'One Piece' Fans Are Confused About Its Latest Censorship

Censorship and anime have a complicated history. Over the years, dozens of shows have been altered [...]

By Megan Peters

Censorship and anime have a complicated history. Over the years, dozens of shows have been altered to suit broadcasting regulations in Japan and abroad, but One Piece fans are a bit puzzled about its latest censorship.

If you watched the anime's most recent episode, you will know One Piece had a touching scene featuring Reiju. The girl made an appearance by saving Luffy when the pirate was being chased by Big Mom's crew. Sanji's sister had something to tell the Straw Hat about the chef, but fans were taken back by her outfit at first.

When Reiju appeared, she was seen in an over-sized shirt. The white button-down covered up the tops of her thighs, and it showed off her leg tattoo and recent gunshot wound. Luffy even asked about the injury before they began talking in earnest, but manga readers noticed something off with Reiju's outfit.

In the manga, the Vinsmoke is wearing a slightly different outfit. As you can see above, chapter 853 made Reiju's shirt a bit shorter and unbuttoned its end just a bit. As such, readers were able to see the girl's black panties, and the manga showed them from the back when Luffy wound up jumping out of a window.

Fans are confused about the censorship considering how anime usually treats such shots. When it comes to underwear close-ups, shows have little shame. Anime fans have long complained (or praised) the industry's use of saucy fan-service. It isn't just ecchi titles using panty-shots or boob grabs to as punch lines, so plenty of fans were plenty pleased to see Reiju cover up in One Piece's latest episode.

As for those the rest, well, they still have the manga.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It has been a critical and commercial success worldwide with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold worldwide.

Did you notice this subtle piece of censorship? Hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to let me know and talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!

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