihawk, and Boichi pulled absolutely no punches, i gotta say, it’s no wonder Oda basically said “do it again” but for the manga adaptation of the light novel Episode Ace…. and once more for another one shot redo of another specific battle from the series.
Nami VS Kalifa is a recreation of the titular fight during the crux of the Water Seven-Enies Lobby arc (you decide if i should have counted Enies Lobby as its own arc, i do not), as all Straw Hats are fighting for the key needed to unlock Robin’ seastone handcuffs… and it’s honestly as “awful” as i expected, i did read 10+ volumes of Dr. Stone, so i wasn’t surprised, per se.
By that i mean i already had proof of what i feared, but even if i feel iffy about his style for a shonen manga…. i mean, he decided on alongside writer Riichiro Inagaki, can’t fault for that.
But i CAN fault the infortunate mix of One Piece and Boichii’s art style in drawing women.
Again, i’m referring to the art, not the writing itself, which does not need to be discussed here.
And yes, i’m stunned as you are about the fact i’m having an argument where i’m not criticizing Oda’s style of drawing women… as in i’m kinda forced to argue in its “favour”.
Kinda. Because he did asked specifically Boichi to do this fight, and stuff like him drawing a spread and then letting his mind wander and eventually drawing Nami in a swimsuit it’s recent at the time of writing (and posting), so yeah, he did wanted to see that, that’s pretty obvious.
Again, if you were even passingly familiar with Boichi previous works (Sun Ken Rock, Wallman, Origin), you’d knew Boichi – to put it simply – draws women pulp style, so to speak, as in they look like hypersexualized glossy dolls, “babes” (as Duke Nukem would put it, since the female characters eyes also are very pin-up style, with the pouty “ducky” tiny lips and all), but it’s usually for stories with characters and setting that also befit the pulp aesthetic, the hard-boiled flavour, like men that also mountains of muscles with supertoned abds, etc. Maybe old fashioned, for some.
That applied to a fight where the two opponents are women is already a recipe for an odd result…. which it is. And not the good kind of “odd”, i feel.
Look, i don’t mind sexualization and i know Dr. Stone (among others that do it far worse, like Fire Force) is published in Jump, a magazine for young boys, and what that entails, but there’s the fact there’s like only 1 female body design, heck, even less than Oda’s arsenal… and honestly doesn’t really mesh well with the other designs (it’s also jarring in itself as male and female character drawn by him seem to belong to different species entirely), PLUS they look just weird retrofitted on character designs that were never meant for this art style.
Again, i might be partially wrong as i haven’t read seen all of Boichi other works, but this seems to be a reccurring thing, and is in the works i’ve seen (Dr Stone and these spin-offs). But heck, that would kinda reinforce my point, meaning he can draw women with the same ability and variety, but often doesn’t.
Not that i would know, at this moment anyway.
This isn’t a diss on Boichi’s overall art style (or anyone that’s fine with it, for that matter, you do you), he’s an incredibly talented artist and has an incredible eye for detail, his work is notable, impressive, but when it comes to drawing women all the variety for the male characters is gone, and we revert to a weirdly proportioned hourglass shaped doll with different “skins”…. and this is where i have to point out Boichi also had a notable output of hentai early on, so that explains that, at least to some extent. But it doesn’t change that it’s an ill fitted, weird choice, when working on material for Shonen Jump or the demographic.
This is why the Zoro VS Mihawk one-shot looks impressive and may even have people prefer Boichi’s art style to Oda’s…. and why this other one doesn’t quite work, despite technically being as competent, professionally put together by someone who does know his craft, because it is, and yes, the original chapter already was rife with fan servicey stuff, it was.
But it doesn’t change the fact that for the Nami VS Califa redo-chapter we have just an incredible set of unfortunate decisions and choices that unsurprising not really work, despite the incredible and unquestionable talent of Boichi.
Can’t win them all, i guess.
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