When Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece went through the time skip, the series saw a big shift in the narrative. A lot of things changed in the series, including the characters and their appearances. One character that changed the most in terms of physical appearance was the navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates, Nami.
Her change in the physical aspect divided the One Piece fandom into two factions where one was happy and satisfied with the change, while others claimed that Oda went overboard with Nami’s physical features. He even faced a lot of criticism because of it.
However, the manga creator once revealed that it doesn’t bother him what the One Piece fans think about Nami or any other character for that matter. This was because he saw the characters of his series as fictional and understood that they were not real, thus fans’ perspective about the character should not hurt his feelings.
Eiichiro Oda’s Perspective About The Criticism Towards Nami
In the SBS Volume 82, the One Piece manga creator was asked about the increasing popularity of Nami after the time skip for the wrong reasons. The manga creator had the perfect reply for it which revealed that he doesn’t care much about what fans thought about his characters.
Oda stated:
I feel like Nami’s popularity has been skyrocketing these days. Could it be because she makes more appearances now? I suppose you feel guilty about looking at my characters in an erotic way. I don’t mind at all and this goes for all of my characters. This is just my personal opinion regarding all of the characters I’ve ever created… but in all honestly, it doesn’t really bother me.
Oda believes that his personal opinion about the characters of One Piece won’t change because people started seeing the characters differently. Although it is understandable that their mindset about the characters was bound to change after the time skip, it doesn’t affect him. This is because he knows that the base on which he created these One Piece characters is still the same.
Eiichiro Oda Knows One Piece Characters Are Not Real
After explaining his own opinion about the One Piece characters, especially Nami, Eiichiro Oda pointed out that he sees One Piece as merchandise that fans have bought from him and once he has sold it, it doesn’t matter what they think about it. Thus, people’s perspective of Nami, be it criticism or love is their own and Oda cannot control it.
The One Piece mangaka stated:
One of my own great teachers told me once: everything within “the world of manga” is pretty much just merchandise. Nobody within that world is real, and it wouldn’t be very professional of a creator to get offended over whatever a customer decides to do with the goods he has bought. I feel just about the same way.
While Nami was not the only character who went through a drastic change during the time skip, she was the one who was the most criticized. This was because Oda started portraying her physical attributes in the most implausible manner.
Irrespective of that, Nami’s personality was still the same, and her character development with the series’ progression helped build the One Piece narrative in a major way.
One Piece is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
