Despite having incredible animation for years, One Piece‘s anime is often in the middle of controversy for various reasons. Fans often complain about the pacing, the scenes changing from the manga, Sanji being portrayed differently than in the manga, whitewashing the characters, and many more reasons. However, there have been multiple times in the series that a few fans often joke about an official illustration of a scene being AI-generated to farm engagement. It has been a recent trend to take shade at something fans don’t agree with or simply dislike. While some people take these posts as jokes, many condemn the disrespect towards animators who often overwork themselves to produce this kind of content for fans.
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The frames in anime series are often hand-drawn, which is rather tedious work. A similar controversy happened this week after the release of Episode 1149, and the fan, @NuttyReturns, was already facing backlash over the insensitive joke after noticing a minor mistake. The post immediately went viral and has over 3 thousand likes so far. However, the controversy also reached the animator’s ears, who not only addressed the issue and cleared his name but also apologized to fans for the error. The situation escalated even further, with everyone taking the animator’s side while also addressing how these posts, which are obviously jokes, are often too insensitive and shouldn’t be used to describe someone’s hard work.
One Piece Animator Tatsuya Miki Apologizes After a Slight Error in Episode 1149
Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro, one of the Five Elders, was the main focus in the latest episode, as he rushed full speed ahead to stop Vegapunk’s broadcast. For just a brief moment in the episode, while fighting the pirates, Nusjuro appears to have six fingers, which is clearly a hand-drawn mistake. The error would’ve been normally overlooked, but several sharp-eyed fans easily noticed it.
Following the controversy, Miki posted an apology on his official X account, “I realized after someone overseas pointed it out, but I messed up the number of fingers in the artwork, and now I’m all sorry about it. Why didn’t I notice that? It even passed all the checks, so I’m really sorry.”
He further clarified, “I saw something about AI stuff, but I’m totally analog myself.” Miki’s post went immediately viral, with everyone supporting him. He later shared an unfortunate update under one of the supportive comments. Miki added, “Thanks! This is even more disappointing because I’m leaving One Piece to work on something else. I have to work on something else. It’ll probably be a few years before I work on One Piece again.”
Miki has previously been a part of the animation department of several renowned series, such as Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, One-Punch Man, and many more. While he hasn’t worked on One Piece that much, his talent can’t be ignored after the latest episode. Unfortunately, the animator has his schedule packed with other works, and leaves while promising to return to the series’ staff after a few years.
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