Here’s Tony Tony Chopper’s Original ‘One Piece’ Design

Tony Tony Chopper is one of the cutest characters in the Straw Hat pirates, and the entirety of One Piece. But he initially looked much different than he does now.

Eiichiro Oda is known for his wacky character design, and while a talking reindeer is strange enough on its own, imagine if Chopper smoked all the while.

Series creator Eiichiro Oda‘s original design for Chopper has the character look more aggressive and frustrated than he does in the final version. His notable striped coloring and smoking habit have fans dubbing the design as the “smoking reindeer burglar.”

Fans have also debated whether or not Tony Tony Chopperwould have been the ship’s doctor had the original design won out instead. Some fans note that chainsmoking does not necessarily scream doctor, but Oda’s quirks meant that this design could have meant Chopper could have still been the doctor. In fact, Sanji regularly smokes and he prepares the food.

Some fans even goes as far as imagining the character with a raspy voice, or are reminded of Chopper was on Punk Hazard and briefly shared Franky’s personality. Other fans prefer the final design to this original one, but this more grumpy version has its fans.

Other fans have noted that the long face in the character design is reminiscent of the memorable dog, Chouchou, from the “Orange Town” arc and the battle with Buggy. Chouchou was a dog who was first seen guarding his master’s pet shop in Orange Town long after his master had passed. Unfortunately an attack from the Buggy Pirates led to the destruction of that special pet shop, to which Luffy eventually got revenge for.

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.

One Piece is currently in the middle of the “Whole Cake Island” arc and is now streaming on Crunchyroll and FunimationNOW.

What do you think of the original design for Tony Tony Chopper? Talk to me @Valdezology.